Shooting an Interview
It might not be 60 Minutes, (more like 15 minutes!) but if you want to make your interviews shine like Ed Bradley's on CBS, read on!
Videotaping interviews is as ubiquitous as weddings and baseball games. There are a few tips and tricks that can turn fifteen questions in the back yard with your parents into a professional looking document.
There are several styles of interviewing, and you should choose the style that works best for your particular project.
1) Interviewer is visible and audible -- think TV talk show -- Oprah, the Tonight Show, etc. Often used when you have a celebrity or professional journalist as the interviewer. The audience is interested in the question and the questioner as well.
2) Interviewer is not visible, but audible -- allows you to get close up reactions of the subject. The questions themselves are important, but the subject's reactions are more so. Think "press conference."
3) Interviewer not visible or audible -- this is a common method of getting the subject to narrate. Recently the HBO miniseries "Band of Brothers" began with interview snippets from WWII survivors, their commentary set the stage for each episode -- but without hearing or seeing the interviewer, the viewer was left with a more intimate perspective, as though the interviewees were speaking directly to them.
Mimic the Masters
Your homework assignment for this week is to pay attention to every interview you see on television -- from the news, to comedy shows, to late night, to documentaries. What are the producers doing that makes the interview work? Is there anything they could be doing better? How is the background? How is the light? What kind of light was it? How much time do you think they spent in preparation? Are they using a shallow depth of field, or a deep one?
Be Prepared
Just like the Boy Scouts say. The better prepared you are, the better your interview will be and the less annoyed your subject will be. In the case of busy people, like corporate executives or politicians, minimize their time on set as much as possible, they have other things to do rather than sit around and watch you take light meter readings. Use a stand-in while setting up lights and testing equipment. Always arrive on time with equipment you've tested and set up before. If necessary, rehearse setting up first. Be prepared for changes as well. Sure, they told you it was a 15x18-foot room, but anticipate that you may have to move to a 9x8-foot room at the last minute.
Lights! Camera! Lights!
A large percentage of interviews are shot using standard three-point lighting. It's called standard for a reason. If you aren't familiar with setting it up, start practicing. Even if you're not using it, you will some day. Like not knowing whom the first vice president was, you don't want to be caught looking like a fool. Softboxes are very nice for casting beautiful soft light. For best results, get your softbox as close as possible. Window light is the old standby, everything else it just an imitation. If your interview is brief and there's good natural light, don't look a gift horse in the mouth.
Shoot Coverage and Reaction Shots
You may remember the scene in Broadcast News when TV anchor William Hurt shocks his camera crew by being able to cry at will, not while listening to a sad story, but rather after the story had been taped. It's common for the camera crew to tape "reaction shots" -- which are images of the interviewer nodding, brooding, acknowledging, listening, etc. (But not "crying on cue," which serious journalists would consider unethical.) Then you can cover up jump cuts during editing later. Also, shoot coverage shots of things like the subject's hands. At the same time you may want to record "room tone" -- which is the ambient sound of the room with no one talking. 30 seconds of this might save you in the editing room when you need to cut in some quiet and not have it sound strange.
