Research into Interview Techniques

My initial plan for this task was to go away and research using the library into interview techniques, so that when it came time to do my 2 minute interview for Practice Enrichment and later Intro to Factual I would have knowledge to work from and I could reflect on what worked and what didn't. When I failed to find any books that would be helpful to me in this regard, I instead turned to online resources. I found the following article which turned out to include some good information, and I am going to share what I thought were some of the most useful parts of it below - http://www.desktop-documentaries.com/interviewing-tips.html

Prepare Your Questions - In this regard I was extremely well prepared for my Practice Enrichment interview. I know that my brother loves the Grand Theft Auto games so I decided that I would interview him about this. However I made a crucial mistake here....

Don't Give Out Specific Questions In Advance - I made the mistake of telling my brother what I was going to interview him about. If I hadn't have done this then maybe the interview wouldn't have come across as conversational and loose as I did. I wish I had done this interview more professionally, which leads me to the next point.

Keep your mouth shut - I shouldn't have talked as much behind the camera as I did. I fact I shouldn't have at all and edited me asking the questions out. This is another thing that made the interview seem loose and conversational. On the plus side it can be said that this interview had energy, but just seemed unprofessional.

Proper Positioning of Interviewee - This is one thing that I think that I got right or at least made a good attempt at. I had my subject framed well with proper use of the Rule of Thirds. I also liked the fact he happened to have our cat in his lap at the time, because everyone loves animals on screen.

As I have already mentioned, I think that the nature of this interview was too unprofessional and conversation like. With him being my brother and knowing me well, as well as knowing what I was going ask him before hand, he didn't take the interview as seriously as he might have. This handling of the interviewees was something that I bore in mind when going into our Intro to Factual film. However, in the end these interviews had the opposite problem. They were too stiff and languid. Though we prepared our questions, we perhaps should have paid more attention to Getting The Interviewees Comfortable rather than just firing the questions at them. Overall what I have learned is that you have to strike the right balance between these two. Keep the interview looking and feeling professional, not just like a piece of banter, but make sure the subject is comfortable and therefore able to open up with substantial answers.