Conducting an interview is not easy. It’s smashing that you’ve been given the chance to interview a notable individual, . However, without a little effort, something engaging to say and the skills to help your interviewee feel at home, then there won’t be more interviews in the future. So gather round: here’s one or two things that might come in handy.
What you have to be aware of is that your interviewee has ten fingers and ten toes. Yes they may have their own fragrance and yes, they did go around the world on a space-hopper. What's often forgotten is that they almost certainly have the same or similar trepidations as you. They’ve failed a school exam, they once missed bin collection day, they’ve had their heart broken and they have, at some point in their life, been just as nervous as you. Maybe. Unless you're interviewing K9 from Doctor Who.
By far, my favourite interview is Mila Kunis talking to Chris Stark from the Scott Mills show. It’s not exactly your conventional interview, in all honesty everything about it should have rendered it a failure, but by acquainting himself with his subject he’s able to test those boundaries. If you haven’t seen it yet, then here it is, Stark seriously says the words "we have this things called a lad bomb...".
Why does he come off so well? For a moment, just put yourself in the shoes of a celebrity, when promoting a new film, there is going to be hundreds of interviews, and the material is more or less going to be exactly the same. If there’s been ten interviews in one day and the same question has come up in all of them, then it’s going to get a tad dull. It’s evident in this particular interview that words have been said before they’ve even started to film, effortlessly producing a comfortable interview environment. He also makes himself quite friendly when he starts by letting his nervousness be known, which compels promoting speech from his subject promoting her to feel less exposed to the piercing stare of her interviewer, and probably even stimulating more illustrated reactions.
The overall conversation is rendered into an amusing discussion rather than just a succession of things - and we’re going to have learnt more about the interviewee because of it. It so happens that because Stark is inclined to impart his own personal information, so that the interview isn’t entirely centred around the subject, then his subject is far more likely to respond in more detail. Would we know that Mila’s favourite colour is purple had Chris not suggested she wore a yellow Watford FC jersey? A necessary part of carrying out a triumphant interview is incorporating unique ways, people can’t empathise with a robot.
We might not have learnt much about Mila’s latest film, but we discover more about our interviewee and how to get a ridiculous number of hits on YouTube. All you need to do is offer your subject a day out at a football match.
A really good video to watch is this one from the Lambda films blog, entitled How to conduct an interview. It looks at some really simple strategies you can use when interviewing. Simple things such as the way seating is arranged can make all the difference.
Want to learn more about marketing? Click this link for more useful tips.
What you have to be aware of is that your interviewee has ten fingers and ten toes. Yes they may have their own fragrance and yes, they did go around the world on a space-hopper. What's often forgotten is that they almost certainly have the same or similar trepidations as you. They’ve failed a school exam, they once missed bin collection day, they’ve had their heart broken and they have, at some point in their life, been just as nervous as you. Maybe. Unless you're interviewing K9 from Doctor Who.
By far, my favourite interview is Mila Kunis talking to Chris Stark from the Scott Mills show. It’s not exactly your conventional interview, in all honesty everything about it should have rendered it a failure, but by acquainting himself with his subject he’s able to test those boundaries. If you haven’t seen it yet, then here it is, Stark seriously says the words "we have this things called a lad bomb...".
Why does he come off so well? For a moment, just put yourself in the shoes of a celebrity, when promoting a new film, there is going to be hundreds of interviews, and the material is more or less going to be exactly the same. If there’s been ten interviews in one day and the same question has come up in all of them, then it’s going to get a tad dull. It’s evident in this particular interview that words have been said before they’ve even started to film, effortlessly producing a comfortable interview environment. He also makes himself quite friendly when he starts by letting his nervousness be known, which compels promoting speech from his subject promoting her to feel less exposed to the piercing stare of her interviewer, and probably even stimulating more illustrated reactions.
The overall conversation is rendered into an amusing discussion rather than just a succession of things - and we’re going to have learnt more about the interviewee because of it. It so happens that because Stark is inclined to impart his own personal information, so that the interview isn’t entirely centred around the subject, then his subject is far more likely to respond in more detail. Would we know that Mila’s favourite colour is purple had Chris not suggested she wore a yellow Watford FC jersey? A necessary part of carrying out a triumphant interview is incorporating unique ways, people can’t empathise with a robot.
We might not have learnt much about Mila’s latest film, but we discover more about our interviewee and how to get a ridiculous number of hits on YouTube. All you need to do is offer your subject a day out at a football match.
A really good video to watch is this one from the Lambda films blog, entitled How to conduct an interview. It looks at some really simple strategies you can use when interviewing. Simple things such as the way seating is arranged can make all the difference.
Want to learn more about marketing? Click this link for more useful tips.