Invite young people to ask the questions ~ Video Ideas no. 1
The article below is from the Video Ideas email list. This edition focuses on a fresh approach to interviews: inviting young people to ask the questions.
Unscripted encounters between children and grown-ups from various backgrounds.
Kids Meet is a great series. It’s heart-warming and it shows ambition in the topics it tackles. The film above features a nurse on the frontlines of fighting COVID-19 (so also a interesting example of remote-filming), and there are also episodes where kids meet someone who’s been to prison, a young adult in a hospice who has less than 6 months to live, and a former religious extremist (a former member of the Westboro Baptist Church). Here is the full playlist.
To commemorate the 50th anniversary of homosexuality being legalised in the UK, two men 50 years apart in age meet to talk about their experiences of being gay.
There’s always a power to questions that come from an equal rather than a journalist “outsider”, and this film is based on that approach. Also the contrast between old and young is always fascinating. Feels like an approach that could be used for other topics.
A classroom of young school kids ask a notorious rock ’n’ roll icon questions about his favourite Disney cartoon and his “anger management issues”.
There are a few kids-ask-celebrities formats around but this is my favourite. Other examples are Kids Ask Difficult Questions from BBC Radio 1, which uses recordings of questions (would work well during pandemic circumstances), and the well-executed When Kids Interview for Pretty52 / LADbible.
This series asks experts to explain a concept in 5 levels of difficulty — first to a child, then a teenager, followed by a college student, a professional and an expert.
This is a clever explainer format from Wired and it reminds me of the brilliant subreddit Explain Like I’m Five (a good place to see what topics people want explaining by the way). This episode is particularly special because the 5th guest is Herbie Hancock; I found myself hanging on to the end because I was intrigued as to what would happen when the expert came face-to-face with a legend.
“Four women have frank and honest conversations with their grans about some of their most memorable first times.”
Okay, so I know this is the first Video Ideas email and I’m already plugging one of my past films but forgive me. It wasn’t until I’d almost finished this email that I remembered the film above. It features young women talking to their grandmothers about romance, kissing and sex and it’s genuinely funny and moving. All credit to producers Maleena Pone, Sophie Duker, Liv Little and Dre Spisto.
The article above is from the Video Ideas email list, which is designed to give readers ideas and inspiration from different corners of the internet. You can read more about the thinking behind the list and sign up here.
As a filmmaker I specialise in making journalistic explainers about politics or the “ideas behind the news”. If you’d like to get an update email when I publish a video, select that option when you sign-up.
On my website you can also find details of the training and consultancy work I do, as well as articles and resources to help you make better video.
To contact me, just email mail@brendanmiller.co.uk or you can find me on Instagram and Twitter.
