Sarah and Tom's Excellent Adventure (trial run)

Sarah: As a whole our interview this morning went well, though we encountered a few missteps when trying to upload our video file to the mac. We were able to copy it to the desktop, however the file format wasn't recognized and therefore would not play on iMovie or Quicktime. We learned after returning the equipment that we needed to hold down the "option" key when dragging the file to the desktop rather than using copy/paste shortcuts. We will definitely take appropriate steps in the future so that we don't run into this problem again!

Additionally, we noticed that our lighting could have been better and that the subject (Sarah) could have fidgeted less. Because we don't know how comfortable Maria will be in front of the camera we will try to make her feel as relaxed as possible before/during the interview come November. 

Lastly, we forgot to change the file quality before interviewing. In the future we will choose the video format beforehand to ensure the best quality possible.

Tom: Thank goodness we had a trial run. We could use another few, to be honest (I could, anyway. I don’t want to speak on behalf of Sarah).

Drama aside, the truth is that most things went smoothly.  We had no issues with setting up the camera, the framing of the shot, or sound. There were some slight issues with lighting, being that perhaps Sarah’s face could have been lit more evenly, however I don’t think this comes across as entirely distracting upon viewing. Everything was set up pretty quickly, and we were able to focus more on how the interview would be conducted.

Overall, I thought we interviewed well. As one of the readings suggested, we discussed what the themes of the questions were going to be, and in some cases, what questions I had planned. Obviously, we attempted to stay away from those ‘yes/no’ questions, and move toward a more open discussion. Interestingly, I actually found this quite difficult at times, which was unexpected. Upon watching the interview back, I realised that a few of my questions could very much have been a dead end given a more timid interviewee.

Of course, as soon as Sarah began speaking, most of my planned questions almost went out the window and I found myself going along a line that I certainly hadn't expected, but which was somewhat more interesting. I started off asking about Sarah’s future direction in life, and ended up hearing about her drunk grandfather (not as irrelevant as it may sound). Looking back on it, I actually had a quite a bit of fun seeing where the interview would go.

I should also add that I realized I’m not entirely sure of the correct manner to begin or conclude an interview. I’m sure it’s self-explanatory to most, but I wondered if there were any specific things that needed to be said at the beginning of the interview, perhaps for archiving or editing purposes.

As Sarah mentioned, we failed to heed the ctrl+drag advice that we were given (more than once), but we managed to upload and edit nonetheless. I wanted to put the whole thing up so that y’all could tell us what you thought, but blogger didn’t seem to like that. Instead, here’s a short excerpt where Sarah talks about her Grandad’s reaction to her switching from pre-med to an International Relations major. 

I could change the thumbnail, but considering how pensive Sarah looks, I really can't

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