Artistic or Staging?

[Latin Lens]

Here's the debate and the pic below to help in all this......so here's the story as to why I am asking. A fellow photog in my shop had done an interview with the same subject at a law office a few weeks before I did mine so he was familiar with the layout, etc.

He sees my interview and questions the integrity of it and says its staging and starts giving me a hard time, but it leads to the debate of artistic intent vs. staging.

The "staging" in question is the law books....they were on a table next to his desk and I place them in the foreground for artistic reasons, but can this be considered staging? I feel not because the intent is not manipulated in any way. It might be a hard line stance but he felt any disruption in the setting was staging and if I can't find that shot in the office somehow without moving or arranging anything then it is staged and obviously unethical.

I see his point but its very black and white....where's the grey? Is bringing a light in staging? Is asking someone to move a little because of whats in the background staging? Let me know what you think.......

[chambo]

Not staging.

[Corporate Management]

I second that. Moving books did absolutely nothing to affect the information given. If anything, it made people watching pay a little more attention.

Tell the other photographer to chill. If he's going to be that picky about it, the entire concept of an interview is staged.

[PopShaker]

I'll give my 2 cents... It was staged!!! I also think that the other photog in your shop is a genious!!! His girlfriend is pretty hot too...

I'm not saying it isn't a good shot. But when you set up any shot you want it is cinematography. We are supposed to tell the story without changing it. Granted, moving some books a few feet over so they line up with an interview shot isn't as bad as faking an earthquake or something, but it is staged. They were not there, you put them there!

And... I'm done...

[leftcoastphotog]

Some people will argue that a interview is staging in its self that being said. I have often taken a plant from another office to put it in the backround of an interview etc.
Does the other photog raise a fuss when a reporter picks up a piece of brush and breaks it to show how dry it is?
Tell him to take a chill pill and let you do your job and he does his.
Lcp

[chambo]

So if moving some books into the shot is staging, what about moving the subject into a chair and telling him to look at the reporter and not into the camera? What about lighting the interview?

[Tapeape]

of course it was staged. Duh. The whole interview was staged. No one would ordinarilly talk to the wall and answer imaginary questions. They only answer questions when the news crew is there. The news crew is CAUSING them to answer questions, therefore the event is not natural, and it's staged.

but the audience KNOWS that it's staged. No one out there thinks this guy's just talking to an imaginary friend and that he'd be doing that even if the news crew wasn't there rolling on it. As long as it's a staged interview, and the audience knows it's a staged interview, I don't see any problem with moving the law books, provided you put them back where you found them.

If you were getting b-roll of the office and you moved stuff around to make it look more like the kind of office you want to shoot, then we'd have an ethical problem.

[cameradog]

Your fellow photog has no idea what he's talking about. Ignore him.

[PopShaker]

The American Heritage Stedman's Medical Dictionary defines Staging as:

The classification of neoplasms according to the extent of the tumor.

There... Need I say more?

[SAwood]

this has to be the worst case of staging I have ever seen....ever. I know you brought those books in with you from the car to make the guy look "educated and smart like."

I actually like the shot, it's interesting and well lit. good job. keep staging away my friend.

As long as it gets ratings, you do whatever you have to do, regardless of the situation, because our stockholders are depending on higher ratings, and if you don't produce, your ass is gone...-your boss.

[SAwood]

okay, upon looking at it closer, I would have liked to see the books blured out a little bit, but that's it. Seriously, I like that shot alot. I just stole it!

[Hank Scorpio]

Word.

I'm stealing that too.

[Corporate Management]

What good is b-roll, if not good for stealing? Seriously...on the chance that I might someday say or do something theft-worthy, everyone here has my blessings. I've stolen many a shot from watching the stories of others online.

Duplicate away!

[mkay]

Staging is a wide rainbow of subtlety to the overt, blatant manipulation of 'reality.' Moving a few books (that are his) into the foreground is hardly an offense imo. Let's say you're covering a clothing drive and no one is showing up to drop off items. So, you ask the clothing drive coordinator to FAKE dropping off some clothes in the bin to get b-roll. That would be an out and out lie to the viewers. (unless it's written to by the reporter: "No one came out to help, but the coordinater is doing his part" blah blah)

This of course is my opinion. Staging has such a grey area of what's right and wrong, but it all comes down to the personal ethics of the shooter involved. Some may disagree with moving a few books for framing purposes, but this is where each individual can make his/her choice. No text book out there can really define what 'staging' really is. It's all up to you.

ps. If your boss doesn't like what you did (staging perhaps) then nod your head in agreement and go about business as they say. Paychecks that cover the mortgage is WAY better than being out of work and floundering....

[Lost in Alaska]

Originally Posted by Corporate Management

What good is b-roll, if not good for stealing? Seriously...on the chance that I might someday say or do something theft-worthy, everyone here has my blessings. I've stolen many a shot from watching the stories of others online.

Duplicate away!

Stealing from one is plagerism, stealing from many is research.

Moving books to make a shot more interesting might be staging, but having him say just the right thing to fir the story is definately staging. I think there is more grey than the other photog is wanting.

[SandRat]

Interviews tend to get a little more forgiveness when it comes to staging such as this ... here's my question though. If you were shooting b-roll in this office and decided to move the books so you had a better shot sequence, would that be staging?

I hate to hear this,

Originally Posted by SAwood

As long as it gets ratings, you do whatever you have to do, regardless of the situation, because our stockholders are depending on higher ratings, and if you don't produce, your ass is gone...-your boss.

I work for my stockholders, but would never "do whatever" I had to do to get ratings. We are still journalists, after all.

[newz2me]

Absolutely not staging. How many times do we shoot an object from a different angle to give it a different perspective. Nobody naturally stands 6 inches off the ground with blades of grass if front for them while watching someone hit a baseball, but it looks interesting. This is no different.
We've had people who feel their office is too messy and insist we do the interview in another office. Now while some would consider that staging, what are the alternatives? I could insist for purists sake to use his dump of an office and aggravate the guy or I could make him clean his office, which in a purist sense would be considered staging.
If what you're doing doesn't affect the outcome it's fine. You didn't bring in those books, they were his. It's no different than closing a blind, using your light kit or moving him slightly to the left to avoid a window. Putting those books there didn't alter his answers or change the outcome of the interview.

[eb]

Anything we "set up" is staging. So this is staging.

But there are two different kinds of staging: Ethical and unethical.

We set up most all interviews. Sit down, lit interviews are staged. (Unless its spot news and you just stick the camera in someones face.) We place people and lights and backgrounds for sit down interviews. But the focus of the interview is the person talking. I have interviewed an airline expert, and placed a model airplane in the foreground. Looked great. It did not alter the truth or content. So it was ethical staging. The viewer was not decieved by the content.

We often stage things. We stage interviews and we stage demonstrations. It then becomes a matter of ethics. Is it ethical, or unethical staging?

It is unethical to change or manipulate truth or relevant content. It is unethical to create false content. Did you do that? I don't think so. You took HIS law books and put them in front of the lens. But be very careful. Did it give a false impression that he was reading those books? Perhaps so. The books might alter the true "content" of his desk - more than a simple object might? Just a thought.

I often move objects OFF a desk in order to get a cleaner shot. But mostly, I do not stage objects. Be very careful not to try to manipulate for your own benefit. The viewers should be listening to what he is saying, and not distracted by staged shots.

If you start placing objects in the frame - which change the meaning, content, or truth, then that is unethical staging.

Having somebody demonstrate something...is also staging. But often it is ethical staging. If it is clearly a demonstration ("he shows us how it happened) or if the demonstration is not relevent to the content (staging a two shot, walking shot, doing house work, office work etc...) then it does not deceive the viewer.

Be careful, and always error on the conservative side. If you have doubts, don't do it.

[El Guapo]

All interviews are staged, unless it's something like a quick grab nat sot at a spot news scene. I get the feeling Pop Shaker knows all of this, and he's just trying to get under your skin. Putting the books out there doesn't take credibility away from the story...it does add a bit of artistry, however, and if you ask me, that's a good thing. Ignore Pop Shaker and go about your business.

[Land Rover]

I wouldn't say it was necessarily staged, anymore than the interview itself would be. I don’t see that much wrong with doing something like that every once and a while. I would say this is a little more on the artistry side.

However, it does bring to mind an old argument about photographic integrity. If a print photographer found a horse skull in the desert and wanted a picture of it but thought the cactus behind him would look nice in the shot, does he move the skull and place it next to the cactus? No, he doesn’t because that’s not where it was found. I know its kind of apples and oranges and natural VS. man-made but I’m sure you see where I’m going with it.