I’m not going to lie. My interest in media started in the analog days, so my newly coined position description of ‘content creator’ actually derives from my days chasing the paid title of ‘journalist’.

The problem here is that ‘content creator’ can mean many different things to different organisations and businesses. As far as I’m concerned, I’m a story-teller. I use different media skills to tell stories.

Stories can be used traditionally or to sell/promote a business or body of work. But this is where things become complicated and it’s hard for me to truthfully pin down just one person I respond to…

So, I’m going to cover one practitioner who represents my core skill as a person who loves presenting and showcasing great stories.

Andrew Denton

I began my media-making journey as a kid interested in broadcast journalism. It was at a time where analog began evolving into digital but my influences have always been journalists with certain engaging interviewing styles that draw out great stories. Andrew Denton is one of them. I used to particularly enjoy Enough Rope and is it any wonder he introduced Chasers to TV. Comedy and social commentary are one of my favourite things.  But I digress. Here are some pearls of wisdom from the man himself:

On what makes a great interview:

‘It’s no great secret. If the guest is enjoying him- or herself, they’re going to give a great interview. When the actor Gabriel Byrne was on the show earlier this year, one of my producers, Jon Casimir, came up with a brilliant idea. We found out that one of his earlier jobs was putting eyes on teddy bears in a factory. We got a teddy bear and sewed two eyes together on one of the sides of its head and during the interview, I pulled out this teddy bear and said, “Is this one of yours?” He laughed so much. You knew you were seeing the real Gabriel Byrne. He was gone. That has far more value – and always will – than 15 well-thought-out questions.’ (Steve Dow, 2005, para 4)

Seeing as I’ve enjoyed co-directing videos and now find myself meeting different personalities to film interviews on, this quote means a lot. The last thing we want is someone’s nerves to shadow the story and creating rapport is so important when producing videos! That is why I am currently meeting subjects before filming stories for a web series I am working on at work because the outcome promises to be a lot better.

Reference

Steve Dow, 2005, Interviewers: Andrew Denton, Viewed 18 Sept 2018