Last fall we we’re lucky enough to meet USA Today’s Jefferson Graham when he came to Minneapolis for a story on tech companies in the Minnesota (check out the piece here!) Early this week Jefferson posted an interesting interview with Carson Daly about the approach his television program takes to production. It was awesome to see how Jefferson used a couple different CrumplePop effects in the piece. We got a chance to talk with Jefferson about Talking Your Tech and CrumplePop.

Tell us about Talking Your Tech?

Talking Your Tech runs every Monday in USA TODAY. I produce and host the series, which features my interviews with celebrities about tech. Past guests have included comedians Jeff Dunham, Drew Carey, Wayne Brady and Aisha Tyler, TV’s Valerie Bertinelli and Phil Keoghan, director James Cameron, former boxer Mike Tyson and Kermit the Frog.

Check out the Highlight Reel

Interesting that Last Call with Carson Daly is shot using DSLRs. I didn’t know that. It really fits the loose, casual style of his show. I dig it. I saw that you we’re working with new Canon 5d Mark III. I know a lot of people have been really excited to get their hands on new 5d. How did you like working with it?

I’ve been a 5D shooter since the Mark I days, and absolutely love the new edition. The video just rocks, and we can shoot in higher ISOs than ever before. The Carson Daly shoot was at normal 800 ISO, but I’ve been using it at 12,500 range with little signs of noise. May I also add that for Daly’s shot (5D Mark III and 70-200mm 2.8 L lens) we also used the Lowell Rifa eXchange softbox which made a huge contribution to making Daly jump pop on screen.

What made you interested in SplitScreen X?

I met with the Crumplepop folks when I was in Minneapolis last November. They turned me on to their stuff–I’ve been using the plug-ins ever since. The reason I used the plug in was very specific: for an interview, the two shot of us is OK, but it’s more fun to see both of us conversing eye to eye, which is only possible via split-screen.

How was using Finisher with the Carson Daily interview? It looks great!

I’ve been using Finisher often on our videos–it gives a really nice upgraded look to what comes out of the camera.

What other effects and tools did you use?

I used plugins from FXFactory and Sapphire Edge as well.

Have you found that FCP X has improved your workflow?

If I had made this video in FCP 7, I would still be waiting for the render to finish. FCP X is much faster, and fun to work with.

Thanks so much to Jefferson Graham for taking time out to talk with us. Check out Talking Your Tech over at USAtoday.com for a fantastic look at what’s going on in tech news.