Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Letters To God- The Movie

We just spent two days in Orlando, invited by the producers of the movie Letters To God to come and record on-set radio interviews with the producers and director, cast, and crew. LTG is an inspiring movie about how a young boy fighting cancer finds strength and hope through writing letters to God and in doing so changes the lives of those around him. It is being directed by David Nixon who produced Fireproof and Facing The Giants for Sherwood Baptist. The company he and others have formed is Possibility Pictures and they have 3 movies currently in the pipeline. In addition to David Nixon as Director of this film, Cameron (Kim) Dawson is the Producer, and Tom Swanson the Executive Producer. Each of these men and all the others working diligently with them were a joy to get to know as they talked enthusiastically about their vision to bring more and more faith-based movies to the big screen. They were all extremely gracious and visionary men who are on a mission. Pray for them. Shooting continues on this film for a couple of more weeks and, pending a distribution deal, will release the movie sometime between late January and March, 2010.

I'll keep you posted on the release of the interviews that we recorded this week. One piece that will be released this weekend will be a part of THE PUBLIC SQUARE radio program as Dave Zanotti joined me on the set in Orlando to talk with Producer Kim Dawson. That will air this Saturday and then be archived at www.aproundtable.org.

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

On Interviewing


I never set out in broadcasting to become an interviewer. As a matter of fact in the first half of my career, I did very little interviewing, choosing instead to focus on what I thought would be a career in broadcast management. But, while I did spend many years managing, I always stayed active as an announcer and eventually found myself in situations where I needed to sharpen my skills as an interviewer. Of course, there's no substitute for experience and starting to host many shows that required conversational interviews gave me a steady stream of opportunities to develop and grow.

The old adage applies that interviewing is more caught than taught. While reading about the art of interviewing was helpful in small ways, I learned far more by listening to other professionals and how they conducted their interviews. Fortunately (to use a Christian term), there were many talented people to emulate-- up close and personal, as well as on-the-air. In thinking about this, I realize that I took a little bit of wisdom or strategy from each one and then personalized it. I didn't want to imitate them, I just wanted to incorporate something from them that would fit who I am and use it in developing my own style. Of course, this process never stops. I am constantly listening to interviews and picking up clues which I might be able to incorporate.

The best piece of advice for those wanting to become better interviewers? Listen to everything you do. Then, pick out one thing you could do better next time. If you're anything like me, you'll always have something to improve on :)