Interview structure

there are three main points of an interview structure

-The interviewer is the facilitator. (S)he chooses the topic of conversation, asks questions and guides the discussion.
-The guest is the subject of the interview. (S)he will do most of the talking and get most of the camera shots.
-The viewer is a silent observer who has been invited into the conversation.

interview camera angles

Interviews tend to use shots ranging from mid-shot to medium close-up (MCU). Wider shots are occasionally used as establishing shots or cutaways.


Shots ranging from wide shot to MCU are best for information delivery, i.e. when the subject is talking about factual information.

Shots tighter than a MCU are appropriate for when the guest is talking about something personal or emotional — the shot pulls the viewer into the same emotional space. For this reason it's not usually a good idea to go tighter than a MCU on the interviewer, since their feelings are not the focus and they should be portrayed as slightly detached from the emotion of the topic (but not completely detached).