Preparing for an Interview
Thanks for being a part of this.
Hello! First off, thanks so much for being a part of this. I know it’s not always the easiest thing to be on camera but we will make it as painless as possible. If you haven’t done one of these before, there’s some helpful information below about how the interview will go, what to wear or not wear, and how to set up your camera. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to Stephen Jones at HAVI and he should be able to facilitate things.
Who will I be talking to?
Someone from HAVI / Morgan Street will be on the call to facilitate the conversation
Cal Engel, from AV Collective, will be on the call to make sure everything looks and sounds the best, and to capture the interview
How does the recording go?
First up, I assume you’ve signed up for a time slot. If not, you should do that now… https://calendly.com/calengel/impact-award
When the time comes for your interview, please sign onto Teams a minute or two early.
We’ll talk you through a few up front things like…
We can start and stop as much as you’d like
We’re only looking for short clips
Then we’ll make sure everything is looking and sounding the best and get started
You’ll give your answer to why you nominated the person and how they had an impact
The whole thing takes about 10 minutes, but we can go as long or as short as you need.
The lighting.
We want the most balanced lighting we can get. That means if there’s windows in your office we’d like them…
To your left or right about 90 degrees
Behind your computer
We don’t want the light to be behind you, that causes web cameras to make the people look very dark to compensate for the window brightness.
The camera.
We’d love to have the webcam at eye level if possible. We’re going to have you looking right into it so you’re talking to the audience.
And we don’t want to be looking up your nose.
Please do not use blurred backgrounds or images as your background, we want these to be authentic interviews in your location.
If you know how, please ensure the quality for the camera is set all the way to high.
The audio.
Audio matters more than visual when it comes to videos, so please make sure you’re in as quiet an environment as you can be.
The general rule for audio is if you halve the distance, you 4x the volume, so if you sit far away from your microphone or computer, please slide it forward for the interview.
What to wear.
We want this to be “business casual”. No need to dress up in a suit and tie or ball gown, but this is an important recognition so please keep that in mind.
Keep patterns to a minimum. Solid colors, big blocky colors or thick patterns are great, tight patterns will cause moire on camera and make the clothes look like it’s moving or has a weird filter on it.
Jewelry is fine, but please don’t layer it too much so it clinks and clanks on camera
If you want a little more info on what to wear, you can see our blog post here… What should I wear to a video shoot?
