Preparing for interviews

So, as you can see by my posts over the last couple of months, I have been doing some journalism for Melbourne.Arts.Fashion.  It began with theatre reviewing which is moderately comfortable ground for me.  I then expanded into sub-editing - again it is kind of a slightly more complex form of cutting and pasting, so not a huge stretch.  Most recently though, my editor has been sending me out to do interviews.

This freaked me out!  It feels like there is quite a lot of responsibility in reporting interviews.  First of all there is the research.  You have to research for reviews too, though, so that part was easy.  The difference is that you have to try and sift through the research to discover the questions you want to ask.

It is not that I want to be earth-shatteringly original, but I do kind of want to ask questions that are meaningful and will give the reader an insight to the artist or the work or the project.  I keep thinking about what people say about Oprah Winfrey and why she was so successful.  Almost without variation the commentary asserts that Oprah asks questions that people want to know the answer too.  That is what I want to do.

My first interview was with Jade Lillie.  I had absolutely no idea what I was doing and was petrified.  Luckily I did assume that would be the case and carefully prepared and wrote down my questions so I didn't really have to think.  I had also recently downloaded a recording app to my phone, so even though I took notes I didn't have to rely on them.

The other scary thing was that I had to take the photo to accompany the article.  I have never been into photography - even casual, personal photography.  It would not be an exaggeration to say that I went for at least 5 years without taking any photos.  Then all of a sudden I had to take some publicity shots for shows, and then take production photos because photographers didn't turn up.  Now my photos are being published with my articles.  I should point out that this is not any endorsement on my skills or 'eye', and my apparatus is a Sony Xperia phone.  It is probably more of a commentary on my journalistic status.

My second interview was a phone interview with Ash Grunwald.  I know nothing about music and even less about how to record whilst using a telephone.  I had two pieces of luck going for me with that one though.  Firstly, I have a Microsoft Surface tablet, so I could use that to record the interview.  All I had to do was put my phone in speaker mode.  Secondly, it was a phone interview so no photography was required.  I got really good feedback on that interview.

Suddenly things change though.  Tomorrow I have an interview with the creative team for the new Circus Oz show and guess what?  A photographer (a real one with equipment and everything!) is coming with me.

So, no pressure!  Today as I sit here researching and trying to come up with questions I realise that the content of the interview will have to be as exciting as the photographs which will accompany the piece. Aaargghhhhh.  The big question will be how much of their souls can I get them to bear in a piddly little half hour slot?  I guess we will know the answer to that question tomorrow...