Interviewing Myself

I don’t know if this is just unique to me, or if it’s something that a lot of people experience, but I’ll throw out the line and see what kind of catch comes in. I have a tendency, especially when I’m by myself, to hold “mock interviews”, either just in my head, or if I’m at home, out loud. I’ll imagine a question about something that I’m working on, be it a movie project, a story that I’m writing, or even just a graphic idea. While I’m not as delusional to believe that everything I do carries this type of significance, I find myself doing it almost naturally.

I’ve found that this helps in a number of ways. Just by example, say I was in the middle of a writing project, be it a script or prose, and I was having a hard time trying to understand a part of the story, or the motivation of a certain character, or why a certain character even existed. So, I’d start having a dialogue with myself about it, pretending that I was being interviewed by someone about that specific situation, as if it were some special feature on the DVD or maybe a news special.

Going back to the way that I visualize situations, I would see the little movie poster behind me, the red wallpaper as a contrast against my shirt, even sometimes the interviewer, and the cut scenes that were used for overlay with my audio track. What this process brings out for me are the details of the story that I sometimes miss, and often helps me to look at characters or story situations from a different point of view.

I don’t think, though, that this process works exclusively for story-based projects. I use it in my life for a lot of things, be it a difficult decision, or a problem with school, or evaluating a relationship. I think about a lot of things, so it’s kind of hard to identify a) the actual problem or concern, and b) the answer or solution, even when I’ve already seen it.

I guess I just wanted to throw this out and see what you think. Try this out. Give yourself an interview. (By yourself, in private, so that if you think you feel silly, at least no one else is going to be watching.)

- Kyle

~ by Karratti on Wednesday, 2 April, 2008.