Don't ask yes or no questions.

Ask instead "What are your thoughts on the right or wrong of fighting in Iraq?"

Dave T2

I always ask my interviewee to repeat my question in their answer. Then I'll go on to explain the style of interview I am doing and why they had to do that, so it will make more sense to them and they won't feel "stupid" repeating the question. It has worked for me. Also, don't be afraid to stop them when they forget to repeat your question in their answer. It will happen.

What you are trying to get is a story rather than an answer. What I've seen work well is questions like "Tell me about..."

I've also seen interviewers try to explain to the interviewee that they want the question restated and why they want it this way. This probably doesn't hurt but I've seen many, many instances there this was explained and then the interviewer asks Yes/No questions.

You can't expect the interviewee to be smarter than you and self-direct. Interviewing takes a bit of practice.

All that being said, if you don't get what you want, try again.

Also, as a gaffer I try to put a little light on the interviewer so the talent can see them, and then I make sure my crew is out of the talent's sight-line. You want them to just talk to the interviewer or prompter without having their eyes darting around.

Rob Mack

That's good. I'd never thought about the double question approach.

Rob

What you are trying to get is a story rather than an answer.

that's what it sounds like to me. More like you're leading the interview to get the answers you want instead of the answers someone else could want (IE political interview, trying to prove your point over someone else's, etc). Me, myself, think interviewers who do this are scum. :)

All that being said, if you don't get what you want, try again.

A good technique. If you don't get the answer you want because the meaning of the question wasn't conveyed somehow (they didn't get it or you asked the wrong question). Correct yourself/them (politely) & re-phase the question, perhaps with an example. I also like it when the viewers knows the question wasn't understood & it was re-phrased (don't edit out the misunderstanding). Seems less rehearsed and/or slanted.

<I always ask my interviewee to repeat my question in their answer.>

Criminals often start by repeating the cop's question. They think it gives them a little time to come up with an answer that will get them off the hook.
Most viewers probably don't realize it, but when they hear an interviewee do that, they tend to develop a negative bias toward the interviewee.
Maybe that's what you want. But maybe not.

Ask instead that the person build the question into their answer. This isn't repeating the question. Example: "what are you doing here?" ans: "Today I'm here to get a street party going for the kids". Q: "what is your opinion of the President?", A: "Our President, in my opinion, is....."
It's not always easy for people to remember to do this and you don't want to be cutting them off because that makes them nervous. So the questions need to be short and readily incorporated into the interviewee's natural phraseology. The provocative statement is also very useful when combined with "what do you say about that?"

A lot more about this technique is beautifully presented in http://www.vasst2.com/search.aspx?category=ProductionMaster the Shoot[/link]

i personally dotn think its negative..

in fact, i find that it allows one to compress time

as an example..
Interview question -
"How has company XYZ's Product improved performance and efficiency for your own company"

"well blah blah blah..

BUT

if the answer were to begin "Companies XYZ product has allowed us to increae performance and efficiency, inturn creating higher revenue etc etc etc"

it sound more natural and with multi cam work (or not) u can chop and change and edit what u like to streamline it even further..

I do all my corporate interviews in this manner and after almost a decade of doing this, im yet to have anyone have na issue with it. In fact its a more persoanlised response as the interviewer is mentioning the subject by name and reasoning, In turn their response is like an essay with an opening, base subject, and closing piece.

For vox pops, its very differnt as theyre fast u need to get teh point across, so i retain the interviewer as theyre asking the questions for teh first time, then jump through 15 or so responses to that same question. In turn, i title that question as it flows through that segment.
When doing a 6 minute vox pop, ur cutting about 50 peoples different answers and sometimes u can een use an answer to another questions to answer a different question altogether

Uh, no. That's not at all what I'm saying. I think you're reading into this the answer you want, for some reason.

You ask questions in a way that gets the interviewee to do some storytelling. Basically the goal here is to avoid Yes/No answers.

This type of interview usually doesn't use any of the interviewer's voice, mainly because the piece is not about the interviewer. So you really have to rely on the talent telling a story.

There are lots of reasons to ask a question twice. Maybe the person was still formulating their thoughts, maybe they baubled, maybe you need to change focal length to have something to cut to.

I think you're assuming some sort of "hard hitting" adversarial interview. I'm assuming a friendly interview where you just want the talent to tell a good story.

Rob Mack