Typically, I would arrive at the location to film and chat with the person I was interviewing for 10–20 minutes while picking out a spot to film and unloading my equipment. I had two Sony A7S II cameras that were locked off on a tripod. I was shooting in 4k, so I had some room to re-frame the shot if the subject moved around. It usually took me 40–60 minutes to set up the camera and lights. Remember, I’m doing this all by myself.

There’s an LED panel right outside the upper-left part of the frame. From left to right, Bryn Jackson and Brian Lovin, of Spec.

For lighting, I either had two quasar lights or LED light panels. I would have the subject set up near a window and then I would fill in the shadows with the lights, usually running them through collapsable diffusion that I have in my kit.

There’s an LED panel outside the left-side of the frame. From left to right, Courtney Bradford and Lindsay Bradford, of Telegraph.

There was one time when I didn’t have lights with me so I used a silver reflector to bounce fill onto the subject.

On most of the shoots, I had a livelier microphone to record sound. After starting the camera and sound recording I would sit down and put on a pair of headphones so that I could monitor the sound levels during the interview. When Dann was with me I could just focus on the sound and cameras while he asked the interview questions.

The interview would last between an hour to an hour and 40 minutes. I went into the interview having a list of questions and sometimes I would come up with additional questions if there was a topic I wanted to explore further. After finishing the interview I would spend 30–45 minutes filming b-roll. I tried to get 3–5 key scenes of the subject doing something in their home or office so that I could tell a story through the b-roll. I didn’t want it to just be random shots.

After filming the b-roll it would take 15–30 minutes to tear down the equipment and back it back up in my car. Altogether, it could very easily take 4 hours to film an interview that will be cut down to 8–13 minutes.

The cameras and audio were synchronized in Pluraleyes. I then brought everything into Premiere for the edit. This is a screenshot of my edit timeline from the interview with Brian Lovin and Bryn Jackson, from Spec, right after I synchronized the sound. The edit was an hour and 35 minutes long.

I would run through the interview and edit out all of the moments when I would ask questions or any irrelevant footage. Here’s what the Spec timeline looked like after the first edit pass. It was shortened down to around an hour and ten minutes.

From there I would start narrowing down the answers and picking out the sections I wanted to refine. This is what the timeline of the first draft of the Spec episode looked like. It was about fifty minutes long.

From there I would refine the edit even more. Removing the “ums”, turning longer sentences into more concise thoughts, taking out repeated words, etc. I went through about 6 major draft edits until I arrived at a completed episode. Finally, I added in b-roll, finalized the sound and music mix, and applied a color grade to all of the footage. The entire editing process would take about 5 days for each episode. This is what the final Spec episode timeline looks like.

The top two layers are adjustment layers, for the color grade.

In addition to directing the episodes, I also took portraits of everyone I interviewed. These would be used as part of the website design and for the video thumbnails. I would bring a small portable speedlight with a softbox modifier so that I could take a quick photo after the interview was concluded. I really enjoyed capturing the personality of everyone I interviewed.

Recently, I’ve talked with founders at startups and lead creatives at design agencies and I find myself having to explain the costs involved in film/video production. The biggest difference between design and filmmaking is that you NEED specific tools that are of a certain caliber if you want to meet a certain level of quality. Sure, you can shoot a video on your iPhone, but it will look absolutely nothing like the cinematic quality we are all accustomed to.

With design, you get better by investing more time in your work. This is very true for film, but there’s also a certain point where you need more equipment and people to make a better product. With design, you only really need one tool. Illustrator, Figma, Sketch, etc (not trying to start a debate on the best design tools). Of course, you still need the skill and knowledge to create “good” design, but there’s a lot less required to create something that is on a professional level.

Here’s an example of the setup that a typical production would have for on-camera interviews.

On this shoot, there was a director that is also the DP. There is also a camera assistant that helped camera operate, a gaffer (works with the lights), a grip (assistant to the gaffer), a sound mixer, and a production assistant. There were also two people helping produce the shoot and two individuals that were helping with the creative direction and story. The interview location had been selected the day before the shoot during a location scout. It took an hour to set up and about four hours to film three interviews. The b-roll was filmed over a day and a half.

However, not every project has the production budget for this big of a crew. It’s certainly possible to create great work with smaller budgets, you just have to consider the limitations when planning your project scope and production time.