Knowing how to record an interview is an incredibly handy skill to have, whether you're working on a remote interview for work, a podcast interview or something else entirely. At VEED, we understand that you may need some help in figuring out how to record interviews and then learning how to edit them afterwards.
In this guide, we’ll be taking a look at:
- How to record an interview
- How to edit videos with VEED
- How to effectively use interview content
How To Record An Interview Online
To start off with, let’s take a look at how to record an interview effectively. This will be predominantly focused on online interviews, due to the amount of people who are working long distance/from home right now.
1) Pick your recording software
The most important thing to start off with is to choose your online tool or software. Whether as a digital voice recorder or with video, there are a number of great tools to choose from, including;
- Zoom. Perfect for video recording
- Zencastr. Great async digital voice recorder.
- Riverside.fm
- Squadcast
- ClearCast
- Iris
The audio quality of your recording files depends on your equipment, so make sure that your mic is working.
Make sure to spend some time reading through these options and searching through reviews, to find the best option for you.
2) Prepare for your interview
It’s important to make sure that you spend some time preparing your interview setting before you get started with your actual interview. Make sure that you are filming in a quiet place with no echos, background noise or distractions.
You could benefit from recording a test interview to trial the voice recorder tool, to see the audio quality and to double check the quality of your chosen software and microphone are performing well. This can help to avoid any slip-ups on the day.
3) Double check your recording quality
Once you’re all done with your recording, do make sure to double check your files and watch it. Make sure there are no missing elements or any issues with the audio/video quality before you get going with the next step.
If you discover you’ve missed a question or point, try not to worry. You can always shoot your interviewee a quick follow-up email and add this information in using an online video editor.
Invest in a good mic and internet connection, if you can. Have a degree of noise cancellation. The sound quality of your audio recording depends heavily on these things.
4) Audio is king
You're recording an interview to go through the content afterward, so it only makes sense that sound quality is most important aspect of your files. Reduce background noise as much as you can by staying in a quiet area. Your digital recorder should be able to capture the audio first and foremost.
Disable video if you need to improve the sound quality or whenever the connection becomes too choppy. These are some things to make your digital voice recorder work to your favor and have quality audio in the end.
5) Remember to highlight key details
During the interview, remember that key details and data should be highlighted and re-emphasized.
Losing the person-to-person aspect can impact both the interviewee and the viewer’s memory of key data, so you need to be very clear and concise.
You can do this by asking the interviewee to be clear on a certain topic or telling them to use facts and figures when answering certain questions.
Otherwise, you can use your digital voice recorder's editor to isolate these key instances.
6) Edit as needed
Finally, make sure to find a great media editor online to complement your digital voice recorder.
One of the most important aspects of knowing how to record an interview properly is knowing which pieces can be cut and which pieces may need extra details added in. Once you have your audio files from your digital recorder, it's time to edit them with VEED.
Editing Recordings With VEED
To help you out with editing your interview recordings, we’ve handpicked our top tips for editing your work with VEED. Whether you're using Zoom, Zencastr or Riverside.fm, VEED is perfect for editing your video or audio recordings.
1) Upload your media file
VEED accepts files uploads from a number of different locations, like your device library, camera, DropBox or YouTube links, too. You can also upload them under a variety of file formats, including MP4 and MP3 formats. So you can use whatever digital voice recorder you want and upload the recording to VEED!
Hit the upload video button in the middle of the screen to start.
2) Trim, split, merge and crop your videos where needed
If you need to trim down your video project, head to the timeline at the bottom of the screen. Here, you can also split your video into clips you can edit separately, and add additional videos to merge in your project.
To change the aspect ratio, head to the settings tab in the left hand toolbar. Here, you can pick out a specific video size from the size drop down menu.
3) Automatically add accurate subtitles in a few clicks
No need to pay for expensive interview transcription services. To add subtitles with VEED, go to the subtitles button in the left hand toolbar, and pick from the main 3 options. You can choose manual subtitles, automatic subtitles or external file-based subtitles. Its transcription accuracy is pretty accurate, but it does mispell proper nouns.
You can fix issues relating to mispelled proper nouns using the subtitle editor.
Do make sure to double check the accuracy and quality, and adjust them in the style tab if needed, too. You can even translate your content with VEED- check out this tutorial on YouTube for more information about this.
4) Add text to your video
If you’re looking to add text into your video project, head to the text button in the left hand toolbar and choose the best format for your content.
You can then adjust the text, font, format, size and color in the text menu. If needed, you can directly adjust the text on the video project too.
5) Turn your audio into a video audiogram
You can find a number of other interesting elements and graphics in VEED’s editor. These can be found in the elements tab, in the left hand toolbar.
You can add them by selecting them in the relevant element menu, then adjusting and resizing them where needed on your video.
If you want to draw on your video, you can head to the draw button and pick out a brush stroke, size and color.
6) Download your project
Now, you can download your video! Head to the top right hand corner of your screen and hit the export button to start.
You can choose between downloading an MP4 file or a GIF, or sharing your download link with somebody else too.
How To Use Interview Content
To finish up, let’s take a quick look at the most effective ways that you can use your interview video and audio content.
1) Summarize it in newsletters
If you have a weekly email newsletter, summarising your interview content into a sound bite or text snippet could be a great way to entertain your customers.
2) Embed in articles
You can embed these interviews into your articles. Or you can add direct quotes to relevant content to bring in engaging anecdotes that emphasize the points you’re making.
3) Put testimonials on your website
Are you using interview content to promote your store or services? If so, including clips from your interview as a testimonial on your website could be a fantastic way to do this.
4) Share on social media
Finally, you can cut your interviews into bite-sized content to share on social media. This is an example of content repurposing that really allows you to maximize your content’s value.
Edit Your Interviews With VEED
Overall, knowing how to record an interview to a high level of quality can be incredibly helpful- both for the actual practice of interviewing, and for improving your content strategy, too.
If you’re looking for more help with your video editing work, make sure to use VEED's simple, yet powerful, video editor. We’ve got a number of handy guides up for grabs, covering a number of tools and tips to help you make your video content pop.
