When I used to work in broadcast television I thought it was hard to find people to interview.

"I'm not going to do an interview with you because I like the other station better," was a common response.

How I wished that I was doing my own freelance documentary so I didn't have to deal with that kind of thing. I figured scoring an interview would be so much easier if I wasn't affiliated with a main stream media outlet. From my point of view, people just seemed more comfortable talking to the indie guy who wasn't affiliated with a network.

Now that I am producing my own doc, it seems the opposite is true- especially with experts. Trying to explain how this is my project, not for a station or a network, is difficult. Also a lot more experts seem to not have nearly as much time to talk as they did when I was shooting for a recognizable TV station and they knew they were going to be on the evening news.

Oh well. It just involves more work and having to be more persuasive.

What techniques have you developed for scoring key interviews?

I wonder if it is partly due to the rampant misuse of people's words around the web etc.
A larger entity may have more at stake than an unknown and could be thought to be more predictable.
(I can't believe I'm giving the impression that the mainstream media is trustworthy! LOL)
I've thought about doing interviews too for my blogs but just figured I am an unknown and will not be worth the time of day.
A blogger once said to start with your own level of contacts and then spiral upward over time with bigger names, and that trying to get someone out of my "sphere" would be folly.
Perhaps looking for a subject who has a bigger need to voice their perspective than your need to produce the project would work.

All sorts of projects posted here, books, docs, news stories, etc

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