
Errol Morris's Secret Weapon for Unsettling Interviews: The Interrotron - prawn
http://www.fastcodesign.com/1663105/errol-morriss-secret-weapon-for-unsettling-interviews-the-interrotron
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pierrec
" _Think about it: How does Morris get such penetrating interviews if the
interviewee is just looking at a camera? If they 're looking into the lens and
not at Morris, it would be hard for Morris to get anything like the
unsettling, revealing, startlingly personal interviews that are Morris's bread
and butter. Would you tell a flat piece of glass about the biggest mistake you
ever made in your life?_"

This is formulated to sound as convincing as possible without any evidence,
but I don't buy it at all. The recent documentary "Human" is full of heart-
rending interviews of people having emotional breakdowns and looking straight
at the camera. I'm quite sure they did not use any such mirror system. You can
occasionally see the interviewee glancing sideways at the interviewer, but if
anything, it seems that talking to a camera gives them the strength to talk
about personal things in an unusually powerful way. (Disclosure: I know some
people on the production team and have done a bit of work on their website)

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdb4XGVTHkE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdb4XGVTHkE)

~~~
sjm-lbm
I'm a massive Morris fan (so much so that I've read about this contraption
before), and while I've only watched a few minutes of the documentary you
linked, I do think that the interview style is different. It's not just about
talking to the camera, but rather about talking to the camera as if it's human
- McNamara, for instance, regularly wiggles his finger at the camera, as if
he's lecturing to you in your seat. Toss in the fact that Morris regularly
shouts his questions or comments from somewhere off to the side - probably
somewhere across the same room, as dictated by the way that this system works
- and there really is an unsettling way that it feels as if _you_ are the
focus of what is happening, with the SecDef during the start of the Vietnam
war and your crazy shouty uncle over for dinner.

It's just so hard to articulate how it feels, and I'm sure the effect doesn't
work on everyone as well as it does on me. Errol's movies have changed my
opinions on both McNamara and Rumsfeld, though, and that's a phenomenally tall
order (and, I think, speaks to how vividly human he can make his interview
subjects).

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werner2
Changed your opinions in what way?

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sjm-lbm
I'd seen both of them as something like a character out of House of Cards -
Rumsfeld in particular as a obviously corrupt and power hungry man (my opinion
of McNamera going in was, I guess, somewhat more nuanced).

Their respective documentaries, though, provided believable human motivations
for what they were trying to do. I'm pretty convinced that both men harmed the
world in serious ways, but I'm also pretty convinced that both genuinely meant
well - which somehow makes me both sympathetic to them and a little frightened
at the same time.

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dexterdog
When are they going to put this concept into video conferencing? The worst
part about a video call us that the other person is looking at your eyes which
are usually below his camera so there is a huge conversational disconnect.

~~~
sandworm101
When people again tolerate box-like, not-flat, computer monitors. The trick
requires an off-axis camera and that requires a mirror tilted at 45*, creating
a device slightly thicker than it is tall. There are some tricks (stepped
mirrors etc) that might reduce that depth, but to do so without distortion
would be difficult.

I'm not sure that a camera hidden inside the screen would work. Getting that
'intimate' effect requires the subject to look directly at the camera lens as
they would at another person's eyes. So any camera hidden inside a monitor
would have to be aligned with the eyes/face of the image, a problem on larger
screens. This is why the technique works best with small screens and probably
isn't workable on larger screens or screens situated too close to the subject.

~~~
JoshTriplett
> Getting that 'intimate' effect requires the subject to look directly at the
> camera lens as they would at another person's eyes. So any camera hidden
> inside a monitor would have to be aligned with the eyes/face of the image

Do face detection on the video from the other end, and move/crop it to place
the eyes right where the camera is.

~~~
danieltillett
This is a bloody clever idea. I am off to the patent office right now :P

~~~
sandworm101
But think about how the image would look if locked to the centre of the
subject's face. Every little head tilt would translate into wobble of
everything in the background. A simple slight nodding of the head would look
very unnatural. Our eyes compensate for this, but on screen it might be very
strange.

~~~
danieltillett
Intel has already solved all this and is about to release a camera that does
it (see my sister comment for details). It is still a brilliant idea even if
it is not original :)

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heartsucker
In the first graphic, it looked like the blue person was holding the laptop
which was incredibly confusing and seemed totally impractical.

~~~
caminante
Yes! That confused the hell out of me. Let's also address the horrible
background color and the unreadable font.

The formatting in general was bad, too. The first paragraph could've been more
clear, and the embedded youtube videos force you to jump around.

edit: WOW! The last paragraph:

    
    
      Luckily, the basic idea is simple enough that any enterprising
      filmmaker could probably build her own if she really wanted to. 
      And Hardie's illustrations should make that process even easier.

~~~
Stratoscope
There's a more readable version of the graphic if you click through to
Hardie's site:

[http://www.whiterabbitdesigncompany.com/interrotron.html](http://www.whiterabbitdesigncompany.com/interrotron.html)

and then click the PDF link at the bottom:

[http://www.whiterabbitdesigncompany.com/uploads/1/4/1/3/1413...](http://www.whiterabbitdesigncompany.com/uploads/1/4/1/3/14130356/interrotron_w_render2a.pdf)

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forgottenpass
This is also how teleprompters work.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teleprompter](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teleprompter)

~~~
Captain_Usher
Fun fact: once you know to look, and provided they're close enough to the
camera, you can sometimes see the view-ee's eyes making small side to side
movements as they read lines of text from the prompter.

~~~
coldtea
Once you know to look? In most cases I've seen it's totally evident, even if
its done by the most experienced news presenter...

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fnazeeri
We recently completed shooting two online courses (MOOCs) using an Interrotron
and I definitely think it makes for a more intimate experience between the
subject and the viewer, but as with all tech, the interviewer still matters a
lot. It doesn't just magically work. You still have to engage and draw out the
subject.

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CharlesW
In case anyone's interested in ready-made solutions, this company builds
Interrotron-like gear:

[http://eyedirect.tv/](http://eyedirect.tv/) (video overview:
[https://vimeo.com/108373352](https://vimeo.com/108373352))

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Overtonwindow
Erol Morris is quite brilliant in shaping the narrative of each documentary. I
think he has a message to sell and he's found way to make that message come
across in a very sterile, non-forced way. I'm curious if Elizabeth Holmes will
be a subject coming up. He was recently hired by Theranos to film some videos
in the lab there, and around the company. [1] Should be interesting.....

[1] [http://www.wsj.com/amp/articles/under-fire-theranos-ceo-
stif...](http://www.wsj.com/amp/articles/under-fire-theranos-ceo-stifled-bad-
news-1468195377)

~~~
JohnnyConatus
I saw the video shot - it was linked here, I think - and what was released is
just a puff piece. She talks about realizing her life's purpose and that
leading to the creation of Theranos. Perhaps he got some more interesting
footage, too, but I expect the company owns it all as a work-for-hire. (And if
they don't, that's really dumb considering they just exposed your CEO to one
of the world's great interviewers.)

~~~
Overtonwindow
Well if Theranos continues on its current trajectory, it's going to crater.
Maybe then the perfect opportunity for Errol to step in and say Ms. Holmes,
lets tell your side of the story.

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clebio
Anyone else see this when trying to access the first video?

> This video contains content from Zefr SonyPictures, who has blocked it on
> copyright grounds.

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brunorsini
He used the Interrotron on his incredible First Person TV series, which
essentially gave us 17 Morris-quality (ie, "as good as it gets") short
documentaries.

Highly recommended -
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Person_(TV_series)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Person_\(TV_series\))

~~~
drzaiusapelord
This must have been amazing to watch back then but now it just seems like a
lot of questionable has-beens like Temple Grandin, Josh Harris, the 'Mr. Debt'
lawyer (who is now in jail), etc. The series just didn't age well.

I think the TV networks forced Morris to do much more topical subjects than he
was used to. His film work has a much more timeless quality. As a Morris fan,
I cringe a little at the "flavor of the month" style interviewees from the old
TV show. I think this is also why documentaries have so much more potential
than TV. There's far more autonomy for the creators and less of a corrupting
profit incentive.

~~~
mercer
Could you elaborate on Temple Grandin as a 'questionable has-been'? I quite
enjoyed one of her books recently.

~~~
drzaiusapelord
I think she represented the 90s pop-science autism fad (ASD hero worship stuff
that trivializes non-HF autistics - which is sometimes called the ableist
view) and a lot of her claims are on the receiving end of a fair bit of
criticism. That's on top of her clear conflict of interest being a consultant
to agribusiness and the Oprah-like PR her people have developed for her:

Some links if you're interested:

[http://www.autistichoya.com/2013/08/critiquing-temple-
grandi...](http://www.autistichoya.com/2013/08/critiquing-temple-grandin.html)

[http://www.forbes.com/sites/vickeryeckhoff/2011/12/06/horse-...](http://www.forbes.com/sites/vickeryeckhoff/2011/12/06/horse-
slaughterhouse-investigation-sounds-food-safety-and-cruelty-
alarms/#380c39c63036)

[http://dailypitchfork.org/?p=536](http://dailypitchfork.org/?p=536)

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blakeyrat
I don't want to be "that guy", but this is just the age-old teleprompter
technology re-purposed to show another camera feed instead of text. It's not
exactly a "eureka!" invention.

~~~
jessriedel
Who would expect a filmmaker to make stunning technical contributions? That's
not the point. The point is that he made a slight new change to an existing
device to great artistic effect.

