Flip The Script: My Experience in Front of The Camera

Two weeks ago, I sat down and filmed myself as part of a job application. It took me a million tries, and I even ended up explaining that I am a lot better behind the camera than I am in front of it. I feel safe behind the camera, I feel way more in control. Being in front of it, however, is a whole different situation. When I finished filming that application (and editing it to make my thoughts sound 10 times more coherent), I vowed to stay away from the front of the camera in the future.

Flash forward two weeks, and somehow I ended up in front of the camera again. Yesterday, someone from ICTV emailed me asking me to do an interview for their women in media episode on News Watch. I know how stressful it can be finding interview subjects, so, despite my two-week-old vow, I happily obliged.

This was unlike anything I had ever experienced before: the script was completely switched. Instead of conducting an interview, I was the interviewee. It was like my mind went blank as soon as the camera started rolling, yet at the same time thousands of thoughts were running around like crazy. How should I answer this question? What answer is he looking for? Am I talking in circles? How is he going to edit this together? What is the final product going to look like? Am I even answering a question right now?

Maybe other people don't think that much about an interview while they're participating in one. Maybe I was just hyper-aware because I'm so used to being on the other side of the camera. Regardless, I think it was helpful being in the hot seat for once. Now that I've been in front of the camera, I have a better understanding toward how my subjects may feel. It's easy to have expectations as an interviewer, but I think that understanding what it is like being an interviewee is important in order to make those expectations a reality.

Maybe, in order to be even better behind the camera, we should spend more time in front of it as well.

Silence Broken: A Mother's Reckoning

On Feb. 12th Sue Klebold, the mother of one of the Columbine shooters, spoke on television for the first time since the shooting. She appeared on 20/20 and was interviewed by Diane Sawyer. The entire 20/20 episode was chilling and emotional, and I definitely recommend people check it online. 

Listening to Klebold talk was extremely interesting, but I was also paying close attention to how Diane was conducting the interview. As an aspiring documentary producer, I have become more comfortable conducting interviews throughout my time in college. However, sometimes it is hard to gather inspiration for conducting tough interviews. Documentary producers often edit together interviews so most of, if not all, of their questions are not heard in the film. Sometimes I watch interviews in a documentary and wonder how the interviewer was able to make the interviewee respond the way they do. After watching Diane Sawyer conduct the interview with Sue Klebold, I felt inspired because of how powerful Sawyer's interviewing skills are.

Sawyer was not afraid to back down from a question, and she did not sugarcoat her wording in order to make Klebold feel better. She was blunt and often cut off Klebold if she wanted more from the answer. I've seen this (slightly aggressive) technique used before in documentaries, but usually the person conducting the interview is a man, not a woman. In fact, last semester my professor told the class that women are typically better interviewers when you want the interviewee to feel comfortable opening up, but men are better when it comes to asking tough questions that the interviewee may not want to answer. Sawyer left me feeling inspired because she proves that gender does not have to play a role in how tough a person can be as an interviewer. As long as I don't let myself believe I am limited, I can ask the tough questions too.

Thanks D. Sawyer.

#GIRLS

Recently, when watching my weekly episodes of my favorite shows, I realized that I tend to watch shows that somehow relate to my life. One of my favorite HBO Shows is Girls. A show that follows the very intimate and very real lives of four twenty-somethings, living in New York City. They deal with internal conflict, as well as social conflict with each other and other supporting roles. The issues demonstrated in the show relates to not only my life, but of the lives of girls within the same generation as my own. I think that this ability to relate is what brings so much love to the show, and makes it so attractive to our generation. Recently found on BuzzFeed:

The questions within this quiz, ask about favorite snacks, pet preference, guilty pleasures, romantic life, style of coffee, etc. The quiz then generates a general response based on the multiple choice answers and posts a picture of the character you are most alike. Charlie was the character I was matched up with.

Not only was I surprised, I was slightly disappointed!I was hoping to be most like Jessa, or Marnie (my two favorite characters). But then the whole concept of this quiz had me thinking. Am I supposed to be relating to only one character?Then it was sunday night. So, I logged into my HBOGO account and I binged watched Season 3 of Girls. I realized, that the girls in this show have multiple aspects of a girls' personality, but divided up into separate people. I think that instead of trying to figure out which character I am most alike, I should be thinking about how these characters are most like me. In this interview on The View, the girls of the show describe the "feelings" of the show the most relatable part.

Even though the characters are going through various situations, as a girl, we can feel for the characters as if they were our friends, or even ourselves because the feelings are so familiar. Lena Dunham does an amazing job in getting her audience to relate to the characters in her show. I think that thats what makes this show so great. Girls has a very real flow to it that makes everything seem like real life, but with a little more drama added to it.