Before You Book Audio and Interview Training: A Checklist
Daniel Whitcombe lists what to check in your own sound and interview work before choosing training, so the time you spend learning goes to the problems that actually cost you usable material.
Daniel Whitcombe · · 6 minutes to read
Start with what your last edit actually told you
Before you look at any course, sit down with the last three pieces you cut and listen to them on headphones, then on a laptop speaker. Note every moment where you reached for a fix: a noise reduction pass, a cutaway to hide a jump, a line you dropped because it could not be heard. Those moments are the real brief for any training. When I was shooting news, the edit was always the honest critic, because it showed which decisions in the field had made the cutter's life harder.
Keep the notes short and specific. Write down the problem, the location and what you think caused it. Wind on a quayside, a hum from a fridge in a kitchen, a guest who drifted away from the microphone halfway through an answer. A list of six or seven concrete faults will tell you more about what you need than any general feeling that your sound could be better.
Separate sound problems from interview problems
Audio and Interview Technique covers two linked skills, and it helps to know which one is holding you back. A sound problem is technical: distance, levels, wind, room echo, handling noise from the cable. An interview problem is about the conversation: questions that invite one-word answers, guests who rush because you have not settled them, or answers that cannot be cut because they begin and end mid-thought.
Many people assume their trouble is equipment when it is really setup and talk. A clean recording of a guest who gives you nothing usable is still a wasted visit. Equally, a brilliant conversation recorded too hot or with a hard room reflection can be lost. Decide honestly which side costs you more, and look for training that spends most of its time there while still touching the other.
Check your kit and how well you know it
Training will not fix a microphone you do not understand. Go through what you carry and ask whether you can explain, without looking, how each item behaves. Do you know the pickup pattern of your microphone and what it hears behind and beside it? Can you monitor on headphones every time, including on a fast doorstep? Do you know where your recorder or camera sets input levels, and whether automatic gain is switched on without your noticing?
Be equally honest about spares and small things. A dead battery in a radio mic receiver or a missing windshield has ended more interviews than any lack of talent. The aim of this check is not to tell you to buy anything. Good coaching works with the equipment you already own, so knowing it well lets you ask better questions of a tutor and get more from every session.
Think about the places you really work
Sound is local. A tutor can explain technique in general terms, but the useful advice depends on where you shoot. If most of your work is outdoors on busy streets, wind and traffic will dominate. If you film in offices, council chambers and homes, then room echo, air conditioning and mobile phones decide your day. Write down your five most common locations and the usual enemy in each.
This list lets you judge whether a course will address your situation or only describe ideal studio conditions. Ask whether the material uses real field recordings, whether you will hear the same clip with different choices applied, and whether there is room to bring your own examples. In these darker autumn weeks, interiors and early light add their own problems, so plan for the season you are actually in, not an imagined sunny shoot.
Ask how feedback will reach you
The way you are taught matters as much as what is taught. Listening skills improve when someone you trust plays back your work and points to the exact second where something went wrong. Check whether the training includes recorded feedback on your own material, whether you can replay it, and how soon comments arrive. Live online sessions are useful for questions, but a written or recorded note you can return to is what changes habits on the next shoot.
Also consider your schedule. Reporters rarely have fixed weeks, and a course that assumes you can attend every session may not suit freelancers or shift workers. Ask what happens if you miss a live session, and whether recordings are kept. A clear answer to these practical questions says a lot about whether the training is built around working people.
Decide what success would look like
Finally, set a modest target before you start. It might be that you stop discarding interviews because of background noise, or that you finish a typical interview with two clean, self-contained answers ready for the edit. A target that small can be checked against your next three pieces, which is far more useful than a vague hope of sounding more professional.
Write the target down, keep your original fault list beside it, and compare the two a month after training ends. If you are booking for a group, agree the target together so everyone listens for the same things. No course can promise a result, and a good tutor will say so, but a clear goal lets both of you see whether the time was well spent.
Working through this checklist takes an evening and costs nothing, yet it leaves you able to describe your problems precisely, which is the best preparation for any training. Know your faults, your kit, your locations and the way you learn best, then ask plain questions about how feedback works. If you would like to talk it over, Priya on our contact page can answer most enquiries about Audio and Interview Technique.
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