Today is Friday, October 19, 2012, We shot a few corporate interviews. In the first interview one woman interviewed another. It took us 35 minutes to shoot. And It is a lot for that kind of interview. After first 5 minutes interviewee start getting bored, but she couldn't say "no" and interviewer keep pop in with questions, I think its not a good thing to do.

I started thinking why is that? Why some of our interviews are boring? How to make it more interesting? And I started comparing our interviews with fiction films, What makes a good film? Director, actors, story, collaboration. That what we missing in our interviews. Also pre-production is a key factor in filmmaking. Even if it's an interview, it should be short (3-5 min, soundbites) , interesting (be passionate), fun (show some life and energy). Nobody wants to watch 30 min of some guy (or girl) talking about nothing.

In the era of online video people are not going to click on 10 min video with unfamiliar person. There is a lot of much better content online.

Director (or in our case interviewer) should direct and know exactly what he (or she) wants. Work with people, collaborate, discuss ideas, explore interviewee personality, bring life. It's a skill that you have to learn and improve.

Sometimes people would like to read from teleprompter. It's good idea when you have real teleprompter, but If you just reading from a piece of paper or tablet above the camera, you are making a mistake, because final result coming out without "life" in there and audience can tell whether you are reading or not. 

Improve you skills, try something new and extraordinary. 

--
Semyon Maltsev