A good corporate interview looks effortless on screen. Getting it there takes a fair bit of work behind the camera, and most of it happens before we hit record. Here is how we approach it.
It starts with the room
Clients almost always book a bland, empty conference room for the shoot. They tend to be small, with a large table planted in the middle, which is just about the worst setup for filming. Ideally we want a larger space with some visual interest in it, so the background gives the shot some depth and character. Plain white walls do not look great behind an interview, so more often than not we end up dressing the room ourselves.
A recent shoot is a good example. We filmed in a long, thin hotel room with a single small window at the back, plain white walls, and a huge table in the middle. The first job was to take that table apart and clear it out to make enough room to set up the cameras properly.
Why we always use two cameras
That shoot was a single interviewee with someone asking the questions off camera, filmed on two cameras. We position the first slightly off centre, framing the subject towards the person asking the questions on the left of frame. The second camera sits at more of a profile angle to capture cutaways.
The reason for two cameras is editing flexibility. When you only have one angle, every stumble and restart is stuck in the footage. With a second camera, we can cut away to the other angle to hide any mistakes, trim the ums and ahs, and keep the final edit clean and seamless. For a two camera interview like this we usually allow around an hour to set up, depending on how complex the shoot is.
Sound is the hard part
In a hotel or a hotel conference room you have almost no control over the noise around you. If the place is busy, you will pick up people in neighbouring rooms, and there is nothing you can do about it. You cannot exactly ask a hotel full of guests to be quiet.
This used to be a real problem. These days we lean on AI audio tools that can take genuinely rough sound and clean it up so it sounds close to studio quality. It is not a magic fix for everything, but it has turned what was once a major headache into something much more manageable.
For the microphones themselves, we choose based on the shoot. If we are filming a lot of people one after another, a boom mic is quickest. It sits above the subject, just out of shot, so we can swap people in and out without any fuss. For a single person or a small number of interviewees, we use a tie clip microphone instead, hidden out of sight behind a shirt, a tie, or stuck discreetly to the skin. Dresses are always a little trickier as there are fewer places to hide the mic, but there is almost always a way.
Putting people at ease
Most people being interviewed are not actors, and sitting under the lights with a camera pointed at them can feel like an interrogation. Getting them relaxed is one of the most important parts of the job.
We make it clear there is no pressure. They can stop and start whenever they like, and if they fluff a line it genuinely does not matter, we simply go again. There is no time limit either. We have hours of recording space on the cards and batteries on charge, so nobody needs to feel rushed. The more comfortable someone is, the more natural they come across on camera. If you are the one in front of the lens, our guide on how to present on camera covers how to come across naturally.
Skip the script
One thing we always recommend is that the interviewee does not work from a script. The moment someone has written their answers out, they stop talking and start trying to remember exactly what they wrote. The performance becomes wooden, because they are reciting rather than having a conversation.
Instead, we suggest a simple list of questions. Ideally they do not see them until the interview itself, although most people understandably like to have a look beforehand. Either way, the goal is a natural conversation, not a recital.
Getting a corporate interview right comes down to preparation, the right kit, and putting people at ease. It is a core part of our corporate video production work across Southampton and the UK. If you are planning a project that needs interviews filmed properly, we are happy to talk it through.