The last part was finding a connection in all this mish mash. Yes, people had differing views on speed cameras, so what? I was missing an angle.
Finally, much research later: I had lots of road traffic stats from the ABS, a town called Swindon abolishing fixed speed cameras last year, and finally, last week, the ACT nabbed federal funding for black spot programs. Woo hoo! And one of my grabs kindly mentioned "bad spots" so thats a pretty good connection.
I suspect the whole story appears biased against speed cameras, but maybe they really don't do anything. No-one thinks they do, and there is no supporting evidence for it. I could make a connection by some swiss research I found, by it would only be my own conclusions. I will let the people have their say.
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
The Editing
Oh dear. Well, problem one: I wasn't holding the microphone close enough in the first round of vox pops. It recorded, but in playing them back on Audacity, I discovered a lack of waveforms appearing on the screen. I still had sound, I knew what was said, but editing those grabs was monumentally painful without those helpful squiggles.
I discovered on Audacity useful shortcut keys. Space bar will play the highlighted section, or from the cursor, again and again. And holding down shift and clicking to either side of the highlighted part will extend it just that much. And using the arrow keys will move the cursor along, so I can get it back to start of the track easily. The markers though, known as the "label track" was sometimes useful. Not as good as NewsBoss there, I think. Maybe I need more practice with it.
I also discovered useful features to make the sound quality better. There is the "silence" button, to get rid of noise but keep the time. There is the "fade in/out", to make transition smoother, and also to soften background noise without losing it entirely and ruining flow. And the "amplify" feature, thank goodness! It helped me reduce louder portions of grabs, and also adjust all the grabs from the first round to reach the same volume level as the second round. And after doing this, I discovered that this is the way to make those waveforms appear, at least a little bit. Too late to be useful. >:P
Also, the decisions t0 use which of the grabs came easily. There were a few good ones, and then there were those that didn't have me talking over the top of people. And I wanted that range of voices, and it also gave me a range of responses.
When I finally put together the five grabs that I'd loosely cut the words I wanted from it, lo and behold, it was about 45 seconds. That was awesome. :)
Then came a period of tweaking to get flow, making use of fade/out a lot, and I'm pretty happy with the finished product, despite having my voice in it at one point. It was unavoidable however, that last man's response was too good not to use.
I discovered on Audacity useful shortcut keys. Space bar will play the highlighted section, or from the cursor, again and again. And holding down shift and clicking to either side of the highlighted part will extend it just that much. And using the arrow keys will move the cursor along, so I can get it back to start of the track easily. The markers though, known as the "label track" was sometimes useful. Not as good as NewsBoss there, I think. Maybe I need more practice with it.
I also discovered useful features to make the sound quality better. There is the "silence" button, to get rid of noise but keep the time. There is the "fade in/out", to make transition smoother, and also to soften background noise without losing it entirely and ruining flow. And the "amplify" feature, thank goodness! It helped me reduce louder portions of grabs, and also adjust all the grabs from the first round to reach the same volume level as the second round. And after doing this, I discovered that this is the way to make those waveforms appear, at least a little bit. Too late to be useful. >:P
Also, the decisions t0 use which of the grabs came easily. There were a few good ones, and then there were those that didn't have me talking over the top of people. And I wanted that range of voices, and it also gave me a range of responses.
When I finally put together the five grabs that I'd loosely cut the words I wanted from it, lo and behold, it was about 45 seconds. That was awesome. :)
Then came a period of tweaking to get flow, making use of fade/out a lot, and I'm pretty happy with the finished product, despite having my voice in it at one point. It was unavoidable however, that last man's response was too good not to use.
The Question
I had a little deliberation with the question I was given. I was pretty thankful it wasn't too contentious, but the initial structure of it irked me.
"Speed cameras: revenue raiser or road safety measure?"
I tried to reform it in a way that sounded a bit smoother.
"Do you think speed cameras are there to prevent accidents or just to raise revenue?"
I was hoping the "just" wasn't influencing people too much in to saying yes, its a scam, and it didn't. People held their opinions, I believe.
I also came a across the problem of follow up questions. I felt too nervous to think of anything on the spot, after a few interviews I did a rehearsal beforehand to help remember what I might say to help them explain. Although "could you explain that" worked pretty well.
"Speed cameras: revenue raiser or road safety measure?"
I tried to reform it in a way that sounded a bit smoother.
"Do you think speed cameras are there to prevent accidents or just to raise revenue?"
I was hoping the "just" wasn't influencing people too much in to saying yes, its a scam, and it didn't. People held their opinions, I believe.
I also came a across the problem of follow up questions. I felt too nervous to think of anything on the spot, after a few interviews I did a rehearsal beforehand to help remember what I might say to help them explain. Although "could you explain that" worked pretty well.
Friday, April 3, 2009
Vox Pops Take Two
I tried again today for some more vox pops. Back to Kippax again.
Pretty much similar success this time. This first woman I accosted seemed incredibly reluctant to answer, but yet didn't say no, so I launched into it and she gave me a beautiful response.
I also tried aiming for a few younger people, but I found their responses tend to be very straight-forward. Maybe they're nervous being in front of a mike. Which is quite understandable.
Saw some cops at the shops too, and was tempted to go ask them, but they were busy hassling some kids that smelled like pot, so my companion and I thought we'd leave them to it.
I heard a lot of people talking recently about their technical stuff-ups when doing the vox pops, and I thought I had escaped, having done mine well the other day. However, today I realised that I may have had the mike switched off for a couple of interviews. :P
I also found that I was too "stop-happy", cutting off people when I thought they were finished again. I learned by the last vox pop I did, and I kept recording for a change, but he finished talking as he was walking away, and naturally made the best comment last. I hope its turned out alright.
So, I've yet to listen to all of them, but hopefully most of these ones turned out okay.
Pretty much similar success this time. This first woman I accosted seemed incredibly reluctant to answer, but yet didn't say no, so I launched into it and she gave me a beautiful response.
I also tried aiming for a few younger people, but I found their responses tend to be very straight-forward. Maybe they're nervous being in front of a mike. Which is quite understandable.
Saw some cops at the shops too, and was tempted to go ask them, but they were busy hassling some kids that smelled like pot, so my companion and I thought we'd leave them to it.
I heard a lot of people talking recently about their technical stuff-ups when doing the vox pops, and I thought I had escaped, having done mine well the other day. However, today I realised that I may have had the mike switched off for a couple of interviews. :P
I also found that I was too "stop-happy", cutting off people when I thought they were finished again. I learned by the last vox pop I did, and I kept recording for a change, but he finished talking as he was walking away, and naturally made the best comment last. I hope its turned out alright.
So, I've yet to listen to all of them, but hopefully most of these ones turned out okay.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
First Attempt @ Vox Pops
I went out this afternoon with the edirol and a companion for moral support to try and get some sweet grabs about speed cameras. And it went pretty well. :)
The first place we stopped at to do some vox pops, at the crossing between sections of the Canberra Centre, was rejected for traffic noise.
The second spot, which seemed okay, had a few kids busking, which had me worried again about the background noise. Still, I went a little way away, and accosted my first bystander successfully.
After the initial confidence, it was easy going, got one yes and a bunch of rejections, before deciding to relocate again.
This time, I was further from the buskers, and more in the way of general foot traffic of Garema Place, not far from the merry-go-round. I got a few responses, one from a man with not only a great answer, but an incredible voice. I think I was almost too distracted thinking how great his voice would sound to even listen to his answer. :P
I had one great disappointment, where in one interview I thought the woman had finished speaking, and I hit the stop button, when she made a final comment about the speed cameras, "necessary evil," which I instantly regretted not recording. Must remember to keep it going just that little bit longer.
I also had one rude rebuff, which made me a bit sad, and my moral support companion did well to keep me boosted. However, I found that being incredibly polite and smiley, practice from my old checkout chick days, made all the other rejections very bearable, as they were likewise polite.
After finishing the vox pops at civic, I decided to try and get a few from Kippax, hoping to get some from the greyer set, as its located next to a retirement village. I got a pop from a woman and her friend, and then the battery ran out on the edirol.
On reflection, I find it was possibly easier asking people their opinions about speed cameras than other topics, because it is fairly universal, and not particularly confronting.
I also think I was too focussed on staying away from young people, that I have over-compensated with older voices. I will prob try again on friday to get those young people's opinions.
The first place we stopped at to do some vox pops, at the crossing between sections of the Canberra Centre, was rejected for traffic noise.
The second spot, which seemed okay, had a few kids busking, which had me worried again about the background noise. Still, I went a little way away, and accosted my first bystander successfully.
After the initial confidence, it was easy going, got one yes and a bunch of rejections, before deciding to relocate again.
This time, I was further from the buskers, and more in the way of general foot traffic of Garema Place, not far from the merry-go-round. I got a few responses, one from a man with not only a great answer, but an incredible voice. I think I was almost too distracted thinking how great his voice would sound to even listen to his answer. :P
I had one great disappointment, where in one interview I thought the woman had finished speaking, and I hit the stop button, when she made a final comment about the speed cameras, "necessary evil," which I instantly regretted not recording. Must remember to keep it going just that little bit longer.
I also had one rude rebuff, which made me a bit sad, and my moral support companion did well to keep me boosted. However, I found that being incredibly polite and smiley, practice from my old checkout chick days, made all the other rejections very bearable, as they were likewise polite.
After finishing the vox pops at civic, I decided to try and get a few from Kippax, hoping to get some from the greyer set, as its located next to a retirement village. I got a pop from a woman and her friend, and then the battery ran out on the edirol.
On reflection, I find it was possibly easier asking people their opinions about speed cameras than other topics, because it is fairly universal, and not particularly confronting.
I also think I was too focussed on staying away from young people, that I have over-compensated with older voices. I will prob try again on friday to get those young people's opinions.
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