Shooting the interview

Interviews can make a video more interesting and fun. On TV, you'll see three kinds of interviews.

1. A "two shot" of the person asking the questions and the person answering them. This is most often seen in the news, or in an informal setting.

2. A one shot of the person being interviewed, cutting away to a one shot of the person asking the questions. Again used often in news and "60 Minutes" type shows. Using this format, you hear the question as well as the answer.

3. A one shot of the person being interviewed. In this format, you never hear the questions being asked. Rather, the comments made by the person being interviewed help move the story or video along. A&E's "Biography" is a prime example of using interview sound bites to advance the story.

Of these formats, #3 is the most challenging, but has great impact in an original video production. Here are a few rules to handle this type of interview.

Fill the screen with your subject. Frame the shot so it's just "head and shoulders" or "head to waist". Keep the background darker than the subject if you can.

Tell your subject look at either the interviewer OR the camera, but not both!

Have your subject SAY and SPELL his/her name at the beginning of the tape. While this won't show up on your edited video, it gives you the information needed for creating titles and "lower third" graphics.

Ask your subject to pause a moment before answering your question. Also have him/her finish the comment, and then pause for a moment or two. This gives the editor a few moments of silence at the beginning and end of the comment for clean editing.

The subject should answer in a complete sentence. Since the question will not be heard by the viewer, it makes no sense if the subject says, "At the prom." The subject should say, "I first met Bob at the prom."

Don't ask yes/no questions. Instead of asking, "Was it dangerous to climb the mountain?" try to ask an open-ended question. Something like, "What dangers or hazards did you face when you climbed the mountain?"

Be prepared to ask a follow-up question based on what the subject says. "You were almost killed in the climbing accident? Tell me more."

When the subject answers, be quiet and listen. No one wants to hear you saying "uh-huh" while the subject talks. Instead, smile and nod and give the subject non-verbal encouragement.

Keep answers short. Don’t let people ramble when all you want is a 15 second sound bite.

If you are unhappy with the length of the answer, shoot another take. Don't be afraid to prompt your subject for what you want to hear: "I really liked that part when you told about being on-board that battleship during the war. Could you answer my question again and just tell me about that?"

Pre-roll and post-roll camera for at least 10 seconds between every take. Use a tripod!!

Use an auxiliary mike or keep the camera close to the subject. Eliminate background noise.

At the end of the interview, ask the subject if there is anything else he/she wants to share. You may get something very interesting that you never thought of.

Shoot one or two cutaways to hide edits. This could be a close-up of the subject's hands folded in her lap, or of something the subject is talking about. An example: while the subject talks about the battleship, you could remember to shoot some footage of a photo of that ship to use in editing.

Remember that most interview clips will be only a sentence or two in length in your final video. Keep them short and keep them interesting. Think of them as "sound bites" that you see and hear on TV news.