Filming in Liverpool: Interviews

As director, and the person who had made initial contact with most of the interviewees, it was decided I would interview all the participants. I was fairly comfortable with this, having had some experience of conducting interviews in the past. When meeting each participant, I made sure I spoke to them a bit while setting up the shot and equipment so that they wouldn't feel like they were being interviewed by a stranger. Also, to ease them into the process of putting the question in the answer, we asked them each a number of random practice questions, normally including their favourite film. Fortunately all of them were familiar with this as they had all done recorded interviews before.

We wrote a list of questions together which were adapted slightly for each interview, for example "What do you get out of christianity?" would be "What do you get out of Hinduism?" These questions served as great icebreakers and often after their answer I would ask one or two more questions on that topic in order to probe the subject deeper. Also, they often answered some of the questions I had written before I got the chance to ask them, meaning I would be able to cross off three questions in one sometimes.

Our interview question were:

• What is your [said faith or belief]?
• When was the first time you encountered this faith or belief?
• Did you grow up in a religious household? 
• What elements of [said faith or belief] do you particularly like and why?
• If someone came to Earth and didn’t know what faith was, how would you describe it to them?
• What does your faith or belief mean to you?
• Are there any incidents or experiences that have led you to believe in this?
• What impact do you believe faith has on someone’s life?
• What do you see in your generation in terms of faith?
• Where do you see faith in the future?