I finally got one of my interviews set for Friday after school!
This is probably something I should have had more concrete from the beginning but I am working on it little by little. I also have my second interviewee ready but scheduling with her has been more complicated because she doesn't have any free periods and I have a lot of afterschool activities coming up (as well as a week long trip). She said she would let me know if she had an opening any time soon, so I'll stay in touch with her.
Regardless of when I do these interviews, I need to come up with questions.
The way I did this for my last documentary is I worked off the outline. I thankfully already did the outline (see this blog to read more about it) so that's one step out of the way. The next thing is to chunk out how I want the interview to go, and what phrases I may want the interviewee to say. For example in my outline you may see that I have a quote saying "In comparison to athletes blah blah, that's why we’re called mathletes" so I made sure to ask questions like "Can you compare another club or sport to the competitive aspect of MAO"
I am making sure to be an open book to my interviewees as well. I told them my vision and the whole video game idea before so that they understand what I am trying to do with the videos and they feel more comfortable (I don't think they understood but it's ok!)
These are the questions I came up with but I know I will 100% ask other questions as the interview arises. Some of the ways they are listed may seem blunt or poorly phrased but that is because I want it to flow like a conversation. If I'm starting off the question "Might I inquire as to the myriad interactions, experiences, and endeavors that have comprised the fabric of your day?" to a high school student, I think I would get the driest responses in the world. It's about making the person being interviewed comfortable because talking in front of a camera is already scary enough.
As long as I know where I want the interview to go then I'll know how to get people to talk. Who knows maybe they actually hate math and do competitions for other reasons or maybe they do math as a distraction from something else. I think it's important to also have an open mind when doing an interview because another layer to the story could arise.
I hate to say it but it's almost like manipulation. I definitely try to use words relating to what I want the interviewee to say so that they are more likely to use those words.
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