Television Interviewer How You Can Be A Good One

The television interview does not operate in the same way as a magazine or newspaper interview, where the personality of the magazine interviewer is important. The magazine reader usually wants to know how the interviewer got on with the subject, and what sort of relationship they had, and what the interviewer thought about the subject. In television the interviewer seeks to stay away from the limelight.

Needless to say, television programs can be built entirely around the one to one celebrity interview. Here the personality of the interviewer is indeed very important. Many entertainment programs rely on contributors interviewed by well known presenters. There is, in spite of this, no need to employ an expensive presenter in order to make an interesting and watchable interview based program, either for broadcasting or as a corporate video. As a matter of fact, it is a lot better for the person who has done the research and the recce to do the actual interview. A television interview for a factual program will usually avoid having the interviewer in shot. This puts more prominence on the contributor. Many factual programs rely on contributors who have been carefully interviewed to drive the program.

How to be a good interviewer
To get a good interview, you have to to develop a sensitive interviewing technique, but you also need to have good organizational skills, to make sure that the interview takes place as planned. Organizational skills start with the recce. You will almost certainly get a better interview if you can talk to your potential contributor face to face before filming. If that is not possible, then fully brief him or her on the phone beforehand, and satisfy yourself that this will be a worthwhile interview for your production. The program budgets for digital channels will not run to unused interviews.

Many entertainment programs rely on contributors interviewed by well known presenters. There is, in spite of this, no need to employ an expensive presenter in order to make an interesting and watchable interview based program, either for broadcasting or as a corporate video. As a matter of fact, it is a lot better for the person who has done the research and the recce to do the actual interview. A television interview for a factual program will usually avoid having the interviewer in shot. This puts more prominence on the contributor.

• Explain where you want the interview to take place and why.
• Get the release form signed by the contributor.
• Write and confirm the time and date of the interview and the location. There is always a chance that you may turn up on too many locations for interviews set up by someone else to be told by a potential contributor that the interview cannot take place because there was no written confirmation.
• Telephone the day before to confirm that everything is all right with the contributor, and that you will definitely be filming the next day. It can be very frustrating, but contributors are in the habit of developing mysterious allergies and illnesses the day before filming. Always telephone to reassure contributors.


By: Francis David


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