The art of the interview

I came across this great video of Marc Pachter entitled “The Art of the Interview.”  He did a project for the National Portrait Gallery and shares the story of the impact of living portraits (oral history).

1.   ENERGY is key to the best interviews, you want the life force to come through

2.   Everyone has a story worth sharing

3.   Don’t interview someone who is modest, they have to think that they did something and they want to share it with you

4.   Don’t talk beforehand because you won’t get it on the stage

5.   Empathy – everybody in their lives is waiting for people to ask them questions so they can be truthful about who they are and how they became what they are

Brilliant!

National Portrait Gallery, image by afagen via Flickr

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