So far collecting the footage for the final project has been very interesting. I knew that doing a piece focused on Hurricane Sandy would be very touchy and serious but I did not expect it to be like this. So far one interview has been done and a senior at Wagner shared her experience with us. The interview was extremely powerful and moving. The interviewee did not hold any emotions back and made me feel her pain as she retold her story as a whole for the first time.
I found this project to be more challenging in the sense of time constraint. While it was hard to find exactly what I wanted to use in my video, it also helped me to focus on my purpose. I find that using videos throughout the story helps to break it up and keep it interesting. I also found it helpful that I had B-Roll that I could use from the past, such as pictures of my niece when she was younger. This project was fun for me to put together because I was interested in the story I was telling and it was a topic that my family and I could all relate to and appreciate. For the next project, I will try to organize my B-Roll better because sometimes it was difficult to locate exactly what I needed for certain parts of my video.
While I was producing my piece, I found it challenging to take pictures that were relevant to the topic. In order to overcome this problem I tried my best to take pictures that had to do with the different aspects. Next time, I will pick a story that will be easier to document with pictures, rather than ask about a time in the past. My favorite part of the project was sorting out all of my material and making it come together as a final piece. It was fun to pick everything apart and put it in an order that made sense to me.
Reflection:
I think the biggest struggle when putting my audio piece together was trying to figure out the order of topics that I wanted to use. At first I listened to the interview and divided it up into the different themes that were present within the conversation. As I wrote down times, I quickly found that this was not going to be very useful. This is because once I had organized and divided to audio on my paper, I then had to go back and delete the footage of my voice. This completely changed the times of the occurrences, which meant that I needed to go back and find everything again. Organization was definitely a major challenge in this project.
I also found it difficult to make the big decisions on what to include and what not to include. In a way, it felt strange to just cut out parts of the interview that seemed important but were no longer useful in the final piece. However, as I deleted more and more extra material, it became easier to organize it and space it out. Also, transitioning from one theme to the next was tricky. I tried to include gaps in the interview where the theme would change and fill them with environmental sound that would lead to the next part.
While listening to the interview I realized that as the interviewer I did not do such a good job. There were times in the interview where I asked a question and I could not include it because the listener would not have been able to follow what my subject was talking about. By having simple “yes” or “no” responses, interesting information that could have been included was instead deleted. Next time, I will try to include more double-barrelled questions. I could also ask the person I am interviewing to repeat my question in their answer so that I can include everything that I believe to be necessary.
Olivia Iacono
Misfire by Sarah Varney & Paul Frey
http://www.thirdcoastfestival.org/library/127-misfire
List of sounds and their placement in the piece:
– 0:26 pounding on microphone followed by repetitive “WAKE UP”
– 0:45 sound of opening can leads to drinking sounds leads to running
– 1:30 all other sounds fade out except music
– 1:40 repetition of beginning “WAKE UP”
– 2:13 water drops begin in the right headphone
– 2:25 mysterious noises as well as intensified music
– 2:50 music begins to quiet down which then leads to sounds of waves
– 3:50 “Let’s start” and then followed by another opening of a can
This piece began with the voice of an older man that automatically drew attention to the listener because it was something that is not heard on a regular basis. When the pounding of the microphone started, I thought of my heart pounding and automatically began to become more aware of what I was listening to. This, along with the man saying “wake up,” helped me to concentrate on the audio. As the podcast progressed, the transitions from one sound to another were very interesting and kept me alert. As one sound entered into the right headphone, it would then leave from the left, somehow giving your ears a way to concentrate, similar to how we read. Also, the violin music that was constant throughout the piece helped to tie it together as a whole.
I found the authors’ choice of sounds to be very compelling. By using the sound of thumping, it immediately made me, as the listener, become “awake.” Also, as the tempo of the sounds picked up, my interest in the piece increased. Once the soda can was opened and the drinking was completed, the authors chose to first use energizing noises, and then followed that by including relaxing noises, which made me believe that by drinking soda you can get both be rejuvenated and at ease. Toward the middle of the piece, the music intensified and the noises became mysterious. I thought the placement of this intensity was important because it was toward the point where a listener can begin to lose focus. By keeping the violin music as a consistent tie between sections, I believe that the piece was put together very well and kept the interest of the listener.