In this guide
Recording a useful video interview starts with preparation: know what the audience needs to understand, prepare your questions and listen carefully to the answers. Here are six tips for getting material that works in the finished video.
Open and closed questions
Open-ended questions invite the person to explain their experience. “Do you enjoy your work?” can produce a yes-or-no answer. “What are you working on at the moment?” gives them room to describe a project, followed by questions about what they enjoy or find difficult. Closed questions are still useful when you need to confirm a fact.
Give answers enough context
If the interviewer’s questions will be edited out, ask the person to include enough context in their answer for it to make sense on its own. If you ask, “What is the best part of your job?”, their answer might start with “The best part of my job is…”. They do not need to repeat every question word for word.
Prepare your questions
Prepare questions around the information you need from the interview. Leave room for follow-up questions: if the person mentions something relevant that you had not anticipated, ask them to explain. Use your list to check that you have covered the main topics without letting it interrupt the conversation.
Help the interviewee prepare
Share the purpose, audience and main topics before the interview. Sending specific questions can also help when someone needs to check technical details or would benefit from more preparation. Encourage them to think about examples and key points rather than memorise a script. Our on-camera preparation tips can help them understand what to expect.
Listen without talking over the answer
Ask one short question at a time, then give the person time to answer. If your voice will be removed from the finished video, nod or smile to encourage them instead of saying “yeah” or “OK” over their words. Overlapping voices can be difficult to separate in the edit.
Give them the final word
At the end of the interview, ask whether you missed anything or if there is a topic they want to discuss. As prepared as you may be, sometimes the best information will be something you hadn’t thought of.
Before wrapping up, check that any names, figures or technical explanations are accurate and that you have enough context to use the answers in the edit.
For any questions about filming interviews with our videographer or if you’d like to shoot your own interviews, please contact me here at Dream Engine. I’d love to help.
Ryan Spanger is the founder and managing director of Dream Engine, a Melbourne video production company established in 2002. Over the past two decades, he’s produced hundreds of videos for businesses, government departments, universities and healthcare organisations across Australia. Ryan specialises in helping organisations explain complex ideas through clear, engaging video content, with particular experience in corporate communications, training and education.
