Contextualising Statement:
Our task was to create audio vox pops suitable for a radio broadcast or a podcast. We were given three hours and restricted to the York St. John’s University campus. In pairs – one acting as the interviewer and the other as sound recorder – we were to interview eight or more students about their experiences of student life, asking each the same three basic questions. On the day we were a team of four people alternating tasks. We filled in a risk assessment form, an equipment booking form (submitted more than 48 hours prior to equipment being required), and a contributor release form. We were issued with a standard sound kit and ZOOM H1, then released onto an unsuspecting campus.
There were no major health and safety concerns. We were away from roads, in a safe and friendly environment, and not handling dangerous equipment. However, we were careful to avoid blocking routes and doorways, to be aware of trip hazards with cables, and to treat all contributors with care and respect.
As this was our first planned task using equipment and interacting with people outside the course, I felt nervous. In some ways it helped to know that the rest of my team were feeling the same. I knew I had prepared as best I could by attending all the classes, printing the contributor release forms and bringing a clipboard to keep them together and make us look organised. As we began to record the interviews my confidence grew. By the end I was fully engaged and enjoying myself.
Although it was hard finding interviewees at first, we worked well as a team, playing off each other’s strengths and weaknesses i.e. some of us were better at approaching strangers in a friendly manner, some of us were better at using the recording equipment. Within and hour we had our eight interviews and continued until we had fourteen. According to Bamford (2012) the more relaxed you can make an interview “[…] the more relaxed your contributor will be and the better the material.” I believe that as we gained experience in this we recorded some excellent material.
We did have problems getting usable recordings in a couple of noisy environments. We quickly left those locations. We also failed to get a usable ‘wild track.’
I felt that we all made positive contributions to the task in various ways and were good at working together to ensure that all steps were completed. A couple of our team were easily distracted and did go off task at times, but quickly regained focus when prompted.
Our lack of experience and familiarity with each other, the equipment and the new task hindered us at first. But we communicated well, with honesty and humour, and rapidly improved in all areas suggested by the BBC academy (2018): location choice, organisation, clarity, listening and consistency.
Learning to use Audacity and editing a 1.30 vox pop from fourteen interviews was very challenging. I substituted a piece of uncopyrighted music for our missing ‘wild track.’ I worked hard in the Edit Lab, and with the help of the techs, my classmates and personal research, feel I fulfilled the task brief and created an acceptable first effort from which I learned a lot. Future results can of course improve greatly with more training and practical experience.
Bibliography:
Bamford, N. (2012) Directing Television: A Professional Survival Guide. London, Bloomsbury.
BBC (2018) How to film a vox pop [Internet] Available from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/academy/production/article/art20141029111247531 [Accessed 20th May 2018].