An effective interview is among the toughest videos to shoot because sound quality is so important and needs to be managed for two people. On top of that, the concept of an interview is somewhat dull to begin with and viewer engagement can be difficult to establish.
Below is a great guide by way of ReelSEO that lists all the essentials for knocking out a video interview that really sings.
Steve Stockman is author of How to Shoot Video Editing that Doesn’t Suck and ReelSEO article How To Shoot Business Videos That Don’t Suck: 10 Things You Must Know.This time he’s back with 10 more powerful tips to make sure your video interview turns out great every time.
1. Cast for the Stars: Here’s what professional video production directors know that you don’t (until now!): 85% of the director’s job is casting. If you have someone great in front of the camera, the movie will be great. If you don’t, shoot yourself now. You can’t, as they say, shine shit.
Before you set an interview for that sales video, casually shoot potential interviewees in open-ended conversation, When you look at the video production later you’ll be able to tell the stars from the extras almost immediately.
It may be that the president of your company has such a huge ego it will be tough to tell him he’s out of the video editing, but if you’re lucky, he’ll care more about results.
2. Use your Talent Wisely: Even when you look for stars you may get stuck with something less. Some people are incredibly knowledgeable and sound great—but are not that interesting to watch. No problem—Your interview with the head of R&D could serve as a voice-over for a more complex piece that includes shots of the department at work, the product in use in the field, and interviews with others. Or maybe you have five interviewees and NONE of them are fascinating in large doses—cut the prime snippets out of what they say and edit those into the video. One of them may still be boring, but she’ll be boring shorter. Use video editing creatively!
3. Prepare: Your job is to pull information out of your interviewees, in their own words. Do your homework before your interview and you’ll ask better questions– the more ideas you come in with, the better. You may already know most of what you’re going to hear, but your video won’t be very good if you’re the one doing the talking.
4. Make the Talent Comfortable: Physically: Are they sitting or standing in a relaxed position? Do they know it’s okay to use their hands? And mentally: for commercials, I tell people that I’m going to be talking to them for 10 minutes but will only use three seconds of what they say—and I don’t know which three seconds until I edit. So I’m not going to worry about what they say, and they don’t have to either.
5. Ease Into it: Another great way to relax people is to start the interview slowly. There’s a camera pointing at them—pretty scary! Bytes are cheap. Waste some card space while you make small talk to help them relax into the conversation.
6. Relax Yourself: Let your interviewee set the pace. Slow talkers shut right up if you pepper them with too many questions. Human chipmunks will be bored if you don’t keep up the pace. Take a few deep breaths and go with the subject’s flow.
7. Make it a Real Conversation: In a normal conversation, you respond to what the other person says. A good interview works exactly the same way. Listen well and allow your natural curiosity to guide your questions even if it leads you to something you weren’t planning on asking.
8. Look them in the eye: You need to develop a conversational trust with your interviewee. One great way to do it is by making strong eye contact. Have the subject look at you, not the camera, so you can talk.
9. Sound: Record with lavelier mics or booms. Always. Unless you’re a foot from your subject, don’t rely on your camera’s crappy microphone for video production. Any sense of intimacy will be destroyed by distance and echo in the voice track.
10. Location, Location, Location: The same interview with a hedge-fund manager communicates different information if it’s in his marble and polished wood office vs. the floor of a working factory. An interview against the wrong background is an accidental mis-communication.
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