Interview and Filming Location
It’s always a good idea to consider your location carefully when it comes to filming corporate interviews. Often, it is better to choose a simple, quiet conference room over a busy area bustling with people. An experienced film crew will make a simple conference room fantastic by using leading lines and available window light. Great film crews add foreground and background elements to create a beautiful film location. Noise may be a factor in areas of your business or industry to consider. Pick places that are not busy or not near facilities, such as restrooms, to make your shoot a success.
Consider Video Backgrounds Carefully
Be sure to use depth of field on your camera that gives your subject the most focus and makes both foreground and background objects recognizable, purposeful, and storytelling. Noise may be a factor in areas of your business or industry to consider. Pick places that are not busy or not near busy facilities, such as restrooms, to make your shoot a success.
Composition of the Interview Film
Generally speaking, use at least two cameras — we typically call these camera A and camera B– to allows your interview to appear visually attractive. Two cameras add diversity. Subjects need to be capture looking in the same direction and at the same height: one wider shot with the environment showing; one tighter shot. The main light should light the interviewee at a 45° angle. It’s great to use a key light (or hair light) to distinguish between the subject and background and a practical light too. A practical light is a small, ambient light that gives the scene a sense of depth and an authentic feel.
The subject should be speaking to another slighting person off-camera. Most subjects feel more comfortable talking directly to a person instead of talking directly to the camera. The filmmaker should film the subject’s side of the face with shadows. Use the rule of thirds (upper thirds) to arrange the subject in the camera — giving plenty of directional space in front of the subject looking and speaking ahead.
Note: there are always exceptions to these rules, and if you know how to break them, please take liberties. However, these are best practices and industry standards.
Lighting / Room Colors For Video
Now that we have a location, the camera, and the lighting set up, let’s get more detailed. Colors that compliment are essential. Keep your color pallettes going the same direction, either warmer or softer for all background and foreground elements. Limit busy patterns.
Advise your client ahead of time on what to wear to match their branding appropriately. You don’t want a stuffy three-piece gray suit of your chill-lifestyle-nautical-brand CEO. Make sense? Nor do you want your financial guy in flip-flops. Right?
Film Lighting, Shadows, Mood & Music –
Just because you can make moody, dark lighting doesn’t mean that you should. Often for corporate clients, you’ll need softer, warmer lighting to make company individuals look their best and show the environment in a positive light and define the overall mood of the film. If you need to use music, use a low-fi but still upbeat track in the film’s background that does not distract from the interviewee’s audio.
Work with Maine’s Top Video Production Company
Media Northeast film corporate interview films and marketing campaigns. Contact our office for more information and to talk about your next project. We’re happy to help you plan everything from start to finish.