Week 5: Interview and observation

Choose between asking and watching, run either mode with correct consent and technique, and defend every cutaway and trim you make in the edit.

22 March 2027

Mark as read

Saved only in this browser. It is not a grade or submission record.

Open the slides

A documentary subject’s truth can arrive two ways: spoken back to you in an interview, or shown to you through unprompted behaviour. This lecture compares interview-led and observational production, works through interview technique — open questions, sequencing, silence, off-camera eyeline — and the ethics of cutaways, B-roll and trimming an answer without changing what someone meant.

Outline#

We trace interview-led and observational method back to their cinéma vérité and direct cinema roots, then build the practical skills each needs: consent as an ongoing conversation rather than a one-time form, open versus closed questions, off-camera interviewer positioning, and the two jobs a cutaway can do — covering a jump cut or backing up a claim — and the false correspondence risk when those two jobs blur. The session closes with a role-play review of when each mode serves a story better, and confirming your Assignment 1 subject and their permission.

Bring a rough idea of who you want to film for Assignment 1, and be ready to have the consent conversation with a partner in session.

Teaching team

• ZIMU LI — convenor