Today the local CBS affiliate, KPIX 5, interviewed me about grey whales seen in San Francisco Bay. It all happened so fast - the TV crew arrived, set up, and was gone about 5 minutes later. I actually don’t recall much of what I said and fear that I’m going to look like an idiot on TV (I think it’s supposed to be on the 6 PM newscast.) I probably said something horribly wrong and all the other biologists in the area will make fun of me - just like in middle school!
When was your 15 minutes of fame and has anyone got tips for how to deal with a rapid TV/radio interview?
A friend and I started a somewhat tongue-in-cheek campaign to deal with one of the world’s most annoying and wasteful marketing campaigns. It was both silly & serious enough that it landed us on TV many times (I had CNN filming in my garage, we were an answer on NPRs “Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me” and other such glories). So I’ve had my 15 minutes, here’s my advice:
Unless you cure cancer or bring peace to the Middle East, no matter how long you are interviewed for you’re going to be on-air for maybe 1-2 minutes tops (plus filler - I’m talking about your actual face time), and as you found out it may be much less. Be relaxed, don’t say “Um” or “Y’know” a lot and make your answers short and to the point - not monosyllabic but don’t wax eloquent. The news crew wants short, punchy, clips that they can use. For those “man on the street” bits I’m guessing that they want you to be a little spunky, have some life to you.
And remember that you are doing them a favor by agreeing to be interviewed. They may have a procedure that they like to follow but it’s up to you whether or not you want to participate. When we got “famous” KTVU sent a cameraman over to my house at 6:30am, knocking on my door. I answered in my underwear and told the guy that I had to go to work and they need to call me ahead of time to schedule an interview. He asked “Can’t you just be late?”. I shut the door in his face.
I used to be a manager at the Kabuki theater (back when it was an AMC) so a news crew would come by sometimes if there was a big movie opening (because the long lines snaking up Japantown made good visuals; plus our theater was pretty!). Once I got corralled into doing “an” interview, I became the go-to guy the stations would ask for (usually by KRON).
Now, I’ve got a periodic gig as a substitute panelist on the local trivia radio show Minds Over Matter (public radio KALW). Just today, someone ran into me and said they’d heard me the last time I was on.
So I guess my 15 minutes are slooooooowly being stretched out…
No real advice, except check your posture (especially when they’re shooting “B roll” coverage), keep the sentences short and the ideas clear, particularly if you don’t want to land on the cutting room floor.
I just saw the bit, and didn’t get enough time to make myself look like a fool, luckily.
They chopped it up a bit - probably because I was giving longer answers than they had time for, but they got the basics in, which I’m happy about, and they got some good whale footage from the helicopter.
Valgard, I think you’re right - little sound bites are what they were looking for. The reporter was much more polite than the guy who came to your house at 6:30 am - they called ahead to let me know when they would be there and were understanding that I had another appointment in half an hour. I’ll definitely keep your tips in mind if this happens again.
I used to be the go-to queer for all of central Illinois in my college days. I was the president of my college’s gay group and any time a story broke about a gay issue, I got a call from some TV station or paper for a quote. My advice is to keep basic grooming aids on or near your person at all times. I always kept a disposable razor and some shaving cream in the office so I could grab a quick shave before the camera truck arrived.
I was on the Pentagon Channel for a RED HORSE project in Afghanistan. I got a couple of calls from old friends after it aired, and damn, if it didn’t get me a new girlfriend (now fiancee).
So yeah, my 30 seconds worked for me.
Tripler
I’m modest, but even I have to admit: Harrison Ford, eat yer heart out.
In my mis-spent youth as a videographer, I was working with a reporter doing an entertainment piece. Cloris Leachman was in town for a summer stock production and we shot the interview in the theatre. Now, this reporter was noted for his off-kilter sense of humor and doing schtick. His idea for the end of this piece was that he was a huge fan of Cloris’s and wanted a souvenir snapshot of him meeting her.
So the interview ends, and he asks her to pose for a picture. He hands a Polaroid camera to someone off-camera. Then he invites me, as his camera guy, to be in the photo as well. The punchline is that as the photo is snapped, Ms. Leachman and I were to strike a pose with our arms in the air causing our hands to cover his face.
We did two takes and I got to keep one of the Polaroids.
Then there was the time I got to act in a scene in a corporate video with The Maytag Repairman (Gordon Jump). I even had a line to speak! Of course I don’t count that since the video was never intended for broadcast and the retail company that produced it is now bankrupt and out of business.
It turns out that I got bad information - they weren’t grey whales after all, they were humpbacks - highly unusual, and potentially dangerous to the whales.
I really should have seen the whales before talking about them - but how could I? Now I feel slightly stupid.
For those interested in the story on these whales, look at this news story. They’re probably the same whales I was asked about on Friday (no guarantees, but you take what you can get). We’re working right now with the Coast Guard and the National Marine Fisheries Service to determine what, if anything, should be done to redirect the whales.
I’ve had a few random on-the-spot interviews. Twice at baseball games (the last being because it was opening day and I was wigged-up and face painted – they liked that), once because I was touring Staples Center after Chick Hearn (local sports broadcaster) died, and once because I was riding the Gold Line (part of the light rail system here in LA) on the day it first went into operation.
I have no advice for you. The only thing that came of any of my moments was that I had friends or colleagues say, “Hey, I saw you on TV!”
Well not 15 minutes, but the subect of and subsequent conclusions in my Phd dissertation are now being used routinely in text books and my name and mug have been used when footnoting the work. Looks like all the agony paid off all those years ago, eventhough I’m I’m not working in the original field of study I once did.
My one minute of fame was many years ago. I was witness to an injury to a man who set his house on fire! He came running out of the burning house, and I went and got a quilt to wrap him in, since he was clad only in his undies, was burned pretty badly and was going into shock.
They interviewed me for the afternoon news. I was pretty shaken up, and it definitely showed on camera.
I can still remember it very well. Two other houses caught fire from that one. Turns out that the guy was despondent over his wife leaving him, and tried to commit suicide by hooking up a garden hose from his gas fireplace into his bedroom. It must not have been concentrated enough for asphixiation, because he woke up the next morning. He lit a cigarette, however. BOOM!
I worked in a home office two doors down, and saw the smoke, followed by the guy running out of the house. My boss called the fire department, and I wrapped him up. He survived, I was told.
Way back in 1998 I was snowboarding in Whistler, and after staggering out of the coffee shop to catch the early lift I up was ambushed by a news crew who wanted to ask about the Ross Rebagliati affair. He was the guy who lost his gold in the winter Olympics due dope in his urine, then had it reinstated
I guess they asked me because we were the only group of snowboarders around at that time of the morning. My mates just did a d&r, leaving me looking like a stunned herring in front of a camera.
My stunning analysis of the situation ‘it’s all a bit of a cock up really’ ended up being broadcast on the news.
My 15 minutes was in college at UW-Madison. My roommate and I came home from the farmer’s market one Saturday morning to find our apartment engulfed in a caustic, burning chemical haze and my idiot roommate hunched over the sink. He emphatically claimed ignorance.
We called 911 and they advised us to evacuate the apartment building. We got to bang on peoples’ doors – not exactly something people were thrilled about on Saturday morning on campus – until the “command vehicle” came veering down our street. They moved us away from the building and the command vehicle SUV was promptly joined by 3 fire trucks, 3 ambulences and a hazmat team. Firemen in gas masks started running into our apartment with detection equipment.
This was shortly after a major parade had caused our street (the main drag through a big group of frathouses and apartments) to be blocked off, and it was blocked off again. Predictably, the media showed up and started interviewing everyone and videotaping us as we talked to the fire department.
In the end, it turned out to be pepper spray. While our idiot roommate would never admit it, he must have been fiddling with the thing when it went off; my other roommate had left her pepper spray on the mantle (it had been there for some time, and never leaked in the years she owned it). All those resources wasted because he couldn’t admit a mistake. Ever.
We made all the local news that night. Sadly, I was never interviewed, just the neighbors who had no idea what was going on.
(This was pre-911 or it probably would have been worse.)
Why are we supposed to help cover Barack’s face? He has a perfectly pleasant face.
Anyway, my 15 minutes came after I did a poster at a conference on some of my dissertation research, concerning different ways men and women respond in taking credit for their achievements. Apparently media types troll these events for tidbits, because a few weeks later I got calls from two different publications for a brief interview and was eventually credited in both of them. The two publications? The Washington Post and Glamour magazine.
A couple years ago, I put a tutorial online about how to shove a computer into an old Nintendo. The tutorial exploded and went insane, getting links from sites like Slashdot and memepool and etc. etc. I got a couple million hits in a couple of hours, and all the attention led to me being interviewed by several magazines, newspapers, and radio shows.
The best part of the whole ordeal was when I was flown out to appear on an episode of The Screen Savers. You can see my interview here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMR9H94C1Ro
I was then interviewed by the local news team here, like “local boy on national TV” or whatever. During the interview I told them I was 24 and currently unemployed, but used to have a really good job as a designer and was currently just trying to find my place in the world. This led the reporter interviewing me into wanting to do a special on people in their “quarter-life crisis”, where she then interviewed several people around 25 who fit a couple different profiles. I was interviewed as the “guy who found success then lost it”.
That was a crazy summer between all of that stuff.
A few months ago I was interviewed because I’m on a dodgeball team. I got about 10 seconds of airtime between my interview and my playing.
Several years ago, the New Hampshire TV station (yes, the New Hampshire TV station (at least major network TV) did an afternoon feature on the voice studio/opera company that I was singing a lot with. They put together a quartet of us to sing the Hallelujah chorus and then interviewed the director. I sang bass.
I’ve also been reviewed a few times, most recently here and here. (I’m the guy whose name is in both.)
We grew up in the country and were rather bored teenagers. My boyfriend had 3-way calling and I had a very grown up voice. So we decided to spend the afternoon doing prank phone calls. Ultimately, I ended up calling Planned Parenthood and telling them I had been exposed to VD and needed an appointment. Then we found people listed as being a Senior (John Smith, Sr.) in the phone book. We call this lady and ask to speak with Kid, Jr. She says he isn’t home, I tell her I’m with Planned Parenthood and that he has been reported as having VD and we needed to make an appointment. She starts screaming, asking if I know how old her son is, I say very seriously that it happens to people of all ages. Turns out he was 13. I gave her the appointment I had previously set up.
My brother and I then left the state to visit family, that night actually. My mother calls to check on us and mentions that there was this terrible report on the news about a prank phone call with a kid and Planned Parenthood and how PP assured everyone that they do NOT contact parents, blah blah blah.
Nothing ever came of it. No one ever found out it was us. And I’m pretty sure (I hope) that the statute of limitations has run out.
I, much later, became quite a fan of Planned Parenthood.
