Interview Tips from Camp Video Journalism

Robb Montgomery trains journalists trying to make the transition from print to video and multimedia reporting.  I have never been to one of his sessions, but I do find some of the videos he posts on his blog about those sessions informative. 
 
At the bottom of this post is a five minute piece of a lecture by Carol Marin, a Chicago TV journalist and Chicago Sun-Times columnist, about interview techniques she uses to capture great video reports. 

In the video Carol talks about the importance of listening and and responding to ideas the interviewee brings forth, rather than trying to force the interview to follow a predetermined script. She also talks about using dead space (pauses to elicit more honest responses), and why it is important to let emotion run its course in an interview. 

For the most part, I agree with Carol's advice. One exception. One of the reporters asked if she allows people she is interviewing to stop an interview in order to rethink and restate an answer they are not happy with. In essence Carol said YES--if the interviewee is private citizen, but NO--if it is public official. I don't think I agree with this answer. My take is that you are always looking for the clearest, most informative answers you can get.  I see no reason not to give any person the chance to restate something if it is muddled on the first go round.  It is important is ask them to always restart at the beginning of an idea (the paragraph). Video interviews stitched together out of a collection of  partial sentences and paragraphs are rarely believable.  AND of course, if the official said something newsworthy in the first take, and then tries to retract it, you as the reporter have to decide which answer is more honest and revealing.