How to film an interview

How do you prepare the questions and the guest?

Start from the finished video. A three-minute cut for a company website needs a handful of strong answers, while a half-hour conversation needs a running order. Know the goal and the final length before you write any questions.

• Ask open questions that begin with how, why or tell me about. A yes-or-no question gets a one-word answer.
• Keep to one idea per question, so each answer can stand on its own in the edit.
• Go from easy to personal: facts and background first, opinions and stories once the guest has settled in.
• Prepare a follow-up for every question where you expect a thin answer.

If the interviewer will be cut out of the final video, ask the guest to answer in full sentences that repeat the question. Asked when the company started, they should say "We started the company in 2015" instead of just "In 2015".

Send the topics a few days ahead but keep the exact questions to yourself, so the answers stay natural. Ask the guest to wear solid colours (fine stripes and small checks shimmer on camera), arrive early, bring water and switch their phone off. If the guest is nervous, point them to the guide on speaking on camera.

In Riga, agree the interview language beforehand and plan subtitles for the rest of your audience: Latvian or Russian for local viewers, English for an international one. Bilingual guests sometimes switch languages mid-answer; when that happens, ask for a retake in the agreed language.

How should you set up the frame and seating?

First decide where the guest will look. The seating, the camera positions and the framing all follow from that.

In an off-camera interview, the interviewer sits right next to the camera. Angle the guest's chair slightly away from the lens and leave more space on the side of the frame they face. In a to-camera piece, a teleprompter helps with the scripted parts. A two-person conversation is filmed much like a video podcast, and our guide on how to record a video podcast covers that setup.

Use the rule of thirds and put the eyes on the line a third of the way down the frame. The two shots you will need most are a medium shot, from the chest or waist up, and a close-up of the head and shoulders.

Behind the guest, look for depth and a colour you can control, and check that no lamp, plant or door frame seems to grow out of their head. A neutral backdrop with coloured light on it takes care of most of this.

Should you film an interview with one camera or two?

One camera is simpler and cheaper, and plenty of good interviews are shot that way. The trouble comes in the edit: every cut inside an answer shows as a jump. Hide it by changing the framing between questions or by covering the cut with B-roll, photos or slides.

A second camera solves most of this. Put a medium shot on one and a close-up on the other, about 30 degrees apart, and switch angles wherever you cut out a stumble. The join disappears, and the edit goes faster.

For a conversation, give each person a camera of their own and add a wide shot. Video podcasts and panel talks are usually filmed this way. Baltic Podcast Studio in Riga uses the same layout for multicam filming in the studio: a camera per guest plus a wide shot (4 + 1), run by an operator. It also films interviews on location, priced per interview.

A two-camera interview setup, step by step

1. Place the main camera first, at the guest's eye level, framed for the medium shot.
2. Add the second camera for the close-up, at a clearly different angle from the first.
3. Set both to the same frame rate, white balance and exposure, or the angles will not match when you cut between them.
4. Check each frame: eyes on the upper third, nothing growing out of the guest's head.
5. Record about 30 seconds of room tone, the sound of the room with everyone silent. The editor uses it to fill gaps.
6. Start every camera and recorder, then clap once where all of them can see and hear it.

If you are filming on a phone, use the back camera, which is usually the better one. Lock the exposure and focus so they do not drift when the guest moves, put the phone on a tripod and plug in an external microphone.

How do you get clean sound for an interview?

Sort out the microphones before you worry about the picture. Viewers will put up with a slightly soft image, but echo and clothing rustle are hard to fix later.

• Give everyone their own lapel (lavalier) microphone, or a microphone on a stand or boom close to the mouth. Clip a lapel mic where hair and clothing cannot brush against it.
• Treat the camera's built-in microphone as a last resort: it sits too far away and records more room than voice.
• Pick a room with soft surfaces. Close the windows, switch off air conditioning that hums and put every phone in flight mode.
• Listen on headphones throughout, because a lapel transmitter with a flat battery goes silent without warning.
• Record a backup if you can: a second recorder, or at least the camera's own audio, which also helps with syncing.

How should you light an interview?

Most interviews use the classic three-point layout. Picture it from above: the guest in the middle, the camera in front of them, a light on each side towards the front and one behind.

• The key light does most of the work. Use a large, soft source about 45 degrees to one side of the guest and a little above their eyes. The bigger and closer it is, the softer the shadows.
• The fill goes on the other side. A reflector or a weaker light is enough to lift the shadows without flattening the face.
• The back light, or rim light, sits behind the guest and out of shot. It draws a thin outline on the hair and shoulders and separates the guest from the background.

Office ceiling lights on their own leave dark eye sockets, and a window behind the guest turns them into a silhouette. Be careful, too, with daylight mixed with lamps of a different colour: the camera can only balance for one of them.

How do you sync and edit an interview?

Sync everything first. Line up the cameras and the separate audio on the clap, or let the editing software match the audio waveforms, which many programs can do on their own. A typical edit then runs like this:

1. Choose the best answers, from a transcript or a first viewing.
2. Build the story. The order that works for the viewer is often different from the order in which you asked the questions.
3. Cut between the angles to hide the joins.
4. Clean up the sound: even out the levels and fill the gaps with room tone.
5. Match the colour of the cameras so the angles look like one scene.
6. Add name titles and B-roll.
7. Export a version for each platform you publish on.

Take filler words out with care. Removing the worst ums and false starts helps, but an answer with every pause cut out sounds clipped and unnatural.

Strong answers from a long interview also make good short clips for social media. The guide to podcast clips shows how to find them.

If you would rather hand the edit over, Baltic Podcast Studio edits the video and sound for €40/h, including footage filmed elsewhere.