Interviewing in Documentary Film
Launch library · evergreen read
Documentary filmmaking added a visual and durational dimension to interviewing distinct even from television: subjects filmed over extended periods, sometimes returning to the same conversation across multiple sessions, allowing a fuller and more considered account to develop gradually over time. That extended timeline allowed trust to build in ways a single sitting rarely manages.
The presence of a camera crew, rather than a single interviewer, changes the dynamic in a room considerably, and documentary practitioners developed particular techniques for helping a subject forget the equipment enough to speak naturally despite the visible apparatus surrounding them. Forgetting the camera entirely is rarely possible, though skilled practitioners can help a subject come close.
Editing plays an especially large role in this format, since hours of filmed conversation are typically compressed into a much shorter final piece, placing considerable responsibility on the editor to represent a subject's meaning faithfully within that compression. A careless edit can distort a subject's meaning just as easily as a careless quote ever could.