This week’s lectorial and reading was focused around interviewing and the best ways not only conduct yourself in an interview but create an environment for the interviewee to feel comfortable enough to open up in.

We had a guest lecturer in Louise Turley who works on the ABC program Back Roads , she gave a really helpful crash course in interviewing and simple do’s and don’ts to follow. I’ve never really thought about interviewing people, as I am much more comfortable behind the camera than in front of it, so this was a very helpful thing to learn.

A lot of the things seemed really obvious but I think are still really important aspects to keep in mind both in the pre production and during the interview itself. I never really considered how much pre production and drafting of questions goes into an interview, but I do understand that it is essential to make sure every question is well sculpted, questions that are not too closed off or too being lead to a certain answer.

One of the main areas of the readings I found really interesting was the idea of framing questions to elicit feelings from the interviewee, focusing on getting them to tell you and the audience a story more than just the facts of the events. Things like this are what seperate great interviewers from amateur ones, and I hope to learn as much as possible for when I have to conduct my own interview.