Key Features of an Interview setup
Best Practice
To best setup an interview you want to make sure to prepare and ready your equipment before the subject arrives to the filming location. Depending on the amount of equipment you want to make sure that you arrive at least 30 minutes before the interviewee.
If you are still setting up as the subject arrives it’s best to keep them engaged and talking, as to ease any tension and to build rapport with the interviewee. This also acts brilliant way to monitor the audio.
Practice and rehears what the questions you’ll be asking the subject. As to not leave room for any pauses. This will also help keep the flow of the questions natural. Open University (2022) Follow the flow. Build a template for the interview, but leave time for follow-up questions and allow the discussion to flow in a different direction. Available at: https://www5.open.ac.uk/library/referencing-and-plagiarism/quick-guide-to-harvard-referencing-cite-them-right (Accessed : 26 September 2023)
Interview Setup and Techniques
You want to make sure that the subject is in frame and focus as well as having the audio at a comfortable level, if it’s too high the audio will peak and become distorted. This is both uncomfortable for both the audience and for the person monitoring the sound.
Alongside making sure that the subject is in focus you want to make sure that they are lit well, without correct lighting a great shot will look terrible
Shadows – Best to have soft shadow when recording an interview, unless you’re wanting harsh and stark shadows to amplify a certain tone. Typically however, you want to aim for softer shadows.
Lighting – Lighting is another way to separate the subject from the background, however this is somewhat more challenging as it requires much more thought, time and setup but with practice you can whittle down a 10 minute setup process to just 5 minutes. To separate the subject from the background using lighting may seem to be a creative road block and at times it can be.