Introduction:

• The Interview as a process to draw people’s stories from them has a strong power to impress the audience. Before I read Rabiger’s introduction to the interview, I got a few questions and misunderstandings about it. For example, I am unsure about the authenticity of the interview. In other words, are filmmakers supposed to guide interviewees to give the purposed answer or just let interviewees answer the question freely? Hopefully, this reading solves my doubt and introduce the information systematically. There are some significant points I want to record for future use.

Pre-production:

• Research is obviously a necessary process to plan an interview and come up with valuable questions. The more we research, the deeper we can explore the issue. For example, I have interviewed the manager of Lentil as Anything and record it as a short documentary. Although I did some research about the operational mode of the restaurant and ask the manager and customers opinions about it, I didn’t have enough information and strong data to support me to learn more about it: if it can help solve the issue of the homeless community?
• I used to have a misunderstanding about the interview process. I thought filmmakers should leave the chance of the first meet and interview for the real shooting. However, we actually can meet them and ask the information we need to plan the ‘general script’ for our documentary. It is significant and useful because we can find suitable interviewees and find the key point we want to present in our documentary.

Production & Post-production:

• Shooting place
  • The space of the interview also can be seen as an element to convey the sense of the documentary. Besides, the feeling of the interviewee should also be considered in the process of choosing a place. For instance, the interviewee would like to give more intimate information if they feel familiar with the place. (Rabiger 2009) From my perspective, It is better to film insider to avoid the changes in the lighting condition. Otherwise, the editor has to finish the color correction before color-grading.
• People
  • The people related to the interviewee but off-camera is also can be influential. They could reinforce the emotion of the interviewee or distractive them. (Rabiger 2009)

• • People feel more comfortable to talk and perform more natural in front of the camera when they are in a group or with their friend. If the filmmaker wants to film a group of people, it’s better to film them together rather than interview them one by one.
• Shot size
  • For fiction films, filmmakers often use multiple size shots to make the film more interesting and diverse and keep the audience’s attention. However, it is not necessary for documentaries. It even could increase the workload for the editor. As a result, the documentary filmmakers often use one-size shot to film the interview, especially mid-shot. Sometimes, they use a wide shot to show the environment and close-up to show the intense sensation. However, the subjects’ eyes must be in the same part of the frame. (Rabiger 2009)

• Tips:
  • Vox Pop: the question of Vox Pop is supposed to be simple and straightforward.
  • Tell the interviewee to repeat the question in his/her answers

‘Good interviewing comes from really listening’ (Rabiger, 2009, p.466)

• • Be a good listener and interact with the interviewee, such as eye contact, facial reactions, and comment.

 

Reference:

Rabiger, M 2009, ‘CONDUCTING AND SHOOTING INTERVIEWS’, Directing the Documentary, Taylor & Francis Group, ProQuest Ebook Central database.