Remote Video Interviews — Direct the Camera, Capture Full-Resolution Footage Remotely

How it works with CLOS

CLOS keeps the shoot feeling like a real set, even when your subject is on the other side of the planet.

01

Create a room and invite your subject

Spin up a session and send a single link. Your interview subject, a second guest or a client can all join in seconds from a browser — no account or download required for viewers.

02

Pair the subject's camera

The subject opens CLOS on their phone and props it on a tripod or stand. You see their live feed instantly and can guide framing, distance and lighting before you roll.

03

Direct and record remotely

Set the frame, lock focus and exposure — and white balance on Pro — then start recording. Footage is captured at full resolution on the device, not squeezed through the call's video stream. Every take uploads to your cloud dashboard as you go, so your editor can start cutting the moment the conversation ends.

The Zoom-recording quality problem

The default way to shoot a remote interview is to record a video call, and it is the reason so much remote interview footage looks second-rate. A conferencing tool is engineered for one thing: keeping a conversation flowing over an unreliable connection. To do that it compresses the video hard, drops resolution when bandwidth dips, and hands the camera to whatever automatic exposure the webcam decides on. You end up with soft, macro-blocked footage, exposure that hunts every time the subject shifts, and framing you had no ability to fix. It is fine for a meeting and a liability for anything you intend to publish.

The gap is not about the subject’s device — a modern phone has an excellent camera — it is about who is driving it and how the footage is preserved. On a call, the sensor’s output is thrown away and you keep the compressed stream. CLOS inverts that. Through remote camera control you frame the shot, lock focus so it does not drift mid-sentence, and set exposure so a bright window behind the subject does not blow out. The footage is then recorded at native resolution on the device itself, so what you walk away with is the real capture, not a downscaled recording of a call.

Sensor-captured interviews on the subject’s phone

Because CLOS records off the phone’s actual sensor, the footage behaves like material from a proper camera rather than a webcam. It holds up when you grade it, survives a crop or a reframe in the edit, and cuts cleanly against other footage instead of looking conspicuously soft. When you interview two people in two different cities, you capture each of them on their own device at full quality, so a two-camera edit stays sharp on both sides — no single shared, downscaled call recording where one guest always looks worse than the other.

On Pro plans the control goes further than framing and focus: you reach ISO, shutter speed and white balance, plus the telephoto and ultra-wide lenses, which is how you match a consistent look across subjects who are lit completely differently at their end. That consistency is what separates a series of interviews that feel like one production from a pile of clips that obviously came from a dozen different webcams.

Running the conversation while directing the frame

A fair question is how the interviewer actually participates if they are the one controlling the camera. In practice the two jobs sit side by side. You are in the room over the live connection, so you talk with the subject exactly as you would on any call — asking questions, reacting, guiding the pace of the conversation with your voice. The camera direction happens quietly alongside that: you set the frame and lock exposure at the start, then make small adjustments between questions rather than fiddling mid-answer. The subject only holds the phone and talks; every creative decision stays with you.

That leaves the footage clean and the delivery immediate. Every take streams into your dashboard through real-time cloud delivery the moment it ends, so an editor can start pulling selects while the subject is still talking, and there is nothing to transfer manually when you wrap. The Free plan includes 1 GB to shoot a first interview, and Pro tiers scale from 5 GB to 1 TB with non-expiring albums — worth having, since interview footage runs long. For the full workflow, see the complete remote shoots guide.

Who uses this

• Production and creative agencies shooting interview-led content for clients without a location crew — see how CLOS fits the workflow on the agencies persona page.
• Editorial and podcast teams capturing guest video at full quality for polished multi-cam cuts.
• Documentary and brand-film makers directing distributed contributors without a travel budget.
• Recruiting and press teams recording remote hiring conversations, executive Q&As and press interviews that need to look sharp on camera.