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The official podcast of Shoemaker Films. Every week we share content related to digital marketing, video production, and brand building; and frequently meet with local creatives, entrepreneurs, and business owners for in-depth conversations. Get to know local heavy hitters and influencers in the Greater Philadelphia region while picking up some tactical advice and tips on starting and running a business, being productive, creating content, and everything in between.
Hi. Welcome to the Shoemaker Lab. This is Dane Shoemaker. This is the official Shoemaker Films podcast where we, often interview local business owners here, though, about their entrepreneurial journey. We also share digital marketing tips, for business owners as well as video production best practices as well.
Dane Shoemaker:So if that's something that you're interested in, go ahead and subscribe. If you're listening to our audio version, head on over to YouTube to subscribe. Sometimes we have more visual elements, charts, things like that. But today is gonna be a quick, quick show about, you know, basically interview tips. This is going to be a 2 part episode.
Dane Shoemaker:So today, we're actually gonna be talking about, tips for interviewees. Right? So if, you know, as a video production company, Shoemaker Films, we do a lot of corporate brand videos. We, we do, you know, a lot of nonprofit work. We interview a lot of people.
Dane Shoemaker:Right? And, for for most people, it's it's kind of a a newer thing. It's kind of uncomfortable. You know, there's there's lights, there's cameras, there's a bunch of there's microphones or someone sitting there across from you interviewing. And what I wanted to do today is just provide kind of a quick rundown.
Dane Shoemaker:This is something, you know, this video we're making right now, we might send to, people before we interview them. Right? So these are just some things to think about if you're going to be, interviewed by someone, for a brand story, maybe social media content. So if you're working with a videographer, maybe not us, but hopefully this video might help you out. Right?
Dane Shoemaker:So really one of the best you know, the most important things is to start off your day. You wanna eat, you wanna be well hydrated. Right? And you wanna have, a good breakfast. You know, if that's part of your normal routine.
Dane Shoemaker:Right? If you do eat breakfast in the morning, you're gonna wanna do that before you go get interviewed. Right? You don't wanna be a little hangry or, you know, you don't want your, you know, your stomach rumbling during the interview process. You know, if if you don't eat breakfast, then that's fine.
Dane Shoemaker:Right? But you wanna be hydrated, and, you wanna be well you wanna get a good night's sleep. Right? So you don't wanna be showing up to an interview with bags under your eyes. You know?
Dane Shoemaker:And then if you're not hydrated, it can kinda, come across as, you know, be a little hoarse or, you know, your skin may not look as good. Right? So being, hydrated, and, you know, a good night's sleep and a little something in your stomach so that you can focus on the task at hand, which is answering questions, things like that. Right? Telling your story.
Dane Shoemaker:So those are kind of the baseline things. Right? Now the next thing is about the the the questions and the topics. Right? So, generally, we're gonna be working with your with your team on developing the direction of the the film or the story, for the video.
Dane Shoemaker:Right? So, there's gonna be a theme or or a little bit of direction, right, from, from, us and your team, we're not just handing you a bunch of, questions without any context. So you're gonna know why you're answering those questions. Typically, we do that over a prep, maybe over an email or a phone call. But if you're sitting down, you know, to be interviewed, you should not be looking at the the questions for the first time that day.
Dane Shoemaker:Right? Ideally, we're sending them, to the interviewees, a week or 2 in advance, so there's some time to review that and then you know a lot of people what they'll do is come up with responses kind of in their head or they'll write down to take some notes They'll do some bullet points you know, really what we don't want to do is is have you write out a whole script and read that right? There's a time and a place for a script and a teleprompter. But for brand stories or recruitment videos or anytime we're we're interviewing, like a documentary as well, like, you know, we want that to come from your heart from your, you know, from your voice. Right?
Dane Shoemaker:We want it to sound natural. It's your story. We don't want it to sound scripted, or, you know, overproduced. Right? So you're gonna have an idea of the questions, you know, maybe come up with a couple bullet points as so to keep you on track.
Dane Shoemaker:But we, you know, we want it to come from your from your voice, from your heart. Right? You shouldn't really have to memorize or rehearse anything before the day of. So that's why it's important to be, you know, good night sleep, well fed, hydrated so that you're clear and you can and you can think and and speak, from the heart. Right?
Dane Shoemaker:Just in terms of location, now when we're working with your team, to set up, the main interviews for documentary or brand story, etcetera, you know, it's best to do a site visit first. Sometimes you can't always do that. So we may need your help in kind of identifying the the the space to do the interviews. Oftentimes, what we like to do is a big room. Right?
Dane Shoemaker:We like lots of space, so that we can set up the chairs, right, to be interviewed. Or if it's standing, you know, there's gonna be lights. There's gonna be typically 2 cameras, so we wanna have room for that, and then microphones. Right? So a boom mic, things like that.
Dane Shoemaker:So we like to have a lot of space to work with, plus, you know, you have what's called depth of field. So you wanna have a little bit of background behind you. Right? The background should look nice. It shouldn't be too cluttered, but we also wanna have that, achieve that kind of blurry background.
Dane Shoemaker:It's called bokeh. It looks really nice and helps to separate the person being interviewed from the background. Room, right, where there's lots of space behind the person being interviewed as well as a, a a wide open aperture on a a lens. And that's a that's a topic for another day. Right?
Dane Shoemaker:You know, a lot of people often will recommend conference rooms, you know, just because those are typically one of the bigger rooms in an office. However, they forget there's a big table in the middle of the room. So oftentimes, those rooms don't work unless there's, you know, ways to collapse that table very easily or maybe shove it over to the other side. We do them all we do film all the time in conference rooms, but it's recommended oftentimes usually out on the main floor, maybe by the lobby, you know, maybe there's a row of offices or something like that where we can get, you know, some nice, you know, depth of field, some nice background, and then maybe some activity and stuff like that, that's going on in the office. Too large of a room, you know, you can have some issues with echo.
Dane Shoemaker:Right? So if it's a large, you know, a large room that's very, have a has a lot of reverb. It's very echoey. That can cause its own challenges. Right?
Dane Shoemaker:So you have to think about audio. So that's a good transition to talking about audio now. Right? So I had mentioned that we do set up a boom mic. Right?
Dane Shoemaker:So that's typically a stand that comes over, and it's just out of frame. Right? There's usually a boom mic that's right here just out of frame. Oftentimes, we'll use a lav mic as well, a lavalier, and hide that on the person. And it's good to have 2 different sources of audio just in the event, that you need to do that.
Dane Shoemaker:Right? It's good to have you know, maybe there's a little bit too much echo bouncing off the floor for the boom mic. So it's good to have that backup, or just if something fails. Right? If, you know, it's not plugged in all the way or your, you know, recording device, doesn't capture all that.
Dane Shoemaker:Right? You wanna be mindful about the the environmental noise. Right? If you're outside, there could be a lot of, you know, birds or, you know, stream or something like that, or maybe you're by a busy road or traffic. Those are not ideal situations for, for an interview right right by the side of a road.
Dane Shoemaker:Inside an office, there's plenty of, noise as well. As I recorded, I actually realized I forgot to turn off the HVAC. So you gotta think about HVAC. Right? So air conditioning, you don't wanna interview someone right underneath a vent.
Dane Shoemaker:Right? There's also things to think about, like refrigerators, if you're near a a a break room or something like that. Right? Or servers, right, have a, have a to it. Right?
Dane Shoemaker:Or any type of machinery. Right? We've done interviews in construction sites and factory floors, right, where there's actually machines going on. So, you kinda have to work sometimes around that. But if as much as you can control and think about, the better.
Dane Shoemaker:Right? And those are things that you might have to think about. Hey. In post, I'm gonna have to do some extra cleanup on the audio. So just relaying that information to your editor, is important.
Dane Shoemaker:Right? So audio is very important. So just another tip on audio. You know, video can be pretty forgiving. Right?
Dane Shoemaker:I mean, there's audio and then there's video. Right? But you can get away with bad video, but you cannot get away with bad audio. Right? As long as you have good audio, you can at least lay it over some b roll or some other footage.
Dane Shoemaker:But if you don't have the audio, you have no story. You have no content to work with. Right? So, audio is really the most important thing. Let's talk about outfits.
Dane Shoemaker:Right? So, the best thing to do, we usually recommend solid colors. Right? So anything that you feel comfortable with. I'm wearing black right now.
Dane Shoemaker:Black's a great color. Blue. Anything solid. Right? If you know you're filming on, a specific background, right, a white wall, you don't wanna wear a white shirt because you wanna have some contrast or separation from the background.
Dane Shoemaker:Right? We also don't recommend some crazy patterns. Right? Stripes are not good. You know, paisley ties, right, or just crazy sweaters, unless it's adding to the story.
Dane Shoemaker:Right? You know, if it's like an ugly sweater party or something like that, it's it's adding to the story, but you really just wanna keep, the focus on the person's face, right, and the story. You don't want them to be too distracted a viewer from some crazy stuff going on the shirt. Right? Oftentimes, we recommend a backup.
Dane Shoemaker:You never know if the interviewee might show up and spill some coffee on them. And then, you know, what do you do then? Right? So, it's a good idea to maybe bring a backup outfit. If we're doing social media content, typically, we're gonna recommend, you know, if we're doing a batch shoot, right, 20 to 30 short form videos, you definitely wanna bring 3, 4, 5, outfits to change into.
Dane Shoemaker:Right? Finally, on, you know, delivery. Right? So, again, we're the experts in this. We we do a lot of interviews.
Dane Shoemaker:We're gonna do our best to make you feel comfortable. We're gonna have, you know, some some conversation, you know, while we're setting up, maybe some icebreakers, some some small talk, some chitchat to try and make you feel comfortable. Right? But do whatever makes you feel comfortable. Right?
Dane Shoemaker:You know, it's not it's not a natural thing to be sitting down in front of a camera with lights and a bunch of people behind you, you know, listening to your every word. It's very uncomfortable. So we're gonna do our best to to to make you feel uncomfortable. Do whatever you need to do. Right?
Dane Shoemaker:If it's if you need to take a break, if you need to walk around a little bit, if you need to do some push ups, I've also heard kinda squeezing your fists kinda can kinda help to, make you, you know, relax a little bit. Make sure you have a glass of water right that that helps a little bit Feel free to interview the interviewer too. You know, this always happens when we sit down And we start the interview The interviewee starts asking us questions. Hey, so like, you know, so it's almost good to have kind of just a back and forth conversation. Right?
Dane Shoemaker:Just another quick tip. We're gonna ask you questions like, you know, what's your name? Right? And you're gonna wanna say Dane. Right?
Dane Shoemaker:But for the purposes of a film, documentary, brand story, you need to have more context behind that. You need to repeat the question as a, as a sentence. Right? So if I ask you what's your name, you gotta say, my name is Dane. Right?
Dane Shoemaker:So there's someone so we can cut that in post, into something that makes sense, Right? Rather than it just sounds like you're providing, you know, one word answers. Right? Another another thing that I that I hear quite often, when we're interviewing employees, they might be talking about customers or prospects, and they refer to as, you know, them or they. Right?
Dane Shoemaker:Try and speak like you're speaking to the prospects or the customers. So you. Right? Right? Because imagine if you're watching a video, you want you wanna almost, be Like you're listening to someone talking to you directly.
Dane Shoemaker:So try and use you things like that instead of they or them So that's really it. You know, try and try and relax. You know, this is your story. So, you know, take breaks, take pauses. Right?
Dane Shoemaker:You know, it's not an interrogation. If the interviewer is making it feel like an interrogation, they're not doing a very good job. At Shoemaker Films, we do our best to make you feel comfortable. You know, so you're gonna have a nice comfortable chair. We're gonna talk to you.
Dane Shoemaker:We're gonna get to know you a little bit before we dump you know, dive into the the main questions. So that's really it. So if you have questions or if you have interest in, working with us, video production company, give us a call or reach out to us on shoemakerfilms.com. Again, this is part 1 of our interview series. So next week, we're gonna actually have tips for interviewers.
Dane Shoemaker:So, if you are conducting interviews, you're gonna wanna check that out. So, until next time. Thanks a lot. Thanks for listening today. Shoemaker Lab is an original production by Shoemaker Films LLC.
Dane Shoemaker:If you enjoyed today's content, please consider subscribing on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your content. Follow us on Instagram at shoemaker.films. If you're a business that's either interested in our video production services or would like to be a guest on the show, get in touch by using the contact form on our website, shoemaker films.com.