One morning we shot a series of interviews for a video, but two people scheduled to appear on camera unexpectedly couldn’t show up. The next day, someone who helped conduct the interviews explained a studio was available and we could talk with the people who didn’t make the initial shoot. She asked us if we should conduct the additional interviews. She explained the studio could call me and set up a background to our liking.
Lesson 1: Do you shoot additional interviews simply because they are available? In this case, we believe we did not need to shoot more interviews. The people we already interviewed were strong. Do you shoot additional interviews because people might feel left out? We don’t recommend shooting interviews just to make people feel included or to score points with a boss or strategic partner. Shooting more interviews for such reasons will likely weaken your video and make it less interesting.
Lesson 2: Will an additional shoot impact the budget? Is shooting the additional interviews worth the extra time and money you might need to invest?
Lesson 3: Will an additional shoot look out-of-place? We shot all of the initial interviews in the same location. Shooting new interviews in a studio might look strange. If we shot more interviews, we would recommend shooting them in the original location.
Outcome: In this situation, the client did not feel strongly about shooting additional interviews, so we didn’t.