Reality TV: An Insider's Guide to TV's Hottest Market (12 page)

A little more about that last point: On viewing, you’ll soon discover that ultra-generalized statements made in formal interviews are evergreen. An interview from the second day of shooting may provide just the right sentiment to end the series with, and most viewers don’t think twice about what anyone’s wearing in an interview, so anything said anytime, anywhere, can be applied to a scene to cover a difficult edit point or remind you of the presence of a character who hasn’t got much to do in an episode.

No matter whether you opt for OTFs, formal interviews, or a mixture of both, here are a few things to remember:

Interview questions must be formulated in a way that helps to drive your story. Talk for talk’s sake is deadly boring.
Say something
if you’re going to pull the viewer out of action to listen to someone comment on it.

Last, but not least, hit the goldens when composing your questions and guiding your answers. You absolutely must cover these bases in order to survive postproduction:

•  Establish all locations. Example: “Where are you going tonight and why are you going?”
“Tonight, I’m taking Larry to a restaurant to see if he gets along with my friends.”
Why? Because without these, there’s no way to set up your location other than showing signs or describing the location in on-screen text… and even then, you won’t be able to convey why your characters are there or what’s expected to happen.

•  Establish stakes (what’s at risk). Example: “Do you like Larry and, if so, what would happen if tonight went badly?”
“I like Larry, but if he can’t hang with my friends, I don’t think I’ll be able to go out with him.”
Why? Because if we don’t know what characters stand to gain or lose from an interaction, there’s no reason to care about it.

•  Pick up some content you can use to compress time. Example: “How long did Larry talk to your friends and how did it go?”
“Larry and my friends talked for about an hour, and I could tell they really liked him.”
Why? Because it’s awfully hard to compress time effectively without cutting away to interview, and the audience benefits from knowing what they should be taking away from the scene.

•  Introduce any characters we don’t know yet. Example: “Who is Jill and what kind of problem could she pose for Larry?”
“My one friend, Jill, has never liked anyone I’ve introduced her to. I’ve known her since college, and she can be hard to get along with.”
Why? Because people want to know who they’re watching and how they figure into the big picture.

•  Document emotions or reactions that may not fully telegraph inscene. Example: “You were smiling, but what was going on in your head?”
“Outside I was smiling at Larry, but inside I was getting angrier and angrier that my friends were being such jerks to him.”
Why? Because sometimes, viewers might not pick up on subtleties or what you might find to be brilliant subtext.

•  Get summary statements to cap scenes. Example: “How did Larry do, and how will this affect you in the future?”
“Overall, I think Larry did well meeting my friends. They really grilled him, but he held his own. I think I’ll go out with him again if he asks.”
Why? Because when action alone doesn’t tie things up, it’s necessary to put a bow at the end of a scene to ensure that it registers as something worth recalling later in your storyline.
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Forecast Bites

Don’t forget to go after what I call “forecast bites” that give us something to ponder in your characters’ futures. Instead of just asking how a castmember felt when X or Y happened to them, ask them how they felt
and
how they think it will affect or bias them, their team, or another player for the rest of the time they’re on the show. Instead of coming home with a simple “I thought what Penny did was uncalled for,” you’ll wind up with “I thought what Penny did was uncalled for, and I’m pretty sure none of us will ever trust her again.” A bite like that sets up Penny as a possible villain for the rest of your show and gives her something to prove… maybe even teeing up an entire B-story somewhere down the line about her either trying to regain the trust of the team or trying to manipulate them by using the fact that they think she’s a liar now. These gems are perfect for ending scenes or episodes on a thought to be revisited later.

Remember, too, that it’s okay to ask for specific pre-scripted statements in addition to responses to questions, as I mentioned earlier in the book. As talent sometimes reacts adversely to having words put in their mouths, though, always couch the ask by saying something like, “I really need this short statement to help me out in post. If you don’t disagree with the statement, could you please say this phrase for me as written?”

Be sure to cover as many bases as you can, even if you’re not sure you’ll use specific answers or statements in postproduction. It’s always better to bring back more than you need than less. Remember: If your Field Producers are conducting interviews for you, they may not necessarily understand why you need everything you’re asking for. It’s critical that you maintain that respectful, open line of communication with them, explaining why you’re asking them to bring back specific content.

While it may seem to contradict my edict that you should cover all your bases, you should, at the same time, gun for concise answers. When an interview response trails for 20, 30, or 45 seconds, you should allow the interviewee to finish, then ask them to recap the same thought in just a few sentences. While a lengthy response may sound authentic and conversational to you, you have no idea what an eternity 30 seconds is in the end product. In a half-hour show (presuming 22 minutes of content plus commercials), one 30-second bite would be more than 2% of your total content run time.

If you’re pressed for time with your interviews (sometimes you don’t have the luxury of spending 45 minutes asking questions), train yourself to listen for breaks in your interviewee’s responses. Ask yourself if fragments of their responses break as complete sentences, remembering also that Editors can usually pull out “ums” and “uhs” easily to tighten the replies.
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A response like “Well, you know, Judy and I went down to the, um, uh, hot tub and Frank and some of the girls were down there talking about me, I wasn’t sure what to think because, uh, being the first day and everything, I thought it was kind of early to be having opinions” could actually work out fine in postproduction. We’ll talk more about paring down interviews later.

There are a number of camps when it comes to scripting interview content. Some subscribe to the “tell me what you’re going to do, tell me what you’re doing, tell me what you did” school of thought, which gives you the most complete range of source material to pull from later.

Why all three versions of this question? Because it’ll give you the greatest number of options in postproduction.

Let’s say that your castmember is a surfer who makes his own boards, and you’re interviewing him after he’s given away a board to a castmate whose own board was destroyed. The asks you’d make and statements you’d be chasing for later use are:

Let’s say you’ve just seen Judy smash up her board. Tell me what happened and what you’re about to do so she can stay in the competition.

Judy broke her board, but because she’s come so far and worked so hard, I think I’m going to give her one of my custom longboards so she can stay in the competition.

Let’s imagine that you’re giving the board to Judy right now. Tell us what you’re doing and why you’re doing it.

I’m giving one of my custom longboards to Judy because I’d hate to see her have to drop out of this competition just because she has nothing to surf on this afternoon.

Let’s imagine again that you’ve just given Judy the custom board. Tell us why you did it.

I gave one of my custom longboards to Judy. I would have hated for her to have to drop out of this competition just because she didn’t have a board.

Advanced Interview Techniques

While we’ve already discussed interviews from the standpoint of knowing what kind of questions to ask and why, here are a few helpful tips on the more complex stuff — everything from composing the shot to dealing with problematic interview subjects.

•  COMPOSING THE INTERVIEW SHOT

Every show should have a standardized format for interviews, and whether you’re shooting in a special area or in front of a greenscreen so that your subject can be digitally placed in any environment, basic composition never really changes.

A subject should never be placed in the dead center of a frame, or the shot will appear stagnant and dull. Subjects should be placed either left of screen facing slightly to camera right, or right of screen facing slightly camera left. It’s sometimes helpful to set arbitrary guidelines to help mix up the visual style, as with male characters being positioned screen left facing right and female characters positioned screen right and facing left.

To establish an eyeline when conducting an interview, position yourself just slightly to the opposite side of camera from your subject’s position and at lens height. Be sure you’re at the same eye level as your subject, and be certain to brief them that they should be answering to
you
and not the camera. Be sure to stick close to the camera and that your subject’s gaze crosses the lens to arrive at your eyes on the opposite side (in other words, if your subject is framed camera left, you should be on the right side of the camera).

While good interview content composition calls for that slightly off-center eyeline, there is one rare occasion when I think a subject’s gaze should be directly into camera, and that’s when they’re calling out a castmate who’s not in the room, saying something like “Watch your back, Jeff. I’m gonna get you.” Use of this device, sparingly, will make such special content disarmingly impactful.

•  CHECKING YOUR AUDIO

While your crack Sound Mixer (or at the very least, Camera Operator) should be paying attention to how things sound, be sure to keep an ear out for everything from dogs to airplanes to the clattering of heavy bracelets or other jewelry.

Train yourself to listen for these things that can wreck your content:

•  Nearby chatter of cast and crew

•  Audible music, however faint or far away

•  Cell phone rings, even on vibrate (phones should be off during interviews)

•  Watch alarm beeps

•  Vehicle noises

•  Animal sounds (birds, dogs, and so on)

•  Jewelry rattling

If you’re hearing something unpleasant while you’re just sitting there conducting the interview, politely stop your subject (or just listen for a good break), then express your concerns to whoever’s minding the audio. Nine times out of ten, they’ll catch it before you, but everyone spaces out once in a while and it’s better safe than sorry.

•  KEEPING YOUR EYES PEELED

Just as there are plenty of audio issues that can ruin your interviews, there’s also the chance that visual disturbances can screw up your material as well.
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Visual disturbances include, but are not limited to:

•  Crewmembers in shot

•  Sudden shifts in lighting (with outdoor interviews, clouds can do odd things)

•  Flies or bees in shot

•  Weird items in interview area (camera batteries or tape left in view)

•  Boom in shot

•  Crazy flyaways in the subject’s hair

Keep ’em peeled out there, folks. While much interview is ultimately buried under picture, you should always help your crew get the best looking/sounding material.

Sometimes, though, it’s the castmembers themselves who will give you fits.

•  THE RELUCTANT SUBJECT

Despite the fact that folks sign on to appear in Reality shows every day, you’ll often find your subjects to be frightened, overly analytical about how they’ll come off on-camera, or completely teed off about how the experience isn’t living up to their expectations. After all, here they thought cameras would just be following them around and here’s this production crew telling them where to be and what to do ten, twelve, sixteen hours a day for weeks on end. At some point, some castmates just check out… and it’s up to you and your field team to reel them back in and get the goods.

No matter what your characters’ hangups, you’re in trouble if you or your Field Producers can’t come back with solid interview content. Here are a few tips and tricks to put castmembers at ease… or at least get your content out of them.

•  STAMMERERS / RAMBLERS

An unsettled subject often has a tendency to stammer or ramble. No matter how much you try to soothe them, they just can’t seem to give you a clear or concise response.

The often well-meaning stammerers usually only trip over their words because they’re in a hurry to respond to your questions. It’s just a simple matter of their mouths getting ahead of their minds.

I’ve found that most stammerers can be cured by instituting what I call a “five count.” Just explain to your subject that you’d like to be sure that your voices don’t overlap on tape, and that they should mentally count to five before answering. Removing the pressure to respond immediately often does the trick.