Vox Pops!

Vox Pops comes from the latin word “Vox Populi,” literally meaning “The voice of the people.”

This is a type of interview filmed in a public place. American broadcast journalists tend to call it “Man on the Street, or M.O.T.S,” as it is literally this. The filming is a lot more spontaneous and unpredictable in comparison to planned interviews. Vox pops interviews stop the general public in their tracks to ask for their opinion on a specific topic.

The interviewer is usually instructed to ask a range of different people; from their gender to the age, race and class, and unlike surverying, he will ask the same question to everyone; which will produce diverse and interesting answers and gives the audience a chance to relate to a specific one.

Radio programmes also use Vox Pops in their line up; usually to introduce a person or a certain topic. I like how we the listener would hear a montage of voices, answering the same thing, and not know what they’ve been asked- it keeps us engaged and for us to keep listening and find out.

Points to remember when filming Vox Pops;
-The camera angles tend to be MSU or CU;
-The interviewer doesn’t speak through the duration, unless it’s to get the interviewee to elaborate on the original question;
-Questions are open ended to avoid “one liner” answers.

And finally, because Vox Pops filming is random and quick; the editing tends to be snapshots and cut down quite a lot, to emphasis the variety of characters on screen.



I got an example of Vox Pops from Youtube, but the original website is Vox Pops International, where the general public were asked what the "cool" words of the moment are. I chose this clip as I believe it's edited well- short and snappy- their positioning is correct, (eg the right amount of looking room) and each answer flows together.