Loneliness in a mass medium
This is a variation on the one interviewer
- one interviewee, but, typically the two people are in different
cities if not different countries. Usually live, but not always.
Remote studio interviews are very difficult. You're
stuck in a hot little box of a room with maybe one camera operator
who has no interest in you or your image. You can't see the interviewer
or even hear him very clearly.
Try your best to imagine he's there in the room
with you. Difficult, but when it works it's brilliant.
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The lack of a second person makes
this quite difficult. There will usually be someone in the
studio with you, but he or she will probably be a technician
and more concerned with getting your lighting right than
settling your nerves. |
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You'll probably hear the questions
through a deaf-aid earpiece that's been thrust in your ear.
Quite disconcerting, but try to think of it as a telephone
call with an acquaintance. |
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The general arrangement seems
to be to ask the interviewee to look at a camera. This is
seventeen and a quarter times more difficult than staring
at the interviewee. At least he nodded encouragingly from
time to time - the glass lens just glares at you emotionless
and harsh! |
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Some studio directors ask the
interviewee to look not at the camera, but at a point a little
to the left or right of the lens. If that happens to you,
ask for some sort of aid to help you focus - a photograph
of the interviewer would be ideal, but even a studio clock
is better than nothing. An off-air monitor may be worse than
nothing - you'll be looking straight at yourself, but that
self on screen will be looking slightly sideways. Most distracting. |
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Because of the limitations of
the deaf-aid communications, you may not know exactly when
transmission begins and ends. Be ready with your interesting
face (and a smile if it's a light-hearted interview) just
in case. And don't, whatever you do, turn away or start disconnecting
your microphone until you're given the all clear. You may
think you're off air, but the remote studio may still have
your picture in a window behind the link man while he talks
about the launch date of your book or whatever. |
Next - Chat Shows and the Book
Plug Circuit.
