Yah! Yah! Yah! As I strolled around the International Dinner collecting photographs, audio interviews and ambient sounds with my partner, Miss Anna Rader, I had to restrain myself from singing and practicing my Shakira moves in the drum circle. I really enjoyed the event and the people were fascinating and so personable. The event, which was held in conjunction with the International Student Association and Friday Night Fever, was my first of that kind, and it pleased me to know that the University of Wyoming offers such culture to its students and community. UW observed and celebrated International Week from November 17th-22nd, and I’m really glad I managed to catch a glimpse of it.
Anna and I began our SoundSlides project a little later than everyone else, and I think we were both a little stressed right from the beginning. This project’s focus was to work as a team, to collaborate a visual-audio story by utilizing the multimedia tools we’ve been learning in our Online Journalism class. Both Anna and myself really enjoy this class and have shared in our excitement all semester long. I enjoyed getting to know Anna better and I appreciate her hard work. That being said, our project did not go as smoothly as planned. But, I think we both learned a lot, and our upcoming solo SoundSlides projects will benefit from any of the bumps we rolled over this time around. I must give Anna full credit on the SoundSlides portion of the assignment, she was the mastermind there, while I was occupied with my asthma. 😦
I focused on the audio editing portion and I really enjoyed it. I still find some of it tricky, but using Audacity for hours on end and taking the time to explore the program better definitely increased my confidence. I’m still trying to improve my cuts, and I do think a few of them are pretty choppy. Also, the amount of background noise in our audio interviews was a main concern of mine. We did take our interviewees into a separate conference room across the hall from the Union Ballroom, but the excitement and noise seemed to follow us. Again, I sounded like a squeaky munchkin in the audio and felt so relieved to be able to delete my questions. I also noticed that my banter interfered with the interview at times; I seemed to speak at the same time as the interviewee. I need to work on that.
I think the biggest issue that Anna and I ran into was the lack of communication. We did not choose specific tasks or responsibilities to oversee and attempted to do everything together. This idea proved to be unworkable. I also felt like I harassed her with my numerous emails and texts. I forget that not everyone is on a computer all day and can check their email every other hour. I must admit, I felt out of the loop at times and a bit discouraged that we were unable to meet as planned. Working together was harder than I had anticipated; but working solo is really going to be a challenge. Who am I going to harass during the next project?
If I could change anything, it would be to formulate a more solid plan and to stick to it; especially arranged meetings with my partner. Putting together an audio-visual story is a challenging task, but I’ve learned the importance of allowing myself a little extra time to finalize my work. Also, procrastination is the enemy.
Please check out the finished product at the link below. I intend to use this experience to better myself and my work. I want to thank Anna for being my partner…and my new friend on facebook!
Tiff's Side of the Story 