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Underground > Books, Criticism & Writing >

Give me interview tips

21:21 / 09.07.07

can anyone give some tips for coming up with interview questions and interviewing people?
and point me in the direction of any resources as well... you'd think there'd be a wealth of information online about this, or a lot of books about the subject, but I'm having a hard time finding very much
everything seems to be about job interviews

MattShepherd: I WEDDED KALI!

22:10 / 09.07.07

I'll defer to grant on this, but a few things from my wretched memory:

Only ask one question at a time. It sounds obvious, but if you ask "How did you feel when you completed the project? How much did it cost?" then you'll get an answer to one thing and not the other.

Ask questions that can't be answered with one word. Don't assume the interviewee has any innate desire to expound. "Did it feel good to finish the project?" is bad: "Yes." "How did it feel to finish the project?" is better: "Good." (which is a step up from "yes.") "What were you thinking when you finished the project?" is better still -- that sort of question practically DEMANDS at least one sentence.

If you're recording an interview (audio or video), nod like a motherfucker. People get freaked out when they get absolutely no response to them talking, but if you sit there saying "yeah... uh-huh... yeah..." the mic will pick it up. Conveying to somebody that you're listening without making any noise is a lot harder than it seems.

There are no stupid questions (especially if you're editing the interview later on). If you're wondering, hundreds of people are wondering the same thing. Asking your subject to explain the obvious isn't always annoying for them -- they often like getting a chance to explain what they do or think.

A good start, I hope. Grant's a pro, so he might have more insight if he gets to this thread.

01:42 / 10.07.07

one thing I always wonder - if you research someone before you interview them, you're bound to find a ton of interesting stuff that the people reading the interview probably won't know. so is it okay to ask them a question that's going to get them to talk about that information, even if you already know it? for instance, I know that David Cronenberg used a plate of General Tso's chicken for Barry Convex's exploding body during his death scene in Videodrome. if I were interviewing Cronenberg, would it be ok to ask, "how did you do the exploding Barry Convex scene?" I always feel weird asking questions I already know the answers to.

also, "tell me about x/y/z." good or bad? I feel like it doesn't give enough direction, and the interviewee might not know where to begin. but some things are really hard to ask in question form.

05:30 / 10.07.07

Perhaps, phrasing things in a way that allows the person to answer with their interesting tidbit? Rather than 'how did you do exploding body scene X?' then, it would be something like 'what were some of the more interesting ways you found handle some of the bigger FX on a low budget flick like Videodrome?' In fact, my new question isn't going far enough, but gives the gist. Just give them some room, I guess.

MattShepherd: I WEDDED KALI!

08:17 / 10.07.07

It's absolutely okay to ask questions you already know the answer to. I worked for the CBC (Canada's national broadcaster) for a while as a writer/researcher, and a lot of what I did was pre-interviewing -- I would interview somebody the day before a program, then book them for live time on the radio. The pre-interview, about 45 minutes, would give me pages and pages of notes, which I would use to construct a series of questions and answers for the show's host, who would do the "live" interview.

That way, the host could ask a question with a reasonable expectation of what the answer would be, and if the subject started to veer off dramatically on some tangent, use the point-form answers to pull them back on track.

In a live situation, it was key for the host to know the answers to almost all the questions he was going to ask, because it allowed some control over the interview for time and focus. If you're in a situation where you're going to be editing the interview after the fact, you have more latitude, of course.

May I ask why you're looking for interview tips? What's the situation?

MattShepherd: I WEDDED KALI!

08:19 / 10.07.07

(and incidentally, a question like "how has your use of special effects evolved during your career?" will get you longer and more fruitful answers than questions like "how did you make Louis Del Grande's head explode in Scanners?")

14:14 / 10.07.07

"May I ask why you're looking for interview tips? What's the situation?"
I'm making a zine, and I plan on including some interviews

16:44 / 10.07.07

Grant's a pro,

Hahahahaha! I hate interviewing.

Basically, the "rule" is don't ask any yes or no questions.

I put it in quotes because some of my favorite interviewers (especially Terri Gross of Fresh Air) break this rule all the time. Just think of it as a way to talk about something mutually interesting and you should be fine - make sure your subject is interested in what's being discussed (some directors, for instance, don't really like the mechanisms of special effects, or else they just get bogged down in technical detail that no one really finds interesting).

People like talking about things, and they like being interesting.

So, you write down a few questions about things you want covered (or, better yet, things that you *need* for whatever reason), then listen to what is actually being said and follow up on it. You're allowed to say "Wow, that's interesting." or "Wait a minute, I don't understand - you're saying...[fill in the blank]? Could you explain that a little more?"

The main problem I run into with interviews lately (besides my problems with simply talking to people) is being able to keep up. I do almost all of them over the phone, and don't have a phone recorder. I try to type out a kind of shorthand as I go. Not terrbly fficien, works sumtimz n gets bsc gist dwn 4 me to wrt up ltr.

16:48 / 10.07.07

Oh and on this:

s it okay to ask them a question that's going to get them to talk about that information, even if you already know it? for instance, I know that David Cronenberg used a plate of General Tso's chicken for Barry Convex's exploding body during his death scene in Videodrome. if I were interviewing Cronenberg, would it be ok to ask, "how did you do the exploding Barry Convex scene?" I always feel weird asking questions I already know the answers to.

In general, if you know something, I think it'd be flattering for your subject to mention it.

"I heard you used a plate of General Tso's chicken for that scene - how'd you decide to do that?" might be interesting. Might not be - depends on the tenor of the conversation, I suppose.

04:01 / 17.07.07

ooh! ooh! ooh!
another question!
pick me! pick me!

ok...

is it kosher to interview someone randomly, unconnected to the recent release of a work or anything? there are a lot of people I'd like to interview who haven't really done anything in the public eye for a year or two. would it be odd to interview those people? i know a lot of arists/celebrities/etc. do interviews in part to help promote their work... how less likely do you think it would be to get an interview with someone who wasn't promoting anything at the time?

18:14 / 17.07.07

Why not? I doubt it'd hurt to ask, and some folks might be flattered or pleased to get the PR.

08:06 / 25.07.07

Just think of it as a way to talk about something mutually interesting and you should be fine - make sure your subject is interested in what's being discussed

You come across the Inner Game stuff? W. Timothy Gallwey writes them, as a coach who moved from tennis to business coaching. One of his good things is to train yourself to track what he calls 'critical variables' whilst working.

For this one you could decide that you are going to continuously look for evidence of how interested your subject is in the conversation (varying pitch and loudness of voice, patterns of facial tension/relaxation, eye contact, orientation/arrangement of body/limbs?) You remind yourself only to remain aware of whatever it is that you're assessing - it seems to me it lines up your less-conscious mind to steer towards those signs of interest.

This is a technique I use to follow someone else's interest in a conversation. It's of benefit to me in social situations because I find people most interesting when they are talking about what they are really interested in, rather than conventional niceties.