Interview content forms the backbone of countless successful channels, podcasts and documentaries. Whether filming expert conversations, testimonials or documentary subjects, mastering interview techniques dramatically improves production value and audience engagement.
Great interview filming requires balancing technical excellence with creating comfortable environments where subjects relax and deliver authentic responses. This guide covers everything from equipment setup to interviewing techniques that elicit compelling content.
Pre-Production Planning
Successful interviews begin long before you press record. Thorough preparation ensures smooth shoots and better final content.
Research and Question Development
Research your subject thoroughly, understanding their expertise, background and potential talking points. This knowledge enables you to ask informed questions and follow interesting tangents that emerge during conversation.
Prepare more questions than you'll need, organised by topic areas. This structure provides direction whilst allowing flexibility to explore unexpected directions. Open-ended questions that begin with "how," "why" and "what" encourage detailed responses rather than simple yes/no answers.
Location Scouting
Visit your filming location in advance, assessing lighting conditions, background options and acoustic properties. Identify potential problems like traffic noise, echoing rooms or distracting backgrounds whilst you still have time to find alternatives.
Consider the story your location tells. Corporate offices communicate different messages than outdoor settings or home environments. Choose locations that reinforce your subject matter and provide visual interest without overwhelming the interview subject.
Camera Setup and Framing
Proper camera positioning and framing creates professional, engaging interview footage that holds viewer attention.
The Triangle Principle
Position your camera slightly off-axis from your subject's eyeline, creating a triangle between camera, interviewer and subject. This arrangement allows subjects to speak naturally to the interviewer whilst maintaining appropriate screen direction.
Avoid placing the camera directly between you and your subject, which creates uncomfortable eye contact with the lens. Similarly, don't position yourself behind the camera, which forces subjects to look directly at viewers in ways that often feel confrontational.
Framing Conventions
Frame subjects slightly off-centre, providing looking room in the direction they're facing. This composition feels balanced and natural, whilst centred framing often appears static and uncomfortable.
Choose appropriate shot sizes for your content. Medium close-ups showing head and shoulders work well for most interviews, providing intimacy without excessive intensity. Wider shots incorporating more environment suit contextual discussions, whilst tight close-ups add dramatic emphasis to emotional moments.
Multiple Camera Angles
Using two or more cameras enables dynamic editing with various angles and shot sizes. Position a primary camera for your main framing, with a second camera providing alternative perspectives like tighter close-ups or wider establishing shots.
Ensure cameras remain on the same side of the 180-degree line to maintain consistent screen direction. Crossing this line creates jarring jumps that confuse spatial relationships.
Audio Recording Essentials
Excellent audio quality is non-negotiable for interview content. Poor sound undermines credibility and drives audiences away regardless of visual quality.
Microphone Selection and Placement
Lavalier microphones attached to clothing provide consistent, close-miked sound whilst remaining unobtrusive. Position them centrally on the chest, 15-20cm below the chin, securing cables to prevent rustling.
Alternatively, boom microphones positioned just outside frame offer excellent quality without visibility concerns. Position them above and in front of the subject, aimed downward toward their mouth.
Monitoring and Recording
Always monitor audio through headphones during recording. Visual meters show levels, but only critical listening reveals actual quality, identifying problems like clothing rustle, electrical interference or background noise.
Record separate audio to a dedicated recorder when possible, providing backup if camera audio fails and typically offering better quality than in-camera recording. Sync multiple audio sources in post-production using waveform matching or slate markers.
Lighting for Interviews
Flattering, dimensional lighting enhances subject appearance whilst maintaining natural atmosphere.
Three-Point Lighting Application
Apply classic three-point lighting principles, modified for interview contexts. Position your key light 45 degrees from camera axis, slightly elevated, creating pleasing shadows that add dimension without harshness.
Add fill light opposite the key, softening shadows without eliminating them entirely. Maintain noticeable difference between key and fill brightness, preserving dimensional modelling that makes faces interesting.
Back light separates subjects from backgrounds, adding polish and depth. Position this light behind and to the side of your subject, creating subtle rim highlights on hair and shoulders.
Natural Light Interviews
Window light provides beautiful, soft illumination for interviews. Position subjects perpendicular to windows, using natural light as your key source. Add reflectors for fill light, bouncing window light back into shadow areas.
Avoid shooting subjects directly facing windows, which creates difficult exposure balancing between bright backgrounds and darker faces. Back-lit window shots can work for silhouettes or creative effects but generally prove problematic for standard interviews.
Background Selection and Composition
Backgrounds significantly impact interview aesthetics and viewer perception, requiring thoughtful selection and arrangement.
Creating Visual Interest
Choose backgrounds with visual depth and subtle interest that complement without distracting. Bookshelves, offices with visible depth, or blurred outdoor environments work well, providing context whilst maintaining focus on the subject.
Avoid plain white walls, which appear institutional and boring, and overly busy backgrounds that compete for attention. Ensure background elements don't create unfortunate visual alignments, like plants appearing to grow from subjects' heads.
Depth and Separation
Create physical distance between subjects and backgrounds, enabling selective focus that softens background elements. This separation adds professional polish and prevents subjects from appearing pasted onto flat backgrounds.
Use shallow depth of field when appropriate, particularly for tighter shots where background detail matters less. Wider apertures blur backgrounds whilst maintaining sharp focus on subjects, directing viewer attention effectively.
Interview Techniques
Technical excellence means nothing if your subject delivers poor responses. Strong interviewing skills elicit authentic, engaging content.
Creating Comfortable Environments
Most interview subjects feel nervous on camera. Establish rapport before filming, chatting casually to help them relax. Explain your process, describing what will happen and reassuring them that mistakes can be fixed in editing.
Avoid starting with difficult or personal questions. Begin with easy topics that build confidence, progressing to more challenging areas once subjects have settled into conversation rhythm.
Active Listening
Listen attentively to responses rather than merely waiting to ask your next question. Follow interesting tangents, asking follow-up questions that explore unexpected angles or clarify intriguing points.
Provide non-verbal feedback through nods and facial expressions without vocal responses that would appear in your audio. Save verbal reactions for after subjects finish speaking, preventing overlap that complicates editing.
Eliciting Complete Answers
Ask subjects to incorporate questions into their answers, creating self-contained responses that work without hearing your questions. For example, instead of answering "yes" to "Did you enjoy the experience?", subjects should say "I really enjoyed the experience because..."
This technique provides editing flexibility, allowing you to use responses without including questions. It also encourages more complete, thoughtful answers than simple confirmations.
Managing Technical Issues
Professional preparation anticipates and prevents common problems that derail interviews.
Audio Challenges
Scout locations for noise issues, identifying traffic patterns, neighbouring activities and HVAC systems that create problematic sound. Schedule interviews during quiet periods when possible, or choose alternative locations if noise proves unavoidable.
Silence mobile phones, computers and other devices that might interrupt recording. Place "quiet please" signs outside interview spaces when filming in shared environments.
Backup and Redundancy
Equipment failures happen at the worst possible times. Bring backup cameras, audio recorders, cables and batteries for important interviews. Record to multiple cards or devices when available, providing insurance against file corruption or media failure.
Check equipment thoroughly before critical interviews, ensuring batteries are charged, media has adequate space and all systems function correctly. Small problems become crises when discovered mid-interview.
B-Roll and Supporting Footage
Interview content benefits enormously from supporting b-roll footage that illustrates topics and provides editing flexibility.
Capture relevant b-roll before or after interviews, filming subjects in their environments, working at tasks they discuss, or demonstrating processes they describe. This footage provides visual variety that maintains viewer engagement during longer interviews.
Shoot establishing shots showing interview locations and context. These shots orient viewers, providing spatial understanding that makes interview content more accessible and engaging.
Post-Production Considerations
Editing transforms raw interview footage into polished, engaging content.
Structural Editing
Organise responses thematically rather than chronologically, constructing narratives that flow logically even if recorded in different orders. Remove repetition, false starts and digressions that dilute impact.
Use cutaways and b-roll to hide jump cuts when removing material from continuous responses. These editorial techniques create seamless flow that maintains professional presentation standards.
Pacing and Length
Maintain brisk pacing that respects viewer attention spans. Remove pauses, verbal stumbles and redundant information that slows momentum. Most interview content benefits from aggressive trimming that preserves essential information whilst eliminating filler.
Consider optimal length for your platform and audience. YouTube interviews might run 10-20 minutes, whilst social media excerpts should condense key moments into 1-3 minute highlights.
Great interview filming balances technical proficiency with interpersonal skills that put subjects at ease and elicit authentic responses. Master both aspects, and you'll create compelling content that engages audiences whilst showcasing your subjects effectively.