How many cameras do we need for this interview?

Oftentimes this is something that communications and marketing folks will defer to their video production partner for advice on.

I've been on large budget films and documentaries with 1x camera and I've been on small nonprofit/corporate jobs with 3x or more cameras.

Here are a few things to think about...

Who’s in front of the lens?
A professionally trained actor or CEO of a major company will likely be more comfortable speaking in front of a camera than someone who doesn't have experience speak publicly for a living. Having multiple angles with the latter helps us in the edit to skip over many of the filler words and breaks that will inevitably happen, especially if the video or film is meant to be more of an explainer or an announcement and we have little to no b-roll to overlay on top of the talking head. A teleprompter is another discussion...

How much time do we have?
This is an interesting perspective because time=money and so does an additional camera package rental and camera operator. If we have very little time with the talent but plenty of time to set up and breakdown, having two camera angles is definitely an asset. If there is little time to set up and break down, being minimal is best, but in this case make sure you have your talent prepped and ready to be delivering their material or answering your questions on camera.

What is the purpose of having another/multiple angles?
On interviews and films we've worked on I've found that when we want to provide more nuance to the story there can be more information and aspects to a person's mannerisms and delivery when filming with 2 or more angles. For example in a wider frontal shot filming an individual from the waist up we're able to see how they interact with the composition of the frame, the architecture of the room or location and how they sit in their chair or stand. With a close up we pick up different details - emotion from the eyes and face, cutaways of hands reacting to an emotion to enhance or to contrast with the spoken word and content to be used for transitions between ideas.

Where are we filming and how big is the space?
Sometimes we can't fit all the equipment in the room! Make sure if you are pushing to have multiple cameras that there is space in the room for both lighting and stands as well as 2 cameras and potentially 2 tripods and extra crew/humans that will be around. It doesn't help to add more cameras and angles if it creates an intrusive and uncomfortable environment for the talent, so please keep that in mind.

The added equipment, labor and cost is one thing but how does it serve your story and bottom line? More is not always better.