This weekend I was at Ken McArthur’s JVAlert Live Seminar in Philadelphia… it was actually my first JVAlert, and much more intimate than I expected.
I was supposed to spend the weekend interviewing as many speakers and experts as possible on video for a project Ken and I are working on, but there was a mixup in communication and I only could get three of them.
Lesson 1: Always confirm that things are in place as much as you can before taking action on them, to avoid miscommunications and breakdowns in the process.
Lesson 2: Keeping Lesson 1 in mind, don’t neglect to take action simply because you’re spending too much time trying to get it all right; nothing will ever go exactly according to plan, so jump in and be ready to adapt, overcome and improvise along the way.
And by the way, if you’re ever planning to do on-camera interviews (and you should consider that if you’re trying to do interviews for online info-products or traffic generators), here are a few tips to keep it professional looking.
These are assuming you want to be on-camera with the guest, rather than off-camera like a documentary:
1. On-Camera Positioning: Make sure you’re both facing towards the camera, but not looking at it; so you don’t want to be in profile to the viewers, you want them to see 3/4 of your face at least, but at the same time the conversation is with your guest, not the audience.
2. Interview Notes: Try not to work with notes, unless you’re doing a lot of editing and can cut out the parts with you looking at them; it’s best to listen and respond to the answers with another question.
But if you do have a list of topics you’d like to cover, consider making a list of one-word bullet points that you can place off to the side and glance at occasionally from where you’re sitting.
3. Mic Technique: If it’s a short interview, you can use a hand-held mic; don’t forget to point it towards the guest’s mouth when they’re speaking, and to yourself when you’re speaking. Practice with a hairbrush if you have to.
But if it’s a longer interview, you’ll need to use lavs or a boom mic; you’ll never be able to hold up the hand-held mic for that long.
Barry and Jody, my partners at Masters of the Secret, also came to this one. Jody spends most of his time behind the computer, so it’s great to get him out mingling with people.
And Barry and I just love meeting others face to face that we’ve worked with over the internet, so it was a perfect opportunity to expand our circle of influence, meet some new contacts, and for me, some new interviewees.
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