The Face of Time - POV - Aarhus Universitet

A Danish Journal of Film Studies 119
shooting. It can be difficult to find the right technique; at any rate it
should always be developed in accordance with the people in the
film. Find out whether the person is dependent on the interviewer's
response or if s/he is a natural storyteller. This is important when
you decide whether the interview in the film should have a visible
interviewer (dialogue) or a hidden interviewer (pseudo monologue).
The choice of an inaudible interviewer challenges your interviewee
to a larger extent: S/he must be able to handle a 3-4 second pause
between your question and his or her answer while remaining
natural and engaged. The interviewee should always make clear
who and what s/he is talking about (without depending on the
information incorporated in your questions). Not everyone can
handle an interview situation like that. Many people are – to a large
extent – dependent on the interview being more like a conversation.
As you develop your method for the interview, try out different
ways of asking questions. Your questions should be phrased in such
a way that the answers are delivered within a limited time and do
not omit any important information.
Furthermore, you should test different interview set–ups (i.e.
different positions of the camera, the microphone, the interviewer,
the interviewee, lighting, and so on) for aesthetic reasons as well as
out of consideration for the interviewee.
An interview is always an artificial situation, and it is important to
make the interviewee feel as comfortable as possible – some people
find it difficult to avoid looking into the camera if it is placed right
in front of them.