9 Tips for Filming a Documentary Interview

Filming the interviews is one of the most important elements of the documentary, and any interview in the film will give it a professional appearance in addition to the information that the guest will provide in the interview. We picked 9 documentary interview filming tips from documentary filmmaker JP Morgan.

Morgan uses two cameras in his technique to shoot a documentary interview, and he has all the equipment to handle that. Let's start with his advice, which he talked about.

Tip 1: Create an outline

This is an important pre-production step. Here's what Morgan says about it: “Before starting a documentary project about a company, [outline] several points that I want to cover: Where is the company located, the main reason for its work, and how it benefits the community… In this scheme I have to cover the main points that I want in The interview, and through it, I will learn what to shoot from the B-Roll supplementary shots. ”

Tip 2: Write a series of questions

Once you have your outline done, find the questions that will guide and clarify the story toward the corner you set your outline on.

Tip 3: Find a good photography location

Since this is all about storytelling with pictures, finding a good site is the key to setting the mood and creating a good story. Morgan recommends finding one or two locations and exploring them before starting official filming and the pressure is constant.

Tip 4: Use two cameras

As mentioned earlier, Morgan prefers to use two cameras for an interview with any documentary. This is a very useful method when you want to cut the speaker's speech, so that you can move from one camera to another and delete any syllable that you do not want in the interview.

Tip 5: Have the speaker look directly at you

A very important tip: make sure before starting the interview that your guest will look at you while you are speaking and not at the camera or anyone else sitting with you behind the scenes. This will also help the speaker focus while talking and not get distracted.

Tip 6: Ask the person to provide the full answer from the content of the question

Another simple but essential tip. If you are also editing what you are photographing then you probably are quite aware of this but if not, make sure that happens otherwise it will be very complicated to create a story with bits of sentences

Tip 7: Keep looking at the speaker while he or she is speaking

The way you deal with the guest during the interview will either contribute to enriching your story or killing it, so in order for the speaking person to relax and give you all the information he has, he must feel confident, and that you sit in front of him, talk to him and play with the phone while he is talking, will make him feel that you do not care and thus he will speak anything that comfort him and end the interview.

Tip 8: Complementary B-Roll shots are critical

“B-Roll is the still shot that you take without sound in which it gives all the details of what the interviewee talked about in the interview, and everything related to the topic of the documentary. Make sure you have everything your topic covered. ” And more if possible. Try by various means to capture these scenes, even if they are still images.

Tip 9: Always shoot, don't turn off the camera

This is self-evident. Because all the details that you may not find important will become so when the montage process begins.


•  I hope you find these nine tips helpful.