I am shooting some interviews for this job I have, and it needs to be dramatic and beautiful.

I have come up with this shot of with the interviewee sitting in front of a black background. I would like for the interviwee to be lit up like a Christmas tree but the background to be a solid black.

I dont want to do a chrome-key, but would you suggest that?
I was thinking about going the old school way and trying to find a background that would give me a nice black. Should I just try to do it in a dark room, with a certain shutter speed and aperature?

Tips, advice, suggestions, I would love to hear it.

I would try gettting a dark room and setting up a stool or whatever it is that you want your interviewee sitting on and then shut all the lights off except one hanging one above the person and it should work that you see only the person and a black background... give that a try thats my best guess!

Dare to be diffrent... dont give in to the "norm"

I am currently working on my third short film which required some scenes with stark lighting with deep blacks in the background. To achieve this, I simply set up my actors in their places, got an industrial size light and moved it around till when looking through the camera, only they were lit. It took maybe 20 minutes to set up, just a little creativity and a bit of knowledge needed. Don't know if this helps, but that's what I did.

Yeah, with enough soap, one could blow up just about anything.

It didn't look like they had a light shining on them?

*sees how that works*

I might just try that sometime.