Interviews are the heart and soul of many video productions.  For a quality video, you need compelling interviews.  Beyond securing a compelling person to speak about something worthwhile, great interviews require some behind-the-scenes work beyond just getting the equipment set up right.

GETTING THE BEST OUT OF YOUR INTERVIEW

Above and beyond anything else, the comfort level of the person being interviewed is the single biggest factor in getting a compelling interview on tape and into your final video.

If the subject of your interview is uptight and nervous, it can make people watching feel uncomfortable too.  Stilted, nervous interview subjects also loose credibility because the video seems more fake.

Plus, someone real 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.

As a video maker, how do you do this?

First, realize that this is actually a major component of your job.  The vast majority of people need assistance ignoring the fact that they have a cold hard camera lens glaring at them.

Add two-thousand watts of hot light and they really start to sweat!

Which brings me to my first tip.

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.

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 acts like a unrelenting and always-too-short umbilical cord.

If your subject is sitting or standing still, a lavalier mic clipped onto their collar will be more easily ignored than a handheld microphone shoved into their face.

By its very nature, professional level videotaping is “staging reality.”   There are really no two ways about that.  Ironic thing is,  unless a person has experience being on camera or is a loosey-goosey 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.

Having been involved with literally thousands and thousands of video interviews over they years, I can promise you that if your subject matter is relaxed and comfortable, you will get a good interview.  There were times 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 can function as a fly on the wall.  Counter intuitive, but true.

Thanks for reading VPT

Lorraine Grula