This article can be found in the March/April 2019 issue of News Photographer, published through the NPPA.

I’m big on new.

In the last few years I’ve worked with drones, gimbals, and a mirrorless camera. I’ve created Instagram-first food segments and half-hour documentaries. I’ve done all of this from a newsroom – WXIA-TV in Atlanta – and under a company – TEGNA – that preaches innovation.

But when I wanted to attempt a new approach and story structure for a segment involving person-on-the-street interviews – a format that seems to funnel towards boring and uninformative – I reached back to a far earlier creation.

First, my producer and I bought a wooden fold-out table and two fold-out chairs at IKEA. Then, we asked our promotions team if we could commandeer an easel. Finally, we begged our in-house graphical guru to create a poster we could place on said easel, with a recurring question: “What’s your untold story about __________?” For each story we would do, we felt, we would fill in the blank with a relevant subject.

It worked.

On Thanksgiving week and requested stories about gratitude. On Mother’s Day and Father’s Day we found stories about parents. And this past Valentine’s Day, we learned stories about kind gestures. Each time, we shot in multiple locations that represented different communities in our region. We set up multiple cameras, from a traditional TV news kit to a GoPro and iPhone. We didn’t leave until we had interviewed at least three people.

Most importantly, when we did those interviews, we took our time. I didn’t ask for the quick sound bite and leave. I sat for around ten minutes, conversing and learning more about the person across the table. Often I discovered a more compelling story hidden beneath the initial back-and-forth.

By the end of our shooting day, we had accumulated 8-10 in-depth, revealing interviews with citizens of metro Atlanta. And we had learned stories that we wouldn’t have otherwise uncovered. For my Valentine’s Day piece, I met a couple who had been homeless for months when they welcomed their first child, several weeks ahead of schedule. At an extremely turbulent time, the child’s grandmother tracked the family down and insisted they move in to her one-bedroom apartment. They hadn’t planned to tell me about this … until they saw my sign. The phrase “Untold Story” stood out. They decided to sit down and share.

Even on crowded sidewalks or in town squares, the table and chairs seem somehow intimate. I’ve seen (and attempted) the interview-securing technique of striding up to someone and asking, “Hey, I’m with this station. Can we ask you a few questions about this subject?” The success rate is often painfully low. As it should be. I think about how much trust a reporter needs to engender in a few seconds to convince someone to do such an interview. But this is different, mainly because it requires taking a seat. Sit-down interviews naturally run longer and feel less frenetic than those done on foot. In my case, it turns out they produce better responses.

I’ve heard the following statement, or variation thereof, from many journalists I admire: a great story can be told in many ways, with few limitations. Yes, the latest gear can offer exquisite production value. Yes, an attention-grabbing ploy can turn a few heads. But most great stories are far more straightforward … and far less about the gear used to tell them.

The Solo Video Journalist is available for purchase. You can find it on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and the publisher’s web site.

Matt Pearl is the author of the Telling the Story blog and podcast. Feel free to comment below or e-mail Matt at matt@tellingthestoryblog.com. You can also follow Matt on Facebook and Twitter.