I'm a student filmmaker and I have to have a documentary filmed and edited by June. By no means has it been easy, I've already had three projects fall through; a musical based on Titanic, an animal sanctuary and a paedophile zookeeper (Really gutted about that one). Now I've found a wedding dress exhibition and through some miracle managed to arrange interviews with six of the owners. They're all women who got married in different decades ranging from 1952 to 2011. The thing is I'm still not sure what the documentary is really about also I'm just a terrible interviewer, like a robot. I have an hour with each of them and I want to make the most of it. Any ideas what kind of questions I should ask? Or tips on how to conduct a good interview? What kind of documentary would you make if you were in my position?
I'm making a documentary about marriage.
- Thread starter Foxy Grampa
- Start date
It makes perfect sense, I'm far more interested in what life was like for women around the time of their respective marriages and their own personal life stories rather than the actual wedding ceremony which I think should be used just as a sort of common denominator or starting point. It's how to get that stuff out them that's troubling me.
The standard questions - how long have you been married, how/where/when did you meet, how many kids, where did you live, what jobs did you have. Let people ramble and reminisce; when you hear something that interests you (or whomever you have do the interview) nudge them with appropriate questions.
We have dozens of "family" stories - People thought my parents "had" to get married; much to their surprise they didn't have any kids for five years. The real story? My dad didn't want to get married since he thought he was going to be shipped out to Korea; when he found out he would be stationed in Seattle instead of going into combat he got a seven day pass, flew home, proposed, married my mom and took her back to Seattle with him. Or a story like my mom and dads first Christmas dinner rolling down a 1.5 mile hill when the bag broke on the way home from the store; they were married about 2 weeks two week at that point.
Encourage those types of stories, it makes them comfortable. Then get into serious stuff - divorce, sex before marriage, infidelity - whatever you have the cajones to ask. Hopefully the earlier comfortability will give you more honest answers.
BTW, get the sound PERFECT!!! There are no second chances!!!
We have dozens of "family" stories - People thought my parents "had" to get married; much to their surprise they didn't have any kids for five years. The real story? My dad didn't want to get married since he thought he was going to be shipped out to Korea; when he found out he would be stationed in Seattle instead of going into combat he got a seven day pass, flew home, proposed, married my mom and took her back to Seattle with him. Or a story like my mom and dads first Christmas dinner rolling down a 1.5 mile hill when the bag broke on the way home from the store; they were married about 2 weeks two week at that point.
Encourage those types of stories, it makes them comfortable. Then get into serious stuff - divorce, sex before marriage, infidelity - whatever you have the cajones to ask. Hopefully the earlier comfortability will give you more honest answers.
BTW, get the sound PERFECT!!! There are no second chances!!!