Your planning an interview. Maybe it’s a week out. Maybe it’s an hour out.
What should you do to make sure it’s a great interview. Both technically and content wise.
This is a checklist or more of a process to make sure I run through before each show.
For me it starts with research or a pre interview.
Googling, Facebooking, and LinkedIn ing (not sure that last one sounds right) to get every scrap of info I can about them.
Where they’re from.
Where they went to school.
All of the business ventures they have.
Also make sure to type in that persons name + interview to see if you can find any other interviews they’ve done.
If you can do a pre interview I highly recommend it. Even if it’s a 5-10 minutes phone call. It can transition you from feeling ok about the interview to being super confident and that extra edge that takes you up knotch.
Defining the interview
This next step I learned from Alex Blumberg in his Creative Live course he did (I wrote up some notes here)
After I do some research I know always try to answer this question.
I’m doing a story about X
and it’s interested because of Y…
Here’s an example..
I’m doing story about transitioning from corporate finance to golf instruction
And it’s interesting because they have a unique perspective and are doing very well
Here are a couple of other quick things to make sure to understand
Sit in a non rolling chair that doesn’t squeak or make noise.
Make sure any fans are off
Have a cup of water nearby you can grab if needed.
Pause dropbox syncing if you have it always enabled on your computer.
Do you have access to you notes on a separate device (iphone / ipad) than what you’re recording on to look up links or notes.