BBC Interview Research

What is your favourite interview and why?
'The Themes of Maya Angelou', is an interview I have repeatedly watched and loved since I had first seen it. It is so easy to get drawn into this interview because of its very, personal, intimate and professional style and output. Jeremy Isaacs does a superb job of interviewing asking questions that shown he has researched the subject and knows her history. His formal style of interviewing has been used to his advantage and asks some risky and vulnerable questions which an informal style of interviewer might of struggled with, this made for a great interview keeping the audience fixated on their entertainment screens. Maya Angelou is an amazing woman who has fully lived every moment of her life, she makes for a truly astonishing interviewee. She is a role model to anyone and watching her is very satisfying and calming for the audience, she reminds me of a wise but blissfully happy grandma figure.
The quote, ’I know a diamond is the result of extreme pressure, less time and less pressure and it could be crystal, coal, fossilized leaves, or just dirt; but time and pressure will create a diamond’, Since I have heard this quote I have adopted it and applied it to myself, as I feel the meaning of this is worthwhile to remember, this defiantly assists me to push that extra step in life, always resulting in a fulfilling and positive outcome. 

What is the best question and why?

Jeremy Isaacs: “At President Clinton’s inauguration, you wrote and performed a poem, on the pulse of morning, you was the first poet to do so since Robert Frost spoke at Kennedy’s; what does that poem that you spoke then say to us?

It is the best question because it is very in-depth, and it shows that the interviewer knows her history well, which gives a very polished and professional  and also that the audience can understand more about Maya Angelou and make a judgment of her power status, and popularity.

What is the worst question and why?

Terry Wogan: “Come Back to say your sorry ehh?”

Freddie Star’s Repsonse: “Yeahh…After all this time it’s been two years”.

To be honest it’s an alright introductory question but there wasn’t much point in it, but is really a humorous question.

What is the funniest response? What question prompted it?

David Frost: “What’s the result of the big fight?”

Muhammad Ali responded with a long and very entertaining answer where he rhymed his words to get the audience and TV viewers to get pumped up for the fight against George Foreman.

What is the most emotional response? What question prompted it?

John Freeman: “Have you during this period, which have must have been very great strain for you, have you felt frightened or even lonely in your position of leadership?”

Dr. Martin Luther King: “Yes at times I think honesty impales me to admit that I have in those times that I’ve actually confronted fear, err I don’t think anyone in a situation like this cant go through this without confronting moments of real fear…”

Who’s your favorite interviewer and why?

Jeremy Isaacs interviewing Maya Anglelou is great, and it is because of Isaacs’s formal Interviewing technique, but also partly because Maya is a very good speaker. He gets straight down to the point without being interrogative or aggressive, and structures the interview so that the audience can viewing will be interested in the interview. He picks on things only slightly to get a reaction out of the audience, for example: at the start of the interview he lists all her ‘jobs’ shes done in the past and he cheekily mentions that she’s been a prostitute, which he will know get a reaction out of the audience.

Presentation Feedback

James feedback is 'alright' could of been a lot more in-depth, but looking at what we already have here; it gives a good indication on how we projected our idea onto the potential investors and just to see if the idea was effective and investable.

• He has understood the core of our idea which is the music industry but it would have been nice to of seen him mention the band 'Van Susans', in this section which are who we are interviewing but he seems to have understood what we are wanting to get out of our interview.
• This answer about it being a personal touch is nice but unfortunately isn't particularly necessary unless he's talking about the way we are filming within the same school part of the band grown up in and one member (Tim) currently works at part-time.
• Im glad he noticed this question for my best because I felt it was good because it will give other music lovers a lot of satisfaction possibly opening another musician to them.
• I cant particularly think why this would be a bad question but maybe I could word it differently like, how long have you guys been playing for? instead.

Olivia & Savannah have given some well thought-out and detailed feedback, which will be very useful for me.

• Very detailed perfectly understood our purpose, and aim of our interview.
• This is interesting they have found this what makes my interview unique because I never thought this would but thinking about it again possibly this could give it a unique touch that I could take advantage of.
• These best and worst questions are all good to know because then I can be notified if I should add certain topical questions or take any bad questions out, hopefully then the interview will be more satisfying for its audience.
• Great piece of feedback here with them saying what we have got but what we possibly could need, and this is very important to me because they are very relevant and I have thought about using some archive footage.

Questions For Van Susans (With Evaluation)

Van Susan’s Possible Questions

When did the band start?

This is such a vital question purely because it sets the foundation of Van Susan's history to the audience, also the mention of the word 'Band', will tell the audience that hes involved with music, Me and my work partner feel this question is frequently used with most music interviews through our research, so it is a safe question to go with nevertheless there is a reason why its so commonly used, setting the foundation. As this is a very simple question I'd expect a simple answer, something like, 'In the year...', and to follow up this question we could say how was each member appointed to the band.

What do you play in the band? And what do you find so interesting about what you play?

This question is another basic generic one but it is so vital because they are the point of interest for the audience so the audience needs to know what they do and why they are so special they get to be on camera getting interviewed. I want the interview to have a structure/order by structuring it in with a beginning, middle and end, this will make the interview flow and just be much more satisfying for the audience as apposed to just having random questions. with the  'What he finds interesting' question, it is a much more open question and could gain a good insight as to why he likes the particular instrument hopefully showing his passion for the instrument and music in general.

What were the bands influences, also who or what are your influences to play your style of music?

These questions are another piece of quality information that viewers especially music fans will be interested in to see if they can relate with the interviewee. Because of the two staged style of this question the answer to this should be very in-depth as it asks him personally what his influences are. The structure of this  question is great as it gives a basic generic question to begin with and then follows up with the much more detailed and personal question, through research these questions are very effective at getting long interesting answers, and that's what we hope Van Susan s will give us.

Can you possibly talk about what (made you split away from the band)?

Here you can see the structure of all these questions have changed as in how I have eased the more personal questions in slowly, thus this being a very personal question hopefully it will gain me a very detailed and interesting answer. When I ask this question I'm going to make sure the interviewee is ready for it because of its personal nature, and I want him to give a good answer for this as it gives the audience an insight into the reality of the music industry, and the life of a musician. Hopefully Tim the interviewee will give a emotional response and we could maybe zoom the camera to amplify the drama of it all.

Are you going to join another band?

This is another personal question which is smoothly followed from the previous as they both share a relationship, so it will link very nicely. Hopefully I will be able to improvise something in the interview which is a little more detailed because this question as it stands now could be answered with one word which will be the worst case scenario.    

Do you play any other instruments other than a bass guitar?

I'm thinking about possibly moving this question higher up on this list maybe under the second question as it relates with music much more compared to these which are more about his personal life. This question should be a pleasurable one for any musician because they can either show-off there musical talents even more or they could start talking about there instrument which is always interesting because every instrument has a story. Nevertheless this is a question that could have a one word answer again so I might have to possibly add something to it to get him to explain himself more. 

What are you currently doing now?

This is a very simple question and should get a long and detailed answer, I might possibly move it close to the last question about if he gets any income from the band as I feel these two questions could fit together nicely, and also this question is great for the audience to specifically see what this particular artist does within his musical 'space', which should entertain the audience as it gives them an answer that they would like to know as we all live together in the present.

What was it like to headline at Indigo2?

This question I feel could defiantly go higher up on this list to give the interview more structure, I have said I should move it higher because its talking about the band Van Susan's and this and the next two questions relate to the band instead of his personal life. He should hopefully have some good storys about this question and the next two because it is very interesting as not many people have experienced what he has, and this will keep the audience engaged. 

What was it like touring the UK?

(This question also relates to the question above)

Have you ever played with the Van Susan's outside the UK?

(This question relates to the one above) 

What equipment are you using at the moment?

This is a great question to ask because I'm sure some of the audience will have a keen interest and knowledge of music and knowing what and why someone chooses a certain instrument is important to know because that is what makes the music at the end of the day, also this question is very specific so it will be guaranteed to have a detailed answer after it, which is perfect and what I'm looking for out of all my questions.

Did you ever get a good pay for being in the Van Susan's?

This is a very engaging question for the audience because people often aspired to be a musician but it was just a dream so to hear from someone trying hard to work his way up the industry doing lots of gigs in a range of venues if he gets a good pay or any at all! This is a great question to link in with a follow up question I could effortlessly improvise for example, 'So is that what the music industry is like?', or 'Did your label pay out a lot on your last EP?'

Editorial Decisions List

Editorial decision list 

When editing this interview with Tim Dullaway, our group thought that we may have had to cut out some answers or some questions that were said throughout the interview, however when watching the interview we then decided that actually every question and answer given was asked and received well. However we did spot a few very minor faults in the interview that had to be edited out and this was some of the hesitancies and the noise level of the laughter that our subject (Tim) made during the interview, these few screenshots below show some of the decisions that had to be made.

This first image shows the change that our group made with the audio in each clip. Some of the laughter had to be edited down in noise level in order to make the interview non- irritable to the viewers watching, so the laughter was made to sound much softer than piercing to the viewers ears. 

These two images show the editing decision that was made in order to split each question that was asked. The reason for this decision being made was because we wanted to generate a much smoother effect with the interview and it cut away much of the background noise such as laughter etc after each question. Whereas if we didn't make this decision it would have made the look much more informal and too casual. We wanted to make the interview seem as professional as we could. Our group feel that we have achieved this goal by making these decisions.

Final Interview

Shooting Script for Animation

 

Interview Evaluation Final

What went well?
This was our second attempt at this interview, thankfully Tim our interviewee agreed to do another interview, we wanted to do the interview again because in our previous the mise-en-scene was poor with plug sockets with wires hanging off the wall in the background which doesn't make for a particularly satisfying interview aesthetically. So this time around, we located a rather interesting antique 'thronesque' gentleman's chair for our subject (T.Dullaway) to be seated in, with the neck of his fender P bass laying next to him. Me and my work partner feel the look of this interview is rather basic but its simplicity works well because it shows the audience what the interviews all about; a gifted musician and his bass.

Interviewing Tim was a pleasure as me and him already know each other we used to practise in a band together, he is a very shy person so me having this insider approach he felt very comfortable around me thus giving me some great answers. I stuck to a similar style of interviewing as I did in my previous interview, I had some main questions I wanted to ask him but from then I just improvised leading a question on from his answers. Throughout the interview me (interviewer) and Tim didn't stall or hesitate asking and answering questions, I feel that this shows that it has been a great success in how the questions were presented to Tim, and that he felt comfortable to answer each one with confidence and depth.



The camera work for this interview was a joint effort as I couldn't man it when I was concentrating on interviewing so for the main interview where the camera is mostly sitting on the tripod my work mate manned the camera but the rest of the little shots were done by me as I knew these would add a lot to it in the edit. We both feel that the filming throughout the interview was a success. For some of Tim's responses the my work mate would zoom into Tim's face to possibly capture any emotion shown. This was shown when the question about how he felt leaving the Van Susans, we was hoping he'd of shown some more emotion because of this some could say sad thing but he isn't to bothered by it as he tells you about how he's involved in lots of different musical enterprises.

Even better if?

Between me and my work mate we feel that with this interview there was only one major fault that should have been noted way before the interview had even begun to be shot. It has been caught to my attention that our idea to shoot the interview in front of a window, the makes the camera struggle to focus which isn't good nevertheless I still feel Tim is in the shot fine with the light behind him nicely highlighting the outline of his head. But what this problem meant was the camera was mainly trying to focus on the light outside and not on the Interviewee Tim, this could have been fixed simply by running a couple of tester shots of the interview, so I could make a better decision to plan out a perfect location for the interviewee to be seated in.

I feel the interview was a success but I could of maybe structured the questions better in the order of how I say them, this is because aestetically it doesn't look fantastic with all the cuts in the edit, this could just be a personal prefrence but I would of rather said them in a structured order so that then the interview had more flow.