In short

The risk is rarely in the shot. Professionals have that covered.

It is about whether the person in front of the camera stands a chance of feeling at ease. Get the mood on set right and the statement comes right with it – and the spark in their eyes is real.

Someone who complains to their boss about the shoot afterwards costs you more than a day – it costs you the relationship with your client. Someone who goes home delighted passes that on just as readily. No grade replaces the mood on set. That is where good direction pays for itself.

Testimonial, statement film, employer branding: the format changes, the task of interviewing stays the same.

01Preparation

I research the person

Not just the subject. I read what there is to read, watch existing material and talk to people who work with them. By the shoot day I already know them a little.

There is always a way in. And I get genuinely interested – in the person and in the subject.

The elephant in the room

Usually it is hierarchy. Who sits across from whom inside a company shapes what can be said, what can be asked, who has to be asked – and what simply won’t work.

Add posture, dialect, NDAs. That is not trimming, it is half the job: an interview with the management and one with the workshop are two different crafts – even when the camera stands in exactly the same place.

02The shoot day

An interview day has a rhythm, a set day at best a good flow – it is not simply a camera problem.

Before the cameraWhere possible, a conversation without a camera – a day before, or an hour
The first minutesEveryday things, hobbies, and I tell them something about myself first. The subject comes later
The sentence that settles thingsAnything can be cut, we are in no hurry – provided that is true. Otherwise I don’t say it
Few takesWhat doesn’t land comes round again later, not immediately. With some distance it tends to land
TeamOn dense days one person runs the recording, the other looks after the interviewees
Small audienceThe fewer people in view whom the interviewee takes for professionals, the calmer they get
My own conditionSlept, eaten lightly, food in the bag – the eighth interview gets the same attention as the first

This is where most shoot days tip over: not at the lighting, but at the exhaustion after the sixth conversation.

03The limit

The compass

I don’t film humiliation.
Not even when it’s in the brief.

If my gut says someone is being damaged here, I don’t do it. Directions like “just kiss him” are not ones I give. This is not a list of forbidden subjects, it is a single question: is anyone being harmed here?

That protects you too. Someone who regrets in the evening what they said or did makes a phone call the next morning.

I know my place

I know my position and I hold it. I know what I am saying. I am almost never offended and never sour. I only get loud when there is danger in the room – or when it serves a demonstration.

Ask me and you get my honest expertise. And where it materially serves the production, I give it unasked.

04What is left at the end

How I measure it

Not by the cut and not by the lighting. But by what someone thinks on the drive home after their interview.

“I didn’t know it could be this pleasant. It was a good experience.”
That is what I work towards.

Ask about availability

Quotation from Michael Rabiger, Directing the Documentary, Routledge / Focal Press – answering the question of the most important skills in documentary.