Tuesday 26 April 2016
Because the interviews that i’m conducting are of a sensitive nature, i have been doing some research on how to get good answers out of an interviewee during an interview and have came across some good important information as how to do so.
This website points out that a good way how to extract authentic original questions, is to look for contradictions during the interview. The methodology and reasoning behind this is explained in a quote taken from the website
"This method can be so effective because so often interviewees will say what they think we want to hear. They’ll say what they think “sounds good.” Or they’ll share only that which their employers would approve. If they’re not answering authentically and deeply—which is where the best interviews come from—then challenging them on these contradictions is a great way to get deeper, more thoughtful answers.
Now some of you might be worried that the interviewee might be offended by these challenges. However, if you’re genuinely engaged in the conversation and present the ideas in a fair and positive way, most people will happily engage in a debate and enjoy the challenge. This isn’t about catching the interviewee in a mistake. Rather, it’s about honestly finding and pointing out contradictions as a way of encouraging the person to be more introspective."
Further interview technique websites
From each of these websites that i read through and took notes out of, i’ve included an exert of the useful information that i found each website below.
Documentary interview question examples. This was just the basic, a sort of wake up reminder on getting giving me a reminder on how i should be structuring my questions. When looking at other examples, i would refer back to this website and see how the questions work off of this structure.
Don’t think you need to be an expert to conduct an interview (this mentally challenged me as i thought to much into my questions at times, often taking long to create them)
Ask simple questions
Try to be forthright and honest about your approach and what is expected of the subject in terms of answers and candidness. If there are sensitive or very personal issues at hand, discuss how those issues will be treated and why it’s important for them to share it with the audience. (took this on board, as the overall key theme of the portrait documentary is a young prospect who’s overcome a battle of being bullied, and is now fighting for acceptance on his path to success)
Interview people in there environment - Oli would be most comfortable within his own environment, especially with the information of such a sensitive nature that he will be telling me that he has not spoken about in such a long time.
Additional research stuff
How to Guide your Documentary interviewee
talks about styling, research, sit down interview
Blog interview set up
Interview spare notes
