Man on the Street Interviews

As promised, I want to discuss a little thing called the "man on the street" interview. These can be some of the easiest, or hardest, interviews to do. This basically involves having to randomly go up to someone and ask them a question. These can prove to be very difficult if the videographer is shy or hesitant to go up to random people. It is important to be able to get over that fear because a majority of the interviews that take place in this field are usually "man on the street" interviews.

Yesterday I did a "man on the street" interview to gauge people's reactions to President Obama's first address to the country. I went up to about 30 people and was able to get 11 quality answers. This percentage really is not too bad. There have been times when it has taken more than that to get even a few good answers. It really all depends on the people and the question. Some days it just seems that people are not in the mood to answer questions. I was actually chewed out for the first time in a "man on the street" interview about a week ago. I hadn't done anything but approach the man, but he must have been having a bad day. Of course at the time, it really did shake me up, but I know that these kind of things will happen again so I got over it fairly quick.

The only advice I can really give with these types of interviews is to be friendly and engaging. By letting these people know that they can be part of a great video can give them incentive to lend their voice. It is also important to look at a person before you approach them. A lot of the time you can see by their demeanor whether they will even be worth the effort.

These are my thoughts on the "man on the street" interview. They can be a blessing and a curse but always stay optimistic about them.