Developing techniques for filming great interviews

Interviewing people is a wonderful job to do. It is how we learn, how we develop and how we share the stories that can change society. Asking questions is obviously important, answering the right questions is even more important and listening and responding at the right moments is imperative.

When interviewing someone who is literally, ‘under the spotlight,’ the experience is even more intense — particularly if you are dealing with sensitive topics and wanting someone to express feelings and emotion that they may not always be comfortable doing.

Career Life Stories is a good example of this. When watching an episode of Career Life Stories you are seeing two people talking and chatting. Me asking the questions and our guests responding. What you don’t see is the three cameraman, the sound engineer and a couple of others in the production crew who are in the background. It can be quite an intimidating experience and it is our job — particularly mine — to make sure people feel at ease.

Career Life Stories started as an extension from a lot of the work I had been doing for a number of years with Working Films and before that working in research roles with large recruitment and branding agencies — starting with TMP Worldwide in the late nineties. This was a time when recruitment advertising was exploding into online and the digital age — including the evolution of genuine research-led campaigns which then evolved into more structured employer branding strategies.

I’ve always been fascinated by what drives people beyond what we see in their day to day work and have been fortunate to be involved in projects with many different types of organisations in different countries and cultures.

Through my own company, Working Films, I have been able to capture interviews, thoughts and feelings on film that had previously only found their way into a written report. When I’m interviewing, either in a group or one-to-one situation, it is so important to create a trusted environment to allow people to open up and express themselves freely which brings the reward of a deeper and more expressive interview.

Capturing this on camera requires an even greater degree of trust and cooperation from the crew. Everyone that works on our projects understands the need to create a complete environment that creates a bubble of uninterrupted concentration. It is frustrating for me and the person being interviewed if, having grown into an interview, there’s a distraction from the background which suddenly breaks the moment — it completely disrupts the flow.

So here are some of the things I have learnt over the years of doing this work. It combines working an interview with also understanding the impact and workflow in the edit and post-production process.

1. Know your objectives. You may not know the full story you want to tell, but you will know why you are doing it. Think about why the interview is being filmed and how it may feature in the final cut. Is it going to be a nicely lit ‘two-shot?’ What kind of cut-aways will it feature? This is a topic of its own, but how the interview is going to be used will have a big impact on planning for the right level of production and crew. To cut an interview will require footage to cut to (e.g. different scenes, the interviewee going about their work) or between cameras — requiring a different level of setup.
2. Know who you’re interviewing. By this I mean really know who you’re interviewing. Know enough about them that you can ask informed questions during filming. This will give them confidence in you and you will have confidence in what you are doing.
3. Know your environment. Filming nearly always takes longer than most people realise. The more crew are involved the longer it will take to setup, but as a minimum you need to allow enough time to allow the crew to get unpacked, unload, setup, test sound, lighting etc.. all before you start interviewing. Make sure you know where the interview or interviews will take place and ideally visit beforehand.
4. Know your crew. Capturing footage on camera is easy. We all have smartphones. Capturing well filmed, great content — with great sound — isn’t easy. You have to work with skilled professionals who you can rely to make sure the sound is spot on, the lighting is good and everything is in focus. As obvious as this sounds, it is not uncommon for mistakes to be made. Beyond this, working with people who know how you interview and your style is also important. When I’m producing and interviewing, those working with me will have an instinct to where I’m pushing and probing on a topic and when they might adjust their framing or make adjustments of their own. I also sense when we perhaps need to take a pause to allow the crew to check cameras, swap memory cards, for example, and do this at an appropriate time.
5. Create the bubble. Don’t expect to get all the answers in the first 5 minutes if you’re after a genuine, in-depth interview. Allow time to warm-up — as you would in any usual interview situation, but even more so when filming. Unless you’re aiming for a politician style interview and wanting to catch people off-guard, you will want to get the best out of the person you’re interviewing. Show you’re on their side and be prepared to revisit questions and answers once everyone has settled down. Cameras and lights can be quite intimidating, but people will relax if you create the right environment. A technique that I find can be helpful is to have a false start to allow the adrenalin to dissipate a little. Once you’ve got 2 or 3 questions done, have a little pause with a sip of water and just check with the crew everyone is happy. It just relieves a bit of the intensity, everyone takes a deep breath and you start again with everyone much more relaxed. Reassure the interviewee from the outset that it will also be edited to take the pressure off providing the perfect answer.
6. Allow the interview to breathe. And allow enough time. Once you’re in the groove you don’t want to be watching the clock. If you’re just after a few soundbites you may well get these, but if you’re after genuine and natural responses then you want to allow time for that to evolve naturally. With Career Life Stories, the actual filming of the interview often takes around 90mins to over 2 hours and less than half of this is used in the final cut. This is because we talk around topics, probe more deeply and explore the conversation to extract a purposeful interview and story. You want the person you’re interviewing to forget about the camera and just focus on talking to you — creating the bubble — and this is often when the best bits will feature in the final edit.
7. Be mindful of the edit. Ask clear questions — even if you probe around it — as when you’re cutting in the edit suite you will be glad you did. Also, remember that you can ask and frame questions in a different way and edit appropriately in post-production.
8. Edit thoughtfully. Whether you are directly involved in the edit or not, you will want to be close to it. I edit all the initial cut of our interviews and I will know the interview and timeline inside out. You may have an interview that is fairly short, in which case the edit is likely to be more straightforward. If you have a longer, deeper interview, however, there will be a lot of footage to edit. For long form interviews, this is where a lot of work takes place to really shape the story. You will find that some questions and answers flow better if positioned in a different way to the way they were asked in the interview. Some answers may flow better side-by-side as opposed to two different questions. I always approach this phase empathetically from the point of view of the person I am interviewing and think, “What are they wanting to say?”, “What is the point they’re trying to make?’ and am I capturing this in the best way possible to allow their story to be told.
9. If in doubt, take it out. This is a well-trodden mantra, but the hardest part of reviewing an edit is taking good stuff out. Be ruthless. We do several edits of an interview — stripping it back each time. Occasionally, something is taken out and put back in, but only when we have become so familiar with the footage that we know it will add to the story will it go back in. I’ve edited interviews where, at the time, I was listening to some great stories and anecdotes. But when I came to the edit and structuring the interview these stories were actually making the same point several times and taking up 10 minutes in the timeline. If I had left them all in the viewer will have lost interest and want to know where it was taking them. I only needed it to be said once to capture what the interviewee was saying in order to move the story on. Which brings me to the final point….
10. Remember you’re telling a story. Each second and minute of an interview must carry the viewer onto the next second and minute. If you’re trying to engage an audience you want them to be hooked. How long should an interview be? Well that goes back to the first point about the purpose and objectives, but if it’s compelling, if it’s engaging and the viewer wants to know more then your story is your guide. Whatever your reasons for interviewing someone you are capturing a moment, something about them that you want to share. Focus on what this.

I’ve not delved into the technical side, but working with a good and experienced crew will take care of good visuals and sound. If you’re a producer you already know about the roles, but also as an interviewer, learning to work with the crew and production team is important. To rely on them to do a good job requires a trust and understanding of what they need too and their respect in-turn will help to create the best environment to produce the best end result.

To watch my interviews with people about their lives and careers head on over to CareerLifeStories.com.