When doing an interview, there must be at least three people involved. The person being interviewed, you, the interviewer, and someone who works with the camcorder. One could argue, I would say, that an additional person to handle the sound is a huge benefit, but this is a policy of perfection.
Video interviewing is a skill that can be acquired with practice. The key to a successful interview is research, research, and even more research.
Before interviewing a subject, you should know as much as possible about the person you are interviewing.
And you need to read everything that someone has written on the subject.
That’s what the Internet is for. It usually contains everything written in recent times.
The more information you can get, the more research you do, the smoother the interview will be.
That said, it is vital that you, the interviewer, ask questions and know when to shut up.
The problem is that you will often find yourself knowing more about a topic than the person you are interviewing, and so the temptation is to show your knowledge.
This is fatal.
The viewer is not interested in your opinions. It is the person interviewed, the interviewee, who should be the center of attention. And before you ask, yes, this is a big problem for me. I can’t keep my mouth shut.
Be prepared for interviews that go smoothly and those that get a little uneven. Three examples.
I had an hour-long interview with Bill Gates in Sydney for Australian television. My questions were well prepared. He listened to the question, was silent for a moment, and then gave a convincing grammatical answer. Amazing. As an interview it was like a dream.
On the other hand, I was very wrong on one. The interview with the late Tony Hancock, perhaps the greatest British comedian of his time, took place at the Sebel Town House in Sydney. It started out as a disaster because I hadn’t done enough homework. It balanced out after a while and in the end it worked reasonably well. It just so happens that it was the last interview ever given by Tony Hancock.
Then I did a series of interviews with members of my family. I stood by and let them ramble on what they thought of their siblings. It was electrifying. If you were a member of that family.
Write down all your questions and create follow-up questions in case you don’t get an answer, a good answer. Avoid questions that invite the one-word answer “yes” or “no.”
If you ask ‘Are you in favor of premarital sex?’ you will probably get a one word answer, which is not the idea at all.
Ask your questions so that they lead the interviewee to broaden their points of view. Your book suggests that you are against premarital sex. What are your views on this? ‘is much more likely to elicit a full and frank comment than the first question.
To avoid a “yes” or “no” answer, use the tried and true journalist technique of asking who, what, why, how, and when.
Neither of these can be answered with a direct “yes” or “no”.
Before the interview begins, you, the interviewer, must meet the subject and establish some kind of report. There are interviewers, a few, who can go cold and get a good result. But they are few and far between.
The preliminary talk is, so to speak, part of your research. With it you will establish the capacity of the interviewee to speak, express themselves, answer questions. This introductory talk may end with you modifying some of your questions.
In your introductory talk, avoid asking the specific questions that you will ask in the interview.
Instead, indicate general areas of interest. By asking the specific questions, the filmed interview will give the impression that it has been rehearsed.
Before starting the interview, have your key questions ready and ready. You need a certain amount of flexibility, but most of the time you will find that your first logical thoughts or order of questions is much better than one you compile while improvising.
There are two main ways to handle an interview.
The first is where the question is not heard and the questioner is not seen. Instead, you get responses that are obviously directed at someone who is out of line.
A series of responses like this can be edited together by one person or by several, to provide the effect of a continuous interview.
In this type of interview you ask the question and then keep your mouth shut. If any kind of reaction is needed, nod or shake your head vigorously or smile to cheer him up. If you speak, you will have to edit it later. Which is not always easy.
This technique can be seen to be used to magnificent effect in the movie ‘When Harry Met Sally’, which contains a series of such interviews with married couples describing their lives together. Magic.
The other type of interview is when you are both on the screen as in a normal conversation. This type of interview can be easily covered with a camera.
Shoot the interviewee’s responses first and then shoot the interviewer from where the interviewee has been sitting, asking the exact same questions. In the end, you make a series of ‘noddies’ that can be used for cuts.
The key to making such an interview work is to relax the person. Try to film them in a familiar setting so they don’t feel threatened. Keep camera work and lighting as discreet as possible.
The first question should be a sound level check and should be completely harmless.
Start the interview very smoothly in chat mode and always go seamlessly from soft to difficult questions.
Do not start out as a gang member or the interviewee will shut up or, in the worst case, leave. Happens.
At the end of the interview I always ask ‘Are there any questions that you would like me to ask you that I have missed?’
This allows the subject to expand at a point or occupy an area that it feels has been left out. It is quite remarkable how often you will get a great and helpful answer after that last question.
Start with a general shot of the interviewee in front of the interviewer. The interviewer’s back appears, giving the shot a three-dimensional look and putting the scene in context for the viewer. Change the shot sizes in time with the questions. New question, new framing.
Another form of video interviewing is vox pop – from vox populi, Latin for the voice of the people – they are quick interviews with people on the street to demonstrate public opinion on an issue.
What you want to finish is a series of statements that can be quickly cut and, in the end, give a clear indication of the current attitude on an issue.
To make the interview more interesting, change the shot size as a new question is asked. That is, turn off, zoom in from, say, take half to close-up, and then resume shooting again.
Use different backgrounds and different eye lines.
Calculate how many interviews you want and then shoot that number with maybe a 50% safety margin. Don’t keep shooting after that point. You could get useful images for another scene instead of wasting time. In vox pop, moderation is the key.
Note that subjects can move back and forth when making a point and can even wave their arms in the air and you need to be prepared for this so they are always on the plane. That the camera does not cut off parts of their bodies. Armless interviewees may be harmless interviewees, but that is not the point of the exercise.
