Damn man How many times is this non story going to be posted today?

Every candidate or incumbent gives a list of questions to interviewers.

Every. One.

Do you see that as a good thing?

Do you think scripted interviews inspire confidence in voters when the current concern is his ability to think on his feet?

Those people don’t understand how media interviews work. The less time a person has to be interviewed (i.e. the more responsibilities / power they have), the more likely the interview has scripted prompts.

This is basic media production.

Okay.

Go grab 2 microphones. Sure SM58s are the workhorse of the industry. $100 each, so that’s $200. Get 1 pair of Sony MDR7506 (workhorse) headphones. $100. Now get an interface, Scarlet 2i2 has 2x line-in ports for easy use, and a Firewire -> USB. Another $200 Then download the REAPER audio program, unless you wanna try Audacity (which sucks), free trial for however long you want, or about $60 for the license. $500-600 investment isn’t too bad for actual good quality audio. Please don’t skimp on it.

If you’re thinking of adding in cameras and a switcher and control board and mixer and graphics etc., plan on adding at minimum $2000 more to your budget.

Now, you don’t really need an actual studio, or audio treatment of the walls. You can do an interview in your kitchen if you feel like it, no issue.

I want you to schedule 5 interviews next week, at precisely the same time, let’s say 6pm local (wherever you are). Then 5 more interviews at the same exact time the following 3 weeks. Get you a whole 20 interviews set up with different people of different walks of life. You’re gonna schedule the whole thing to be an hour long. For a grand total of 20 interviews all scheduled to be at 6pm (or whatever time you choose) local time.

Now make sure you have your levels (the way things sound, ensuring not too loud or soft) working when they get there, you’ll likely want your guests to get there before the scheduled interview time, at least 5-10 minutes prior, so they can actually ARRIVE to your recording location. Then you’ll want them to talk to the microphone to ensure they sound good, not too loud or soft, and also instruct them on basic mic technique (your audience is IN the microphone). But, alas, you’ll need to constantly let them know to speak into the mic, probably by pointing at it while they speak.

You could bring in a friend or family member to pay attention to the audio info on the REAPER / Audacity digital workstation, or you could try to do it yourself while also making sure you have enough questions to fill an hour, but also allowing free-form thought to happen, because more people really prefer a conversational tone in audio formats. Make sure you’re interesting, and entertaining enough for people to listen to, but also have proper probing questions that can challenge or otherwise get your interviewee off balance. Audiences love it when the question is a hard ball, and the answerer isn’t super prepared for it; makes for great entertainment.

Now do this 20 times in a 4 week period (just remember, you have 24 hours in a day like the rest of us). And come back and let me know.

Even tho I’ve already done it before.