Best practices on framing, equipment, sound and more

Whoever you’re interviewing, no matter who they are, will be interesting to watch because humans enjoy looking at human faces. When framing your shot, favor a plain background over visually distracting elements. Placing your interviewee further away from the wall behind them will give the frame depth and look better than sitting close to a wall.

Using a shotgun microphone and external recorder for sound will make a big difference in sound quality. Since your interviewee is sitting still, you can set up your shotgun mic in a fixed location using a C-stand to hold it. Position the mic above your interviewee’s head and point it down toward them. You want the mic just out of frame, yet close enough that you’ll need to remind them not to bump their head when they stand up!

If you can add it, a lavalier microphone is always helpful. Learning how to use a broadcast loop/newsman’s loop will give you the best audio result and keep your equipment in good shape.

How to prepare for filming an interview

Aside from your gear checklist and proper equipment set up, your mindset plays a big role in interview preparation. This includes expectations, pacing, order of questions, allowing enough time, listening, improvising, and curiosity.

Come up with questions and do your research

Doing research helps you gain just enough details about the person you’re interviewing to make you intensely curious about the right things. A brief video call pre-interview is a great way to establish a rapport and get a sense of how the person may be on camera.

For example, video production company Concurrent Productions asks specific pre-interview questions.

Even if you don’t think you’ll use the footage, finding out what’s important to your interviewee will help them get it off their mind so you can steer the conversation forward. It will also give you a place to start where they feel comfortable and excited to engage.

You’re going to get better results if you don’t share the questions with your interviewee ahead of time. Shared questions are likely to be rehearsed and will feel stiff. Sometimes this is unavoidable and you can’t violate it. In that case, ask the first few questions on your pre-approved list, then simply change the order of the questions.

Prioritize your most important questions

You always want to have a lot more questions than you need and you want to prioritize those questions quickly while you’re filming an interview. A color coded system works at a glance so you can be sure you ask what is really necessary without rushing.

Getting complete sentences can be tricky. Preparing some “fill-in-the-blank” sentences can help in “repeat after me” style. You don’t want to put words in someone’s mouth but…you do need those sound bites. Inviting your interviewee to repeat your prompts or put the sentences in their own words is a good practice. Also, give them permission to skip any of the prompts.

By placing these prompts at the end of your interview, the interviewee is primed to summarize and you’ll likely get the sound bites you need while still keeping a natural flow.

Make the people you’re interviewing feel comfortable

Having a short ritual to be present in the moment with your interviewee can be really helpful.

“Once everything is set and ready to roll—even after we’re rolling,” says Kerri Feazell at Concurrent Productions.