Importance of Interviews

This blog is going to be dedicated to the importance of interviews in documentaries. Apart from this upcoming project, I've only ever conducted 2 other professional-style interviews in my life: both being from my past documentary project. Since I've already talked briefly about my ideas for my potential interviewees, I am going to try to stray away from that idea and focus on different aspects of interviews more. 

        Interviews are structured conversations where questions are asked by one side and answered by the other (in brief terminology). According to a PDF interview article created by Harvard Kennedy School, documentaries rely on interviews heavily. They are used to communicate vital information about the documentary's topic.

        The way interviews are formatted allows the interviewees to share their firsthand or personal accounts of their experiences or ideologies. Interviews offer many distinct benefits for documentaries: credibility, emotional connections, and honesty, Not only do they provide realism to documentaries, but interviews also allow a more directed narration that can directly influence the tone and mood of the documentary, Their crucial role also offers better storytelling and allows for a greater connection to the viewers, emotionally and entertainingly. 

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        For example, I once watched a short 30-minute episodic documentary (a while back so I couldn't find the title) about natural disasters. The one I watched was about tornados and it included 3 distinct types of interviewee categories: scientists and meteorologists, victims of past tornados, and victims of the tornado that was being recorded.

        Considerable, this topic had a wider perspective and had more angles to be recorded from (unlike a topic like pets); however, these interviews also helped me understand more about the film. Obviously, I watched this documentary a long while back; however, looking back at it, I wonder how confusing the storyline would have been without the statistics, experiences, and stories that were being shared by the interviews.

 

        Anyways, relating to my topic, interviews are also going to be vital. As I stated in my vlog, I want to try and use the interviews to move the story and plot along on their own instead of relying on a voice-over or narration. 

        As I don't want to be too repetitive, I'm going to be ending the blog here; however, I have thought of a family member who may let me interview them on one of their family pets that helps keep them company. I will keep you guys updated on what answer I receive and I hope you enjoyed this short interview blog.

-Dana