What We Learned About Storytelling After Filming Hundreds of Interviews With Sony FX6 Cameras

The funny thing is that after filming hundreds of interviews over the years, the biggest lessons we've learned have had almost nothing to do with the fancy lights or cameras - they’ve been about the individuals we’ve been lucky enough to work with.

Don't get me wrong. We love our Sony FX6 cameras. They've traveled all over the country with us and have become a huge part of our workflow at Bunker Hill Media. But after sitting across from hundreds of founders, executives, customers, donors, employees, students, and community members, the things we've learned aren't about autofocus settings or frame rates.

The biggest lessons have been about people.

Storytelling is one of those things that seems simple until you actually try to do it. Everybody has a story. Every company has a story. Every nonprofit has a mission. Every customer has an experience. The challenge is helping people tell those stories in a way that feels genuine and meaningful.

After hundreds of interviews, here are some of the lessons that have stuck with us.

The Best Stories Usually Start Slow

One of the biggest surprises for people who don't conduct interviews regularly is how rarely the best answers happen right away.

In fact, some of the strongest interviews we've ever filmed started with ten or fifteen minutes of conversation that never made it into the final edit.

People need time to settle in. They need time to stop thinking about the camera. They need time to stop worrying about how they sound.

Most people don't spend their days sitting under lights with a camera pointed at them. It's an unusual experience, and even confident people need a few minutes to adjust.

That's why we rarely jump straight into the important questions. We spend time talking. We ask easy questions. We joke around. We learn a little bit about the person before diving into the deeper parts of the conversation.

Because once people relax, the interview changes completely.

The answers become more natural. The stories become more personal. The conversation starts feeling less like an interview and more like two people talking.

That's usually when the good stuff starts happening.

People Connect With Stories, Not Statements

If there's one lesson we've learned over and over again, it's this: people remember stories.

They don't remember mission statements. They don't remember buzzwords. They don't remember perfectly crafted corporate language.

They remember stories.

Almost every organization we work with talks about things like customer service, culture, innovation, impact, or community. Those are all great things. But they're also incredibly easy to say.

What's harder is telling a story that proves it.

There's a huge difference between saying, "We care about our customers," and telling a story about a customer whose life changed because of your work.

There's a huge difference between saying, "Our employees are like family," and sharing a specific moment that demonstrates that.

The more specific someone becomes, the more memorable they become.

Specificity is where storytelling lives.

The Most Senior Person Isn't Always The Best Storyteller

This is something we've written about before because it's a mistake we see all the time.

Organizations often assume the CEO should be on camera because they're the CEO.

Sometimes that's true and sometimes it isn't.

We've interviewed executives who were fantastic storytellers. We've also interviewed employees who completely stole the show.

The truth is that being a great leader and being a great storyteller are two completely different skills.

The best interview subjects aren't always the most senior people in the organization. They're the people who can communicate authentically and make an audience care.

The audience doesn't know your organizational chart. They only know whether they're interested in what someone is saying. We’ve learned to encourage teams to bring on their best story teller to work with us as an on-camera subject.

Emotion Is Usually Hiding Behind The Facts

A lot of interviews start with facts.

Dates.

Numbers.

Timelines.

Achievements.

Those things matter.

But emotion is usually hiding one layer beneath them.

When someone tells us they started a company in 2017, that's interesting.

When they tell us why they started the company, that's usually where the story begins.

When someone explains that a nonprofit helped 500 people, that's impressive.

When they tell us about one specific person whose life changed because of that work, that's memorable.

Facts provide context.

Emotion creates connection.

The strongest interviews almost always contain both.

The Best Interview Subjects Forget About The Camera

Some of the best interviews we've ever filmed happened when people completely forgot they were being filmed.

Not because they stopped caring.

Because they became comfortable.

That's one of the reasons we spend so much time thinking about the interview experience itself.

The goal isn't to create a perfect performance.

The goal is to create a comfortable conversation.

When people stop worrying about how they look, they start focusing on what they're saying.

That's when interviews become interesting.

We Learned To Build The Story Before The Shoot

One of the biggest changes we've made over the years is how much time we spend planning before we ever arrive on set.

For most projects, we build a creative document that becomes the blueprint for the entire production.

One of the things I do is write what I call a fake script.

Nobody reads it.

It's not a script for the interview.

It's simply a way for us to think through what we hope the final video sounds like.

Once we know that, we can start asking better questions.

We can identify stronger interview subjects.

We can anticipate what b-roll we'll need.

We can build a story intentionally instead of hoping one appears later.

The more preparation we do before a shoot, the better the interviews tend to be.

B-Roll Doesn't Save A Weak Interview

This might be the lesson that surprised me the most.

Early in my career, I thought beautiful visuals could solve almost anything.

And don't get me wrong. Great visuals matter.

But we've learned that b-roll can't save a weak story.

You can have the most beautiful footage in the world. If the interview isn't compelling, the final video usually struggles.

On the other hand, we've had interviews that were so strong they carried an entire project.

The interview is the foundation.

The visuals support it.

Not the other way around.

The Camera Was Never The Lesson

It's funny because this article started with the Sony FX6.

And honestly, we still love the Sony FX6.

It's reliable. It travels well. It fits the way we work. We use it on brand videos, customer testimonials, fundraising campaigns, recruitment videos, and executive interviews all over the country.

But after filming hundreds of interviews, the biggest lessons weren't about cameras.

They were about curiosity.

Listening.

Empathy.

Preparation.

Trust.

And learning how to help people tell stories that matter.

The camera helps us capture those stories.

But it isn't what creates them.

The people sitting in front of the camera do that.

And after hundreds of interviews, that's probably the biggest storytelling lesson we've learned.