From the course: Corporate Video
Having a pre-interview session
(upbeat music) - Hey there, I'm Robbie Carman and this week we're going to be talking about how to prepare a subject for an interview. And I'm joined by a very special guest, Amy DeLouise, and Amy is a director/producer, who has a ton of experience helping interviews happen and make them look their best, sound their best, and be really compelling. So Amy, thank you for joining us. - Hey, thanks for having me on. - No, it's our pleasure. So I wanted to start out this week talking a little bit about, kind of, before the interview. I mean obviously the interview itself is important, but there's a lot of work that goes on, kind of, in that pre-interview process, right? - That's true, and in fact, really all the work goes on before hand. Really, you want to plan your story out and the only way you can really do that is to get a handle on who this person is, or the company that you're interviewing them about, and do all of your homework, so you really have a smooth interview and you have a relationship built with them a little bit before you start. - [Robbie] I think the interview, of course, everybody pays attention to. Getting, you know, the mics right, the lights right, all that kind of stuff. But getting to know your subject and preparing your subject for how the interview's going to go down, is equally as important. - Absolutely, and so in the pre-interview process we're really accomplishing two tasks. One, is giving myself a little time to get to know the person, but also preparing them for what it's going to be like to be asked all these questions and maybe some of the subject matter, and some of the things they want to talk about, or maybe some of the things we don't want them to talk about. So Hillary, thank you so much for taking time with us today. I know you have a busy schedule. How was your trip to Iceland? - It was great. I've always wanted to go to Iceland and see the Northern Lights, so it was just impeccable and I loved it. - That's awesome, it definitely on my bucket list. So I'll get back to you with some questions, maybe you can tell me what to see. - Definitely. - Yeah, I think that, kind of, idea of building a rapport with somebody, when you give an interview, or take an interview, is really important because you don't just want onto the set and go, hey, nice to meet you, how are you doing? And have them be nervous and kind of, clammed up, so you know, that building rapport part is important. And how do you go about that? Is it a phone call, is it an in-person chat before the interview, what's your process? - Well, you can do anything. You can do Skype, you can do phone calls, you can do in-person. I've done all three. My preference is always to actually do a phone call. Even if I could, technically, walk down the hall and talk to the person. I sometimes will concoct a reason why I need to call them. And the reason I do that is people will often tell you things on the phone, that they wouldn't tell you in person. And this gives me some information that I need, as an interviewer, and it also helps them figure out what they're comfortable or not comfortable with. So sometimes I try to go for the phone interview when I can. - And do you also, kind of, prep them for what the setups going to be like? Hey, we're going to have a lot of people around. There's going to be people asking you, putting mics on you, doing all sorts of things, cause don't people, kind of, get nervous about stuff like that, right? - They do, and you know, I often will them, you know, it's going to seem like it goes on and on forever, even though it's only 20 minutes. And there's going to be, like, cords all around, and stuff, or I tell them, you know, not to worry about certain things. Like sometimes people will be very, very concerned about how they're going to look or how they're going to come across, and so I'll let them know, you know, we're going to be editing and you know, 90% of what you say unfortunately, is probably not going to make it into the final cut, which usually makes people feel a little more comfortable. So, I wanted to start, by first reminding you, that it's just a conversation, you know, we're on your team. If there's some answer you don't like, I would ask you not to interrupt yourself, but just to go ahead and finish it because sometimes we can edit part outs. - Okay. - And make it sound awesome, so, just go ahead and finish the sentence, even if you don't like it, and then we can always go back and redo stuff that you're not happy with, so, it's really no pressure on you, despite all the lights and all these lovely people in a room with us, that we're going to ignore. - You know, are there any key things that you share with an interview subject ahead of time, in terms of, as you just, kind of, just mentioned, that we're going to cut out a lot of this, don't worry about being perfect. Are the things that you can, kind of, coach somebody on, in term of body language and things they kind of, can put in the back of their head, so they're not quite as nervous about the process. - Right, I try not to go into too much coaching in the pre-interview cause I don't want to make them nervous about actually how many different things really are going on. But what I do try to remind them, especially because we're talking about corporate video, where you control the camera, you control the edit, as I say, you know, this is not a news interview, it's not a got ya interview. - [Robbie] Yeah, 60 Minutes on site, I want to talk to them right now, sure. - Exactly, we control it and we want to make you look good. So, if there's something that's making you uncomfortable in the interview, you know, let me know, and if there's something you really feel like you didn't get a chance to say, then you can let me know that too. We'll have the time to do all of those things, cause often people will come, with sort of a list of things that they want to get through. And they might even mention that in the pre-interview. - So, that pre-interview process is really important. It serves a lot of purposes. As Amy said, it helps you get to know the subject and it helps the subject get a little more comfortable with you, as the person leading the interview or at least the person leading the crew, and when you do this pre-interview process, ultimately that will lead to stronger interviews.
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