adds content to the interview. For example , s hots of Penthouse pub lisher Bob Guccione photograph ing model s and dealing with his secretary and other magazine staffers , did as much to tell us about the real Guccione as did the things he actually said to Morley Safer in a recent 60 M inllres inter view. Guccione talked like a pretty st raight bu siness man , but hi s shirt open to the navel and hi s chest draped with s ilver jewelry added a touch ofthe " swi nger" to the staid bu siness image. Simi larly , in another Saferinterview with basketball star Bill Bradley, it was scenes of Bradle y in a game, on the road and in the locker room, which gave the audience a real feel for the man and the kind of life he leads. Other Creative Possibilities By no mean s does an interview have to be a mere question and answer session. There are man y ways to make an interview come alive. You can talk to o ther people who know the person- people w ho might reveal things your sub ject might nol. You can reco rd and fi lm interactions between your subject and ot her people. Con s ider this exchange on a recent CBS Wh o's Wh o program be tween a surgeon , Dr. Irving Cooper, and a young ch ild w hose mother wanted the doctor to oper ate so the child co uld walk again : Dr. Cooper: ., You think we ought to go ahead with the next opera tion,ordoyou . . . doyou ?" Girl: " You know what? There's three good things about the opera tion and there's three bad things . " Dr. C ooper: "What are the three good things and what are t he three bad things?" G irl : "You kind of get sick with the oxygen. When you put it on your nose, it kind of makes you like real drowsy and you feel fu nny. " Dr. Cooper: " Okay. That' s one bad th ing." Girl: "And the clamp 's kind of uncomfortable. " Dr. Cooper: "That'sa real bad thing. I ... I agree with that. What else? " Girl: "And they stick needles in your head. " Dr. Cooper: " That's right. " Girl: "It hurts ju st a little bit. " Dr. C ooper: "Now tel l me about the good things." Girl: " I can ride a bicycle." sUPER·a flLMAXER
Dr. Cooper: "You can ride a bicy
cle now?"
Gi rl :"No, I will be."
Dr. Cooper: " Oh , you will. I hope
so " Girl: "Ye s. I can . I ' ll be able to walk to my friend 's house." Dr. Cooper:" I hope so." Girl: "A nd I can run, skip and Jump. " Dr. Cooper : "Well , those wQuld all be good things, sweetheart. I hope . . I hope I see you do that. We ' ll try like the dickens." More than any thing the doctor could himselfhave said, more than Dan Rather, the interv iewer, could have said, this briefinte rac tion with the ch ild gave the a udi ence a feel for the gentleness ofthe man and hi s honesty in dealing with even the little st of patients. In decidi ng on related scenes that might enhance your interview . cons ider scene s that might retlect memories as well as current events. The subject may be in these scenes or may not. A travel ing shot from a car, for example , may provide a picture ofthe sub ject's neighborhood , as we hear the person talk abo ut what it was like to grow up in that commu nit y. You, as interviewer, could also use s uc h a sce ne as a background for yo ur own voice-over narration. Or you can put yourself in the sce ne , and do a s tand-up lip-sync piece to tell the audience more about the person you' re interviewing. Narration can be a valuable tool in tying the different pieces of your portrait together, particu larly when you're trying to relate the indi vidual to a larger story. Scenes shot for narration s hould be com plete in themselves . That is, they should have a variety of wide, med ium and close shots, and cutaways ifnecessar y, so that the edited scene tell s a story by itself. Pay Attention to Details In all filmin g, but particularly in the interview format, it's impor tant to pay attention to details of lighting , background , appearance and clothing . You may not intend it , but dull lighting or hair that is mussed will have a defin ite edi to rial effe ct on your interview . For example , I once filmed interviews for a news story of two men who had opposing viewpoints. One, a Congressman , came to the inter view wearing a light blue s hirt ,
I ~
When Churles Kurult interviewed "Fancy" Tom Wince on CBS's Who 's Who, he was taken back to the 1930sand 40s when jau impresa rio Wince featured names lik e Louis Armstrong , Lionel Hampton and Duke Et lin gton in his Vicksburg, Mississippi night_ club.
medium bl ue suit and a co lorful tie. He was fi lmed in his brightly lit , cheerfully decorated office. Hi s opponent, an officerofa nonprofit association , came to the interv iew in a drab olive suit , matching tie and w hite shi rt. Hi s office was equa ll y drab and dark . When the piece a ppeared on telev ision , the assoc iation officer demanded a public apology, claim ing we had deliberately made him look bad. The moral: if you want your s ub ject to come out at his or her best, don't be shy about suggesting a p propriate clothing to wear for the interview, and be sure to check out the location in advance-at th e very least yo u' ll know to bring more lights . A Question of Taste
Finally, there is the question of taste . It is panicu larly important here because by it s very nat ure , the interview probes into the human psyche, One of the most poignant moments I have seen in an interview happened because the filmm aker used restraint , avoiding w hat could have been a cheap e motional shot . It was in the Who's Wh o show on the s urgeon , Dr. Cooper. Thefatherofoneof Dr. Cooper's patients was talking 23