How to Create a Smooth Flowing Interview Video Like the Pros

As video becomes the most popular form of content online, and interview videos quickly grab up audience attention, the need for an understanding of video interview creation is more important than ever before. While recording a video interview might initially come across as a relatively straightforward task, there’s a lot that goes into the production of an interview that skirts from one topic to the next, seamlessly and smoothly with absolute ease.

Learning how to create a smooth flowing interview video the way the professionals do is an important task that many business owners must figure out. There is a fine line between jam packed interview videos that offer up a ton of valuable information and insight, and those that are downright boring, and it’s all about the flow. Content is everything for an interview video. Get it right, and you just might have yourself a viral video. Get it wrong, and you just might find yourself with a mess on your hands.

Know How to Structure Interview Questions like a Pro

The first step to learning how to create a smooth flowing interview video is learning how to be a good interviewer and that starts with knowing how to structure interview questions. The questions that you ask as an interviewer will literally make or break the overall trajectory of your interview video. Questions should be easy for your subject to answer, yet thought provoking and fun to respond to. For example:

• Ask questions that are going to elicit a long response from the subject. You really want to avoid interview questions that lead to one-word answers.
• Prepare to ask follow up questions. If your subject hasn’t fully touched the point you’re looking for, or just to get more information from them about what they mean.
• Use probing questions to get additional information out of your subject. If you don’t ask, they won’t tell.
• Think about the types of questions you will ask in groups by major subject area this way you can shape the experiences and expertise of the subject to share details with your audience.

The best interviews are almost always the result of two very important things:

• A subject with an amazing story to share.
• An interviewer that has done their homework and knows how to conduct a seamless interview.

Don’t be the interviewer that wasn’t prepared!

Plan Transitions for a Smooth Flow of Topics or Subject Matter

Learning how to create a smooth flowing interview video the way the pros do is also about planning properly for each step or phase of the video. Once you’ve got your interview footage, it’s time to start thinking about the steps you will take to ensure that you create a smooth flowing interview video in post-production. Consider the following transitions:

• Cut to quickly jump from one major point of interest to the next. This is the cleanest and easiest way to transition your interview smoothly. Avoid making jump cuts and make sure that you are cutting at just the right time so that you don’t cut off the interviewer, the subject, or any visual footage.
• Use dissolves to transition from the subject to b-roll footage that might share visually supportive detail.  
• Consider the use of fades to alter between your subject and your b-roll, to adjust filming locations of b-roll footage, or to otherwise transition between important parts of your interview. 
• Light leaks can be used to create a cinematic feel which will make your corporate interview video appear more put together. 

Use Text Screens & Overlays to Deliver Key Data

While learning how to create a smooth flowing interview video really should be mostly focused on the interview itself, the steps that you take in ensuring that the post-production editing is a success will also be important to the outcome of your film. Interview videos often include changes in subject matter, key details offered by the interviewer, and other pertinent data that might be missed when the audience is watching. 

In order to keep the transitions smooth, consider the use of text screens or overlay text that can introduce each new question offering visual balance for your audience too. The use of a text screen, which displays the next question, subject, or key point of the interview is an excellent way of smoothly flowing from one question to the next.

If you want to be more subtle, you can use text overlays that simply provide key data in the lower thirds or somewhere else on the screen. Incorporating text based presentation of the interview questions, instead of sharing footage of the interviewer asking the questions, can also help your video to flow more quickly cutting the overall time of the interview video rather substantially.

As you can see, learning how to create a smooth flowing interview video the way the pros do is a process that really requires your focus and consideration of several key points of interest. For more on producing interview videos, give the pros at Beverly Boy Productions a call!