In this assignment I went on to the York St John University campus to ask people’s thoughts and feelings about student life. I carried out audio interviews and tried to ask a variety of different students to collect the best sample I could. During a 3 hour period that had been allocated for the task I was able to gather a lot of responses and gain an insight into life as a student. I then composed an artefact of the best responses that lasted 01’22” which was then uploaded to Soundcloud.
To conduct my interviews I used a Tascam DR100 with the decibel level set at -12 which is the ideal level for recording speech. I also used an Omni-directional microphone which ensured that the interviewee’s voices came through clearly. Before this task took place I pre-planned a few questions to ask students with the intent to get different answers from everybody. Being on a University campus meant that I could easily find students willing to carry out an interview as there are people constantly moving around the premises.
Working with a partner was effective in this task because as one of you was interviewing somebody the other person could hold the wires or the Tascam whilst you held the microphone to the subject of the interview. This was helpful as it meant the wires wouldn’t be trailing on the floor leading to possible damage. In addition to this, with the task being the first opportunity going out and interviewing people it was a confidence booster to go out and do it with a familiar face so then both of you could get comfortable with confronting people and also getting denied which is something you have to get use to as a reporting Journalist.
During the task, I faced a couple of audio issues as it was a windy day meaning some of the first interviews that took place outside sounded muffled due to the noise of the wind. To counteract this we went to locations that were less windy which included some sheltered areas in the Quad or conducted the interviews indoors. In addition to this, during post production I had a smooth and upbeat guitar instrumental to accompany voice to enhance the mood of the audio and to drown out any crackling noises produced when contact was made with the Tascam. To measure health and safety risks I filled out a risk assessment form for the first time which was useful in understanding how to accurately fill them in and the importance of doing so. Having only used two sets of small equipment there weren’t a lot of risks however, taking care of the equipment was of high importance.
As previously stated this was the first task we were set and I think the experience of it allowed me to quickly settle in to the nature of the course and gave me the right foundations to build on in terms of interviewing people and successfully using equipment. This benefited me through the year as usage of a Tascam has been instrumental in several tasks.