What makes for an interesting interview...

            I chose to do the following audio interviews: “When we go on fires, everyone treats you different”, “I have spent a lot of years just hiding from it”, and “We saw, on the side of the road, a guy with a prosthetic leg”. And I chose to do the following animation interviews: “She was the one” and “Germans in the woods”. The key points and flow of the interviews are listed after this summary.

            All in all, all of the audio interviews were quite easily understood by me and were pretty easy to follow. The only thing I might suggest to all of the audios to do is simply add more pauses after presenting important facts of their stories so that we know when there is a break in the story. Both of the animation interviews were also quite understandable—I couldn’t tell you which one was best understood though because both were quite effective and touching stories. They both presented audio during the animations, as well. What I liked about “She was the one” the most though was that it was narrated and then a couple of points in the story, the animated character’s mouth actually followed along with the narration. What I liked most about “Germans in the woods” though, was how it was in black and white and the animations moved slowly leaving behind a shadowy essence. Both made it hard for me to choose a favorite.

            What was different about the two types of interviews was that in the animations, there were more pauses after facts which made more sense to allow the animations to follow the storyboard and not get left behind; while in the audios their were hardly any audio pauses making it sound more like reading aloud from a book. Also, the animated interviews had more transitions between scenes, which is to be expected since it’s easier with animations. What was similar between the two types was that they both used appropriate choices for their background music and used proper transitioning when presenting it as well. Other than that, they all seemed to move right along quite smoothly.

            In conclusion I have included my list of five criteria that all audio/visual interviews should have:

1.     Start off with either an attention getter (important fact) or with a song that fades out—reason being is to obviously get the listener/viewer attention right from the beginning.

2.     Transitions between facts or important scenes—reason is because it lets the listener/viewer know that the story is about to present another fact or point in the story.

3.     No “blank” space. The audio shouldn’t have more than a couple of seconds of no audio and in an animation interview, the screen should never be black—reason being is because it looks/sounds unprofessional and lacking the effort to create a good audio/visual interview.

4.     The animation should always follow the storyboard and facts—reason being is because you don’t want your viewer to be confused in what is happening.

5.     Music in audio and animation interviews should always be appropriate for the situation—reason being is because you want the viewer/listener to feel something appropriate to the interview.

  

Audio

“When we go on fires, people treat you different.”

            The drought of 2012 has caused many fires. Daniel Ross has been an inmate firefighter since 2011. He is incarcerated because of his crystal meth addiction as well as assaulting an officer.

• ·      Begins to talk about how he is treated differently because he is a volunteer firefighter. (No additional audio so far)
• ·      After talking about how he is treated differently, a calm soothing song comes on. (Song rises and gradually fades out)
• ·      No pauses after important facts were said—fast talker. (Ending song transition)

“I have spent a lot of years just hiding from it.”

            Julie Sanders talks about belonging to a white suppremist group when she was 16. 1988, found herself at the scene of a murder—that’s when she began to re-evaluate her life.

• ·      Group of kids (suppremists) liked her because she was white. (No music)(Audio pause)
• ·      She was beat up by her boyfriend when no fights were found around town. (No music)(Audio pause)
• ·      Friends killed a man because he was black; the man also had a child with him. (No music)(No audio pause)
• ·      Didn’t come out of it till she was 20 years old and had a son. She thinks about it a lot and when describing her self now, a song rises while speaking and fades. (Music—soft sort of climactic song)(Song made me think)(Ending song transition)

“We saw, on the side of the road, a guy with a prosthetic leg.”

            In 2008, 70-year-old “Boston” Bill had his leg amputated from a staff infection. Jake Bainter (7 years) was about to have his leg amputated when they met before the operation on the side of the road. Four years later, Jake and Bill recorded.

• ·      They asked each other questions. (No music)(Audio pauses after questions)
• ·      Sometimes they each would alternate lines with no pauses to make it seem more like a story.
• ·      Bill talks about miracles when an acoustic song rises over the commentary and fades out. (Acoustic music—rises and fades out)
• ·      No transitions except for ending song.

Animation

“She was the one.”

            Richie Pecorella was engaged to the love of his life, Karen Juday, living in Brooklyn when she was killed in the World Trade Center terrorist attacks.

• ·      Beginning acoustic song for 30 seconds while text appears with a black background that explains the premise of Richie’s story. (Fades to black)(Music fades out)(Storyboard begins)
• ·      Animated Richie and Karen. (Richie narrates)
• ·      He was nervous at their first meeting. (Richie narrates)(Animation reflects his emotions, stumbling, “head-over-heels”)
• ·      Talks about Karen. (Animation Richie moves its mouth with his voice)
• ·      Goes back to narrating scenes. (Not many pauses or audio transitions)(Visual transitions—scenes fade in and out of each other)
• ·      Character animates voice of Richie while animated Karen is enlarged in the background.
• ·      Voice stops, music rises, ends with faded music and an animated picture of Karen takes up the screen. (Visual transition)
• ·      Uses credits on a notepad feature outline. (Credits fade in and out)(Music fades out)
• 
  

“Germans in the woods.”

            Joseph Robertson remembers shooting a German soldier in the Battle of The Bulge (WWII).

• ·      Acoustic music in the beginning. (Fades in and out transitions)(Joe narrates the story)(Black and white storyboard)
• ·      Animated figures move slowly leading a shadowy imprint while moving. (Helps with telling a past story, history)
• ·      Animation follows narration closely.
• ·      Talks slowly, like telling a story or reading aloud from a book.
• ·      Uses snow falling in his scenes.
• ·      Talks about waking up many night crying and seeing the kid he shot and killed. (Sad calming music rises)
• ·      Screen turns black and writing appears (fading transitions to next part of text) saying Joe made this a year before his death. (Visual fade transition to credits)
• ·      Credits fade in and out with music still going in the background.
• ·      Snow is falling during the credits for added visual effects.
• ·      Music fades out in the end.