How to film a talking head video at a client's office

Most talking heads a production company shoots never see a studio. They happen in a meeting room at the client’s office, booked from nine to twelve, with a glass wall, an air conditioner nobody knows how to switch off and a CEO who has 40 minutes between two calls.

The kit has to fit in one car and still look better than a webcam.

Here’s the minimum we’d take into that room. How the presenter reads the script is in our guide on reading a teleprompter naturally, and the tablet and glass rig has a post of its own.

Choose the spot for its depth

Walk the room before you unpack. In an office, the best background is usually the longest line across the room, into a far corner or down a corridor, with the subject well away from the wall. That distance lets you throw the background out of focus and keeps the subject’s shadow off it.

Never sit anyone with a window behind them. The camera either exposes for the glass and the face goes dark, or exposes for the face and the window burns to white.

Glass walls reflect the lights and the crew, so shoot at an angle to them or keep them behind the camera.

Get the cables and the whiteboard with half-erased numbers out of the shot. A lamp or a plant a few steps behind the subject adds depth.

Framing, eyeline and where the prompter goes

Decide who the person is talking to. In a piece to camera, like a CEO message or a course module, they look into the lens and talk to the viewer.

In an interview or a testimonial they talk to someone next to the camera, and the eyeline lands just off the lens. Both work, but mixing them in one video looks like a mistake.

What to ask in a customer testimonial is in our testimonial interview questions.

A scripted piece to camera needs the text on a prompter in front of the lens, so the eyes stay on the glass.

For an interview, seat the interviewer with their head as close to the lens as you can, at lens height, because the nearer the eyeline is to the lens, the more direct the answers feel. Leave the open space in the frame on the side the subject looks toward.

Put the camera at eye level, since a lens looking up shows a lot of chin. A medium close-up from mid-chest up is a good start, with the eyes around the top third of the frame and little air above the head.

Tape the floor where the chair’s feet go, because chairs drift between takes.

If the deliverables list has vertical cuts, frame for them now. A 9:16 crop from a 16:9 frame keeps a narrow strip in the middle, and a classic off-center interview framing won’t fit in it.

Three lights, or a window and two

Three LED panels cover most offices:

• The key goes to one side of the camera, roughly 45 degrees off the line of the subject’s nose and a little above eye level, softened with diffusion.
• The fill goes on the other side at a lower level, or a white bounce card does its job.
• The back light sits behind the subject, high and to one side, and puts a thin edge on the hair and shoulders.

A window can be the key, as long as it’s to the subject’s side and never behind them. Clouds move, so check exposure between takes.

Switch off the ceiling lights if you can. They light from straight above, which leaves dark eye sockets, and their color rarely matches your panels.

If they have to stay on, match the panels to them and set white balance by hand. With glasses, raise the key or move it further to the side until the reflection leaves the lenses.

Sound comes first

A slightly soft shot gets forgiven long before a hum under the CEO’s voice does, so sort out the sound before you finish lighting.

Use two microphones. A lavalier about a hand’s width below the chin gives the close, clean voice. Listen for rustle from jackets and necklaces.

A shotgun on a boom or a stand, just above the frame and pointed at the mouth, goes to a separate channel as the backup. If the lav catches a shirt rub on the best take, the editor switches to the shotgun for those seconds.

Then quiet the room. Switch the air conditioning off for takes and back on in the breaks. Unplug the fridge in the corner and put a sign on the door.

Phones go into airplane mode, the presenter’s included, since a phone in a pocket can buzz into a wireless mic.

Keep closed headphones on all day, and record 30 seconds of room tone with everyone still, so the editor can fill gaps.

Camera settings and the second angle

Set exposure, white balance and focus by hand. Follow the 180-degree rule, with the shutter at twice the frame rate (1/50 at 25 fps, 1/60 at 30 fps).

Office LED and fluorescent lights can flicker on camera when the shutter doesn’t fit the mains frequency, so where the power is 60 Hz, as in the US, use 1/60 or 1/120, and where it’s 50 Hz, 1/50 or 1/100.

Open the aperture enough to soften the background, and check focus on the near eye at full magnification.

A second camera pays for itself in the edit. With one angle, every stumble and every trimmed answer becomes a jump cut. With two, the editor cuts to the other camera over the trim.

Give B camera a tighter shot and a clearly different angle, at least 30 degrees off by the usual rule for a clean cut. Match frame rate, shutter, white balance and picture profile on both, and sync them with timecode or a clap at the top of each take.

When the presenter reads to A camera through a prompter, B camera sees them reading to someone else. Keep B tight and use it to cover cuts rather than whole paragraphs.

A checklist before you roll

Before the first take and after every break:

1. Phones in airplane mode, air conditioning off, sign on the door.
2. A sound check at the presenter’s real volume, listening to both channels for rustle and hum.
3. Framing with the monitor’s frame guides on, checking the edges and the vertical crop.
4. Focus at full magnification and white balance set by hand on both cameras.
5. A slate, or a spoken ID and a clap, so the editor can sync and find the take.
6. A ten-second test played back on headphones, to catch flicker or a mic that slipped.

When the day has several videos, the shooting schedule needs room for the setup changes between them.

How this works in RecReview

In RecReview, a shoot day is a production plan, and each video is a block that carries its task and script.

The prompter opens from that plan on a laptop, and the presenter’s screen shows the time elapsed and left in the block, estimated from the script.

Prompter screens join with a QR code or a link, with no login. Each one has its own mirror setting and a new screen starts unmirrored, so the tablet under the glass can be mirrored while a screen beside the camera, read directly, is not.

Next to the script, the operator can watch up to four sources: cameras connected to the laptop, through an HDMI capture device for example, or a shared window such as a video call with someone from the client.

Each source shows a level meter when it carries audio and can go full screen for a focus check. The panel doesn’t play the sound, so the headphones stay on the recorder.

After the shoot, the review player draws guides for the action and title safe areas (93% and 90% of the frame), a thirds grid and one delivery crop at a time, at 9:16, 4:5, 1:1 or 16:9.

Press G to show the safe areas and again to hide the guides. With the 9:16 crop on, you can see whether the interview framing holds up in the vertical cut. The teleprompter page has the rest.