Annex
5.
The
Golden Rules of Writing a Great Interview
To
start with … INTERVIEWS ARE TO BE PUBLISHED/RELEASED ON TV OR RADIO
1.
Picture
Get
a picture with the famous person you interview. It doesn’t have to be only the
face, a serious expression but ask the person to make a goofy face or if it’s a
more serious publication ask for a picture with the family or a full body
photograph.
2.
Questions
Avoid
typical interview questions. Instead, ask questions that are intriguing, or
revealing for the interviewee, like: “Do
you always walk your dog dressed in green?”, “So, I’ve heard you play a lot of
bowling. Is it something connected to your childhood…?”
3.
Answers
Getting
good, interesting answers from the person you are interviewing is something
that makes the readers/viewers/listeners want to follow it up to the end. Boring
questions lead to dull answers. However, if you ask interesting questions and
still get mundane answers, keep asking the same question a different number of
ways until you get an interesting bit of information. For example:
Interviewer: “Besides bungee-jumping, what other hobbies do
you have?”
Interviewee: “Well, mountain climbing and … jogging I
guess.”
Not very interesting so far, but let’s try again
Interviewer: “What would you do if you won 1 million dollars
at the lottery?”
Interviewee: “Riding in a Porsche 911 Turbo, listening to
music while on my way to Formula 1.”
4.
Structure
The order
in which you publish: the picture, questions, and answers. Don’t do this in a
logical sequence. To have the strongest interview possible, you need to start
and end strong. Pick the most provocative questions and answers at the
beginning and at the end. Then, let your emotions guide you.
