To be an effective interviewer takes many reps. You need to learn to ask good questions, and know when to get out of the way and let the story arise.
I’ve conducted hundreds of interviews, both in research toward writing projects, and more formally for public events. The stories harvested during these interviews have anchored social media campaigns, fundraising brochures, and community engagement.
CHALLENGE: Limited character counts. Short shelf life. Shorter attention spans. There are plenty of barriers to telling an effective story on social media. An independent theatre wanted to collect and tell stories from its ten years of operation that they’d share primarily on social media. Originally, they thought if they asked people to send in their stories, they would. But they got crickets.
DELIVERY: I interviewed former and current staff, board members, patrons, and artists. I pared each interview down to Instagram length and used that person’s story to highlight an aspect of the cinema’s history: Raising the Funds, Surviving Covid, Film Camp. The pieces were brief but provided an amazingly full story.
“Film has been such an integral part of my learning as a human. I see the Bijou-FilmScene partnership as an extension of the classroom, and I knew I wanted to be a part of those conversations.” - Hannah
“The first movie we watched together was The Disaster Artist. We have somewhat different taste in movies (and movie candy).” - Madi & Nadhif