Production

How to Interview People

Interviewing is a technical and creative art form. Aside from honing a student’s skills, different motivations generate different outcomes during an on-camera interview. A main goal is to discover how the student can connect the living environment with the world of people – the human beings shaping the perspectives that affect the topic on which the student will focus. While learning the interview process via the video essay, the student will discover how to 1) more deeply inquire, 2) help stakeholders articulate their needs, and 3) from the hyper-local perspective, process and synthesize the challenges that a community faces.

An effective interviewer often has the following traits:

Neutrality about the subject matter: understanding personal implicit biases before going into the interview.
Curiosity about the interview subject as well as about the subject matter being discussed: while interviewing, observe the subject—how they say something, their body language, tone of voice all speak volumes. Listen carefully to what they are conveying, and think about how that will sound in an edit.
Open-mindedness: During an interview, an interviewer should consider themselves a student, not an expert. Let the subject guide the interviewer in their belief systems for the duration of the interview. The goal is to deeply understand the subject being interviewed. It is not the interviewer’s job to correct them.
Be relaxed and flexible: Find a way to engage and be at ease in the process. Help the subject relax. Be flexible about how to approach questions and where the interview naturally flows.

Conducting the interview: The best way to approach an interview subject is to begin by asking them basic questions. After a 5 to 10-minute conversation, ask the subject if they would be open to answering a couple of questions on camera for a student project. Be clear that the project is for a class assignment and will not be distributed publicly.

To this end, the student producer can build trust during the initial conversation and reduce any reticence to talking on camera. This will also enable the student producer to briefly pre-screen the responses of their interview subject, which lends an opportunity to consider how to conduct the on-camera interview in order to seek the best response(s) as they relate to the interviewees’ perspective(s). For example: the student producer may want to repeat a question that has been asked before for which the subject had a good answer, or they may want to reframe a question asked previously to elicit a more in-depth response. The student must get the personal release forms signed (See Appendix VII for an example of the Personal Release for a Student Film) and they should record their voice and what is happening behind the camera during the filming process to learn from and document their experience.

*For more information on how to effectively conduct an interview and for examples of questions, please see Appendix IV.

Add video (mobile-video)

How to Use the Equipment

The sections below have been written so that you can easily copy and paste them into an assignment that you offer your students. Feel free to use these and the correlated appendices.

Angle the camera properly. (See Appendix VI)
Hold the camera horizontally, not vertically, if using a smartphone,
Stabilize a shot with a tripod (if needed)
Double check the framing of interviews and B-roll (See Appendix V and VI, for media literacy and filming tips). What are you capturing in your frame that will play into messaging?
Sound: Use personal headphones for playback. A loud clap can do the trick. Check for strong wind feedback, people talking in the background, loud vents blowing directly onto your microphone, or loud construction nearby. Pause briefly if a plane flies overhead. Remember: if you are using a smartphone, you cannot monitor the sound during the filming. Spot check your work to find whether there is a large amount of sound interruption (like planes, construction, music, chatter, etc…), or use a small sound mixer (found at Lamont Media Lab). If you use a separate device to record sound, find a way to sync your visual and audio recordings.
Natural lighting: help the subject look as good as possible. Position them so that as much natural light as possible is hitting their face directly. Do not film the subject with a window as a backdrop, as they may become silhouetted. Avoid overhead neon lights – it often creates unflattering shadows on one’s face and a sallow facial coloring.
Camera exposure: play with this tool if offered as an option on your camera. You can also play with exposure in the edit, but not as easily. You can often play with hue and saturation in the edit.
Add 1-2 sec padding on each end of the interview or shot. This makes editing easier when transitioning from one shot to another.
Keep written or verbal notes while interviewing or immediately afterward

To review

How to operate the smartphone or camera
Make data space available on the smartphone
How to download footage: be sure to know how to download footage before you are in the field!
Have an external hard drive and a second place to back up your project.
Think about how you structure the hierarchy of the organizing folders (this will force you to consider the inputs of your film in broad terms)

Framing and conducting an interview

How to Film the Built Environment (How to Shoot B-roll)

We will refer to the footage you will obtain of the living environment, and of the extra visuals you capture of people who are subjects of the film, as “b-roll.” This is a common term used in filmmaking. While an interview establishes the spoken story and an individual’s demeanor and tone, the b-roll establishes the visual story that supports a spoken narrative. For the purposes of this “how to” video essay tutorial, it is the additional and supplemental footage that is intercut with the main interview. B-roll is used to keep an audience engaged with what a subject is saying. It also helps when you need to make a “jump cut.” Again, for the purposes of this tutorial, a “jump cut” happens when you edit out a section of audio or visual in an interview and it very abruptly jumps from one section of the interview to another. For example, perhaps, the interview subject starts to go off topic briefly while answering your question and you cut out that section of the interview. This jump cut can be covered by b-roll.

During the making of your preliminary shot list (see Appendix III for an example of a shot list), think in advance about what you may want to capture.

Your shot list will be an evolving document that is edited as you discover new or opposing information and new interviews (and the supporting b-roll) based on your original story development.

Tips: what b-roll to shoot:

Footage of the area you plan to film
After you film each interview, capture relevant footage (perhaps referred to by an interviewee in comments), and other footage you believe you might use in the final edit to help tell the story. For example, if the interview subject discusses their home, be sure to get footage that establishes a wide angle of the exterior of the home, some medium-sized shots of the specific elements of the home referred to in the interview, and a few interesting details of the house. Be sure to list what you have filmed in your notes!
Film the interview subject in their environment, doing activities referred to in their interview (for example, fixing the house, walking into their home, using the water, passing by a problem property, etc.). Note: To ensure the privacy of an interview subject, avoid filming the house number, a car license plate, their mail or other identifying elements. Also, be aware of accidental “product placement.” (See Appendix V on Media Literacy)
Be thoughtful about all footage:
- Use simple tricks of the trade like a tripod shot, a steady pan, tracking shots, low angle, wide angle, tripod, etc… (See Appendix VI on Tips and Tricks of Filming)
- 180-degree rule
- If you have time, try to obtain a few varying shots of each element.

If you are establishing a shot of the neighborhood which is described as a “busy and lively residential area,” see if you can capture a shot of the area where it looks lively vs. a quiet street. If the person refers to their children, try to find a chance to film the children ‘being children,’ or get a few photographs if they exist.

NOTE: BE SURE TO GET RELEASES IF YOU CAN IDENTIFY ANY OF THE PEOPLE IN THE FOOTAGE.

To continue learning more, please go to Post-Production.

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