Basic Training: Shooting an Interview
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…
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