How To Deal With A Talking Head

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One of the biggest problems you're likely to run into is the problem of the 'talking head'.

A few years ago, Business Week was one of my clients. We were taking them into the world of video and they were mesmerized by the idea of videotaping the many powerful business people who came into their offices for interviews for the magazine.

They were so mesmerized that they built a small studio where these interviews could be videotaped.  They'd have the reporter sit in one chair and the subject (generally some CEO) sit in the other and they would then videotape the entire interview and put it up on the web.

Ultimately, they had built a gallery of talking heads - a lot of major CEOs who blathered on for an hour or so.

After a few months we could start to look at the results - that's the miracle of the web - it doesn't lie.

The talking heads got a dozen or so hits after 6 months, on average.

No one stayed to the end.

No one.

Probably not even the CEO's mother.

Talking heads online tend to be death.

So what can you do?

Sometimes it's the only way to deliver information.

The thing to remember with online (as opposed to broadcasting) is that the online experience is very personal. It's a one on one conversation, except it already happened.  But it still has to feel intimate and personal if it's going to work.

So the first rule is, the subject has to look directly into the camera.  They have to make eye contact with the person watching the video.  There is the old TV rule 'don't look in the camera' and you'll see that a lot of people who make online videos and have had a smattering of experience in the world of broadcast or local news will slavishly have their subjedts stare off into space, looking to the left or the right of the camera.  What they are really doing is making eye contact with the interviewer, who is sitting camera left or right.

This does not work.

To try this technique out, go out and have a small conversation with someone you don't know but don't make eye contact with them. Instead, keep staring at something about four inches to their left.  See how they respond.

This is how your viewer responds. They tune out.. and think you are strange.

So have the subject stare directly into the lens.

Now, have the subject talk to the viewer.. not to you.

Conventional interviews tend to be 'fly on the wall'. Tonight President Obama will talk to Tom Brokaw and you(!) get to watch (!!!).  Wow!

Lucky you.

So the whole thing is shot as though you are not there. You are peering through a hole in the curtain and get to see this great moment take place... shhh!

This sucks.

And it is very un-web.

The subject should be addressing the viewer of the video, not the 'interviewer'. And the subject should be make painfully aware that the viewer of the video has a tendency to drift off....

So the subject should be continually thinking 'Hey, pay attention. This is important'.

And the subject should also be made aware that the viewer of the video has a serious case of ADD. So get the important stuff out there fast and first while you still have their attention.

As interviews are, by definition, fake events anyone, feel free to direct to your heart's content.

Tell the subject, 'you have 60 seconds to make your point as best you can. Go convince as skeptic why you are right.' Then hold up your watch. 'go!"

Did you get that?

Now, go try it and lemme know how it works out.