Yesterday, I spent the day “filming” in Chicago from my desk in Bethesda.
How did we make it happen? I had a local Chicago crew filming, with me interviewing via Zoom, on a laptop at eye level with my interviewees. They were able to talk with me as if I was sitting there with them in person.
But I had a huge concern. Would this still be the same quality as me being there in person? Would I still be able to get great interviews asking questions from 700 miles away?
There’s a crucial thing we do with every shoot – and probably one of the reasons this one worked so well – establishing rapport with our interviewees early on.
With most of our projects, we do pre-interview calls (or, since the pandemic, Zoom calls) with everyone that we will be interviewing. This helps us to better understand the person’s story and style, and they get to know us and the process. By the time they sit down in front of the camera, they already have some idea of what they want to say and feel somewhat comfortable with us.
On filming day, I spend time putting my subjects at ease. I often tell them this one bit of advice before we begin the interview: “There are no wrong answers. You can’t do this wrong. All of the answers are already in your head and in your heart.”
Which is the truth. We are not typically interviewing for the news or a CDC report. They are living their experiences and know how that feels.
Are there answers that might be better and more relevant to the goals of the video? Of course. But that is our job – to ask the right questions and re-ask them in different ways to get the perspective we need.
Whether you are in person or remote filming, the key to getting great soundbites from your interviewees is instilling confidence in their abilities to give a great interview. Putting people at ease and making things easy is what we do.
While I still prefer to interview people in person, this setup worked even better than I had imagined. The camera was fed into the Zoom call, so I could see exactly what the camera was seeing and give direction when needed. (Contact us if you’d like all the technical specifics.)
If you have a project that might benefit from this style of remote filming, let us know. We work with people all over the country – even the world. (Filming remotely on Monday in Israel!)