First published in the Daily Maverick 168 weekly newspaper.

A recent interview between Oprah Winfrey and Barack Obama paved the way for telling stories in a whole new way, and making a real connection with audiences – in a physically distanced world – using the wonders of modern technology.

The scene couldn’t be more perfect. Two powerhouses – a media mogul (Oprah Winfrey) and a former president (Barack Obama) – a roaring fire, a carefully considered colour palette and a lively, physically distanced in-person interview about said president’s introspective and revealing memoir of his tenure as 44th president of the United States of America. But wait. Oprah was at home in Santa Barbara and Obama was in a studio in Washington, DC, so how did they pull off this feat of innovation and ingenuity?

Setting the scene

Inspired by the first episode of The Drew Barrymore Show in which Cameron Diaz, who was home in Los Angeles, appeared to be in the same room in New York as her Charlie’s Angels co-stars Drew Barrymore and Lucy Liu, Oprah started to hatch a plan to do an “in-person” interview with Obama about his memoir A Promised Land – all Covid-19 protocols observed – using green-screen technology, frequently used in films such as the Marvel Universe franchise.

“Through the miracle of technology, we get to be face to face in the same room, and we don’t have to wear a mask,” Oprah says matter-of-factly in the segment’s opening.

Quick to respond with an appropriate quip, Obama adds: “We have a fire going, apparently!”

Of course, Oprah is the queen of the in-person interview. In the 25 years of The Oprah Winfrey Show alone, she interviewed more than 37,000 people, and by her own admission she would have preferred a face-to-face interview to discuss the first volume of Obama’s memoir, but safety protocols and travel restrictions made that, well, virtually impossible – or possible, as is the case here – and the result of the smoke and mirrors created on opposite coasts of the US is an engaging and candid conversation about what Obama’s presidency was really like for him and his family.

While Oprah favoured an intimate setting like her living room for this interview, Obama said he could see it playing out in space, as the sky really seemed to be the limit.

“We should have done this in outer space,” he says jokingly, in a behind-the-scenes clip. “We could have both been sitting on Neptune, in a bubble!”

The teams on either side of the country could only pull off this technological masterstroke with an acute attention to detail.

Making magic happen

Usually, an interviewer takes nonverbal cues from the interviewee, but in a virtual setting the conversation can be less natural and more stilted, so the DC and Santa Barbara teams had to ensure that the interview flowed naturally and Oprah and Obama always appear to be making eye contact.

Monitors were positioned below the camera lens so that both people could clearly see the other’s gestures, and cameras at the eyeline made it appear the two were always looking at each other. The cross-coastal rooms were replicated with identical furniture, and precise measurements of even the minutest detail, like an ornament, ensured that the replication could be fully realised. The teams had to use the same cameras, lenses, lighting and audio equipment to avoid technical anomalies, and Obama was told not to wear green or white so he didn’t disappear into the green screen.

Once everything was in place, the feeds were delivered via a high-speed fibre line, in real time, the conversation flowed and the rest, as they say, is literally history in the making.

“It was really like he was right in front of me,” declared Oprah in an interview on her magazine’s website.

Close encounters

A Promised Land is a beautifully articulated read, and Obama is a generous and erudite storyteller, taking his readers into his confidence and bringing them into his room.

This episode of The Oprah Conversation (available to stream on Apple TV+) is as engaging as the memoir because Obama is present – yes, virtually – but there is no distance here, thanks to technology, but, more accurately, to two consummate professionals who are doing what they do best – creating magic and sharing it with the world. DM168

Samantha Page is a former editor of O, The Oprah Magazine, South Africa, and the editor of From Me to Me: Letters to My 16½-Year-Old Self (Jacana).

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