For many video productions, interviews are the heart and soul.
People telling their own stories in their own words.
The talking head video interview is the frame work for documentary style video production.
It naturally follows that if you want to make a quality video, you need compelling interviews.
Obviously, you start by securing a compelling person to speak about something worthwhile.
But one thing they don't teach you in the text books is that great interviews require some behind-the-scenes work beyond just getting the equipment set up properly.
GETTING THE BEST OUT OF YOUR INTERVIEW You might think I am about to go into a treatise on lighting.
Nope.
As a person who has been involved in AT LEAST five thousand video interviews, I can tell you that above and beyond anything else, the comfort level of the person being interviewed is the single biggest factor in getting a compelling interview onto video and into your final show.
If the subject of your interview is uptight and nervous, it will make people watching feel uncomfortable too.
Stilted, nervous interview subjects loose credibility too because the video perceives the video as staged, and therefore fake.
Not only that, but someone who is uptight will not be able to think and respond well to your questions.
You'll get a crummy interview unless you learn to make people relaxed and natural while they're being interviewed.
So, what are the secrets to doing this? Do your best to keep them distracted from the equipment.
Give them plenty of opportunity to ignore it all.
Have them look at you instead of directly at the camera.
Engage them in conversation.
Part of the reason they are nervous is they don't know what to expect and they are afraid they'll good.
Assure them you are on their side and your job is to make them look good.
Tell them if they goof up that part will be cut out.
This isn't Saturday Night Live! It's an intimate conversation between friends.
Well, not really but do your best to make it seem that way.
I never gave people a list of questions in spite of the fact that I was often asked.
Lists are stifling in my opinion.
Instead, I'd let them know what kind of questions I was going to ask and what general topics I wanted them to speak about.
That satisfies all but the most persnickety and paranoid.
Turn on the lights several minutes before the camera rolls so they can adapt to the brightness.
Make SURE your lights are as non-obnoxious as possible, which means they need to be soft, diffused and not right in their face.
Diffuse your lights by aiming them at the wall or the ceiling instead of your subject.
Or, use professional tools such as umbrellas, diffusion gels and softboxes.
If your interview subject is moving around during the taping, it helps a lot to use a wireless microphone.
Nothing reminds people they're being recorded quite like being attached to an audio cable that pulls, tugs, and makes people trip.
If your subject is sitting or standing still, a small lavalier mic clipped onto their collar will be more easily ignored than a handheld microphone shoved into their face.
There's a bit of irony here.
By its very nature, professional level videotaping is "staging reality.
" So as a video crew you usually go into a situation and move everything around and turn it into a production studio.
You are there to stage things! But unless a person has experience being on camera or is a confident personality, the more you as a producer try to control them, stage the event and get it all picture perfect, the more they will tense up.
I have watched shoots drag on unnecessarily because the producer was so dang involved in creating their visual masterpiece and so dead set to make the on-camera person say it JUST so that it was crazy.
Take 9 million and 72 is not productive.
I myself got so adept at this technique that I had the person so distracted that the interview was over before they even realized it had begun.
Then I'd say, "See, that wasn't hard now was it?" They'd usually laugh and thank me profusely for making it so easy for them! A good videographer is often most effective if they act like a fly on the wall.
That seems strange to newcomers to the videomaking but I promise it's true.
People telling their own stories in their own words.
The talking head video interview is the frame work for documentary style video production.
It naturally follows that if you want to make a quality video, you need compelling interviews.
Obviously, you start by securing a compelling person to speak about something worthwhile.
But one thing they don't teach you in the text books is that great interviews require some behind-the-scenes work beyond just getting the equipment set up properly.
GETTING THE BEST OUT OF YOUR INTERVIEW You might think I am about to go into a treatise on lighting.
Nope.
As a person who has been involved in AT LEAST five thousand video interviews, I can tell you that above and beyond anything else, the comfort level of the person being interviewed is the single biggest factor in getting a compelling interview onto video and into your final show.
If the subject of your interview is uptight and nervous, it will make people watching feel uncomfortable too.
Stilted, nervous interview subjects loose credibility too because the video perceives the video as staged, and therefore fake.
Not only that, but someone who is uptight will not be able to think and respond well to your questions.
You'll get a crummy interview unless you learn to make people relaxed and natural while they're being interviewed.
So, what are the secrets to doing this? Do your best to keep them distracted from the equipment.
Give them plenty of opportunity to ignore it all.
Have them look at you instead of directly at the camera.
Engage them in conversation.
Part of the reason they are nervous is they don't know what to expect and they are afraid they'll good.
Assure them you are on their side and your job is to make them look good.
Tell them if they goof up that part will be cut out.
This isn't Saturday Night Live! It's an intimate conversation between friends.
Well, not really but do your best to make it seem that way.
I never gave people a list of questions in spite of the fact that I was often asked.
Lists are stifling in my opinion.
Instead, I'd let them know what kind of questions I was going to ask and what general topics I wanted them to speak about.
That satisfies all but the most persnickety and paranoid.
Turn on the lights several minutes before the camera rolls so they can adapt to the brightness.
Make SURE your lights are as non-obnoxious as possible, which means they need to be soft, diffused and not right in their face.
Diffuse your lights by aiming them at the wall or the ceiling instead of your subject.
Or, use professional tools such as umbrellas, diffusion gels and softboxes.
If your interview subject is moving around during the taping, it helps a lot to use a wireless microphone.
Nothing reminds people they're being recorded quite like being attached to an audio cable that pulls, tugs, and makes people trip.
If your subject is sitting or standing still, a small lavalier mic clipped onto their collar will be more easily ignored than a handheld microphone shoved into their face.
There's a bit of irony here.
By its very nature, professional level videotaping is "staging reality.
" So as a video crew you usually go into a situation and move everything around and turn it into a production studio.
You are there to stage things! But unless a person has experience being on camera or is a confident personality, the more you as a producer try to control them, stage the event and get it all picture perfect, the more they will tense up.
I have watched shoots drag on unnecessarily because the producer was so dang involved in creating their visual masterpiece and so dead set to make the on-camera person say it JUST so that it was crazy.
Take 9 million and 72 is not productive.
I myself got so adept at this technique that I had the person so distracted that the interview was over before they even realized it had begun.
Then I'd say, "See, that wasn't hard now was it?" They'd usually laugh and thank me profusely for making it so easy for them! A good videographer is often most effective if they act like a fly on the wall.
That seems strange to newcomers to the videomaking but I promise it's true.