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Interview Workshop

Notes form the lecture:
  • VOX POPS (Voice of the People) - aren't representative, shows broad brush views. Often low production values, poorly shot and don't add to the story because characters/interviewees aren't carefully chosen – therefore often irrelevant or vague.
  • 3 TYPES OF DOCS:
     -Hard exposure – Investigative;
     -Informational – putting the audience in the picture;
     -Emotional – engaging with and revealing the subject’s emotions.
  • The perfect interviewee will add personal expertise and expirience to your film and the viewer will be able to engage emotionally.
  • WE INREVIEW
     -Experts (E.g scientists, doctors, lawyers) – use their professional expertise and opinion;
     -‘Ordinary people (Interested parties)  – relevant to subject;
     -Officials (e.g. Politicians, company executives etc.)– Appointed representatives.
  • While choosing an interviewee consider what they have and what they'll add to your film (Are they relevant to your film? Do tehy have charisma/’character’? Are they ‘good talkers’/engaging? Their prestige/importance?  Their ‘headline’ appeal, exclusivity, expertise. Are they a whistleblower?)

    PREPARING FOR AN ITERVIEW:
  • Know your subject inside out.
  • Work out how/where you are going to shoot the interview beforehand:
    - its location (where the person will be standing/sitting etc);
    - props (you can dress the interview setting);
    - camera position/framing;
    - LIGHTING and SOUND.
  • If they insist on seeing the questions, give them onlu question areas so the answers sound more natural and not rehearsed.
  • ASK OPEN QUESTIONS, avoid yes or no questions.
  • If the interviewer isn't in the frame, make sure the interviewee is giving full answers, avoid 'it', 'they' etc.
  • Always get consent forms filled out prior to the interview.
  • Give yourself at least an hour to set up.
  • Prior to beginning the interview ask the interviewee to spell out their name for the tape and their job description – this is useful information for your edit.
  • Don't speak while interviewee is answering questions.
  • All crew/cast to turn off/control all external sources of sound where possible (phones, radios,machines).
  • Place interviewees in an interesting/relevant setting.
    CAMERA
  • Vary the shot sizes – Do not stay on one shot size throughout the interview as this is impossible to edit
  • Use any breaks or re-takes in the interview as an opportunity to change shot size – this will allow you to edit the piece without resorting to needless cutaways which can be distracting.
  • When the interviewee is making a really good point slow zoom into a BCU/ECU.
  • Eyelines are best framed at one of the intersections.


  • When framing interviews, try to vary the L – R eyelines, so that not everyone looks in the same direction. This will allow you to cut between contributors without it looking too samey or having jump cuts.
  • Convention has established a sort of rule that opposing views are always shot with opposing eyelines.
  • Cutaways help if things go wrong.
  • Vary the focal length at least 20mm and 30degrees to cut from one shot to another. This difference ‘hides’ the edit.
Next day we had to film an interview using our prepared open questions. In the end we ended up mixing our questions together because all of us had only a few. 

During the workshop we had one main obstacle which was the horrible lighting in the studio, it gave our film a greenish tint, eventually we found a way how to make it look better - white balance the camera just under the fluorescent lights instead of both fluorescent and our led key light which probably confused the camera too much. In the end, as a camera operator, I wish I would have framed the interviewer better (a bit more on the left side instead of the center). 

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