Interviews
The interview format
Interview is perhaps best thought of not just as a process, but also as a format - one where the end audience takes the camera's perspective in a conversation. After equipment setup, interview durations can vary widely, but as a guide, allow up to 20 minutes for the main interviewees and 5 to 10 minutes for secondary contributors.
Generally interview subjects will help create the questions they want to be asked, so they can supply the answers they want their target audience to hear. Simple, open questions around themes of who, why, what, where, how and when, often work best.
This approach tends to produce more natural results. Subjects can be themselves and don't have to act or take on a presentational role which helps keep the process more relaxed and informal, allowing people to focus on the key points they want to communicate.
The interview look
There are many choices which define how an
interview looks. Perhaps the first decision is whether to be seated - which tends to yield a more relaxed delivery - or standing - often
a bit more dynamic and energetic.
Clothing, hair and makeup are of course entirely at your personal discretion, though for technical reasons we would suggest avoiding finely woven or patterned textures like tweed or pinstripe. Some fabrics such as waterproofs can also be noisy and easily picked up by microphones when the wearer moves, so also best avoided if possible.
Location is covered in more detail here, but another key choice is whether to be indoors or out. We would generally recommend filming where your activity is focused though there's no hard and fast rule on this. Our cameras can deal with most lighting scenarios.
The interview look
The makeup of a crew is generally down to main two factors: budget and time. Where speed is the priority, a crew of three is recommended. This would be an interviewer, camera operator and sound recordist. Setup time is as little as 5 to 10 minutes.
Where time is not as limited or the project has a smaller budget, a single operator can take around 20 - 30 minutes to set up. However, one notable advantage is that interviewees often feel more comfortable with a single operator - it's a little bit less pressured, and at the same time, more affordable.
A halfway medium is a two person crew with the camera operator or sound recordist doubling up as interviewer. Setup time usually sits between 10 to 20 minutes.
