I recently came across a 2006 eulogy written by Christopher Hitchens in Vanity Fair about Oriana Fallaci, an Italian journalist who joined the resistance as a youth during WWII then spent the rest of her life questioning the exertion of power. Hitchens draws an interesting comparison between an interview conducted by Dan Rather with then person-of-power Saddam Hussein and an interview conducted by Fallaci with then person-of-power The Shah. Rather’s interview demonstrates distraction and indirectness as he mid-interview apologizes for not speaking Arabic and asks Hussein if he speaks English (even though he had used a translator for the interview). Hussein then cheekily asks Rather if he likes coffee. As a contrast, Fallaci’s interview:
Oriana Fallaci: When I try to talk about you, here in Tehran, people lock themselves in a fearful silence. They don’t even dare pronounce your name, Majesty. Why is that?
The Shah: Out of an excess of respect, I suppose.
Fallaci: I’d like to ask you: if I were an Iranian instead of an Italian, and lived here and thought as I do and wrote as I do, I mean if I were to criticize you, would you throw me in jail?
The Shah: Probably.
I admire her directness yet calm; the way she asks the hypothetical in order to derive a truth. As Hitchens writes, the greatest period of Fallaci’s career was the 1970s, “probably the last chance we had of staving off the complete triumph of celebrity culture. Throughout that decade, she scoured the globe, badgering the famous and the powerful and the self-important until they agreed to talk with her, and then reducing them to human scale.” I love that last line. It brings to light the purpose of a strong interview: To bring the hot-headed down to scale, the mentally unbalanced to some level of reality, and to make what’s different somewhat relate-able. The interview is an art, and so there’s no prescribed way to conduct it. But below are a few basics that continue to help me hone my skills:
Build trust by spending time with your subjects:
- Save the interview for last: When doing an independent documentary, I almost never do the interview first. Instead, I spend time observing, filming and listening. Is there something they say in passing that I might ask about? A poster or picture in their office or home that seems interesting? Do they share something about themselves without being prompted? This helps me prepare for the interview while also giving my subjects the opportunity to get used to me and my camera.
- Share a meal: One great piece of advice I received from Gordon Quinn, executive producer of Hoop Dreams, is to put down the camera from time to time to share a meal with your subjects. I always find that I become closer with my subjects through that basic social act.
- Find what’s in common: I don’t always have the luxury of spending time with my interview subjects, especially when doing client work. So if I have only a short period of time, I try to spend a few minutes chatting about a completely unrelated subject (before the interview, of course). Perhaps there’s something we have in common – a favorite sports team, a restaurant in town, a home-state.
Write out your questions but stray from them:
- Make a List: Make a list of questions you hope to ask. It will help you mentally prepare as well as organize a structure for the interview. Questions shouldn’t come at random; rather they should flow in some natural order, whether that be chronological or thematic. Write down the must-have content you need to get at the top of the list. These tend to be the expository details that help connect A to B.
- Stray from your list: Sure it seems counter-intuitive to write a list and then aim to stray from it, but the function of the list is not to be a schedule for the interview, but rather a reference. Let the interview guide itself. If the subject seems interested in one topic, go with it. See where it carries you. You might discover something about your subject you never expected. And it’s these type of discoveries that make great films. That leads me to the next tip….
Listen!
- Count to ten: Sean Fine, the cinematographer behind Academy-award nominated War/Dance once shared this nugget of advice with respect to verite shooting. If you’re scared, nervous, or excited, counting to ten will ensure you hold the shot long enough. I think it also applies to the interview as well. When someone is speaking or telling a story, pause for a while before you ask the next question. I often find that given space, they offer something that they had been hesitant to share before. This is especially true when the content is emotional. As a side-note this also makes an interview much easier to edit because you won’t have to trim around the interviewer jumping on the answers of the subject.
- Don’t think about the next question: Listen intently to what your subject is saying and how they say it. If you’re thinking about phrasing your next question, or what that question will be, you’ll miss important stuff.
- Take notes: If you hear something interesting and you want to ask about it, jot it down so you don’t forget.
- Have two sets of ears: Even if one of us is interviewing and the other is doing sound and camera, we both listen for content. One of us undoubtedly will hear something interesting the other has simply missed. Two sets of ears are much better than one.
Don’t ask leading questions, ask unexpected ones:
- Avoid the leading question: I cringe every day I listen to the news: “Did you feel scared when the rocket hit?” What kind of answer does the newscaster expect? Usually it tends to be yes or no, and if explained in detail, is usually less authentic.
- Bring them back to the event by asking something specific: “What time did the rocket hit?” Maybe that detail isn’t important to you, but the subject is able to bring themselves back to that day. They might answer something like: “I was eating breakfast and I heard the blast.” The subject is brought back to the event and so their story will reflect that and will help the viewer experience it as well.
- Try a hypothetical: In Oriana Fallaci’s interview above, she used a hypothetical question to help get a sense of the values of the person she was interviewing.
