Unit 36: Interview Techniques

Pre-Production Booklet for Two

Interviews

Name:
Sal Creber

Order of contents (italics show areas you must add in yourself)

Interview 1

Purpose of Interview 1
Planning for Interview 1
Location Recce for Interview 1
Script: this should include the questions you will be
asking your interviewee
Scripts and Question Formulation for Interview 1
Interview style for Interview 1
Structural Progression for Interview 1
Liaising with your client for Interview 1

Complete this booklet for YOUR interview guest ONLY

Once all people in your production team have completed
this booklet combine all of them to make ONE larger
booklet. Everyone must upload the complete booklet.

Purpose of Interview 1:
What is the purpose of this interview?
The purpose of this interview is to find out more about Steve as well as to give
anyone who watches more information about him and what hes doing at the
moment. Additionally it is also to find out how he writes his music and lyrics and what
his favourite aspect of being a musician is. Finally it is also intended to be
entertaining and interesting to watch.

Circle which of the following formats it will be;

Lifestyle magazine article
Lifestyle television or radio Programme article
Television or radio documentary
Childrens news website
Commercial blog
Local television news
National radio news,
Reality television contestants

Add research demonstrating the format of this interview (ie a magazine layout, or an
interview chat show on TV)
Similar format to shows like The One Show, a magazine show with a chatty
atmosphere.

They often have several guests who are all experts or have an interest in separate
topics, there are usually one or two on location pieces where a news story that
relates to the theme of the main show is presented.
There is usually one vague central theme to the show i.e. Olympics, and the
interviews are all related to that central theme.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgPrc-fc2oU

Planning for Interview One

Interviewees Name: Steve Morano
Date and Time of interview: 10/03/15.
How will you record the interview?
It will be recorded in the studio using the cameras and sound equipment there.

In what medium (audio, visual, written etc) will the final interview be presented?
It will be presented as a visual interview for television.

What information do you need to get from this interview?

Information about Steves life and music writing process.

Describe how you are planning on contacting and liaising with your talent
(interviewee)
Weve been using email to communicate and also occasional face to face
communication.

How will you make sure unnecessary sounds etc are not recorded?
The studio is sound-proofed and there will only be a small crew of people there so
there should be minimal extra noise which will be easy to get rid of. A boom also
helps to cancel out any extra noise.

If visual recording, explain how you will deal with any issues caused by ambient light.
Ambient light is difficult to work with as it isnt controllable and can look bad in a
television programmer setting if the set isnt outside.

What equipment will you need to carry out this interview?

We will need at least two cameras, lights, microphones and a set to interview our
people in.

Location recce for Interview Two

Location: Reading Festival grounds
Possible problems: Bad weather could make the field slippy and unsafe. Lighting is
unreliable. Weather might change and alter the lighting throughout the interview
Issues with health and safety: Field could be slippy and cause the crew to be
unsteady.
Lighting: Natural light. Could vary throughout the filming.
Location recce for the Studio
Location: Henley College Studio
Possible problems: Could be occupied by other students, shouldnt be though due
to scheduling. Outside noise.
Issues with health and safety: Wires could be tripped over. Possible strains from
moving props around.
Lighting: Controlled lighting. Focused on the presenter and interviewee.

Structuring your interview: Scripts and Question Formulation

Question: How do you start out writing songs?

Likely Response:
Generally I start with a general concept, and then move onto forming the
lyrics which usually takes the longest as its the bit I enjoy most. After that
I move onto the melody and any harmonies that I want in the song and
then fit it all together.

Next Question: A lot of your songs sound quite heartfelt, was that your
aim when you started to write them? To make them personal?

Likely Response:
Yeah, I like writing songs that are personal to me, and its kind of
therapeutic as I get to let anything Ive been keeping pent up out when
Im writing for songs.

Next Question: And would you hope other people might relate to what
you write?

Likely Response:
Hopefully, I mean I hope people might find some of the things I write
relatable because thats always something I personally enjoy in music,
like being able to relate to whatever is being sung.

Question: Another thing I was interested in looking at some of the things

youve done was your album Jacksons Corner which was released on
Collision Records a couple of years ago and is really great, could you talk
through the process of writing and distributing the CD?

Likely Response:
Yeah, it was quite daunting at first, the idea of writing an album, but I
basically wrote a lot of songs and I had quite a few ones that I hadnt
recorded properly so I used them and was really happy with the result.
Clearly Collision were too as they decided to distribute it after I sent them
a demo.

Next Question: And you also went to Nashville, which is often seen as the
home of country music, to promote your album, how was that?

Likely Response:
Really great, a lot of fun, met lots of interesting people and got to have a
closer look at a lot of country music. Like I got a lot of advice before going
about which places were the best to go to and where I could hang out
with cool people.

Next Question: That was another thing, although youre from Reading,
your music have a pretty distinctive country-folk sound. What influenced
you into moving into that genre?

Likely Response:
A lot of it was from my parents playing that sort of music, and also from
jamming in pubs with friends in that style so that really influenced me
growing up and developing as a musician.

Question: So have you always been interested in playing live, as Ive

seen that you play a lot of live shows around the place?

Interview Style for Interview One

Likely Response:

What will your interview style be? (formal, informal and chatty, intense, questioning,
Yeah Ive always enjoyed it and the atmosphere when youre playing live
argumentative, friendly, jokey)
is really awesome. Its always been a really important part of being a
Hopefully itll be informal and chatty, with a lot of questions.
musician to me.

Why have you chosen that style?

Mainly because its the most comfortable style for an interviewee and isnt too
Next Question:
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Likely Response:
It was amazing, like playing at Reading has always been an ambition so it

Add research
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Graham Norton show. He has a very relaxed presenting style and chats comfortably
with all his guests and orchestrates everything calmly and with humour.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aU_1ZgiiDkI
The One Show. Magazine show with various different segments, similar in style to
Next Question: Okay well thanks so much for talking to us today, final
our show.
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question:
any presenting
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgPrc-fc2oU

Likely Response:
Im working on a lot of things at the minute, but yeah Im hoping to get
together a bunch of new songs that Ive been working on and put them
into an album.

Define the structural progression of Interview One

e.g. introduction, leading questions, progressive questions,
summary
What questions will you ask and when?

Introduction
Progressive questions

Summary

Introduction: Developmental questions, confidence building etc. Give additional

information about the topic and the interviewee (see script).

Some key questions: about the song writing process; lyrics; relating to songs.
Look at the personal nature of the lyrics.

Progressive questions: live music; influences from the genre; album creation
and promotion. If he found it difficult to promote the album.

Summary/Wrap-up: Chance of a new album, how thats going.

Thanking for being there, moving onto the VT for next time. Lead onto Ben
introducing the playing out of the show.

Liaising with your client

You must print off and include all emails/texts/telephone transcripts that you have
had with your client about the interview.
This includes;
Decisions about dates/times
Agreements about what areas the interview will cover
If you have sent previews of the interview questions

Editorial compliance (fair dealing with contributors,

Before your interview takes place, confirm the following;

That the interviewee has given their consent? Yes
The email/contact where this is shown?

That the interviewer is aware of the questions, or the subject on which
you will be asking questions? Yes
The email/contact where this is shown.

 That you are dealing fairly with your interviewee.

(ie you are sending the correct questions, times, locations and giving them
enough time.) Yes
The email/contact where this is shown.

Are there any copyright issues that you need to address? (ie are you using any
clips/images etc in your final interview that you have not created yourself)

As far as I know there wont be any copyright issues when it comes to our
programme.