Creating an interview

Creating an interview

Rules for an interveiw 

1. give yourself time to set up

   - In order to set up the interview you need to give yourself time to set up everything as in some cases this could all be set up just by one person (you) and you definitely don't want to be behind schedule

2. find the best place to film

   - Through out the interview you want the best place the film as you won't want the lighting to be bad for the interviewee and you can't afford to spend time during the interview messing around with the camera

3. make them feel comfortable

   - you will want to make them feel comfortable as you don't want the interviewee to look uncomfortable and forced to be there as it could ruin the interview 

4. eye contact 

   - maintaining eye contact is important as again you don't want them to feel uncomfortable and not to have their eyes wondering around the room 

5. be interested

   - being interested can help the interviewee feel comfortable and talk about everything with ease, this can also lead to them talking about more personal parts to their story  

180 degree rule

The 180° rule is a cinematography rule (that can be broken in reason)  that states that two actors in a scene or two people in an interview should maintain the same left/right relationship to one another . When the camera passes over the invisible axis connecting the two subjects, it is called crossing the line and the shot becomes what is called a reverse angle. After this has been passed it can cause confusion to the audience. 

Framing

Get the subjects head in frame by making sure that none of their head is being cut out of frame by the angle of the camera and using the rule of thirds in order to make the subject appear in a natural place on the screen and having them in the middle to make sure that they are the centre of the film. 

eye line 

When setting up your camera it is important that you make sure the camera is at the same hight as your subjects face and taking in consideration of the framing. This can cause issues otherwise as if the camera is too high it can give the appearance of the interviewee looking vulnerable and on the other hand the camera being to low it can give the appearance that the subject is power full and intimidating. This is similar to the hight of the interviewer being too high or too low which can cause the interviewee to be looking away from the camera.