What are the secrets to a great interview? At this month’s Walkley Media Conference we asked our panel to share their tips for getting interview gold be it for video, audio or print. Below is a summary of their discussion and advice.
Panellists: Mark Dapin (Good Weekend), Richard Glover (Drive ABC Local Radio), Anna Broinowski (multi award-winning filmmaker) and chaired by Ben Naparstek (Editor The Monthly).
“I want someone insane, obsessed or with something to hide. They’re the ones who make the best interview subjects for the visual medium,” said Walkley Award-winning filmmaker Anna Broinowski. When asked by Naparstek whether she felt it was dangerous to like a subject, Broinowski replied that she always "falls in love" with her subjects, even infamous con-woman Norma Khouri, “I don’t trust her but I do like her,” Broinowski said.
Mark Dapin agreed that the best subjects are insane or obsessed and he admitted to being equally guilty of a level of Stockholm syndrome, “I start by searching for their most likeable quality,” he said, “something to love.” Dapin admitted to throwing himself into his work, sometimes by getting drunk (with or without) his subject. The general panel consensus was that connecting with your subject, right off the bat, is the most important part of getting a good interview.
Whether you like or dislike a subject, ethically you are responsible for your presentation of that person. In considering ethics, Richard Glover commented that he felt paying for an interview was “wrong and perverts the story". In Glover’s opinion, a good interviewer needs to use "a measure of empathy" however, if it’s too empathetic "it isn’t fair to the subject or your audience." He advised stepping back and remembering to see the questions that are at the forefront of people’s minds.
Ben Naparstek read this famous quote from journalist Janet Malcolm, “Every journalist who is not too stupid or too full of himself to notice what is going on knows that what he does is morally indefensible. He is a kind of confidence man, preying on people's vanity, ignorance, or loneliness, gaining their trust and betraying them without remorse.” Naparstek then asked the panel for their thoughts.
“If I thought all I did was go around betraying people, I couldn’t do it,” said Anna Broinowski. She did say however, that she continues to be amazed at the way people will behave for the camera. “The camera coaxes out the most extraordinary things. It’s like they’re saying ‘thankyou lens, thankyou for letting me confess.’”
Richard Glover thinks of his interviewees as “allies” in the presentation of something engaging for listeners. However, he does acknowledge that there is a certain element of charm required to convince some potential interviewees. To do this, Glover and his producers say ‘just’. “We’d just like to have a quick chat. I just wanted to ask one quick question. Could you spare just two minutes?” Glover also tries to put interviewees at ease before going on-air by kneeling down beside them in the waiting room or sitting on the floor for a quick debrief before they come into the studio.
Mark Dapin often finds himself in the position of interviewing someone with something to sell, “they want to talk about their new CD, I want to know if they were beaten by their father,” he said. One interesting thing Dapin has found is that compliments can go a long way in writing, “one compliment about their physical appearance in 3000 words of criticism about their politics, and the compliment is what they take away!”
Naparstek concluded by asking the panel whether over researching was trap for them.
Mark Dapin candidly admitted to never preparing for an interview or researching his subjects, in contrast to Anna Broinowski who believes you should “know as much as you can about your subject.” However, Broinowski does think that “over-interviewing before you roll the cameras is dangerous.” She believes the aim of the pre-interview is to find the “trigger points” which will get a camera-worthy response. “You are a director and you want to coach a great performance,” she said, “not exhaust the emotion beforehand.” Asked when the best time to stop an interview is, Broinowski replied "when they walk out!"
“I start from the position that everyone is an ego-maniac,’” explained Richard Glover. Glover said he often plays something which might trigger a personal memory in his audience, as a way of linking their experiences to the interview and involving his listeners. Glover said that humour can work well to catch well-rehearsed interviewees off guard, He recommended Jonathan Ross as an example of a great interviewer who never suffers from “the dreaded clipboard-itis”, a condition in which an interviewer buries his/her head in pre-written questions and does not pick up on their interviewee’s answers.
So, find someone insane or obsessed, roll the camera, dump the clipboard, turn on the charm and just ask a couple of quick questions.
You can find photos of the panel and audience Twitter commments posted during their discussion at www.walkleyconference.com.au/live-blog
