Monday’s class was the first time that I read my observations to the rest of the group, and this experience was better than I thought. Before, observational writing was not an easy task for me because I was used to learning academic writing as an international student, and I spent a lot of time on searching for descriptive words to adequately express my ideas. After several practices in the last three weeks, I seemed to get familiar with this kind of writing. It’s like telling a story to a friend. Also, it makes me to pay attention to everyday things and to remember all the details. Listening to others’ observations is even more relaxing. Each of us is sharing the most memorable moment of the recent life. We had very different experiences and wrote it in different ways, the sharing closes our relationship and helps to learn more writing skills.

In the second half class, sound recording was introduced to further enhance our filming techniques. Four of us formed a group. Jackson was the reader, Matt was the interviewer, Aria was the camera operator and I was the sound recorder. We walked around the classroom, trying to find a quiet place but the noise of machines was too obvious on that floor. The scene was finally set up on the 3rd floor next to the elevator which didn’t have a lot of distractions. We placed the chair for the reader against the wall and another one for interviewer facing to it. The camera filmed from the side angle which was a classic composition of interviewing. We did a test shot first to experience the sound effect. I held the microphone high above their heads to catch the sound and this position was easier for me to switch between two subjects. As a beginner, I thought it would be better to move the mic slowly but later found out that the noise was worse during the first few seconds of his talking. The off-mic sound became fuzzier with more environmental noise. 

A little accident happened during the filming that two people were pushing a cart into the elevator. I was moving to leave the space for them and still needed to get the sound properly at the same time. I didn’t notice that Matt just finished his question and Jackson had already started to answer. Sound recording is not the most difficult work but it requires the operator to pay full attention to the environment and subjects. It’s important to carefully listen to the conversation to predict who is going to speak next, and also to notice the surroundings to avoid extra distractions.