Camper Interviews

egproductions

egproductions

Veteran
So I film camps over the summer. I do a Girls camp and a boys camp. Each week we do interviews with the intention of getting quick sound bites about what they did that week. The girls are sweet, articulate and do well on camera. The boys on the other hand beg to be interviewed, are incredible energentic in camp, but when they are put in front of the camera they forget English and get so serious. I've tried so many approaches but nothing seems to help. I talk to them, help them develop a line or even feed them lines. Nothing seems to help.

Any tips for natural sounding interviews with real energy, laughter or emotion?
 
Top of my head:

Have another boy interview them....feed that kid the questions, but let the two of them interact.

Do two ups and get them to feed off each other.

Come up with some icebreakers, perhaps asking them about non-camp stuff first. Fav book/athlete/film? Goofiest thing the kid sitting next to them did during camp...that take some guidance to keep light-hearted. Weirdest food they ate during camp. Tell me your favorite joke.

Give them an audience... Have five-six of their camp friends (if you can identify them) sit behind you.

Ya, boys can be tough. Good luck!
 
Don't do sit-down interviews with them. It's unnatural for them and the boys are like little monkeys that want to move around and fiddle with stuff. So find out what activity they like and then have them do it while you film them. A boy showing you how he does rock climbing, shoots hoops or builds something in wood shop will be far more natural for him and likely far more interesting footage for you. Just be sure to get some closeups and cutaways of the activity for B-roll so you can edit the material.
 
Mitch Gross said:
Don't do sit-down interviews with them. It's unnatural for them and the boys are like little monkeys that want to move around and fiddle with stuff. So find out what activity they like and then have them do it while you film them. A boy showing you how he does rock climbing, shoots hoops or builds something in wood shop will be far more natural for him and likely far more interesting footage for you. Just be sure to get some closeups and cutaways of the activity for B-roll so you can edit the material.
Click to expand...

Thank you Mitch, I'm definitely going to try this. Although I might not be able to pull them aside at an activity (the logistics of the day are challenging), I'm going to get them to show and describe to me the things they love and how they do them. Hopefully that should yield some good sound bites that are natural that aren't so cookie cutter.

When these same boys are in school, they realy think and are smart but at camp, they turn that part of their brain off completley, it's the darndest thing!
 
Doing soundbites can be a little tough for solid audio - personally I just jam in on my 16 with a top mic - you can wire them but that is a hassle.

A couple of thoughts.. ask people about other people (that you have filmed!)

Simon - tell me about Josh.
Josh - tell me about Simon

Simon.. 'Josh our instuctor is awesome'
Josh. 'Simon has really developed over the week'

--

The second though.. pile in with the top mic. Keep it simple. One statement might be enough.

Caisy Neisat is brilliant (or was before going up himself?) at simple soundbites 'we are in cairo' 'Im late for the plane'

--

This might be of interest to you. (I shot/edited) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfEQ1tSb1L8

S
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top