Three tips for capturing great video interviews

You don't need a degree in journalism to ask great interview questions during your next video shoot. I've had the pleasure of managing our global recruiting video efforts for the past few years and have virtually coached our local talent acquisition professionals around the globe on how to interview team members on camera to get great footage of our featured team members.

We're fans of narrative-style video in Dell’s Talent team which is a great way to capture stories told from the perspective of your subject. Here are a few key techniques to achieving this type of video and making the footage easy for post-production work.

Coach your subjects

When shooting narrative-style video, coaching your subjects to answer your questions in complete sentences is one of the most important things you can do. You can ask them to repeat the question back to you in their answer or reference grammar school where teachers would ask students to "answer in complete sentences." The same technique applies when filming a narrative-style video efficiently. If asked, "What's your favorite color?," a bad answer is "Blue." What you're looking for is, "My favorite color is blue." This ensures the editing phase of the video is as easy as possible which will help cut down the overall time necessary to put together a quality story.

Comfort is key

My top priority when interviewing anyone on camera is to ensure they are fully comfortable in front of the camera. Authenticity is the ultimate goal in our videos and if your interviewee is stiff due to nerves, it can affect the feel of the video. Talking to your subject ahead of time to develop a rapport with them will help calm them down. Minimizing the number of people in the room at the time of interview can help keep their eyes focused on you/where you want them rather than darting around at other observers.

Smile and lead by example when it comes to the energy levels you want them to match on camera. I also like to sit next to the camera set up and lean forward slightly to make the equipment seem less imposing and to keep the subject's focus on me instead of other things.

Do your homework

One thing I recommend before diving into writing interview questions is scheduling short pre-interviews with your video subjects. This is a chance to introduce yourself, give them an overview of the project and your objectives and hear more about their story. Knowing their individual stories can help you highlight key messages that match up with what you're trying to communicate with your video and tailor questions to bring out those messages.

For example, if you're trying to communicate your company culture like we do in our videos, talking to subjects about how they use benefits available to them or how they balance their work-life balance can give you a heads-up on cool anecdotes that entertain viewers and reinforce your messaging.

Have you been a part of video efforts either personally or professionally? What are some tips you use when you're interviewing people on camera?

Cover photo by MariettaVideoProductions.com (Own work), via Wikimedia Commons