The classic clean interview

Ignoring the very beginning and end of the programme, which we’ll cover later, the central part of an interview needs certain shots at specific times.

During the introduction of the guest we need to see them. Obvious, but a point missed by numerous people. Have the shot of the guest ready for when the interviewer introduces them. Immediately after the interviewer says ‘Joining me in the studio is …’ we should see the guest shot cut to air.

Near the top of the programme it is good practice to get a geography shot in. This sets up the stage, and shows the audience where the two people are in relation to each other. We will usually caption a person near the fop of the programme. Additionally it is quite acceptable to caption them again later in the programme, particularly if they are not well known.

The exception is often the leader or prime minister of a country. It’s a reasonable assumption that the vast majority of Americans know who their President is, so if you are making a programme for US consumption, why caption him?

Reaction shots

There is a great temptation when directing interviews to always use a shot of the person speaking. This can be visually dull, and is completely unnecessary, as the audience knows who is talking and can hear what they are saying even if they can’t see them. Much better is to add to the programme by picking up reactions from other people involved in the interview. If, for example, a guest disagrees strongly with a point of view, the audience will only know that if you show them his reaction (e.g. shaking head).

Reaction shots don’t have to be very long, but please make them long enough that they don’t look like a mistake.

Getting from 2-shot to 2-shot

Some people don’t like cutting from a 2-shot on one side to the 2-shot on the other side. If you fall in that camp and you are only using two cameras, you’ll have to get used to the following sequence: 2-shot favouring interviewer, single guest, single interviewer (reaction shot), 2-shot favouring guest. Clearly the same sequence works the other way around.

Zooming in during an interview

Having said that reaction shots improve an interview, there are times when you shouldn’t keep changing shot. If the guest is utterly captivating, then don’t interfere and distract from them – just leave the shot as it is.

Slowly zooming in can also be highly effective, particularly as the interview develops to its climax. This may be an emotional description of an event, it may be finally getting the truth from a politician. Finishing on a close up or big close up with a few seconds silence can be very powerful particularly if the interviewer doesn’t leap in and break the moment.

Typical simple interview script with basic camera shots