Picking the right interview location can make or break a video. In this edition of "After The Shoot" Jeff identifies 3 main criteria for evaluating locations.

Video Transcript

We're doing another "After the Shoot." We just finished up some interviews in lovely San Diego. I'd say 95, 99% of our work happens on location somewhere. And because we do a documentary style there are a lot of interviews. The question that always comes up from clients is "Where should we do the interviews?" And so I thought it'd helpful to lay some good things to think about when picking a space for an interview.

1. Is The Room Quiet?

The first thing to ask is "Is the room quiet?" Ultimately, you want to be able to hear what the person is saying. And if it's a noisy room, it doesn't matter how good it looks, it's not going to be a very good interview.

2. What kind of light is in the room?

The second thing to ask is "What kind of light is in the room?" We always bring lights, but we find that a room that is big, and bright, and even has some natural light, is really helpful and really useful. We can use the natural light with the lights we have to make to make things look even better.

3. How big is the room?

And the final thing to ask is "How big is the room?" The biggest room we can get is what we prefer for a lot of reasons. We have a lot of different equipment, and just because of the way we shoot the interviews, it's always good to be able to have a person like I am here separated from a background, because it creates some space. If you're in a small room, you end up putting someone right up against a wall, and it never looks very good. If you're doing the video not in your office, and you actually have never been in the space, and someone sends you pictures, pictures are great, but make sure you actually get the dimensions of the space, because we know better than anyone you can do a wide angle shot of a room and it will seem a lot bigger than it is. So it's always a good idea to also figure out how big is it, dimensions, how many square feet is it.

If you have any questions or comments leave them below. Thanks and have a great day.

Questions to ask?

Is the room quiet?
What kind of light is in the room?
How big is the room?