29 March, 2017

Media Lecture – 5

Louise Turley who are the producer of Back Roads and employee of the ABC gave us the speech about ‘The Art of the Interview’ in this week’s lecture. After then, Mr. Brian discussed ‘Documentary Form Narrative’, which about narrative, the protagonist and antagonist.

At the beginning of the lecture, we discussed the existence forms of media and watched a video called ‘Back Roads’. Turley pointed out five crucial elements when doing the interview, which are WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN and WHY. She explained each of them separately and clearly. Moreover, questions we prepared for the interview is also necessary. There are three types of questions, which are close-ended questions, open-ended question and leading questions.

These basic information and instruction about how to prepare for the interview is exactly useful for the newcomer who are the first time prepare for the interview. Fortunately, I did the interview when I studied in the Foundation program in Sydney. It is really a hard work to prepare and think about everything we need to do for the interview. I think clear the main topic of the interview is the first step so that we can make sure what’s the type of the interviewees I will select. Moreover, the prepared questions is necessary because the interviewer cannot waste time during the interview and questions need to be sample and easy to understand. The location where I will interview is also needed to think about because it is a good choice if we can create a comfortable or relaxable environment for the interviewees. This would makes the interviewees feel relax and do not feel nervous during the interview, so that we could get good responses from them. In addition, listening to the interviewees and maintain eye contact are necessary because the interviewees could know you are pay attention to them. Be respectful and show empathy are good way to encourage the interviewees to think more ideas.

After five minutes break, Mr. Brian taught about ‘what is narrative’ and provided some key elements of story, such as controlling idea, character, conflict, structure and character change or growth. Moreover, the protagonist and antagonist are two important roles in the story.

At the end of the lecture, three act narrative structure was discussed and this also related to this week’s reading. ACT 1 is the set up and the first plot point, ACT 2 is the second act complications and the second turning point, ACT 3 is the climax and resolution. Finally, Mr. Brian showed us the video called ‘ Mistaken for Strangers’ to help us to understand the three act narrative structure better.