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Keith Kyker and Christopher Curchy
Interviewing Skills for Television Production
Have you ever sent a student reporter to get an on-camera "interview" with a
faculty member, fellow student, or administrator about a school event only to
watch the recorded segment and find out it is unusable because of the technical
and talent mistakes?
Of course you have...almost everyone has too! Why? Because most television production students arrive in our classrooms with a wide variety of background experiences, or no experiences at all in the areas of TV production. A 7th grade Math teacher can expect his/her students to have similar prior experiences in multiplication, division, decimals and so forth. They have a frame of reference for working in mathematics and building new skills based on prior skills learned in previous grades in school. A 7th grade Television Production teacher, or media specialist, might have one or two students in a class who have taken a media class or worked on a school's news show, but even their experiences were probably very different. They may or may not have the skills needed to successfully complete an interview. Each individual television production teacher organizes materials and accomplishes TV tasks to meet their program and school goals. So we tend to have lots of kids doing lots of TV stuff, but not necessarily students learning TV skills in a sequential and organized manner.
Be prepared to teach every skill to every student. The skills you don't teach, they probably will never learn. That is why you must first teach the skills of interviewing for both the reporter and the videographer before sending them out to conduct an interview for your class or school news show.
One of the first skills of interviewing is realizing that an interview is more than just a few questions you ask a person about a topic or event. An interview is like a story: it should have a good beginning, a middle, and an ending. The beginning of an interview is called the introduction. This is the part of the interview when you introduce your guest to the viewers. An introduction should include the guest's name and title, and also include one or two important items that the viewer should know about the guest. It can even include the reason why this particular guest is being interviewed.
EXAMPLE: Hello, and welcome to another edition of
Senior Snapshot. Today we will be talking with Senior Davrin Klenck about his DJ
business. Davrin has been a DJ for five years and has some good ideas and
stories about the DJ business.
The second section of the interview contains the questions you ask your guest.
Teach your students to ask only open-ended questions. Those are questions that
need more than one or two words to answer.
BAD EXAMPLE: How long have you been a DJ?
GOOD EXAMPLE: Can you tell us how you became interested in being a DJ?
Have your students write down their questions and discuss them with you prior to
leaving the classroom and recording the interview. After a few interviews, your
students will become more adept at writing good open-ended questions.
The third section of the interview is the conclusion. In this section, the
interviewer should thank the guest and also briefly summarize some part of the
interview. I also teach my students to end each interview with a "tag" – their
name and the name of our school news program.
EXAMPLE: Thank you Davrin for talking with us about your DJ business today. We
look forward to seeing and hearing your work at next month's Valentine's Day
Dance. Reporting for WDOC News, I'm Summer Balsley.
Another intricate part of interviewing that you must teach your students is
camera presence. That is, when to look at the camera and when to look at the
guest. All too often novice interviewers stand like cardboard cutouts staring at
the camera during the entire length of the interview. Tell your students that an
interview is like a conversation with a friend, and the camera is just there to
represent the viewing audience. When you are speaking to the audience (the
introduction), you should be looking at the camera lens. When you are asking the
questions, you are speaking to your guest, and you should maintain eye contact
with your guest. The interviewer can even nod occasionally, showing genuine
interest in their responses to the questions. If the interviewer looks away from
the guest, or (gasp!) down at some questions written on an index card in their
hands, he/she looks disinterested in the guest's responses. The interviewer
should not look back to the camera until the conclusion. Keep looking at the
guest as you thank them, and slowly turn to the camera as you begin your tag.
Students should be coached on how to make these transitions smoothly, rather
than an abrupt "military style" turn. One of the best ways to instruct students
on camera presence is to have them watch one or two good interviews and point
out these examples. It is also beneficial to have them watch one or two "bad"
examples too. Often by critiquing what is wrong with an interview, students can
learn to avoid those pitfalls.
Some other important tips you can teach your reporters while doing
interviews:
- Memorize your introductions, questions, and
conclusions.
- Learn to properly use a microphone. Hold the
microphone about six inches below your chin. Use the arm that is next to the
guest to hold the microphone so that you do not reach across your body when
you move the microphone.
- Remain calm during the interview.
- Share the questions with your guest so they can be prepared too! This can be done just prior to the on-camera interview, or even a day before if there is adequate time.
The videographer should also be taught some critical skills necessary for properly recording the interview. How many times have your students returned with a recorded interview that has the first few words or the last few words "cut-off" because the videographer forgot (or did not know ) to "roll" tape before and after the interview? Camcorders do not immediately start recording the split-second the trigger is pushed, so it is necessary to teach your videographers to start at least 10-15 seconds prior to the start of the interview. If a mistake is made during the interview, KEEP ROLLING tape and have the interviewer start over. After the interviewer's tag, KEEP ROLLING tape for 10-15 seconds while the guest and reporter smile, so that you do not have the tape go to "snow" immediately following the last word of the tag. This is important when you are rolling the interview into a news show or program. It helps when editing tapes too!
The background scenes can add a lot visually to
the interview. Avoid setting up the camera so that a flat wall or building is
all the viewer sees behind the subjects. Try to use a background that adds to
the content of the interview, rather than detracts from the visual appeal of the
shot. If you are interviewing the ceramics instructor, try to have the shot set
up so that students can be working in the background on art projects. Perhaps
you can place the camera so that finished pottery pieces are used as a
background. Remember the visual appeal of the shot is just as critical as the
information.
Left image: The videographer should select a
background that adds to the visual appeal of the shot. Right image: Avoid
placing subjects in front of walls and buildings that can detract from the
visual appeal of your shot.
Speaking of visual appeal, make sure all the videographers know how to use a
tripod, white balance their cameras, and use the manual focus while recording
the interview. Nothing is more distracting than having the focus go in and out
during the interview because the autofocus mechanism isn't quite sure where to
focus. A good videographer is just as important as a good reporter when
conducting an interview.
Interviewing is a skill that must be taught to both the reporter and the
videographer. Don't rely on past experiences – or no experiences – when sending
students on an assignment.
If you need some resources for interviewing skills, check out Video Projects for
Elementary & Middle Schools (Project: Meet My Friend & other interview projects)
or Television Production: A Classroom Approach. Both books are
available from Libraries Unlimite(http://www.lu.com)
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