Today’s Plan:
- I Won’t Be Here Friday / Next Week’s Schedule
- Survey Feedback
- Watch Work List #4 and/or Work List #5
- Work List #6
- Recording Sound with a Snowball Mic
- Kalman’s And Pursuit of Happiness
Next Week’s Schedule
Worklist #6 will be due Monday, October 19th. I would like to cancel Monday October 12th’s meeting and instead meet on Wednesday and Friday next week instead. I will not be on campus this Friday or Monday the 12th, but our class room (and the room next door) should be available if you need an interview location. You can also check out the multimedia room in the library.
I will also layout a “midterm” video that you will have two weeks to complete. That assignment will be a checklist of all of the criteria we’ve covered so far. The topic for that video is open–I only ask that you shoot new footage. It can be a documentary on a space, a music video, a comedy sketch, a re-creation of a famous movie scene, a how-to video, whatever you want. The video must be 2 minutes long.
Work List #6: Two Camera Interview
This is part a team project, part an individual project. You will work in teams of 3 to collect video and audio. You will edit and mix those files individually. Everyone will turn in their own final cut of the interview.
Collectively, your team will need 3 phones for capturing video and a laptop with a USB connection for recording audio. Team sign up.
Work List #6 asks you to execute a 3 camera interview shoot. What?!? Insanity. We are going to do a two-person, over the shoulder interview shoot with a third roaming wide shot, b-roll, close up camera. First, let’s watch a quick video on setting up a standard two person, over the shoulder shoot.
Already you should see what 3 of our four devices are doing.
- Camera One looks over the shoulder of the interviewer
- Camera Two looks over the shoulder of the interviewee
- Camera Three should be set up to capture at least four different shots during the interview
- B-roll during sound check for an intro montage
- A wide shot in the beginning of the shoot
- A close-up on the interviewer as they ask a question
- A close-up on the interviewee as they answer the question
- Camera Four collects audio using a snowball microphone
You can check out a Snowball Microphone from the library (simply go to the front desk and ask to check one out). They have 3 total microphones, each can be checked out for a week. My understanding is that the microphones are almost always available. Out of courtesy to the other groups, please return a microphone after you are done recording.
To record sound on a PC, you can use the Sound Recorder or Voice Recorder App. This is a super simple app that does exactly what the name implies.
Go into the computer’s settings (Settings > System on Windows) and check your input. Go into advanced settings and make sure your microphone level is at +90.
The Snowball Mic has three built in settings:
- Close Up
- Close Up with Noise Reduction
- Omni (all directions)
Chances are you will want to set the mic up on Omni between your interlocutors. NOTE: It will be extremely important to sound check your interview. Have the interlocutors sit in position and record some sound from both of them. Play it back to check volume and clarity.
We will “scrub” background noise out of these audio files next Wednesday.
Kalman’s And the Pursuit of Happiness
Soon we will be reading a few chapters from Maira Kalman’s …And the Pursuit of Happiness. The book is amazon used for $4 plus shipping.
Alternatively, the project is available via the NYT as a blog.
Just make sure you have a copy by the end of next week.
Homework
By next Wednesday, you and your group need to have recorded your interview footage. I will create team folders in this Google Drive folder. You can upload all your video and audio assets there so the entire team has access to them.
Next Wednesday and Friday we will work on how to synch, cut, edit, enhance these assets in class.
