Vox pops are usually a montage of peoples responses to questions on a particular topic. The Term ‘Vox Pop’ means ‘Voice of the people’ and originated from the latin phrase Vox populi. Vox pops are often used to try and convey popular opinions about the chosen topic. The fact that you can see the interviewee gives more of an insight in to their answer because you can see their facial expressions and physical behaviour, which can be more useful than typical demographic information (e.g. name age etc)
Vox pops are a good tool for many different reasons. They can be entertaining to watch, therefore keeping the viewer interested in what’s being said, which gives more of an impact than seeing figures on a graph for example. The answers given are normally to the point and people tend to be more open on film. The fact you can shoot them in the interviewee’s environment can sometimes reflect their opinions and shows the audience this environment.
The downsides to vox pops include: Some people may feel uncomfortable being filmed. People may stray away from their point. There may be a low response rate from the public/people you want to interview. And its not always easy to get a balanced view.
Its best to have short open ended questions to engourage short and honest to the point answers. It also helps to be quick in asking if they will participate and shooting them, this stops them worrying about what they look like, what people will think etc. A good mix of genders and races is always better because it gives more impact to the point you are trying to make, it stops the audience thinking you’ve just targeted a specific social group with similar views, and actually got a wide range of peoples views and opinions.
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