Interviews, the good, the bad and the endless editing we could avoid if we did it right

The essay or chapter entitled “Interviews” that appears in the book, Cross Cultural Filmmaking by Ilsa Barbash and Lucien Taylor was a perfect reading for this week in my Visual Anthro class. Although as I read it I could see how much it would have helped me to have read the whole book last year when I was trying to make movies. The reading has given me a list of things to remember for myself and a list to discuss with my comrades in filmmaking.

Do we want the Two shot= both interviewer and interviewee are present. I am not a fan as I don’t like to see myself. Alternative is to Shoot interviewer asking questions, once interview is over. I like that, that way one person can appear to asking all the questions…or is that too deceitful, ah ethics? The questions provide context and are needed. We could ask interviewees to repeat the question that is what I did in my interviews. What about reaction shots---interviewer and interviewee alike, each listening to each other or maybe two interviewees listening to each other. We should add Reflexivity…we could do that by adding film discussions of interviews, film meetings? Cutaways: film them at the time, make notes during if they talk about a particular place or item, symbolic items/places. Look for inserts; clocks, paintings, bugs,

Use tripod or monopod…Camera as an objective observer and I am shaky. I have done interviews before and never had a person uncomfortable in front of the camera. Of course I took time to let them relax, I was very informal and chatty.

Interviewees:
Film couples together…more dynamic, casual clothes, include unwind time, film at eye level, , give a comfort speech; interruptions, more footage than needed, can edit out bloopers/pauses. Ask the interviewees: do you have advice for the people still working there. What would be a good question to ask others?
Interviewers: This week we need everybody’s input on the questions we will ask
Film arrivals? Film a moving (movement, walking) discussion (with janitors nearby)
Maybe more of an oral history of retired or disenfranchised past janitors of UFL.

This reading has given me so many things to think about concerning the production of interviews. I am going to start on my questions right now as I am all inspired to get at it. I think that I should get a book like this and read the whole book.

Barbash, Ilsa and Lucien Taylor, (1997) Interviews. In Cross Cultural Filmmaking. Berkeley:University of California Press Pp:341-357.

Love that quote:

The authors quote French film historian Gabriel Marcel on the topic of the aesthetics of film and interviews. Marcel explains what he thinks of interviews of talking heads and why they are often misplaced and unappreciated.  "Why? Because the spectator does not go to the movies to listen to explications"(Barbash and Taylor 1997:341)