With virtual events and meetings the norm these days, reaching your audience has never been easier. The irony is that connecting with them has never been harder. Like many agencies, we’ve been helping clients get their messages across to their audience in new ways given the filming restrictions we’ve all become accustomed to.

Recording remotely has never been easier

One way to achieve this is by publishing conversations (or ‘Q&A chats’, as we like to call them) where two participants can talk about anything, from challenges to innovation in their industry – stuff that resonates with the target audience. These don’t need to look low budget. Creating an ‘on air’ look that’s consistent with your brand is easier than you might think, and using the right kit and recording techniques will make your content stand out and not look out of place alongside your other video assets.

With this in mind, FICO (our fintech friends) wanted to create a series of films that provide valuable insights to their clients and community while working safely, on a lower budget, and maintaining the same production standards reflected in the films we make for them.

 As FICO’s community website producer, Elle Lasher, explains:

We wanted to create a video series that provided a much more intimate view of what happens behind the scenes at FICO. FICO technology has always been best in class but the idea was to flip the traditional top-down communication culture and introduce employee-led conversations. 

By giving a voice to our behind the scenes experts and data scientists, we are able to connect directly with our clients who need it most. The Decision Hero Community Chats provide an updated video standard to publish casual yet meaningful content more frequently, resulting in shorter lead times for valuable insights.

The Community Chats have been well received with strong viewership and the Community is planning to integrate this conversational format as an ongoing series in 2022.

Grabbing and Engaging

In terms of boosting your audience online, creating consistent video content is key. An engaging video series will humanise your business and help gain the trust of your target audience. Since it’s a brand’s story told in instalments, or in a variety of different ways, it provides an opportunity to build a more long-term relationship with your audience. As people get accustomed to the series concept, they’ll start to feel more invested in what each instalment will be, and they’ll recognise it when they see it.

Remote interviews can still look engaging and professional with the help of high quality recording and graphic overlays.

Pick Your Platform

There are plenty of platforms to choose from, so it’s key to work out which one has all the best features for you. We use riverside.fm –  a welcome improvement to recording conversations on conference calls. It allows you to record each video separately and locally on each participant’s hard drive and then it uploads them to the cloud where you can download them. This means the quality of the recording isn’t at the mercy of internet bandwidth. That’s a big improvement right there. 

Getting Ready to Go

Tempted to give it a try? Don’t underestimate the amount of preparation needed. Not everyone is familiar with the technology involved or the finer details of getting a good shot, so you do need to factor in time to help participants set up their computers for filming.

Framing, eye line, lighting and good sound are all incredibly important. We advise investing in extra kit; HD webcams, USB microphones and possibly a desktop led panel light really raise the standard. On shoots, we’re always on hand to help guide your participants through the whole process, and to save time we created a setup guide to get everyone thoroughly briefed: 

Click to enlarge.

The Future of Interviews?

It’s a format that really works and is becoming a growing part of the services we offer as a business. We’ve just started a new project which was commissioned on the back of them seeing our content. 18 videos Q&A videos to be filmed next month. Word’s getting out there. We’re not just recording the conversation, we’re slowly starting to be part of it!