A Perfect Interview

An Interview is very important in a news package and it must be done in a professional way to create a great package. If you can follow these 5 simple tips you'll have a great interview.

1) Location and set
You want a location that is quit and still ideal for the story. You want to have a good audio recording so you need to isolate you and the interviewee from any loud and distracting noises. But at the same time you want the location to be relevant. For example, last year I did a story over the weights and P.E. classes and made a huge mistake by interviewing the person right by the weights room in the hall way. All you could hear in the interview was iron slamming more iron, over and over again. The audio was horrible. A better area for such an interview would have probablly have been in a secluded area of the gym where there wouldn't have been as much noise. That would have worked because it is quit and you still have a relevant location behind your interviewee.

2) Framing
The framing is very important because it is what the viewer will be seeing and it can be done the right way and the wrong way. You want to see the interviewees face. not the side of his face, not his waist, not his feet, his face. it is very simple. level your tripod to the level of the interviewees head and shoot from over your shoulder, making the interviewee look right past the camera. Don't get too close to his face, you don't want too make it too dramatic, but make sure you can see his shoulders up. if you are doing a double interview then yes, zoom out and be sure to have both of them fit the frame.

3) Lighting
Its an easy one but still, from time to time you'll make the mistake of interviewing next to or in front of a window. You want to have a fully lit area so that there won't be any major shadows being casted onto your interviewee.

4) Be Thorough
When you meet your interviewee be firm and prompt with them. Introduce yourself and tell them what you need from them to make a good interview. Things like looking at you, repeating the question, and elaborating the answers to your questions. You don't want them to go crazy eyes on you and have them looking any where but your face. You also want them to restate the question...on every question. Often I will tell them to restate the questions and they only restate the first question and they forget to restate the rest of them. if they don't restate the question that sound bite becomes less valuable because it is hard to understand what that person is talking about while in editing. You also need them to be elaborate on their answers but also not go into full detail. they need to make each word they say valuable in that it gets the point across without ranting on and on about it. Always be thorough with them and make sure they understand why you have them do little things like repeating a question in their answers.

5)  Editing
After the interview the tools of editing are your best friends. Rarely will you ever get a perfect sound bite from someone. You will have to play around with the interview, mashing up bites and pieces and making them look seamless. But no worries, your B-Roll will mask any obvious jumps in the interview.  while your getting interviews always keep editing in mind. It will help you think about what your final product will look like.