The importance of preparing for on camera interviews

There are many vital elements to producing an effective video and when you are including interviews with people, the importance of having sincere, relaxed focussed talkers on screen cannot be underestimated.

When preparing to film an interview it’s easy to get bogged down in all the nitty gritty technical details such as what camera you are using, how the shot should be framed and how you are going to light it and whilst these are very important, getting the ‘softer skills’ right like putting people at ease and on side are potentially the make or break of any content.

Remember, these people are representing a brand and delivering a message that they want viewers to engage with, so a confident, authentic delivery is vital to deliver the results we need.

We have interviewed thousands of people in our time and no matter whether they’re a CEO of a multimillion-pound company or a one-man band start-up, everyone gets nervous in front of the camera which is why on shoots, it is someone's job to be the main connection for the interviewee as soon as they walk through the door.

To make them comfy in the interview space, put any nerves to rest and get them relaxed and focussed on the message we want to hear from them. Something that’s not easy to do if you are fiddling with kit and not engaging in conversation with the person being interviewed.

Also, in many cases we will have already spoken to them beforehand on the phone or on a video call so that we are already building rapport.

In the clip above you can see how the tone of a message can be altered by the delivery of the speaker, for the better and for the worse.

The subtitles say the exact same words but in the first one, because the interviewer has not made the effort to relax the speaker, the delivery gives off the wrong message.

So, it is vital that you or the company you employ to do any interview work for you takes the time to get it right because when you do, your contributor will be happier, the content will look and sound far superior and be more sincere, and commercially, the video will perform at its best and achieve more for you.