Location, Location, Location: It Matters with Video Interview Shoots, too

12 Mar Location, Location, Location: It Matters with Video Interview Shoots, too

We spent a good chunk of yesterday scouting locations. We were searching for the best space to shoot a series of video interviews with healthcare providers attending a conference later this week. Our goal was to find somewhere that’s convenient for the providers, but also with the right square footage, lighting and sound control for successful video interviews. It reminded me that “where” to schedule video interviews is a question we’re asked a lot. Here are a few things we look for when choosing good video interview locations.

Sound

This is our number one consideration. Because interviews are often the base layer of most video projects – whether they’re provider bio videos, patient testimonials, or procedure explainer videos – we want to hear our main subjects clearly and without distractions. Although we love shooting ‘on location,’ which means in the most natural environment for the video subject, it’s common for us to gather the main interview in a place that’s quiet and somewhat nondescript. We want the interview to provide clean, clear and understandable information that can be used anywhere throughout the piece. When we scout a location, or when you’re deciding what to reserve for a shoot, there are several audio considerations. Who/what is next door? Busy streets, an emergency department with of sirens coming and going, garbage day in the alley out back? All of these things can impact the sound quality of the interview. Stand in the room for a few minutes, close your eyes, and listen. Our microphones probably won’t pick up things way in the distance, but the fewer potential distractions, the better.

Heating and air conditioning vents are another often-overlooked audio concern. While our ear will naturally tune out that “white noise,” you’ll hear it in the interview. It’s subtle, and just a bit of a hum, but it’s quite noticeable in the finished video if we’re editing between an interview that’s quiet and one with that hum. You “hear” the edit, and we want to avoid that, if possible. We like to have the ability to control the room’s thermostat so we can shut off the fans during interviews. Those fans aren’t a deal-breaker, but definitely something we’re checking out when scouting locations. Also, make sure the building’s music system isn’t pumping music into the interview space. Usually, certain speakers can be muted, but we want to find out ahead of time if we can silence the Muzak to the interview area so we don’t have Lionel Richie bleeding into our sound bites.

Enough Space

We once shot a full day of interviews in a large storage closet. I kid you not. The clinic we were shooting in didn’t have free space on the weekday our shoot was scheduled. The person charged with dealing with the video crew led us to a tiny room stacked high with cardboard boxes of old medical records. We made it work, and we laugh about it now, but let’s just say it was not the ideal shoot location. For the most part, we need some depth. We want space between the interview subject and the camera, 6 to 8 feet minimum. There’s a reason selfie sticks exist – getting some space between a face and the camera lens is simply more flattering. That’s why conference rooms tend to be better than offices for interviews. When choosing video interview locations, look for some depth so our cameras have room to get the wide, medium and tight shots.

Lighting

Basically, we’ll bring our own. The perfect shoot location for us is a pitch-black room so we can completely control the lighting. Windowless rooms can be hard to find, we know, so blackout curtains or decent blinds really help. If the shoot location does have windows, we will work to use the natural light to our advantage. That almost always means the interview subject will face the window, and that natural light will spill onto their face. I can’t count how many times someone has declared they have the perfect interview location because the view in the background is gorgeous. It’s really hard for our cameras to see the pretty outdoor view and the interview subject. In order to balance for the background, we are either going to see a silhouette or we need to dump a whole lot of light onto the interview, to the point of squinting. The background is going to look good or your subject is going to look good – pick one. That said, it can be done. If you have a window and background you want featured behind your person, we’ll want to know ahead of time. We can bring special coating to put over the windows, and schedule extra time to do that. We’ve done this with great success, but it’s a lighting scenario that benefits from advance planning in order to look great. Another lighting consideration is that we need the ability to turn off the overhead lights in a room. Overhead lighting is rarely flattering in an interview, so we tend to kill those and use our own lights to make the subject look their best.

Power

Although many of our lights now run off batteries, it’s really nice to have AC for all of the various bells and whistles we bring, and so we can keep those batteries charged throughout a long shoot day. We bring extension cords, and tape for securing all of our cords, so the outlets don’t have to be super close to the shoot, but some source of power is another thing we look for when checking out a shoot space and choosing good video interview locations.

Soft Surfaces

This goes back to sound quality. Tile floors, wood floors, bare walls, and large empty spaces can make for an echo-y sound. We have sound blankets we can bring, and we do, but when judging a space for a video shoot, carpeting and surrounding surfaces that absorb sound can make a difference. This is one of the reasons we don’t like doing extensive interviews in exam rooms. These rooms are nice for b-roll with a patient, but aren’t the best for clean interview audio.

Movable Furniture

We tend to, uh, re-decorate most rooms we shoot in. We want to capitalize on what the camera sees, so it’s normal for us to push furniture out of the way, pull a plant into view, maybe move a picture off the wall. Don’t worry, we’ll put things back before we leave. But we like to be able to move conference tables, couches etc to create the best interview setting.

Accessibility

This is rarely a problem, but we do need to get all of our gear to the space. For sit-down interviews that we want to look and sound close to perfect, we pack in quite a bit. We’ll haul in tripods, cameras, light kits, both lavalier and overhead-hanging microphones, backdrops, heavy sound blankets, cords, you name it. So, if the location is on an upper floor, an elevator is nice. We’ve gotten our gear to some pretty crazy locations – the roof of the Space Needle, for instance. But after years of schlepping gear all over creation, we’re trained to navigate the most efficient route to set up and tear down.

So, there you have it. These are the main things your video partners will be looking for when choosing video interview locations. Our team at Healthcare Video Edge is always happy to do the scouting. But knowing some of the things we look and listen for will help you brainstorm the best locations, and raise the likelihood of a successful video shoot.