5 Tips On How To Prepare For Your Next Corporate Video Interview
By Ron Bosse
Here are 5 tips on how to prepare for your next corporate video interview:
1. Clothing
It goes without saying that you should always dress your best for an interview. For video, it’s a good rule of thumb to wear solid color clothing without any complex shapes or patterns. Colors like gray and blue tend to work well. Black can work well as long as the background you’re being filmed against is not black. If you’re being filmed in front of a green screen, it is crucial to not wear any green. It’s often best to wear clothes that you would wear on a daily basis when at work interacting with clients and colleagues. Sometimes a person will be asked to dress in clothes that are different from what they would normally wear on the job. For example, let’s say you’re an engineer that typically works out in the field. If your field dress code is more casual, you may be asked to wear a suit for the interview. In situations like this, it’s best to check with your company and/or the video producer to determine the most appropriate dress for the topics that you’ll be discussing.
2. Study The Questions
It’s best to take some time before the shoot to reflect on the core points that you’ll be discussing in the interview. Be mindful of who the video is directed towards and adjust your answers accordingly. For example, if you are a financial professional and the video is directed towards helping everyday people build their investment portfolios, you may want to be wary of any complex industry jargon.
3. Keep It Simple
Unless you’re involved in a lengthy documentary, it’s often best to keep your answers brief and to the point. Remember, in a typical 90-120 second corporate marketing video, the answers you give are likely going to be edited down to smaller sound bites anyway; therefore, giving short answers makes practical sense.
4. Keep Your Eyes Focused
Whether you’ve been instructed to look directly into the camera or at the person asking the questions, be sure to keep your eyes focused for a few seconds after the last word of each of your answers. Often times people will show some sort of dissatisfaction about their performance directly at the end of each take which can render an otherwise good take worthless.
5. Have Fun & Try To Stay Relaxed
Remember that unless your interview is being streamed live, you can always do multiple takes. I often tell people that being interviewed for a video that will be edited after the fact is the easiest thing they’ll ever do. It’s when it’s live that they should start getting nervous. Try to stay relaxed, have fun and let your personality shine thorugh. It’s likely that you’ve been chosen to speak because you are a professional and have experience in your industry that people want to hear. Keep in mind that if you say something in the interview that you’re not happy with, simple pause for a moment, recompose yourself, and deliver your answer again. Chances are that the video editors can remove the unwanted portion and include only the best parts.