On-screen Interviewing: Answering Questions

Video Transcript

"Hi, my name is Aimy Kersey. I want to talk to you today about some general screen tips. What to do when you find yourself in front of the camera. Answering questions or handling the press. The press and interviewers play games. Some can become hostile, others are just uninformed. Don't get caught in an emotional or intellectual game with the interviewer. Following are some interviewer types and question traps and some responses you may want to try. Interview types: The Machine Gunner, he asks so many questions that you don't know which one to answer first and he confuses you. Response: "Well, Bob. You've asked several interesting questions. First, I'd like to address...." He then jumps in before you've had a chance to complete your response. Let him complete the interruption, then say, "Before I answer that, I'd like to complete my thought." The Paraphraser. This interviewer tries to put words in your mouth. For example, "Do you mean to sit there and tell me that there's no problem with..." Your response would be, "No, Sarah, that isn't what I said. What I said was..." and repeat your point. The Unprepared Interviewer. This interviewer may have vague questions or require you to provide a lot of background before you can get to your key message. Your response. Take the opportunity to steer the interview in the direction you want it to go. Rephrase the question to make it more specific. "By your question I think you're referring to. Let me put that in perspective." Strategies for handling question traps. Either, or. When the answer is not black or white, say so. Don't get trapped into being a spokesperson for another individual, business, or organization, or into criticizing an absent person or organization. Full Statement. Correct incorrect information immediately. Don't repeat the misinformation. This only reinforces it. Hypothetical. You do not have to answer a question that is hypothetical or conditional. It presents a scenario that never occurred. You know there can often be various types of interviewers and some of these present different problems that you have to try and deal with while you're being interviewed. One of these types is the Machine Gunner and the Machine Gunner just fires questions at you continuously. Sometimes, they don't even wait for you to finish talking before their asking another question. So, let's do a little bit of role playing. I want you to be the interviewer that's interviewing me and I want you too really to fire those questions at me and then I'll show you how you handle something like that. "I understand you want to have school uniforms in your school." "That's correct, that is a policy that we'll be..." "But, don't those cost a lot of money?" "Well, sometimes they can be but in the long term..." "But what are the individuality issues with each individual child, they have to wear the same thing?" When this happens and you're just being fired questions like this, the best thing to do is just to take a moment, sit quietly, wait till they've finished what they're saying and say, "You know Bob, that's a really interesting questions, let me get to the first point that you raised." Then go back to the very first question that they asked you and just continue like that till you've answered all their questions. Another interviewer type is the Paraphraser, or somebody that puts words into your mouth. Let's role play a little around that interviewer type. "As the school principal, I'm very much in favor or uniforms. I feel that it helps the children effectively learn in their environment." "So, you're saying that students that don't attend the school, that have uniforms, don't learn as well." "That's actually not what I said. What I've found is that the students in our school, it contributes to their learning success." Another interviewer type is the Unprepared. This interviewer has done no homework, or barely any homework, and expects you to supply everything for them. They often come with wrong details, wrong dates, wrong everything and they expect you to know everything and give all the information. This can be very difficult and you have to make sure you've done your homework really well about the subject that you're going to be talking about."