The Magic of shooting “Interview Style”

It has always amazed me how a small electronic device like a video camera
can transform highly intelligent men and women into babbling, cold sweating,
can’t complete a single sentence, wierdo, just by pointing the lens at them.
Well let me tell you my video making brothers and sisters this is a problem!
As you delve further into this business, you are going to be asked on frequent occasions to videotape messages from company presidents, marketing directors, important clients, testimonials, and other similar scenarios. There will be cases where on-camera subjects will do well in front of the camera, but in more cases you are going to have to help them out. The people that you are trying to videotape are usually the best and brightest an organization has to offer. They know their business or topic better than anyone. We, as directors just have to get the words out of their heads and on to a videotape. If you set the camera up and say to one of these poor victims “okay, tell me what makes your company better than your competition”, the ensuing freak-out will usually be immediate. However, if you have the subject look at you, not at the camera, and you ask something like, “you know I spent some time on your web-site this morning, and it seems like customer service is really important to your company. Can you tell me a few specific things your company really focuses on, in regards to customer service”. Suddenly the subject is a power-house of great stuff.
You have just experienced the magic of the interview.
Here’s how to set this up. Place the interview subject in the setting of your choice and then have the interviewee positioned about a foot to one side of the camera. This works both sitting and standing, but we always suggest sitting. Subjects that are not use to being on camera can tend to sway and figgett. Besides you are trying to create a Barbara Walters style environment where everyone feels relaxed. Now have the interviewee conduct a conversation with the interviewer. Instruct the interviewee to ignore the camera and maintain eye contact with the interviewer. You may have to be both the cameraman and the interviewer. Just frame your shot, and step to the side of the camera.
Now, something you can do to make this go even better, is come up with good questions.
Do a little research on the company or organization before you get on location.
Try and write questions that will evoke the responses you need for your video.
Let’s say you are interviewing a product manager of a product that has a new feature that the competition doesn’t have. You may ask, “the other products in your market do A, and B, well but seem to have difficulty with C. Tell me about your new feature and how it is better”.
If the subject is coachable enough, you may ask if they can put part of the question in the answer, like “ Our new feature is better because…”.
If you don’t get the answer you were looking for on a particular question, don’t worry.
Move on, and while they are answering the next questions, you can think about how to rephrase the skipped question in a way that may get a different response. Tell the interviewee before you start that you may ask the same question more than once, and not to worry, it’s just part of “doing tv”.
Try this on your next project where you need make smart people really look and sound smart on camera. And as an aside…it can make not so smart people look and sound pretty good too.

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