Six Interview Mistakes That Make Footage Hard to Cut
David Pritchard
6 min read
Most interviews that fail in the edit were weakened earlier, in the setup, the questions or the listening. Here are the common slips from our location sessions and how to avoid each one.
Starting to roll before the question is ready
Every autumn I watch new reporters arrive at a location, find the interviewee waiting, and begin recording while still deciding what to ask. The camera is running, the guest senses the uncertainty, and the first few minutes become a nervous warm-up that nobody will use. Worse, the opening answer is often the best one, because it is fresh, and it is the one you cannot get back once it has been spent on a muddled question.
The fix is simple and slightly dull. Before the guest sits down, write the opening question in full and say it aloud once. Know the first three questions and the one you most need answered, even if the rest stay loose. Settle the guest in conversation first, away from the lens if you can, so that the recorded material begins with intent rather than with throat-clearing.
- Write the first question word for word
- Chat before recording, not during it
- Mark the one answer you cannot leave without
Asking questions that invite a yes or a no
A closed question gives you one word, and one word is very hard to cut into a sequence. I see it constantly: 'Were you worried when the water rose?' Yes. The reporter nods, the guest waits, and a silence opens that nobody planned. The editor later has nothing to work with except a clipped syllable that only makes sense if your question is kept in, and your voice is rarely meant to be in the final piece.
Open the question up. Ask how it felt, what happened next, what they noticed first. Questions that begin with how, what or tell me about draw out full sentences that stand alone, which is exactly what a cutting room needs. If an answer still comes back short, do not rescue it with a second question straight away. Leave a beat, and let the guest fill it.
- Prefer how, what and tell me about
- Avoid stacking two questions in one
- Let a pause do the follow-up work
Failing to listen to what is actually being said
Reporters preparing a list of questions often read the list instead of the person. The guest says something unexpected and revealing, perhaps a detail about a neighbour or an odd moment from the night, and the reporter moves on to question four because it was next on the page. That unplanned remark was the story, and it slips away because the notes were being followed more closely than the conversation.
Treat your prepared questions as a map, not a route. Keep eye contact, nod quietly without speaking over the answer, and when something surprising lands, follow it with a plain 'what do you mean by that?' Your list will still be there afterwards. Teaching reporters to hold both things at once, preparation and attention, is much of what we practise in the classroom with paired mock interviews.
- Look at the guest, not at your notes
- Follow the surprising detail first
- Return to the list only when the thread ends
Overlapping voices and spoiled audio
The most common technical mistake in interviews is also a social one: the reporter murmurs agreement while the guest is speaking. 'Mm, yes, right.' In the room it sounds polite. On the recording it lies across the guest's words, and every one of those sounds makes a clean cut impossible. An editor cannot lift a sentence out when the interviewer's voice sits underneath it.
Teach yourself to nod instead. Smile, lean in, keep your face attentive, and stay silent until the answer has genuinely finished. Wait a full second after the last word before you speak, since people often add their best line just as you think they are done. Treat that pause as part of the technique, and as a favour to whoever sits down with the footage afterwards.
- Nod, do not murmur
- Count a silent second after each answer
- Keep your own voice out of the guest's sentences
Shooting the interview without thinking about the cut
Camera operators make a quieter set of mistakes. The shot size changes halfway through for no reason, the guest drifts out of position, or the background includes a passing van that appears and vanishes between answers. Each of these is invisible while you shoot and obvious in the edit, where two takes that should join smoothly no longer match. A guest looking slightly left in one answer and slightly right in the next will jar however good the words are.
Decide the frame before the guest speaks and hold it. Set the eyeline just off the lens, check what sits behind the shoulder, and keep the same shot size throughout unless there is a reason to change it. If you want a tighter angle, ask for a short repeat of one answer rather than punching in mid-sentence. Cutaways, hands, the room, the object under discussion, should be shot afterwards, not forgotten.
- Lock the frame and the eyeline early
- Check the background for movement and noise
- Shoot cutaways once the interview is finished
Leaving without a final question
Almost every interview ends too quickly. The reporter gets the planned answers, says thank you, and the camera stops. Yet the most useful material often arrives in the last minute, once the guest has relaxed and stopped performing. A closing question costs nothing and sometimes changes the whole piece, because it lets the guest correct themselves or add what they were holding back.
Close with something open: 'Is there anything I have not asked that you think matters?' Then wait. Afterwards, ask for a clean repeat of any name, title or number that was mumbled, and check the spelling there and then. It is far easier to fix in the doorway than by phone later, and it saves the person at the desk from guessing.
- Ask what you have missed
- Confirm names and titles on the spot
- Record a few seconds of room tone before leaving
None of these mistakes is dramatic, which is why they survive so long. They come from rushing, from reading a list instead of a person, and from forgetting that someone else will cut the material. Slow the opening down, ask open questions, listen, stay quiet while the guest speaks, and hold your frame. Do those few things and the footage will arrive in the edit already behaving like a conversation, with answers that start and end cleanly.
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