The art of the interview was the subject for week five in Media one and something I’m really passionate about.
Although I have mostly had experience interviewing in print and online article styles, to get the inside knowledge on filmic interviews from Louise Turley was incredibly eye-opening.
Louise went through the foundations of a good interview from the five W’s: Who, What, Where, When and Why to the difference between open and close-ended questions. Louise also spoke about environmental aspects of an interview such as the lighting, what’s going on in the background and even what the interviewee is wearing. Again, these environmental aspects are things I’ve never had to think about since I just record interviews on my iPhone and transcribe them into text.
The reading, “Conducting and Shooting Interviews” by Michael Rabiger was a lead-in to the lecture this week and a quote that resonated deeply with me from the reading was from Ray Carney: “We are constantly negotiating our identities through interaction with others.”
This sums up the reasons why we do what we do and create, talk and interview others. To find our place in the world.The reading contained more preparation tips such as practicing your questions, speaking aloud and listening to your voice. The camera and editing considerations were incredibly interesting as I didn’t realise there were technical names for various interviewing camera positions. The “on-axis” and “off-axis” interviews are something I’ll be noticing more when watching television or documentaries.
- “What camera angle are they using?”
- “Why is the interviewer edited out?”
- “Why is the interviewer being kept in?”
Overall this was an educational lecture and reading (you’d hope so) and given me some more context and tips for my assignment.