What Makes a Great Interview Video?

Interviews are integral to so many of the projects that we film - corporate, commercial, architectural or otherwise.

For the majority of our films, a good interview piece acts as a foundation for the rest of the footage of each project - without it, there isn’t as much to explain to the viewer what it is that they are watching.

Interviews, for us, bridge the gap between a musical montage of clips and a short film that encapsulates and illustrates a project or idea.

But what makes a great interview video? The trick is to keep the content succinct and engaging, and not arduous to watch or repetitive.

1. Be Concise

This is the number one goal of all interview footage that we film. In order to build a successful and engaging video, we need to get all essential information across to the viewer in a manner that’s time-effective.

Videos don’t need to expand upon every single detail of a project; they just need to convey the key message. For the majority of the projects that we shoot, the final product will be displayed on a webpage alongside other content that helps to illustrate the topic of the video.

So, in most cases, you wont need to outline every last piece of information, but instead touch on the key points so that viewers can then go and find out more for themselves.

2. Be Relatable

You never want to come off as a robot, reading through a teleprompter with cold, lifeless eyes.

You need to be enthusiastic about your content - if you’re trying to build hype for a product then you need to be excited about sharing it with everyone. If you’re talking about a project that you’ve just completed, tell us what aspects of it you were most proud of, or most passionate about.

Showing genuine enthusiasm and being engaged will help you to appear more relatable to your audience and, in turn, increase engagement.

3. Relax!

Take a breather, grab a cup of coffee - whatever you need to feel comfortable and relaxed during your shoot. Anything that you can do to chill out during the shoot will yield better results in the end-product.

It’s just like doing any form of public speaking - being calm and confident is key to coming off as professional and knowledgable.

So have fun with it, and take your time. Remember, you can always do as many takes as you need with a video, so no pressure!

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Keep each of these three tips in mind, and you’ll produce a great interview that’s engaging, professional, and easy to watch.

Got any other tips to add? Let us know in the comments below!

Creativity is Key - Some of Our Favourite Projects

We’re stoked that we get to work in a field that we’re passionate about. Whilst a lot of what we shoot isn’t always the most interesting to show to the world, we’ve certainly been lucky to work on some truly unique and awesome projects over the years.

We’ve learned that it’s incredibly important to keep pushing our limits when it comes to our technical skills, and equally as important to regularly shoot our own self-directed projects to keep the creative juices flowing.

Here are a couple of projects that stand out to us as some of the most fun, creative, and weird films that we’ve put together. Enjoy!

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Buy my BMW

When the time came for me to part with my trusty BMW, we decided to go all-out on the marketing.

Cue one of the best motor vehicle advertisements ever made (in my opinion, at least).

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Double Airpoints with Double Daniel

In 2016 I was approached by the marketing team at Bayleys to create a short internal video explaining their latest promotion to their agents.

The promotions was for double airpoints, so we figured we would kick this off by having two presenters, which eventually became the name of the project – Double Airpoints with Double Daniel.

The whole shoot was hilarious, and through some cool editing and filming tricks, we were able to put Daniel into the frame twice for the wide shots. Check it out below!

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#SadFace

#SadFace is a tale of love and loss; an exploration of what it means to be human.

This short film is the result of a collaboration by Brendan Dalton and myself. The two of us have had a history of making short films ever since we were children, and to be honest while the production value has increased significantly on my end, the overall quality of scriptwriting remains about the same.

Anyway, enjoy!

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Thomas’ Star Wars Wish

Thomas’ Wish was an action-packed, Star Wars themed wish with the awesome people at the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Thomas and his friends were taught in the ways of the force by a true Jedi master!

“Oh my gosh, we saw it last night, it is amazing!!!!! What a great job guys, you are awesome!!!” – Circus in a Flash

“This video is amazing! Such an incredible way to relive the magic of the day.” – Whoa! Studios

“OH MY GOD. That is just so cool. You’ve made me cry at my desk!” – Jane Traynor, Make-A-Wish volunteer

Page to Screen - How to Plan a Video Project

So you need a video. You have the main idea all sorted, but what’s next? Once you’ve sorted your videographer, what’s the process for turning this idea into a finished product?

This guide should bring some clarity to what’s involved in the planning and creation of a video - all of the below steps are the same ones that our team runs through when taking on new video projects, and should help you to untangle some of the ideas that get bounced around in the early stages of planning!

Define your video goal

What’s the purpose of your video? Is it to promote a product, showcase your services as a business, or record an event taking place? Most of our video projects fall into one of these categories: people, product, service, or event.

Knowing what the purpose of your video is as a first step is crucial, as this can often dictate the form of the finished product.

Once you have this, decide whether you want to have a voiceover or presenter speaking throughout your video, or want to keep it minimal and use music and graphics to convey your message.

Take a look at this promo that we created for Bayleys - the goal of the video is to spread awareness about their regular workshop. The video is short, to keep interest levels up, and utilises a mix of footage from the workshop with a supporting voiceover from the instructor, as well as music and titles. The end product is informative, to the point, and meets the clients’ goal:

Location, location, location

Next thing to sort out is where the video will be set - do you want to showcase your latest installations at a residential property? Or have an interview of the new GM at a local cafe? Or is the video going to be in-studio with plan backdrops?

When deciding, have a think about what your location conveys to the viewer - an interview at a cafe will appear more relaxed and welcoming than an interview at a construction-site. Likewise, if the goal of your video is to bring in more commercial clients, showing them your latest residential projects may not be the best option.

Does the video suit a relaxed setting?

Or a more formal, corporate setting?

Set a Target video length

AKA, one of the hardest choices of every video project.

Length plays a huge part in video performance. The hard truth is that we, as creators, are always the most invested in our own videos, but, unfortunately, not everyone else may find them as interesting.

It’s important to keep videos as short as possible, and avoid any ‘filler’ parts, so that the video is engaging to as many viewers as possible.

For videos going on social media, or promos, the magic number is always around 30 seconds to 60 seconds long. Any more than this and you can risk having much lower viewer retention. 60 seconds may seem quite short, but think about those pesky YouTube ads that play before videos - most of those are skipped within 5 seconds!

Obviously if your video is an interview or a documentary, the length will be much longer than this - but for trying to grab peoples’ attention, consider creating a smaller video cut to send viewers through to the full video. This brings us to our next point:

Consider short cuts.

If you’ve got a lot of video content, it’s always possible to make new cuts that fit within the 30-60 second mark without leaving the full-length video behind closed doors.

Creating little social media ‘snippets’ is great for getting people interested without using the full-length video, just like the Bayleys promo earlier in this post.

Start Storyboarding!

Of course, we don’t necessarily mean sitting down and sketching out every single scene of your video - this doens’t make sense for an interview or a quick promo.

Planning your shots, in some form, is essential to making sure that you and your videographer are on the same page when it comes to the shoot day.

This can be a simple as jotting down a list of bullet points of how the video should play out, or doing a quick brainstorm of the beginning, middle, and end of the video.

Having a plan in place means that your videographer can break this down into a shot list - a list of every single clip to film for the video.

This saves a heap of time in post-production, as the storyboards will act as a guide for the editor. Planning is always key!

Sort The Additional Content

For the majority of videos these days, the footage is only a starting point - typically you’ll want a mix of supporting content (music, titles, and graphics) to embellish the footage to help maximise the impact of your video.

Your videographer will be able to guide you through the process of selecting suitable music and graphics, and typically will be able to source a range of options to consider during the editing phase.

The main thing to be aware of here is that depending on the usage of your video, you’ll encounter costs to licence any third-party content (music tracks being the obvious one).

This cost typically varies with intended video usage and audience - for example, the cost to use a track in a motion picture will be much higher than the cost to use a track in a YouTube video, and so on.

deliverables

Once your video is completed, it’s time to look at the nitty-gritty of video size and quality. Videos are typically filmed in a high quality and then rendered during the editing process to a suitable file type and size.

Currently, most videos are split between either 1080p resolution, or 4K.

4K is the current ‘trendy’, ‘premium’ and high-quality resolution, but the huge detail comes at a cost of needing a massive file size.

Beware of having a large file size for your video if you’re going to be using it online - quality doesn’t mean much if people need to buffer for a long time to see it.

1080p, on the other hand, is a great go-to resolution. It’s able to be streamed smoothly on most modern connections and provides good detail.

Have a chat with your videographer about what you’ll be using the video for and they’ll be able to recommend a file type for the best mix of quality and size!

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Hopefully this guide has shed some light on the process of working with a videographer! Still have questions? Let us know in the comments below.

Have an idea for a video and want to see it come to life? Get in touch!