But You Can Be a
Good Interviewer! Ewan Spence www.ewanspence.com @ewanspence And Senator, You're No Johnny Carson...

Introduction <ul><li>This presentation is rated
'G' </li><ul><li>General use in all media </li><ul><li>Podcast , Video casts, Written Interviews </li></ul><li>This is not a technical seminar on software </li><ul><li>Although I'll raise some points </li></ul><li>This is a practical guide for the interviewer </li><ul><li>Guide, not rules </li></ul></ul><li>The host is unfortunatly rated 'R' </li></ul>

Why Am I Standing Here?
<ul><li>I have been involved in Podcasting since November 2004

Four regular podcasts </li><ul><li>All About
Symbian Insight, The PSP Show, TPN Rock, Edinburgh Festival Fringe </li></ul><li>BAFTA (British Academy ) for Fringe coverage </li><ul><li>This year's Fringe featured more than 80 half hour interviews...

...over 25 days </li></ul></ul>

My Equipment <ul><li>Sony MiniDisc </li><ul><li>Exports
over USB to wave </li></ul><li>Gigavox's Levelator </li><ul><li>Normalisation, RMS leveling </li></ul><li>Audacity </li><ul><li>Wave file editing </li></ul><li>Lame </li><ul><li>MP3 encoding </li></ul></ul>

What is an Interview <ul><li>A
conversation between people </li><ul><li>Generally two sides </li><ul><li>The host and the guest or guests. </li></ul></ul><li>Recorded and (sometimes) edited for others.

It has a direction and
a purpose

The focus is on the
guest </li><ul><li>Given the choice between making a guest look good, or making yourself look good... choose the guest! </li></ul></ul>

How Did I Learn? <ul><li>By
observing and listening to others who are doing it.

By building up practical experience
and asking for feedback (listeners, guests, mentors)

By being incredibly critical and
honest when listening back to interviews </li></ul>

The Bronze Rule There is
no right or wrong way to do this. What I am going to do is talk with you about how I do it. Please consider this a foundation.

The Silver Rule The BBC's
Reithian Principles To educate... To entertain... To inform...

The Golden Rule Watch lots
of Johnny Carson

As Constant as the Northern
Star <ul><li>The guests always changed on The Tonight Show, but people kept watching </li><ul><li>The constant was Johnny Carson and his attitude. </li></ul><li>Find your own voice and be that constant. </li><ul><li>My first Fringe show was very “Home Service.”

Sowerby and Luff gave me
the best advice </li><ul><li>“ We've met you, where were you in the show?” </li></ul></ul></ul>

The Rest of the Session
<ul><li>Preparation </li><ul><li>Research your guest and their expertise </li></ul><li>Presentation </li><ul><li>How to conduct the interview and stay in control </li></ul><li>Post-production </li><ul><li>Putting the polish on everything. </li></ul></ul>

Preparation <ul><li>What are your goals
from this interview? </li><ul><li>To find out something new?

To be interrogative?

To discuss a topic, trend
or product?

To make people laugh, think,
cry or call them to action? Something else? </li></ul></ul>

Preparation <ul><li>What does your guest
want? </li><ul><li>To promote something... </li><ul><li>A product?

A show, film or appearance

A cause, charitable or otherwise
</li></ul><li>To reach out to an audience </li><ul><li>Build profile

Pro-active marketing </li></ul><li>To put something
in public domain </li></ul></ul>

Preparation <ul><li>What Sort of show
are you doing? </li><ul><li>Entertainment </li><ul><li>Music, revue, slam poetry, </li></ul><li>Traditional chat show </li><ul><li>Guests on their own subject

Material arund the guests for
collour and information </li></ul><li>Round table discussion </li><ul><li>Regular commentators and guest

TwiT style </li></ul></ul></ul>

Preparation <ul><li>What should you research?
</li><ul><li>The area/space you are talking about

Your guest's personal background

More depth in the area
your guest wants to speak about.

The competition </li><ul><li>...of your guest

... maybe of other shows
</li></ul><li>Whatever people are saying about your guest </li></ul></ul>

Preparation <ul><li>Where you could research
</li><ul><li>Google their name! </li><ul><li>Fan sites

Online discussions </li></ul><li>Wikipedia

Ask them! </li><ul><li>personal blog or
website, including Facebook, Twitter, etc </li></ul><li>Company website

Press releases </li></ul></ul>

Preparation <ul><li>Questions </li><ul><li>Sometimes asked for
by PR

Parry this to “areas of
discussion”

Can be a very rigid
interview. </li></ul><li>Sparks </li><ul><li>Requires more confidence

Becomes more of a conversation

Allows you to diverge to
interesting areas if you can keep control of the flow </li></ul></ul>

Preparation <ul><li>What if you have
a crush on your guest? </li><ul><li>Don't hide it

Be honest

Keep fawning to a minimum

Do not do it on
tape </li><ul><li>Unless it's funny </li></ul><li>Enjoy it! </li><ul><li>You have them to yourself for thirty minutes! </li></ul></ul></ul>

Presentation <ul><li>Sort out a meeting
time

Have their mobile number, and
a PA's number

Get their early!

If remote </li><ul><li>Have the tech
double checked at both ends </li></ul><li>If in person </li><ul><li>Sort out some water and glasses

Check environment </li></ul></ul>

Presentation <ul><li>Get your guest relaxed
</li><ul><li>Sit them down, remind them which show you are from, and who the audience is

Let them know your editing
policy </li><ul><li>Mine is let them have a second or third take if they make a mistakte

But my mistakes stay on
the tape (“the audience love it”) </li></ul><li>This will be something you can do by rote, but be honest and emotional </li></ul></ul>

Presentation <ul><li>Is there anything that
they want to talk about? </li><ul><li>Again to relax them that this is going to be easy

You might have missed something

Builds trust

Lets them start to think
ahead and plan, even in a small way

Also lets them vent if
they have to get something off their mind. </li></ul></ul>

Presentation <ul><li>But in all this
relaxing, do as little chat as possible.

Any stories or anecdotes mentioned
here will not 'work' in the recording. </li><ul><li>“you were telling me before we started about...”

It wlil sound rehearsed

Listeners are smart – something
will sound wrong </li></ul></ul>

Presentation <ul><li>Let's start the tape!

Check your levels

Check you are actually recording!

Do a clapperboard like “reference”
</li><ul><li>Ewan Spence, interviewing Wil Wheaton, at Blog World Expo, about “Memories of the Future” 5.30pm Friday Oct 19th </li></ul></ul>

Presentation <ul><li>I always start with
a softball question that I know they can answer. </li><ul><li>The only clean sheet you get!

It steers the interview to
the right topic

It gets your voice out
of the way and the guest in as soon as possible </li></ul><li>There are some circumstances when I would say the first question in advance </li><ul><li>Eg a very nervous guest. </li></ul></ul>

Presentation The next question is
already there, it is part of the last answer

Presentation <ul><li>Be prepared to throw
everything out the window if something comes up.

Winging an entire interview can
be stressful but immensly fun </li><ul><li>It's like jazz music if it works well </li></ul><li>Interviews should flow like a wave, with peaks and troughs </li><ul><li>Experience and practice to ride them, like surfing </li></ul></ul>

Presentation <ul><li>Think two or three
questions ahead </li><ul><li>Where do you want the interview to go? Go there.

Don't run out of time.
</li></ul><li>What question do you think your audience is screaming at their computer? Ask that!

Make sure you ask the
key questions or sparks </li></ul>

Presentation <ul><li>Try to minimise ums
and ahs

Don't put words in your
guests mouth </li><ul><li>This is my biggest flaw </li><ul><li>Which I cover by turning it into an open ended multiple choice question </li></ul></ul><li>Don't “mm-hmm” when they spek </li><ul><li>It makes editing a bitch!

Use non-verbals </li></ul></ul>

Presentation <ul><li>Be really aware of
body language </li><ul><li>It is the only feedback your guest has

It is another way to
steer the conversation </li><ul><li>Simple nods or shakes of the head

Thumbs up, flat hand, spin
up or shrink </li></ul><li>Do not </li><ul><li>Fidget

Twirl your hair

Move around your seat

Go defensive or cross your
arms </li></ul></ul></ul>

Post Production “Who does it
hurt, that's who the story is about” James Blish, author of “Spock Must Die!”

Post Production <ul><li>Your job is
to </li><ul><li>Cut to length

Make the interview sound brilliant

Make your guest sound great
</li><ul><li>Even to the detriment of yourslef </li></ul><li>Do not be afraid to edit drastically if it is required

Good Preparation and Presentation will
reduce editing </li><ul><li>The best edit is where you have to do nothing </li></ul></ul></ul>

Post Production <ul><li>If you have
a good structure (riding that wave) in the interview, use that

Do not be afraid to
move whole sections around, but remember the idea of wave to keep some flow

You have a responsibility to
represent your guest accurately.

Don't cut every umm, ahh,
silence or breath </li><ul><li>Try to make it natural, not perfect </li></ul></ul>

Post Production <ul><li>Audio Tricks </li><ul><li>Get
a clean ten seconds of background noise

Sometimes useful to take a
copy of a breath you take, and your guest, to drop in later.

You can edit single words,
but consider loosing a whole sentence instead to preserve flow and rythym

Do not alter the meaning
with edits

A silence can seem four
times as long as I actually is. </li></ul></ul>

Post Production <ul><li>Video Tricks (Single
Camera) </li><ul><li>Cover edit points on screen with: </li><ul><li>Screenshots of apps or websites </li><ul><li>Last restort, grab blog or twitter screencap </li></ul><li>Cut away to a practical tthing, like an iphone for an Apple interview.

Allows you to move sections
around under these “cut covers” </li></ul><li>Film a few “noddies” </li><ul><li>Reverse angle head shot on interviewer simply nodding or using body language. </li></ul></ul></ul>

Post Production <ul><li>People believe that
video is heavily edited </li><ul><li>It isn't! It's all about shot selection </li></ul><li>People believe that audio is lightly edited </li><ul><li>Even though you can go right down to single syllable and get away with it. </li></ul><li>Use these perceptions to your advantage

Don't forget to take notes
for the blog post (show notes for Google ranking) </li></ul>

Ewan Spence www.ewanspence.com @ewanspence You
Will Be a Good Interviewer!