Those people don’t understand how media interviews work. The less time a person has to be interviewed (i.e. the more responsibilities / power they have), the more likely the interview has scripted prompts.
I’m pretty sure that a presidential campaign that’s in terrible shape can make time to reassure voters if they’re serious about restoring confidence. Not doing so is either irresponsible or an admission that they know they / he can’t do better.
Go grab 2 microphones. Sure SM58s are the workhorse of the industry. $100 each, so that’s $200.
Get 1 pair of Sony MDR7506 (workhorse) headphones. $100.
Now get an interface, Scarlet 2i2 has 2x line-in ports for easy use, and a Firewire -> USB. Another $200
Then download the REAPER audio program, unless you wanna try Audacity (which sucks), free trial for however long you want, or about $60 for the license.
$500-600 investment isn’t too bad for actual good quality audio. Please don’t skimp on it.
If you’re thinking of adding in cameras and a switcher and control board and mixer and graphics etc., plan on adding at minimum $2000 more to your budget.
Now, you don’t really need an actual studio, or audio treatment of the walls. You can do an interview in your kitchen if you feel like it, no issue.
I want you to schedule 5 interviews next week, at precisely the same time, let’s say 6pm local (wherever you are).
Then 5 more interviews at the same exact time the following 3 weeks. Get you a whole 20 interviews set up with different people of different walks of life. You’re gonna schedule the whole thing to be an hour long. For a grand total of 20 interviews all scheduled to be at 6pm (or whatever time you choose) local time.
Now make sure you have your levels (the way things sound, ensuring not too loud or soft) working when they get there, you’ll likely want your guests to get there before the scheduled interview time, at least 5-10 minutes prior, so they can actually ARRIVE to your recording location. Then you’ll want them to talk to the microphone to ensure they sound good, not too loud or soft, and also instruct them on basic mic technique (your audience is IN the microphone). But, alas, you’ll need to constantly let them know to speak into the mic, probably by pointing at it while they speak.
You could bring in a friend or family member to pay attention to the audio info on the REAPER / Audacity digital workstation, or you could try to do it yourself while also making sure you have enough questions to fill an hour, but also allowing free-form thought to happen, because more people really prefer a conversational tone in audio formats. Make sure you’re interesting, and entertaining enough for people to listen to, but also have proper probing questions that can challenge or otherwise get your interviewee off balance. Audiences love it when the question is a hard ball, and the answerer isn’t super prepared for it; makes for great entertainment.
Now do this 20 times in a 4 week period (just remember, you have 24 hours in a day like the rest of us). And come back and let me know.
So uh, I went to school for audio production, while I didn’t pursue that career path all of my friends from college are currently in the AV industry, senior AV admins for companies ranging from Amazon to radio. I have a personal recording setup that I am teaching my daughter Reaper with. I have an intimate understanding of what it takes. ROFL at you listing pricing as if that is relevant to the conversation at hand.
Is my understanding of your point that it’s very hard to manage interviews, so much so that if you have the opportunity to interview the President of the United States you need assistance planning the questions because of your oh so busy schedule? The more you talk the less credible your argument becomes.
Also 95% of what you typed out doesn’t matter in a professional setting as the person doing the interview is not the producer or the engineer. Just utterly irrelevant.
The price breakdown was to help you or anyone else who thinks they know what’s up get a handle on how quickly you can attempt to actually do the work. Sure, the interviewer could only be setting up interviews, but there’s a whole slew of things going on in production. And some people have no goddamned clue of that, and like to make little quips about changing how it works. Well, they can drop a few hundred and see how to do it themselves, instead of being armchair producers.
My whole message was an encompassing of the idea that TIME is the limiting factor. A person like the president isn’t going to have the same amount of time as say, your sister. So there’s going to be more pre-production, and that includes Q&A. Any idiot worth their salt is going to have prepared questions for the guest, and many times, they’re going to be giving their guest either A) a general idea of those questions, or B) a list of acceptable questions. Interviewees no matter who they are don’t have to answer questions they don’t want to answer. And the president is going to answer even fewer than that because of potential issues of national security, et al.
You don’t think I know what I’m talking about, but I don’t think you know what you’re talking about. See how that goes both ways?
Any idiot worth their salt is going to have prepared questions for the guest, and many times, they’re going to be giving their guest either A) a general idea of those questions, or B) a list of acceptable questions.
And again, this detracts from the conversation at hand because the topic is about the inverse, the guest giving the prepared questions to the host. At that point it’s not an interview, but a press conference disguised as one.
When the point of the interview is damage control for his ability to think on his feet, do you understand how it doesn’t accomplish the goal of damage control, regardless of the current campaign culture?
I know how interviews work. I’ve been on many for jobs and they’re never the same scripted questions. Sure, some sameish ones pop up but I’m also never giving them in advance or been given them in advance.
A presidential media interview IS a fucking job interview. A very public one and @[email protected] and @[email protected] aren’t wrong. The mold should broken at some point. Continuing the tradition just because “that’s how they’ve traditionally worked” is a bullshit excuse. I want to know how they can handle a question about their potential job on the fly because they sure as hell have to respond to it on the fly when shit actually happens.
Good luck trying to break the mold when you only have 24 hours in a day and more than 1 interview a day, plus other responsibilities.
You got solutions? Because I’m all ears.
Limit the question(s) and/or only one specific channel that is publicly accessible to all citizens OTA would be a start - PBS maybe. Allow for repeat viewings throughout the week so everyone has a chance to catch it. The major news networks will pick up what they want anyway for sound bytes regardless of multiple or a singular interview.
Repeat at intervals as needed with different questions from a left, right, and moderate perspective. Have an independent panel choose the questions for the interviewer to ask from a pool of questions that are known to be big/hot topics the public cares about.
There’s no need for a circuit. Let the president give their answers officially there and run the country/campaign where they need to.
Do you see that as a good thing?
Do you think scripted interviews inspire confidence in voters when the current concern is his ability to think on his feet?
Those people don’t understand how media interviews work. The less time a person has to be interviewed (i.e. the more responsibilities / power they have), the more likely the interview has scripted prompts.
This is basic media production.
Does answering unscripted questions take longer?
Like, he doesn’t have time for unscripted questions, but he does have time for scripted questions? How does that work?
Coming up with questions pre-interview is a commonplace thing. And if you aren’t someone with questions in the bag, you’re not doing the job right.
Sure, but shouldn’t the interviewer write the questions, not the interviewee?
Which is why it was paramount that they break that mould.
You need to change the world of time. Because that’s what media interviews work around.
I’m pretty sure that a presidential campaign that’s in terrible shape can make time to reassure voters if they’re serious about restoring confidence. Not doing so is either irresponsible or an admission that they know they / he can’t do better.
Which ignores the second question I asked.
Because it’s not worth considering when you understand how interviews work.
Okay.
Go grab 2 microphones. Sure SM58s are the workhorse of the industry. $100 each, so that’s $200.
Get 1 pair of Sony MDR7506 (workhorse) headphones. $100.
Now get an interface, Scarlet 2i2 has 2x line-in ports for easy use, and a Firewire -> USB. Another $200
Then download the REAPER audio program, unless you wanna try Audacity (which sucks), free trial for however long you want, or about $60 for the license.
$500-600 investment isn’t too bad for actual good quality audio. Please don’t skimp on it.
If you’re thinking of adding in cameras and a switcher and control board and mixer and graphics etc., plan on adding at minimum $2000 more to your budget.
Now, you don’t really need an actual studio, or audio treatment of the walls. You can do an interview in your kitchen if you feel like it, no issue.
I want you to schedule 5 interviews next week, at precisely the same time, let’s say 6pm local (wherever you are). Then 5 more interviews at the same exact time the following 3 weeks. Get you a whole 20 interviews set up with different people of different walks of life. You’re gonna schedule the whole thing to be an hour long. For a grand total of 20 interviews all scheduled to be at 6pm (or whatever time you choose) local time.
Now make sure you have your levels (the way things sound, ensuring not too loud or soft) working when they get there, you’ll likely want your guests to get there before the scheduled interview time, at least 5-10 minutes prior, so they can actually ARRIVE to your recording location. Then you’ll want them to talk to the microphone to ensure they sound good, not too loud or soft, and also instruct them on basic mic technique (your audience is IN the microphone). But, alas, you’ll need to constantly let them know to speak into the mic, probably by pointing at it while they speak.
You could bring in a friend or family member to pay attention to the audio info on the REAPER / Audacity digital workstation, or you could try to do it yourself while also making sure you have enough questions to fill an hour, but also allowing free-form thought to happen, because more people really prefer a conversational tone in audio formats. Make sure you’re interesting, and entertaining enough for people to listen to, but also have proper probing questions that can challenge or otherwise get your interviewee off balance. Audiences love it when the question is a hard ball, and the answerer isn’t super prepared for it; makes for great entertainment.
Now do this 20 times in a 4 week period (just remember, you have 24 hours in a day like the rest of us). And come back and let me know.
Even tho I’ve already done it before.
So uh, I went to school for audio production, while I didn’t pursue that career path all of my friends from college are currently in the AV industry, senior AV admins for companies ranging from Amazon to radio. I have a personal recording setup that I am teaching my daughter Reaper with. I have an intimate understanding of what it takes. ROFL at you listing pricing as if that is relevant to the conversation at hand.
Is my understanding of your point that it’s very hard to manage interviews, so much so that if you have the opportunity to interview the President of the United States you need assistance planning the questions because of your oh so busy schedule? The more you talk the less credible your argument becomes.
Also 95% of what you typed out doesn’t matter in a professional setting as the person doing the interview is not the producer or the engineer. Just utterly irrelevant.
Yeah, same.
The price breakdown was to help you or anyone else who thinks they know what’s up get a handle on how quickly you can attempt to actually do the work. Sure, the interviewer could only be setting up interviews, but there’s a whole slew of things going on in production. And some people have no goddamned clue of that, and like to make little quips about changing how it works. Well, they can drop a few hundred and see how to do it themselves, instead of being armchair producers.
My whole message was an encompassing of the idea that TIME is the limiting factor. A person like the president isn’t going to have the same amount of time as say, your sister. So there’s going to be more pre-production, and that includes Q&A. Any idiot worth their salt is going to have prepared questions for the guest, and many times, they’re going to be giving their guest either A) a general idea of those questions, or B) a list of acceptable questions. Interviewees no matter who they are don’t have to answer questions they don’t want to answer. And the president is going to answer even fewer than that because of potential issues of national security, et al.
You don’t think I know what I’m talking about, but I don’t think you know what you’re talking about. See how that goes both ways?
Have the day you deserve.
And again, this detracts from the conversation at hand because the topic is about the inverse, the guest giving the prepared questions to the host. At that point it’s not an interview, but a press conference disguised as one.
When the point of the interview is damage control for his ability to think on his feet, do you understand how it doesn’t accomplish the goal of damage control, regardless of the current campaign culture?
Sure sm7b are closer to 400 each.
Which is why I recommended Sure SM58s.
Oh sorry. My bad. My brain saw sure sm and inserted the sm7b where it wasn’t. Seems to be the goto microphone I see everywhere.
I know how interviews work. I’ve been on many for jobs and they’re never the same scripted questions. Sure, some sameish ones pop up but I’m also never giving them in advance or been given them in advance.
A presidential media interview IS a fucking job interview. A very public one and @[email protected] and @[email protected] aren’t wrong. The mold should broken at some point. Continuing the tradition just because “that’s how they’ve traditionally worked” is a bullshit excuse. I want to know how they can handle a question about their potential job on the fly because they sure as hell have to respond to it on the fly when shit actually happens.
Good luck trying to break the mold when you only have 24 hours in a day and more than 1 interview a day, plus other responsibilities.
You got solutions? Because I’m all ears.
Limit the question(s) and/or only one specific channel that is publicly accessible to all citizens OTA would be a start - PBS maybe. Allow for repeat viewings throughout the week so everyone has a chance to catch it. The major news networks will pick up what they want anyway for sound bytes regardless of multiple or a singular interview.
Repeat at intervals as needed with different questions from a left, right, and moderate perspective. Have an independent panel choose the questions for the interviewer to ask from a pool of questions that are known to be big/hot topics the public cares about.
There’s no need for a circuit. Let the president give their answers officially there and run the country/campaign where they need to.
I can see the goalposts moving. That’s what I see.