Looking at "The Conversation"

After thinking over the options I could explore having one less knitting group to film, I came to the decision to add interviews into my documentary. We had briefly considered this but it was one of our Plan B options for the time being. (Lesson? Always plan for a Plan B, C, and even D). One of the interviews I wanted to conduct was with my Mum. She doesn't like being on camera too much but she said she didn't mind doing it for this production.

Over the past week I have been looking at different techniques of interviews, and as well as the research we done in our research module, I looked at "The Conversation with Amanda De Cadanet" and "Stories We Tell". I have already spoken about "Stories We Tell" in a separate post, which will be linked here (x).

"The Conversation with Amanda De Cadanet" explores women's lives with everything from sex and love, to self acceptance and being your own motivation. Amanda's interview techniques is very unlike any other interviewer I have ever watched; the interview is always very relaxed and they will often be in very relaxed clothing.

(Caitlin Moran and Amanda De Cadanet on "The Conversation")

In this interview, the interviewer Amanda is clearly in front of the camera along with her guest Caitlin Moran. They're both dressed very casually, with Amanda in a black lacy dress but making it not as formal by having no shoes or socks on. The interviewee, Caitlin, is also going for something very similar with dark coloured leggings, a country style boot and a long blue t-shirt style dress. Many of the shots are very intimate, with two of the shots being mid shots of the woman along with the two shot of them sitting together (which you can see above). Choosing to use these shots show that the woman are close and not afraid to talk about anything.

The interview topics are always something you think about afterwards. Unfortunately because of the way society still looks at women, if men were to watch they may not feel the same way a woman would. They talk about a wide range of topics including: self-reflection, love and divorce, changing the world one woman at a time, parenting, wellness and sexuality, to name a few. In my interview with my Mum, we won't be exploring those topics but I wanted to talk about Amanda's interview techniques because she makes her guests feel so comfortable and that's something that every interviewer strives for, but may not necessarily get, depending on their own interview style.

If you haven't seen "The Conversation", I've added a YouTube video of one of the shorter versions of the show that have been taken from the longer episodes and split up for YouTube. In this interview, Amanda De Cadanet talks to Zoe Saldana about not being defined by anything, how she actually likes her mistakes because she learns from them every time and growing up with that close bond with her two sisters.

This isn't a documentary, it is a "totally different interview series" but I feel like these techniques can be used all over various mediums from actual interviews to comparing them to other documentaries.