INteiInterview Types
Most video interviews fall into one of two basic types. In one, the interviewer appears on camera with the subject. In the other, the subject appears alone, seemingly making statements instead of answering questions.
The big advantage in two-person interviews is , easy cut-aways. The two-person interview makes it easier to re-shape the interview by asking revised questions and later cutting them in. A two-person interview can also be easily edited, so if someone makes a mistaked or does something wrong then it can be cut out.
The down side is that the two-person format inflates the importance of the interviewer at the expense of the subject. Not only does Barbara Walters share the screen with her subject, but her questions obviously control the tone and content of the interview, making her at least as prominent as the interviewee.
A straight ahead narrative often flows more smoothly than a back-and-forth volley of questions and answers. For this reason, you can keep it up longer without fatiguing the viewer. In addition, a narrative lends itself to voice-over, which is a great way to avoid the dullness of talking heads.
The weakness of the one-person interview mirror the strenghts of the two-person style. For one thing, cutaways and angle changes are harder to obtain because there's only one person to videotape.
More importantly, an apparently spontaneous narrative can be time consuming to obtain because you must prompt the subject to deliver material in a form that makes sense without audible questions.
