There are two types of questions you can use that are very different in character and usage. Actively listening to all answers is vital in factual filmmaking.
Closed questions: can be answered with either a single word or a short phrase.
"How old are you?" "Where do you live?"
A closed question can also be answered with either "yes" or "no".
Characteristics:
- Give you facts
- Easy to answer
- Quick to answer
- They keep control of the conversation with the questioner
This makes closed questions useful in the following situations:
- Opening questions in conversations
- For testing a person's understanding
- For setting up a desired positive or negative frame of mind (asking successive questions with obvious answers)
- For seeking yes to the big question (e.g. do you think it's hard being a teenage mother)
Any opinion can be turned into a closed question that forces a yes or no by adding tag questions, such as "isn't it?", "don't you?", "can't they?" to any statement.
The first word of a question sets up the dynamic of the closed question, signalling the easy answer ahead: do, would, are, will, if.
Open questions: are likely to receive a long answer.
Although any questions can receive a long answer, open questions deliberately seek longer answers and are the opposite of closed questions.
Characteristics:
- Ask the respondent to think and reflect
- Give opinions and feelings
- They hand control of the conversation to the respondent
This makes open questions useful in the following situations:
- As a follow-on from closed questions
- To find out more about a person, their wants, needs, problems
- For the respondent to think about themselves more, something they haven't thought about before
