Design Principles

My writing partner Wyatt and I came up with some design principles that we thought would make for a good interview. We thought some good interviews to follow were the interviews done by Mike Wallace because they followed our design principles.

"The Conversation Principle"

One of them would be a "non script sounding" conversation. When watching good examples of interviews we noticed that the interview didn't sound like just a question and answer session. The interviewee gave fairly long in depth answer and provided substantial evidence for their answer. Also, what made the interview sound "non script like" was how the interviewer would ask clarifying questions, if necessary, based off the answer the interviewee gave.

"WALLACE: Dali, first of all let me ask you this, you're a remarkable painter and you've dedicated your life to art, in view of this, why do you behave the way that you do? For instance, you have been known to drive in a car filled to the roof with cauliflowers. You lectured, as I mentioned, once with your head enclosed in a diving helmet and you almost suffocated. You issue bizarre statements about your love for rhinoceros horns and so on. You're a dedicated artist, why do you or why must you do these things?

DALI: Because for this kind of eccentricities correspond with more important and the more tragical part of my life.

WALLACE: The more important and the more tragical part. I don't understand.

DALI: The more philosophical.

WALLACE: Well, what is philosophical about driving in a car full of cauliflowers or lecturing inside a diving helmet?

DALI: Because discover and make one tremendous speech, a most scientific in the Sorbonne in Paris... of what my discovering of the logarithmic curve of cauliflower.

WALLACE: The what?

DALI: logarithmic curve of cauliflower.

WALLACE : Oh yes, the "logarithmic curve"... yes...

DALI: And if in time the logarithmic curve in the horns of rhinoceros -- in this time discover, this is a symbol of chastity, one of the most powerful symbols of modern times."

This is part of an interview Mike Wallace had with Salvador Dali. He asked why it was that he did such strange things and when he didn't understand he asked clarifying questions. This made it sound more like a conversation more then an interview which we thought was an aspect that made the interview good.

"The Prior Knowledge Principle" Another design principle we though makes for a good interview is that the interviewer has prior knowledge of the interviewee. In an interview we watched conducted by Mike Wallace he asked his interviewee Aldous Huxley about a previous essay he wrote. We liked the fact that he had a quote pulled out of that book and used it as evidence to ask a question. We thought it made the interview more professional because Mike came across as very prepared for the interview.

"WALLACE: You write in Enemies of Freedom, you write specifically about the United States. You say this, writing about American political campaigns you say, "All that is needed is money and a candidate who can be coached to look sincere; political principles and plans for specific action have come to lose most of their importance. The personality of the candidate, the way he is projected by the advertising experts, are the things that really matter."

HUXLEY: Well, this is the... during the last campaign, there was a great deal of this kind of statement by the advertising managers of the campaign parties. This idea that the candidates had to be merchandised as though they were so-called two-faced and that you had to depend entirely on the personality.

I mean, personality is important, but there are certainly people with an extremely amiable personality, particularly on TV, who might not necessarily be very good in political... positions of political trust."

"The Connection Principle" We noticed in the Mike Wallace interviews we watched that the interviewer and the interviewee have some sort of connection. It seems that they have spoken before or were not complete strangers. We feel, from experience, there is a much different vibe you get when you do or see an interview that is between two people who have just met for the first time, a more awkward feeling. In the interview we watched with Margret Sanger it states in the beginning that the interview was in no way rehearsed but we felt that while watching the interview it was very smooth and more like a conversation which made it pleasurable to watch and easy to stay focused while watching.

"WALLACE: Do you feel that Birth Control is essential to keep millions of people across the world from starving?

SANGER: Well, I think that Birth Control--if you keep the population more or less static until you pick up your resources, certainly you'll-- keep--prevent their starving.

WALLACE: Well, what's more important -- Birth Control or picking up the resources?

SANGER: Well, picking up the resources there's just a limit to that too. There's just so much -- take Japan -- and she cannot feed they've had the best experts come there when MacArthur was there and the best experts would say that they have twenty million more people than they can feed; she's got to be fed outside in some -- in some way. She's got to have that kind of help if she's going to keep from fighting."

Watch the Interview with Aldous Huxley
Read the Transcript of the Interview

Watch the Interview with Salvador Dali
Read the Transcript of the Interview

Watch the Interview with Margret Sanger
Read the Transcript of the Interview