How to Shoot a Phone Conversation

Shooting a phone conversation for reality television is an art unto itself.  It's not enough to just point the camera, we need options in the editing bay.  More often than not, a phone call will last long enough to get plenty of different angles for us to play with, but even short calls will need to be edited down.  So, if you don't get enough time to grab different angles during the actual call, have your subject listen or pretend to still be on the call for a couple minutes afterward while you shoot different cutaway angles.  Here are some examples:

This is your basic master shot of a subject talking on the phone. This shot and maybe a little tighter medium close up are usually what you see in post from an average field producer.  A GREAT field producer will take the time to make sure we have other angles to cover this conversation, understanding that we will need to edit this phone call down and spice it up.

So, a helpful shot might be a super wide...

I'd probably begin and end a scene with this shot and use the closer shots for the more emotional parts of the call.  This is also not a bad shot for covering bites.  It can also be very effective if the overall feeling of the scene needs to convey a character's loneliness.  Ask your subject to answer and hang up the phone in this shot, if you're shooting it as a pickup.  Here's another:

This is an extremely helpful shot for editing a conversation.  Why?  Because I can't see his mouth.  I can cover any part of the conversation with this shot.  If you're shooting this as a pickup after the actual phone call, make sure to have your subject listen AND talk in this shot.  Even though I can't see his mouth move, I can still tell whether or not he's talking based on cheek and jaw movement.  

Here's a great cutaway:

This is what we call "talking hands."  It's a close up of your subject's free hand, gesturing as if he is talking.  Based on whatever the phone call was, you might have your subject make angry gestures, happy gestures, explainy gestures, etc.

Especially if the scene was emotional, you may get a super close pickup shot like this:

Just the eyes, again make sure to get a few different reactions.  And shoot them talking AND listening.

If your subject was talking on speakerphone instead of holding the phone up to his ear, make sure to get a cutaway of just the phone.  Like this:

These different shots and cutaways only take a few minutes and can make A HUGE DIFFERENCE between a boring, static phone conversation and an exciting piece of television magic.  It also gives the editor freedom to construct the most effective phone conversation to serve the story.