This critique required us to assess five main points:
- How interview choices were influenced by Ready Player One.
- How interview choices were influenced by the StoryCorps project.
- Why we chose the interview subject and topic and how we conducted the interview.
- How technical tools (recording, editing) influenced final product.
- If public domain or creative commons sounds were used to supplement the interview, explain what they are and provide a link to each file.
My interview choices were influenced by Ready Player One in that I chose a technological approach to my interviewee, my mom. I chose to ask her about the tech or media that influenced her life as a different generation. Ready Player One is all about old technology so my interview fit well with the theme.
In terms of the StoryCorps video, I conducted my interview much like the little boy did in his interview. He asked an initial, rather broad question, and then narrowed it down as he let the interviewee talk. I think this is a good way to conduct a casual interview such as this one because it allows the question to flow and change as the person talks.
I chose my mom as my interview subject because I knew she would do a good job explaining the technology that influenced her generation. She is good at talking and detailing and I was able to incorporate a lot of both in my interview. I conducted the interview by first asking her the project thesis, in which we were required to ask about how a different generation experienced technology differently than I do. I then narrowed down some questions as my mom answered. It ended up being about twenty minutes that I edited down to five and a half.
I chose Audacity to edit with because I was already familiar with it from other projects I completed in high school. It is free, easy to work with and simple. I did not need too powerful tools to complete the project so Audacity sufficed just fine.
I used a simple, ten second intro rift from http://s3.accelerated-ideas.com/FreeMusicTracks/mp3/ARTS/SkyLine_C024(cr).mp3 to fill in the background of my brief introduction to the project.