Interviews with Ian Downs and Tom Cholmondeley

Our interview techniques have definitely been tested this semester, having needed to use them in various assignments and specifically for the 'BC1001 Roles and Processes' module. My interview skills were also required for the 'BC1003' group project, but it's within BC1001 that they were more essential and needed for good grades. As part of this module we were required to create and present a portfolio of research including a PowerPoint presentation, a one minute segment of Vox Pops and 2 two minute interviews. Fortunately our tutor had already acquired two interviewees for us, with our tasks including asking them the questions, recording their answers and editing both their audio into the 2 two minute segments. Both of the people we interviewed came from rather different backgrounds, the first being Radio and ex Star FM presenter Ian Downs and the second being experienced documentary director Tom
Cholmondeley.

Before our first interview none of us seemed too worried about doing it, I personally just thought that it'd be an easy few questions and answers that I would quickly edit, burn on to a disk and that would be the end of it. This theory however was quickly challenged when it came to having to think of questions to ask him and before long this became a bit of a problem for me. I have never been a person with the ability to think on the spot and even though this wasn't particularly challenging, being able to come up with some decent questions was proving difficult for me. I believe this was probably because I had been under the assumption that it all was going to be so easy, that I hadn't really thought thing's through beforehand. Nevertheless, I did eventually manage to come up with three questions (albeit maybe with a little support from the rest of the class) and after some preparation I was ready to go.

Despite the few small problems I had with coming up with questions, the rest of the interview with Ian was pretty simple and easily done. Ian had a great voice for recording and plenty to talk about, his career in the media being quite extensive as well as interesting for us to hear. Whereas I'm not too keen on working in radio, his stories about his constant attempts to get into the business and then literally working his way up from the bottom, were really aspiring and a little daunting considering that's likely what I have to come. He gave us a good amount of long answers and was even up for repeating himself if we were unsure with anything during recording. This was really great as when it came to editing I had plenty of audio to work with and whilst it was hard trying to decide what to use, the fact that we had so much recorded just confirmed that Ian had been a great interviewee. Whilst the interview was particularly good, the battery on our FOSTEX recording device did run out half way through and forced us to switch to the Sony Mini Disk player. Whilst it didn't effect our work too drastically, there is a notable difference in quality between the two players and therefore you can hear a change in sound within my final edit which unfortunately I can't help. Nevertheless the quality of the answers should make up for this and I don't believe I will have to worry.

Ian Downs

The second interview wasn't much different from our first, however there was definitely a contrast in personality between our two interviewees. Whereas Ian was quite lively and had a brilliant voice for recording (that of a radio presenter), Tom was much more reserved and wasn't as used to answering questions. That said he was very interesting and had some great stories to tell, the only problem with that being that it was a lot trickier editing and therefore took me a lot longer. Having worked on shows like 'Horizon' and one off TV documentaries like 'The Riddle of Einsteins Brain' his background is a lot more related to an aspect of media that I would like to be working in the future and because of this, thinking of questions to ask him had been a lot easier to come up with then it had for Ian. The interview itself had a few more gaps and pauses than the last one and since I was in charge of holding the microphone it quickly became rather tiring holding the microphone in place. Furthermore, because of the gaps and pauses it also tested my editing skills a lot more than the previous one had, however I do enjoy editing and didn't mind this so much.

Tom Cholmondeley

I appreciate both Ian and Tom coming in to help us and am glad I got too meet them and learn more about what it's like working within the media industry. I'm reasonably happy with both of my final edits for the interviews and rather enjoyed doing them too. They certainly beat doing vox pops anyway!