MEAT
Over the course of the semester I have had the opportunity to take part in a Refugee awareness project. The project started off with the goal of interviewing a refugee who settled in RI. Preparing for the interview was the most crucial part of our process. We had to formulate questions and think of topics we wanted to discuss with Ma Mary. This was challenging because we knew nothing about her story or the way she would respond during the interview. When my group and I formulated questions we chose to follow a sequence that would allow us to see the journey she traveled in the order she experienced the hardships. When formulating the questions, we had to remember that Ma Mary has different customs then we do, so we needed to make a comfortable environment. Additionally, the questions had to be easy to understand, but still allow us to search into depth for the details of her story. Therefore, we decided to do some research beforehand of the Liberian War to help us formulate the interview questions. By applying our knowledge, we were able to steer Ma Mary in the right direction to share the most interesting parts of her journey.
*** mention how the session with Sana and Chanda helped you understand how to construct the interview and what to say/what not to say. Add about the process rather than content
I really enjoyed meeting with Chanda and Sana to discuss the refugee crisis and interviewing. Personally I knew little to nothing about refugees before the start of this class. Sana and Chanda's stories really made the whole global issue seem real and relevant to me. The most important thing I learned from the discussion was to make sure to represent the person you are interviewing in the right scope, and empowering them to share their story. It is very difficult for people to express pain and suffering they have experienced in their life. Creating a comfortable humanly interaction with the interviewee is important to establish trust. There are questions or areas of peoples life journey they may not feel comfortable sharing. In this instance respect their wish not to share and move on from the subject. Sana says there is no need for apology here. Sana emphasized that it is important to not be over sympathetic. There is no way you can relate to them, and since you do not know how it feels don't apologize that it happened or be little the situation. Overall I learned to make this conversation an open dialogue with the person, this will allow more comfortability and fluidity in the interview.
During the interview Ma Mary opened up and discussed the hardships she faced fleeing from the Rebels in Liberia. After hearing her story and spending some time with Ma Mary my group and I listened to the clips to find a main idea or central topic Ma Mary's journey revolved around. The most challenging part of the entire project was reorganizing and cutting parts of the interview to show the central theme. ADD central theme supporting pics beg mid end.
After showing our first video draft to our peers, my group immediately considered the audience the video was made for. The video was made for the public, meaning people may not have background on the refugee crisis or the Liberian war. Therefore, we included textual slides in the beginning of our slideshow to give some background details to people who are not familiar with the topic.
VOICE ANALYSIS SUPPORT
The storyline has to be captivating, and something people will want to listen to. The author talks about interviewing in particular. The most important thing to consider when interviewing is the questions you pose. It is essential to ask not only what happened but where did it happen? Who was there? What did you think before? What did you think after the event happened? All of these are essential in setting the frame or painting the picture for the audience.
Adding sound effects such as a cry out for help or a scream add relevance to the story and evoke emotion from the person watching/ listening. This small addition forces the audience to acknowledge through another sense what the character is experiencing. The deep sea is the unknown. Sound is metaphorized as the deep sea because the value that is brings in hidden. Sound as the deep sea is the hidden parts of the story. Often times there is so much going on in a persons story, that the sound deepens the story by hearing, what you cannot see. Changing the sound pitch or pace helps shine a light below th surface. Overall sound helps create more meaning.
The primary purpose of editing is to organize the order of the story line, create a clear representation of the characters and establish a pace at which the story should be told. The process of editing involves multiple looks at the video. Many people should watch the story, give back their opinion and other helpful feedback. This will help the editors to make the storyline clear to outside viewers as well as focus on what the true intent of the conversation in meant to represent. Framing a story makes the story more compelling by giving background information and additional details before and after telling the story for it to be more relevant. For example, the concept of framing the interview of Ma Mary with some context on the Liberian Civil War makes her experience more relevant because people are then informed on the situation. Signposting is a concept of storytelling that emphasis certain points of the story to the audience. By making this clear emphasis the viewers will have a lead on what are some of the most important points in the story.
Feedback
The first group of people that I asked to watch and critique the interview with Ma Mary was my roommates. My roommates had no background knowledge on the Liberian war. They said that they understood that the story expressed Ma Mary's struggles and her travels out of Liberia. My roommates did not understand who was forcing them out. They suggested adding more contextual slides and information to clarify. My roommates believed that the story was structured well and that the occasional header on the bottom was very helpful. They suggested cutting out parts on her jail time that seemed repetitive. The main suggestions my roommates stressed was providing background information, subtitles and condensing information to make the interview shorter. Based on the feedback from my roommates we plan to add background information and adding subtitles to improve understanding.
The second group of people I asked to watch the interview had a lot of suggestions on the overall appearance of the video. They suggested editing the on screen text and making it easier to read and standout. Additionally, my peers suggested adding text to the photos in the beginning of the interview in order to make up for the lack of background information provided. Overall my friends had a general understanding of the point and purpose of the story. But they did seem to have questions throughout to clarify what was going on. I think based on this it would be a good idea for us to add the contextual slides. Additionally my group and I need to shorten and cut out parts on sections ( labeled by title) to make each main point standout.
The Oral history works together with the composition of the narrative to deliver a clear message. This could help to "map coherence" or create a logical understanding of why something happened in the story. For example in the Ma Mary's story we are using background slides in the beginning that are similar to oral history (just without the actual voice) to help viewers make sense of the sequence of the story. This is necessary because storytellers often tell their story as they feel, rather then in an order that makes sense. The "disorder of lived experience" is evident in Ma Mary's story, through its disjointed manner. Including supporting background and creating a structured flow to make sense of the order and importance of the story is necessary when presenting the story to viewers.
The video project this semester was a huge collaborative effort between myself and my teammates. We split up roles and designated tasks for each of us to do individually to make up our share of the work. Primarily I was responsible for the interview questions and the overall flow of the project. During the interview process I served as the scribe, and recorded down the main ideas and points from Ma Mary's stories and made an interview log. From there I brainstormed and marked down changes that should be made to the clips. Having generated the interview questions and been the scribe it was easy for me to see the overall scope of the story should be. In class we discussed the major revisions for the video as a group. Finally we all came together to create supporting documentation such as the group contract and other details.
My favorite thing about the video are the shots we have of Ma Mary speaking. Her face shows so much expression, even though her words are not always clear. I also really like the way the theme of the video is expressed through the scenes we decided to choose. I think it clearly depicts Ma Mary's experiences with violence and hunger in her flee for refuge. The most displeasing thing about the video to me is the background. If I had the chance to shoot over I would pick different spot for Ma Mary to sit. The background is very reflective and distracting with people moving in the background. Additionally, I would have Henri and Ma Mary sitting in chairs without a table in front of them, so we could see their body language. There was one clip that shows Ma Mary explaining being stabbed and she is showing it on her leg, and we couldn't see it. This would have been a good clip to include, had the seating arrangement been different. Overall, I am very satisfied with the way the project turned out.
People that are:
...aware and unaware of the refugee crisis
...have knowledge on the Liberian Civil war
...no knowledge of the Liberian Civil war
...general public
the video was long
it was hard to cut down