Interview Techniques
-When writing questions for a documentary it is important to consider open and closed questioning. Closed questions require simple 'yes or no' answers, these are not very good for in depth interview, though closed questions may serve to open up new topics. For interviews and documentaries, it is far better to come up with open questions, these require more thought out answers and can often lead to further questioning.
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-The way in which an interview is recorded also plays a part in how effective an interview can be. For each of Louis' documentaries, he is always out on location, filming on the interviewee's turf, never at a film studio or set, it is always up to those he is interviewing as to where they film. This approach not only gives off a more casual look to the documentary, but will also add to the interviewee feeling as though they are in a comfortable space to talk/that they are in control, and as such can feel free to say what they really feel. It is this that a number of interviewers tend to miss out on, how much more a person will reveal if they feel more comfortable/at ease in their own surroundings. Allowing a subject to naturally lead an interview is a great way to get them to open up, as opposed to running right for them with a microphone.
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-Camera angles and editing play a fair part in how a conversation is constructed for a documentary. Editing can turn a friendly conversation into an aggravated or awkward one. So it is vitally important to ensure that the original meaning behind a conversation remains through the edit. Camera angles also work to create a sense of the interview and highlight relationship between the interviewer and interviewee. It allows the audience to understand the atmosphere of the interview. Close ups can be used when important details are being explained, wide shots can show either distance between the pairing, or their closeness. Whichever way the camera is used, it is an important factor to consider when planning out an interview.
My personal interviewing style will borrow from what I've learned by watching Louis Theroux's documentaries. I arranged all of my interviews to be filmed wherever my interviewees wished to be talked to, and as this was their place of work it also added further context to the subject of the documentary and showed the audience what the charities I was researching looked like. Knowing that open ended questioning is a better way to research a topic, so I wrote all of my questions with this in mind, hoping to find out more about the charities from those that run them as they would likely have more interesting and more in depth details about the charities than I would. As the focus of the documentary was on the charities themselves, and the struggles that the owners have to deal with to keep the charities running, my camera work and editing was arranged in a way to put all of the focus onto the interviewees.
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-The way in which an interview is recorded also plays a part in how effective an interview can be. For each of Louis' documentaries, he is always out on location, filming on the interviewee's turf, never at a film studio or set, it is always up to those he is interviewing as to where they film. This approach not only gives off a more casual look to the documentary, but will also add to the interviewee feeling as though they are in a comfortable space to talk/that they are in control, and as such can feel free to say what they really feel. It is this that a number of interviewers tend to miss out on, how much more a person will reveal if they feel more comfortable/at ease in their own surroundings. Allowing a subject to naturally lead an interview is a great way to get them to open up, as opposed to running right for them with a microphone.
-
-Camera angles and editing play a fair part in how a conversation is constructed for a documentary. Editing can turn a friendly conversation into an aggravated or awkward one. So it is vitally important to ensure that the original meaning behind a conversation remains through the edit. Camera angles also work to create a sense of the interview and highlight relationship between the interviewer and interviewee. It allows the audience to understand the atmosphere of the interview. Close ups can be used when important details are being explained, wide shots can show either distance between the pairing, or their closeness. Whichever way the camera is used, it is an important factor to consider when planning out an interview.
My personal interviewing style will borrow from what I've learned by watching Louis Theroux's documentaries. I arranged all of my interviews to be filmed wherever my interviewees wished to be talked to, and as this was their place of work it also added further context to the subject of the documentary and showed the audience what the charities I was researching looked like. Knowing that open ended questioning is a better way to research a topic, so I wrote all of my questions with this in mind, hoping to find out more about the charities from those that run them as they would likely have more interesting and more in depth details about the charities than I would. As the focus of the documentary was on the charities themselves, and the struggles that the owners have to deal with to keep the charities running, my camera work and editing was arranged in a way to put all of the focus onto the interviewees.
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