Interviewing Our Clients AND Getting the Best Answers

Let’s say you’ve been selected as that lucky member of your organization to sit down and talk on camera. There’s nothing to worry about; we’ve seen it all. You sit down on a stool and prop your feet up on a box, then we give you the spiel:

“We’re going to be editing my voice out, so try to put a portion of my question in your answer. For example, if I ask ‘What color is your house?’ say ‘My house is blue.’ Try to avoid yes or no answers, but if you do use them, tell us why. If you ever mess up or want to say something a specific way, take all the time you need, we can record it as many times as you want. To start off, we’re just going to ask you to say your name and what you do.”

From here, we can learn it all: who you are, how long you’ve been at your job, when you moved, where you moved from, what the next steps are, why you do what you do, and so on, and so forth. Lots of people have been forced into an interview, but they had to have their first time staring down the cold, soulless barrel of a camera lens. Even doctors, who hold their patients’ lives in their hands every day, clam up the second we press record. You don’t have to be an eloquent speaker to be good at what you do. We’re not always the most eloquent speakers ourselves, but we’ve done this enough. We know what sounds good and on message.

What Makes A Good Interviewer?

A good interviewer will guide you through the process. The first few questions should accomplish nothing more than establishing a comfortable dialogue between both participants. We want to ease you in so that by the time we get to the important parts, they feel just as natural as the personal ones. 

A good interviewer will also never cut you off. Even interjecting with “mhm” and “I see” is unprofessional. Oftentimes, refraining to speak encourages an interviewee to continue talking to fill the silence. This can be where some of the best audio clips end up coming from. Your voice is the star of the show, and we want to hear it. 

If you’re worried about being a “rambler,” you’re actually making our job easier. People who give in-depth answers will very frequently answer questions we plan on asking anyway. More information is always better. Depending on the subject, our interviews can range up to 15-30 minutes long, and it’s not uncommon to go even longer. Out of that time, we probably won’t even use two whole minutes, and we’ve identified that small portion as the portion that will make you sound the most well-spoken and informative. 

This is a huge part of our job. We’re visual people; we know how to make things look good, and we know how the way you sound factors into that. Even some of our most timid, short-answering subjects have been spliced into our greatest hits. All you have to do is provide the information, and we’ll do the rest; create content to bolster your brand marketing through interviewing. That’s what you’re hiring us for, after all.

Below is a great example of what we’re talking about:

As a company, we want to get to know you and we want you to get to know us. It is our priority to capture your moments and memories on your wedding day. At Sparks Productions, we are all about storytelling and creating uniqueness with every project we complete. Are you ready to talk about producing brand marketing through interviewing for your business or organization? Contact us if you’re looking for video production in West Virginia.

Jeff@sparksproductionswv.com