Why I Decided Not to Film The Interview
I decided to risk it.
I wasn’t going to even film a main interview shot in this interview-based story.
I just finished a film for a good friend of mine, Keli. She’s a photographer and an amazing human being, and I had the pleasure of creating a story-driven film for her!
It’s a little out of the scope of the work I usually do (with nonprofits and churches), but it was a super fun project to work on! Not just because she’s my friend, but because of her “WHY” and what drives her to keep pursuing her work. (Watch it HERE if you haven’t seen it yet!)
When I was first thinking about how to approach her story, I thought a lot about how her interview would go. I know Keli pretty well, and she’s also worked behind the camera doing video back in her ad agency days. She’s also very conscious of what she says, what she looks like and sounds like when a camera is pointed in her direction (like great photographers do!)
But I knew that because of all the attention she puts into those aspects, it would be a big distraction from her interview and would make it pretty difficult to get the authentic and coffee-shop style of conversation I was looking for.
Usually an interview-based story always has a main interview shot of your character, right? It’s a great way to establish authenticity and emotional connection with them. It’s also a great shot to cut back to when you don’t have video footage that’s appropriate.
But I had to make a choice.
I knew that if I set up an interview with all the lights, the set, the camera and put her in a chair under the spotlight that it would be extremely difficult to get an authentic interview, if not impossible. Keli’s assets of perfectionism and experience in video production were actually a weak point in this scenario.
So I said, “I’m not even going to film an interview.”
“Instead, we’re going to record the audio (almost like a podcast) and make sure I get enough footage to fill it all in.”
It was a bit of a risk, and someone who likes to have back-ups just in case, it was the 1st time I’ve done it this way.
But guess what? It worked.
We were able to have a really great interview that was authentic and deep and transparent- and that wouldn’t have happened if I didn’t take that risk.
So all that to say:
Let your character lead YOU
Not filming an interview setup was outside of my normal production, but I listened to my character (Keli). I listened to her cues, her personality, and her body language. She never told me to not film an interview, but I knew her well enough that it was better to just record audio for the sake of better content.
You may have a way of doing things and a process you love to stick to, but don’t forget to let your character lead you!