Years ago, most documentaries were synonymous with lower production quality<\/strong>, and were typically shot on lower end video cameras and with less involved setups. There were, of course, those documentaries that went against the grain and strived for higher production value<\/strong>, but they were few and far between.<\/p>\n Over the last 5 – 10 years though, that has changed. The average documentary now looks just as good as many narrative films. This is largely thanks to the fact that documentary shooters are able to have access to some of the same cinematic tools as narrative filmmakers<\/strong>, but also because the documentary genre in general has been morphing.<\/p>\n The point is – if you are setting out to shoot a documentary<\/strong> today, the bar has been raised. To secure distribution, you are going to want to deliver the best creative product across the board, and one of the most important components to consider are your documentary interviews.<\/strong><\/p>\n There are many ways you can increase production value on a doc, but for the purposes of this article I want to focus on interview footage<\/strong>. Interviews in many documentaries account for 50% of the overall screen time, and they are also one of the few environments on any doc shoot where you have a lot of creative control. For those reasons and more, you want to maximize the quality and substance of your interviews.\u00a0Below, I\u2019ve listed three simple ways that you can increase the quality of your interviews.<\/strong><\/p>\n Sliders are your best friend when it comes to documentary interviews<\/strong>. We’ve all watched documentaries where the interview footage was just dull, and more often than not the root problem of those interviews comes down to camera movement. Even a well-composed and well-lit shot will only sustain the average viewer\u2019s attention for so long, which is why most interviews are covered up heavily with b-roll.<\/strong><\/p>\n That said, there are times when you want to linger on an interview and really see the person as they are speaking – especially in more emotional moments.<\/strong> This can make things tricky in the editing room, as you end up having to decide between cutting away to b-roll to make things more visually interesting or staying on the interview shot, but losing momentum in the pacing. This is where sliders come in.<\/strong> Here’s a quick video from lynda.com<\/a> that covers using a slider.<\/p>\n![\"Documentary](\"https:\/\/pbblogassets.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2015\/05\/INTERVIEW.jpg\" "\\"Documentary")
\nImage from Bold Content<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n1. Use a slider<\/h2>\n
![\"Documentary](\"https:\/\/pbblogassets.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2015\/05\/slider.jpg\" "\\"Documentary")
\nImage from Cinevate<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n