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How to Shoot a Digital Video Interview Like an Expert

Interview videos are basically a staple form for websites used on blogs, product pages, landing pages, in case studies, and as part of the customer testimonial process. If you’re not good creating the digital video interview, you’re not alone! Many business owners find that learning how to shoot a digital video interview that offers audience guidance and a personal connection isn’t as easy as they originally believed it would be, but it’s not impossible to learn how to overcome challenges in interview video production and to shoot expert quality digital video interview projects.

While at first glance, you might think that you can shoot a digital video interview with minimal equipment, bare bones knowledge, and an inspiration to succeed. However, upon looking closer into the process, you’ll most certainly find that there’s a lot more that goes into learning how to shoot a digital video interview like an expert. 

At Beverly Boy Productions, our experts know exactly what it takes to produce a digital video interview that will capture the attention of your audience and evoke powerful engagement for your brand. Give us a call to learn more about the expert digital video interview production techniques that we use when producing interview videos for our clients.

Finding the Perfect Interview Location

The first step to learning how to shoot a digital video interview like an expert would is in finding the most suitable location for the interview shoot. Although the setting of your interview is hardly the focus, there are some important considerations to make in choosing the best location to film your interview at if you want to be sure that your audience doesn’t get distracted by where you’re filming,

A great interview shoot location is one that:

  • Does not have a lot of interruptions. There should not be people, cars, or animals in the background that may draw audience attention away from your subject.
  • Is not loud and does not have a lot of external noises. There should not be noise such as traffic, planes, people talking, dogs barking, or even things like an air conditioner humming which could draw away the attention of your audience.
  • Is well lighted, whether natural lighting or artificial. There should be lighting that you can work with in the location, or you must bring in outside, artificial lighting that you can use to cast on your subject.

When choosing the best film location for your interview, it’s also important that you begin to think about the continuity of your digital video interview. 

Consider Continuity of Your Interview Footage

The continuity of a digital video interview is something that an amateur may not even consider, but it’s certainly an important consideration for an expert film producer. If you want to shoot like an expert, you need to be thinking about the continuity. Filming outside might make it hard to maintain continuity as the natural light changes and shadows potentially change their shape along with the movement of the sun and clouds. 

Continuity is difficult to maintain in areas where there are moving objects in the background, too. For instance, you should refrain from filming a digital video interview in areas where the background has a clock, features a parking lot or street, or otherwise features objects that may change placement over time. Keeping everything in place, exactly as it was with the opening shot of your interview is key to keeping consistent continuity for your interview.

Follow the Rules of Video Composition & Framing

Learning how to shoot a digital video interview that is going to come across as having been filmed by an expert is all about following simple rules and techniques as they apply to composition and framing. Most interviews are filmed mid to close-up, the subject maintains an eye line either on-camera or off-camera, and is positioned properly within the frame (not in the center).  

If you’re planning to film your interview by focusing on centering your subject in the frame, you’ve already made an amateur move! The subject should be off-center, either to the left or right of the center most part of the screen, and should have adequate “white space” above his or her head such that their head just enters the top third of the screen, without taking up the entire space.

Shoot with at Least Two Cameras

The final major consideration when it comes to learning how to shoot a digital video interview the way an expert would is the number of cameras being used to capture the subject. You should use at least a two-camera setup so that you can captured footage that includes:

  • A medium-close or closeup shot of the subject which can be filmed from a digital video camera that is positioned on a tripod where it will stay.
  • A camera that can be used to capture shots with varied depth of field and closeness in order to capture the subject from the alternative viewpoints 

The second camera can also be used to film b-roll footage that will be incorporated into the interview video so that it provides supportive visuals which will further engage the audience.

As you can see, learning how to shoot a digital video interview the way an expert would is a process that requires plenty of planning and preparation, but it’s certainly not impossible. For more information, give Beverly Boy Productions a call.

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