Listening and Recording, Film 116
Instructor: Steve Wetzel

Interview
Due December 5th, posted by 10:00 a.m.

Your are to seek out a subject or interviewee and record an interview. Each
and every human has interesting experiences to share and unique perspectives
on the world. Your task is to coax the latter "out" of the interviewee. Push the material
beyond the commonplace; find the unfamiliar in the familiar; shape the interview
AND edit it in a way that far transcends information. We don't want to hear about data and
information; we want instead to meet a human being. We will talk more in class
about what makes for a good interview.

INTERVIEW TIPS

 Other objectives:
1. As discussed in class, be sure to make a recording of room tone either at the beginning
or end of your recording (you'll use this to cover up edits), and, once you've finished editing,
be sure to experiment with equalization; You'll need to use EQ for this project (see point 3
below).

AUDIO LEVEL. Be sure that the audio level of your final post is peaking between
-12dB and -6dB. If you have a weak recording, you can simply boost the overall level
in Audacity (volume level found both in each track AND within the Audio Mixer window).
Compression will boost your level as well, but, it may be more hassle than is necessary.
By all means, experiment with compression, but remember to do so on an EXPORTED file, not
on your original edit. Keep in mind that a strong original recording minimizes the need for post-
production, which, when not handled well (post-production) can sound "off."

1. Make a good, clean, detailed voice recording (you'll need to experiment with your mic
location, sensitivity and gain).

2. Once the recording is finished you'll need to transfer the entire file (or files), open in Audacity
and listen carefully and take notes. Edit together a coherent and good representation OF the
interview. The interview may be 30 minutes long, but you'll need to chop this down (your edit)
to under 4 minutes!, and you will need to do so while maintaining the integrity of the subject:
it should make sense and hold interest. And this should be edited seamlessly, which means that
I shouldn't hear any edits, I shouldn't be able to tell that you pieced together bits from various
parts of the interview.

3. Now export the edit as a .wav, title it "YOURINITIALS_Interview_EQ_v1" then
open this mixed down .wav file in Audacity as a new project and experiment
with EQ. If you feel like you're ruining the file with EQ, please keep in mind that
you can simply start over by closing the current track and re-importing the exported
EQ file ("YOURINITIALS_Interview_EQ_v1") into a new track. As long as you're
not EQing your original edit, you can always start over very easily. We talked about
this in class.

4. Once you feel like you've cleaned up the edit with EQ, then export again as both
.mp3 and .wav and upload to G-drive and link to Blogger as you have been doing
all semester.

5. When you're finished exporting, make a new post in your blog site entitled "Interview"

CLICK here for info on making a screen grab.
And if you can't make a screen grab, simply take a photo
of your screen and upload that.

The length of the interview should not exceed 04:00, and should be at least 01:30.

What you need to know, technically, for this edit:
1. How to properly record voice with homemade microphones and hand-held recorder
2. How to utilize room tone in an edit
3. How to make clean edits when working with language
4. How to make and post screen grab
 

 WHAT you'll be posting in Blogger
1. A new post called Interview
2. List the subject (as a title?, or just state it: "My interview with Sharon the cop")
3. Total running time
4. .mp3 and .wav links
5. Screen grab of your EQ chart
5A. Interview questions (type and post as either attachment or inline text)
6. Any other material relevant to the subject (pictures?, writing?, etc.)