First Person
First Person was an American TV series produced and directed by Errol Morris. The show engaged a varied group of individuals from civil advocates to criminals. Interviews were conducted with "The Interrotron", a device similar to a teleprompter: Errol and his subject each sit facing a camera. The image of each person's face is then projected onto a two-way mirror positioned in front of the lens of the other's camera. Instead of looking at a blank lens, then, both Morris and his subject are looking directly at a human face. Morris believes that the machine encourages monologue in the interview process, while also encouraging the interviewees to "express themselves to camera".
Overview
First Person was an American TV series produced and directed by Errol Morris. The show engaged a varied group of individuals from civil advocates to criminals. Interviews were conducted with "The Interrotron", a device similar to a teleprompter: Errol and his subject each sit facing a camera. The image of each person's face is then projected onto a two-way mirror positioned in front of the lens of the other's camera. Instead of looking at a blank lens, then, both Morris and his subject are looking directly at a human face. Morris believes that the machine encourages monologue in the interview process, while also encouraging the interviewees to "express themselves to camera".
Errol Morris
Producer
Episodes
1. Mr. Debt
Andrew Capoccia is fighting in his own personal crusade against credit card companies. He is a lawyer that helps people that are ruined by debt coming from their massive use of credit cards. He wins a lot of cases, but at the same time he has been fined, sued and condemned by courts and other lawyers. Is he really a hero threatening the system of credit as we know it, or is he a fraud?
2. Eyeball to Eyeball
Clyde Roper has dedicated his life to become the first person to see a giant squid. He started off as a lobster fisherman, but then became a zoologist, and for 30 years he has been searching for this mythical creature. The giant squid is supposed to be the size of a football field with eyes as big as volleyballs.
3. Stairway to Heaven
A conversation with Temple Grandin. She is a university professor, a diagnosed autistic, and has designed 1/3 of the slaughterhouses in the United States. Temple Grandin understands and relates more easily to cattle than to people. She's renowned for her design "stairway to heaven," a curving, high-wall ramp system that utilises optical illusions to lead livestock calmly from the pen to the bolt gun and ultimately to a humane death.
Cast & Crew
Errol Morris
