Codes & Conventions - Filming & Editing of Interviews

After watching two seperate documentaries, I was able to identify a number of different codes and conventions that could be useful when it comes to filming my own interview. I watched both "In the Teeth of Jaws" and also "The Simpson's 20th Anniversary 3D On Ice". In both documentaries I noticed that the questions asked by the interviewer was never included in the actual footage, only the answers were shown in response. In addition, the interviewee never looks directly into the camera and seemingly looks at the interviewer or slightly aside from the camera whilst answering the questions.

Also, I noticed that the background of each interviewee reflected either the content of what they were talking about or a personal reflection of their job total. For example, Matt Groening has cut-outs of each Simpson character behind me, reflecting his creation of the characters. Each background was relevant to the programme e.g. Matt Groening's creation of The Simpsons can be seen in the background.

Both programmes strictly follow the thirds rule. Every interviewee is sat in either the left or right third of the screen making the composition of the shot a lot more interesting.

I also noticed that both documentaries had suitable cutaway shots that were relevent to what they were talking about and seemed to demonstrate a point.

As well as this I noticed that whenever a new person was being interviewed there was a small graphic to introduce them and their profession/involvement with the documentary. This can be seen here in the Jaws documentary. There is also a small picture of a shark which makes the graphic even more relevent.

Lastly, all of the shots used to interview the people were either mid-shots or close-ups, or medium close-ups. This can be seen her in The Simpsons documentary.

There is never a light source behind the interviewee and, most importantly, the questions are cutted out whilst the interviewee elaborates on a specific point. ~