For a single camera shoot, what transitions/durations do you typically use in Vegas for interviews or other scenes in which there is very little change from one clip to another?
Cut-aways are the number one technique to use at all times. Oh yeah try a soft quick dissolve - but it must be interpreted as really a significant passage of time (10 sec or more) and you can not do it if the dissolve lands in joining very similar frames. Yuck!
I guess the term "interview" is incorrect--no questions and answers. My interest is more akin to a typical newscast in which they often string together a number of short clips from a much longer segment--clips from a speech being one example that we've all seen recently. Some appear to be simple dissolves and others appear to include a zoom component as well. Perhaps the best thing to do is record some I like, try to replicate, and then experiment.
Depends how it was shot.
Watching camera tapes from the pros, repositiong the camera between segments is one way the cameraman shoots for the edit.
If you keep the camera locked off and use a dissove it can look wrong as only the subject appears to "dissolve", even a straight cut doesn't work at all well.