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Video is a great medium for sharing human stories. Capturing the heart of those stories, however, requires more than sitting somebody in front of a camera and asking them to start talking. A video interview's success depends upon the direction the interviewer provides. The goal should not be merely to extract facts; rather, the objective should be to draw a story out of the interviewee. Below are five keys to creating compelling video interviews.

A pre-interview is an informal conversation that takes place a week or more prior to the actual "on-camera" interview, and it can be conducted in person or over the phone.

Pre-interviewing provides two benefits: it establishes the interviewee's storyline and it assures the interviewer that the story aligns with the objectives of the video. A pre-interview should reveal the highlights of a story but not all of the details. A disadvantage of pre-interviewing is that it can diffuse on-camera spontaneity, causing an interview to seem rehearsed. A solution is to have an assistant conduct a brief pre-interview and relate the story summary back to you.

Come to your interview with specific, succinct questions. Wrestle in advance with your word choice and even sentence structure. Practice reading your questions out loud, eliminating unnecessary words or ones that are difficult to pronounce. For example, when my team was preparing questions for a person-on-the-street interview on the subject of racial reconciliation, one question was, "How many of your friends are of an ethnicity different than yours?" The word "ethnicity" tripped us up, so we replaced it with "race" instead.

Interviewers may be tempted to clutter their questions with too many words. Using extra words in your questions tends to cloud rather than clarify. If people start answering your question before you finish, it's a strong indicator that you need to shorten your question.

If you are struggling with what questions to ask, start with imagining the ultimate response. Once you have it, write it down. Read this ultimate response back to yourself several times exploring what line of questioning might elicit such a response. The interviewee probably won't say exactly what you want, but you can at least determine the best way to guide them toward the information you need.

After you have formed your initial questions, give consideration to the order in which they are best asked. It is natural to ask simple questions first. As the subject becomes more at ease, you can move on to material that might be more emotionally charged. In Story, Robert McKee emphasizes the basic story arc—the inciting incident, crisis, and resolution. If you arrange your questions to follow this story arc, it will yield a more compelling interview.

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