- An interview is the backbone of your story, so you need long and complete answers from your subjects. Have them avoid pronouns and short responses. And typically, the longer the question, the shorter the reponse. So let the subject do most of the talking.

- Try not to send the interviews questions to the subject ahead of time. Rather, just send them possible subject areas. (Now sometimes you are legally required to send them the questions.) When a subject gets the questions earlier, they will often pre-script their own answers on paper and therefore will try to memorize their reponses and may not sound natural on camera.

- Start the interview with asking the subject to state and spell their name, state their job title, and state their comapany recorded ON camera during a mic check. That way the producer and editor have an accurate representation for the subject’s name graphic. Often, the there is a long period between a shoot and edit, so a name on a notepad can be lost. It’s much easier to create a name graphic during an edit if the info is ON the footage.

- End the interview with, “Anything I have missed or you’d like to add?” Sometimes that opens someone up outside of their prepares statement and can provide an unexpected gem of an answer.