How to approach a quick interview, need some advice!

T

tomperson

Active member
Hi all.
I'm an aspiring doc filmmaker. I've been reading and reading and reading here, gotten a few books, etc. Now I'm wanting to get some hands on practice. I'm currently editing my first mini doc about a trip to the borders of the city, we went to some incredible places (an ecologic farm, a garbage recycling plant, etc). I took it as an excercise, mostly. So, I'm kind of looking to whatever i can document (simple subjects, nothing too fancy, little or no production at all) to train myself.

Now, when coming to work i saw this guy with a violin playing in the streets to get a few bucks. He had a sign that said that he's travelling the six continents with nothing but an "empty case" and his violin. I instantly thought "how interesting, he must have a ton of anecdotes".

I'd like to do an interview to him. What i'd like to know is how to approach it. We probably won't have fancy locations (such as the doc i'm editing now), and little time, if any, to prepare an interview, cos he probably will leave the country soon.

Some noob Qs:

How would you approach the guy to get an interview?
How would you keep the chat flowing?
What to ask? What not to ask?
What to film?
What locations would you use? I thought about a café or bar, something like that.
How to make the interview interesting?
What other things should I take into account?
What to give in return for his time and willingness to be interviewed? I mean, i don't have money, is it ok to assume that he will do it for his love of art, and maybe a free meal? :undecided

My setup is a Canon HV20, a tripod, and a Rode VideoMic with Deadcat. That's it. Not much, so any advice to get the best out of it is more than welcome.

Anything you can say regarding a situation such as this is more than welcome.

Bye and thanks in advance!!!
 
How would you approach the guy to get an interview?
I think a guy like this, in my experiences working in network news, might be more than willing to talk. If he has such a sign with him, well then, he cant be THAT shy. Its important to establish from the beginning what your intentions are, that you think he has an interesting story and you want to be the one to tell it to others.

How would you keep the chat flowing?
This is really dependent on what you ask him. The key to interviewing, as anyone will tell you is to avoid the yes and no answer questions. You want to ask him things that will prompt elaboration, stories, etc. That’s the way to keep a chat going. Try and make it a conversation, but don’t talk to much, as you want him to do all the talking.

What to ask? What not to ask?
This is up to you really, as you and only you know what you want to do with the film. If he wants to play the violin all over the world, well there are a number of things you can ask. What inspired him to do this? When did he have the idea, how did it come about? Is he doing it for a bigger reason than just playing the violin, how does he finance his trips, how long has he played violin, and on and on and on.

What to film?
Other than the interview, your going to want to get some shots of him playing obviously, to cover the soundbytes with as he speaks. Some sound of him talking about his love of playing, with the nat sound of him playing underneath might sound good. Also some shots of people watching him play as cutaways, be a good way to construct how people react to him.


What locations would you use? I thought about a café or bar, something like that.
You might want to try and make this a public place, a park, or something like that. As soon as you delve into using a privately owned place, it opens up a whole new can of worms you might not be ready to take on. Whether they want compensation, some form of plugola or playola, something along those lines. The park might be perfect, actually, and a good place for him to play.

How to make the interview interesting?
This again depends on you, and what you ask. If he is as interesting as you think, it wont take any work at allJ

What to give in return for his time and willingness to be interviewed? I mean, i
don't have money, is it ok to assume that he will do it for his love of art, and
maybe a free meal?
Free meals are where its at. And if this guy is traveling the world, and hasn’t got any money, well then free meals are likely the most valuable thing you can give him.
 
I may end up repeating some of what atlcHEROKEE had to say, but that red font made my head hurt. Ouch.

I think if the guy is out on the street performing, then he's probably pretty approachable. I wouldn't necessarily approach him with the camera in hand. I understand that he's hitting the road soon, but approach him "un-armed" first and just tell him what you want to do. I think you could have your gear with you, in it's cases, ready to go if he agrees.

If the guy plays on the street, then that seems like the place to interview him. If you have time, put a good lav mic on him so you can get his voice loud and clear but still have the hustle and bustle of the environment where you found him in the background. If that's not practicle, then do shoot him playing in the streets and then interview him in a quieter and more controlled environment - a park is a good idea, but I would want to maintain the urban feel.

I think a meal, or even just coffee or a beer would be in order. Normally I would say that doc subjects shouldn't expect compensation (otherwise they don't have to agree to participate), since you won't be making any money off of this yourself. But if you're taking him away from his money earning activity to do an interview, and you admire what he's trying to accomplish, then treat him like the friend that he's going to be for the next couple of hours and share what you have with him. But, by all means, GET A SIGNED RELEASE!

Good luck, sounds like a cool project. Too bad you can't travel with him and document him all over the world! And great job on just going out there and creating opportunities for yourself to learn and create.
 
I think the suggestions are all good. I would only add a couple of thoughts. I've been interviewing folks for a very long time, and it's been my experience that good interviews are basically good conversation. (with you doing little of the talking) but still it's just communicating with somebody that you are interested in. People love to tell their story. I almost always start with them introducing themselves - name - age if appropriate - where they are from, stuff like that. It loosens folks up and give you a chance to check levels and making sure that everything is working. After that start with where they are at and gradually work into the depth of a topic. In this case, your main objective is to get the subject to connect with the love of what he is doing. But you may go through a story or two of what he's done before that - again to get him to connect up with the gestalt of what he's doing. WARNING - never - ever ask a person "how do you feel about that?" or "What are you feeling???" It's the cheese-y-est form of journalism and is used constantly by the TV gods.

Remember - what you want is something that jumps off the screen - that shows the depth or humanity or universality of the topic. Everything has a different point that you are trying to get to, but they all are valid - and important.
Hope this helps,
Milt Lee
http://hollowbonefilms.com
 
Thanks a lot guys for the excellent advice. I couldn't get to film the interview, but the advice given here is equally useful. I'm at work now, so can't post a lot, but i'll do as soon as possible.

Best regards-
 
By the way, that red font is a good example of chromatic aberration, different wavelenghts focus at different distances. The eye focuses red closer than other colors, red is floating off the screen (and makes a headache as the eyes try to focus on two planes at the same time).

Bad effect... could not read the post...
 
Petrus said:
By the way, that red font is a good example of chromatic aberration, different wavelenghts focus at different distances. The eye focuses red closer than other colors, red is floating off the screen (and makes a headache as the eyes try to focus on two planes at the same time).

Bad effect... could not read the post...
Click to expand...

dragging your cursor over the red text and highlighting it makes the font black and readable!
 
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