INTERVIEW TECHNIQUES By Emer Rooney

INTRODUCTION As you may or may not know an awful lot of work goes into interviewing someone, everything down to camera angles, questions and even the position of the interviewer has to be planned perfectly or the interview will not go to plan. Therefore in this presentation I intend to highlight the techniques used when interviewing someone and explain them in further detail giving you a better understanding. Interviews we will explore: Amy Schumer - The Ellen Show. David Cameron with Jon snow Bruce Jenner with Diane Sawyer.

AMY SCHUMER ON THE ELLEN SHOW In This interview we see Ellen DeGeneres interviewing Amy Schumer, the well known actress/comedian on her well known and quite famous TV show The Ellen Show. Format- The format of this interview is moving image as it was broadcast on The Ellen Show. Tone/Style-This interview is an entertainment style interview. Ellen DeGeneres (the interviewer) has always had really entertaining and funny guests on her show. Ellen always finds her own way to make interviews better for the viewers by taking the interview and giving it her own special touch. Both Amy and Ellen are comedians which makes this interview even more entertaining to watch. The interview mostly consists of Amy making both the audience and Ellen laugh. The Ellen show is filmed on a studio type set. The studio is set up in a very comfortable welcoming way Ellen sits on the right in a very comfortable white leather chair and Amy sits just across from her on the left on another white leather chair. The set is also complete with a coffee table with some flowers placed on top. The studio is set up this way to make it look very relaxed there isn’t anything intimidating about this set which makes guests more comfortable and willing to open up. Throughout the interview Ellen appears to be relaxed and this sets the tone for the rest of the interview.

AMY SCHUMER ON THE ELLEN SHOW(CONTINUED) Question Types- Ellen asks mostly open questions during the interview. However Ellen can hardly ask any questions because she's laughing and joking so much with Amy. At the very beginning of the interview Ellen asks "What do you do when you're in L.A." Amy answers saying "I cry." This causes Ellen to answer laughing. This shows the real beauty of using open questions because you can never predict what answer you're going to get. Asking open questions gives you a good chance to find out more information about the person. The way that Ellen asks these questions makes the interview appear more like a conversation than an interview. Structure- The interview begins with Ellen talking about the last time that Amy was on the show in which she gave her a giant portrait of the Hemsworth brothers and Amy. This caused laughter among the audience and Ellen. The interview consisted of Ellen asking simple developmental open ended questions with Amy giving hilarious elaborate answers. Purpose of the interview- The purpose of this interview was for Amy to promote her new film Train wrecked and for the entertainment of those at home. Target Audience- The target audience for this interview would be fans of The Ellen show, Fans of Amy Schumer and people who like to watch daytime television.

DAVID CAMERON WITH JON SNOW In this interview we see Jon Snow interviewing David Cameron in the channel 4 news studio on October 6th Format- The format of this interview is moving image as it was broadcast on the popular television station channel 4. Tone/style- The style of this interview is a combative hard news interview. Jon snow has interviewed many wonderful and powerful people in his time at channel 4. He is famous for getting really good information out of people when interviewing them this is what makes his interviews so intriguing and interesting. The interview is set up in a way that makes you believe that Snow and Cameron are arguing in a way. In the background we can see a wonderful view of London through what looks like a very wide studio window. Jon sits on the left hand side of the camera and David sits just across from him on the right hand side of the camera. Throughout the interview we see Jon firing questions at the prime minister whilst leaning forward in his seat almost like he’s attacking the prime minister with these questions this is a technique that Snow uses often when interviewing. Cameron on the other hand sits straight in his chair opposite Snow and changes his position often when Snow fires another difficult question at him. The changing position of Cameron shows that he is quite nervous and maybe even intimidated by Snow. Snow's position shows that he is confident and ready for anything.

DAVID CAMERON WITH JON SNOW (CONTINUED) Question types- Jon Snow uses mainly open and closed questions in the interview. For example when Snow and Cameron are discussing Britain's birth rate after polish immigrants came in Snow asks Cameron if they can survive without bringing more people into the country. This is a great example of a closed question because Cameron can only answer with yes or no. However Cameron doesn’t really answer this question which again shows that Cameron is almost intimidated by Cameron. At the end of the interview Snow asks Cameron “Are you looking forward to retirement.” I think Snow has done this to end the interview on a lighter note as the interview was quite intense. Structure – The Structure of this interview is mostly confidence building as Snow eases Cameron into the interview and then fires these open ended developmental questions at him. Purpose of the interview- This interview was made for informational purposes. Watching this interview would give you more information about the issues that are going on in Britain and how The prime minister is dealing with them. Target audience- The target audience for this interview would be regular watchers of channel 4 news and people interested in politics.

BRUCE JENNER WITH DIANE SAWYER In this interview we see Diane Sawyer interviewing Bruce Jenner in his home for ABC News. Format- The format of this interview is moving image as it was broadcast on ABC News on 25 th April Tone/Style- In her time Diane Sawyer has interviewed many wonderful people such as Jaqueline Kennedy and Hilary Clinton. She has a way of asking questions like no other interviewer she doesn’t beat around the bush she just says what she needs to say and asks what she needs to ask. This interview is an informational type interview. I would say the style of this interview is an informational interview because we are finding out information about Bruce Jenner transitioning into a woman. This interview took place in the home of Bruce Jenner so both Bruce and Diane appear relaxed throughout. As this interview would be hard for Bruce I thinks its great that they filmed it in a place where he is comfortable and where he feels he can share things. Diane sits on a comfortable arm chair just across from Bruce who is sitting comfortably on a white sofa, it looks like they are in the living room of the house. Both Bruce and Diane remain relaxed throughout the interview which really sets the tone for the interview. Question types- Sawyer asks mostly open questions in this interview however is very careful about how she asks them as this a difficult time for Bruce and she doesn’t want to upset him in anyway. At the very beginning of the interview we Sawyer asks Bruce “Who is Bruce Jenner.” This is a very risky question to begin with but the way that Sawyer asks it allows Bruce to give a very comfortable and confident answer. This interview was Bruce's first interview after coming out as a woman and in my opinion the questions used in this helped Sawyer execute the interview perfectly.

BRUCE JENNER WITH DIANE SAWYER (CONTINUED) Structure- Again the structure of this interview is similar to Jon Snow and David Cameron's interview in the way it is structured around confidence building. Sawyer asks simple questions to help Bruce build confidence through the interview in order to give honest heartfelt answers. Purpose of the interview- The purpose of this interview was for the public to find out more about Bruce Jenner coming out as a woman. Target audience- The target audience for this interview would be Fans of Bruce Jenner, general watchers of ABC News and Fans of Keeping up with the Kardashians.