Remotely Captured Interviews Don't Have To Be BORING!
Too aggressive of a title? Perhaps a bit on the nose but goodness it’s true.
First off, let’s establish what I mean when I say, “remotely captured interviews.” This refers to a talking head captured via a video conferencing platform like Zoom or Microsoft Teams. I’ve seen SO many companies release commercials that are simply talking heads captured on remote video calls: a head in a box with minimal design effort. Why are viewers supposed to care about a 60 second talking head commercial with nothing to visually stimulate them?
Don’t Be Boring
The pandemic has caused many storytelling challenges but some organizations have taken these problems and turned them into opportunities. We are proud of our most recent work with the University of Washington (UW). When faced with the physical distancing required by the pandemic, UW opted to still offer their extensive welcome week of activities known as Dawg Daze, but with a digital spin.
In years past we had filmed in person and followed the tried and true structure of capturing interviews with students and filming those students participating in Dawg Daze events. This is essentially a mini documentary to try and give the viewer a sense of what they can expect from the experience.
This year we had to innovate and capture content remotely but we kept the general structure of fun music, multiple interviews, and b-roll/photos to help add depth to the piece. We built out a custom animated environment that both made the piece more engaging and helped elevate the lower quality footage of the laptop and cell phone cameras.
This was actually a really fun project to work on. We were invited to think outside of the box since we wouldn't be able to film in person and we leaned into how fun the content could actually be despite being limited to a bunch of talking heads captured on webcams. You can see how placing people in floating bubbles, having supplementary visuals pop up on screen in more bubbles, and having particles floating around over the Huskies purple really adds a lot of depth to what could have been quite a boring video.
Our company has made a multitude of remote content like this throughout the pandemic. Ever since creative agencies and marketing teams alike discovered what we were capable of in our Filming Clients Remotely blog, our phone has been ringing off the hook.
At the end of the day, creating compelling visual stories is just creative troubleshooting and I honestly love it. We get to ask the tough questions like, "How do we maintain the interview format but mix things up enough that it's actually fun to consume?" and "Is this story best told as a live action piece, an animated piece, or a blend of both?"
Whether it's remote storytelling or filming your next big commercial series in person, our team of problem solving creatives is excited to help. You can reach out to us here.
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