-I did a lot of thinking about interesting roles on campus that go unappreciated and I instantly thought about the RAs. They have such an essential role in bringing the campus community together and have been working extremely hard in doing so during the pandemic. -RAs typically go unnoticed in the span of people who work on campus, so highlighting one of them that works so hard I felt was something that would be appreciated by both the students and other RAs. -I chose the location and person that I did because even though Shannon is an RA in my hall, I never really have spoken to her before and didn’t know her well at all. -I shot this on Monday, April 5 because I had a family emergency and had to go home for the previous week. -I used my phone to shoot the video and InShot to edit. -I used specific footage that lined up with what she was talking about even though parts of it were vague. -I felt like this was good practice for me, I usually edit videos that already exist for my work so having experience in shooting video was helpful. -I feel like if I had more time to do this (if I didn’t have to go home,) it would’ve turned out significantly better, but I still feel pretty happy with it.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, students on Central Michigan University’s campus has felt separated from each other more than ever. Saxe Hall residents are making strides to build community in socially distanced ways by creating small events for everyone to enjoy.
Students participate in the “Made With Love” pot painting event in Saxe Hall on Central Michigan University’s campus in Mount Pleasant, Mich. on March 5, 2021. Residents of Saxe Hall have been meeting up and team-building in socially distanced ways during the semester.A student paints a pot during the Saxe Hall “Made With Love” event on Central Michigan University’s campus in Mount Pleasant, Mich. on March 5, 2021. This pot painting event allowed students to get their hands dirty as they customize their own vessels for succulents.Saxe Hall RAs paint pots with their community during the “Made With Love” event on March 5, 2021 on Central Michigan University’s campus in Mount Pleasant, Mich. RA Shannon Vaughen says “It’s nice to be able to still do fun stuff with the community during COVID.”Students paint pots for succulents at the Saxe Hall “Made With Love” event on Central Michigan University’s campus in Mount Pleasant, Mich. on March 5, 2021. Students were able to pick from a variety of different plants to take back to their dorm with them.
COVID-19 has changed the world dramatically over the past year. Events that would have once been an everyday occurrence have virtually vanished from existence and have left people scrambling for a sense of normality. Take Garrett Rossow, a 21 year old college student from Port Huron, Michigan, who’s career and leisure time both center around live music. As a student studying public relations in hopes to work in the music industry, an employee at a popular event venue, and an avid concertgoer, Rossow’s life has taken a full 180 since March of 2020.
After not being at a show for over a year, Rossow has been struggling to find new things to do in his free time. “I would always save my money for traveling to go to the same shows over and over again or just to see my favorite artists wherever I could.” he says.
“It really gave me a sense of home, it brought me together with so many people who I never would have met if it weren’t for traveling.”
It’s a really interesting times for artists too. Changing how you present yourself and your work to your fans during the pandemic has really been a struggle. Artists like Quinn XCII and AJR have scheduled drive-in style live shows where fans sit in their cars to watch performances, and artists like Niall Horan and Machine Gun Kelly have created virtual ticketed events where fans can livestream concerts from the comfort and safety of their own homes.
“I’m friends with a couple of smaller artists and it’s scary that they can’t go out and promote their work the way they want to.” Rossow says. “It’s a huge financial impact.”
Artists are expecting to go back on tour by fall of 2021 with restrictions in place. Ticketmaster, a concert ticket mega-company that partners with artists on their tours, has spoken about COVID-19 safety measures being put into place for the returning concert season, such as staggered entrance, merchandise delivery to your seat to prevent long lines, and required vaccine documentation.
“If the average restaurant can only have 25% capacity,” Rossow says. “It’ll be really interesting to see when things come out.”
While COVID-19 may have put a stop to in-person events, it hasn’t put a stop to the enthusiasm and passion of music fans around the world, and during the first show back, whenever that may be, emotions and spirits will both be extremely high.
My interviewee was Garrett Rossow and I conducted this interview on February 24, 2021 over FaceTime.
My natural sound was a crowd cheering. I thought that it would be a good clip to include since the story focuses on concerts.
I gathered my clips from freesound.org (a sound-byte database I’ve used for previous classes that is free to use) before I conducted my interview.
I used Audacity to edit the audio and the Voice Memos app to record.
I found my interviewee through mutual friends.
Recording over FaceTime is hard and doesn’t give extremely clear audio, but options on campus are very limited and it’s hard to find other ways to get good interviews during the pandemic. I got a lot of really good material, though, and I think that it turned out decently. I am getting better at editing on Audacity, too.
For this assignment, I chose to interview my roommate about how this school year has differed from last year before the pandemic.
For this interview, I felt like it was difficult to get perfect audio. I live near very noisy neighbors and with the pandemic, there isn’t many other places I was able to choose from without having to wear a mask that would have muffled my voice when I was speaking, however, the clarity of the audio sounds alright, in my opinion. There is always room to improve and I think that next time I may even sit in my car in order to get better audio.
I took another interviewing class last year, so I have previous experience coming up with open ended questions. Coming up with questions was the easiest part of this assignment for me to do.I made sure to let my interviewee speak and finish speaking before I chimed in to ask the next question and allowed her enough time to add to what she had to say before she was completely done.
I think I asked some good follow up questions, some questions led into others unexpectedly so that was interesting to see and convenient to continue the interview with.
I did not ask my interviewee for identifying information only for the reason that she was extremely nervous and by doing so it made the situation feel more scary, so I decided to leave it out in order to make her feel more comfortable.
If I could re-do this interview I think that I would have added more filler in between instead of just asking questions so that it felt more like a conversation rather than just questions being asked. I felt like this was a good learning experience because having to interview someone I already know is something I don’t have to do often so it gave me practice.
I think starting from talking about social interaction and ending on advice to give freshman (” Don’t be scared, it’s definitely more fun when there’s no COVID.”) would be a good layout for this interview because it goes in and gets right to the point but leaves the listener with something to think about.
Em's Little Haven 