Video Interviews 101

The articles, “Loosening Lips: The Art of the Interview” and “10 Tips for Dramatically Improving Your Videojournalism Stories” shows how to capture compelling interviews. Journalists have to be able to dig deep in order to get a great story. You may have 10 questions ready but you may not be able to get the story you want. It is usually the type of method you use to ask the question or start off with conversations so that your person is comfortable to talk to you. The little things in a normal conversations can be the biggest key to getting a good story in an interview.

My video interview is about a girl who used to be a gymnast but started playing golf after she had a wrist injury. People will want to hear about what happened to her and how she got the injury. I would definitely start off with very simple questions. This will make her feel more comfortable and as the interview progresses, I will start asking more complexed questions. At this point hopefully she will be able to open up and give a great story. So questions for the interview should be very important. I do not want to ask her questions that will lead me into a road block.

I definitely love using the silent pause in my interviews because that is when people will actually start talking. It may feel a little awkward but it can be a great tool to have. Whenever I did my video practice, I used the silent pause in my interview and it worked. She opened up more and told more about her gymnastics career. So with the next interview I hope it turns out exactly that way. To make my video interview a lot better is to get a variety of B-Roll. At this point I have gotten a lot of clips with her swing the golf club and putting the ball. Now I am going to add in pictures of her doing her gymnastics and putting that as a B-Roll when she talks about her gymnastics career.

Narrative arc is something that is good to use if you would want to keep an audience watching the video. Start off with just an introduction to what she is doing now and just the general stuff. Halfway through the interview, I will start asking about how she got injured and how it affected her. That will lead to a certain climax and it will end up with a resolution as I will ask her questions about where she is now with her golf game and if she is happy with the way things are now in her life. That basically is my angle to make a good video interview.