An unintentionally hilarious video from a TV interview

In my last post I showed a very professional TEDMED video of Randy Olson. The video shown above is less professional. It seems to be an unofficial recording of an interview (or maybe a rehearsal) at  the KXAN TV studio on narrative training for scientists.  He was in Austin, Texas to speak on Storytelling skills: Now mandatory for a career in science at the opening plenary session of the 2014 meeting for the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology. Randy’s content is very interesting, but the recording has a significant problem.

Watch as the camera repeatedly drifts (or pans) left, off both Randy and his interviewer, and then returns to them. Starting at 0:25 we can see the hood on the front of TV camera #1. At 0:55 we get to see that whole camera and their green screen. Finally, at 1:55 we get to see three TV cameras, that green screen, and the studio wall with soundproofing and storage shelves. Was the cameraperson sitting on a swivel chair?

Back in March 2011 Nick Morgan interviewed Geoff Birmingham about How to Produce a Great Speaker Video. Most of Randy Olson’s interview could be salvaged by editing, but we got to see the raw version.