INTV

For this project on Aural (Sound) Rhetoric in my Multimedia Writing & Composition class, we were instructed to interview 2-3 of our classmates. 

We explored the following questions: 
"What are the most compelling arguments for multimodal composition that you have heard/seen/read/experienced in your own life or work? What makes you think that writers should be encouraged to make meaning on several semiotic channels? Use multimodalities of expression? What are the most compelling arguments against multimodal composing that you have heard/seen/read/experienced? Why do teachers continue to privilege alphabetic composition above other modalities of composition/communication?"

From my experiences in this course and throughout my life, I believe that multimodal composition is extremely important. These interviews confirmed that belief, and afforded me an opportunity to work on composing a multimedia element (sound) through editing with Adobe Audition. I am familiar with this program from my experiences in internships and coursework within the Radio/Television major at UCF. However, I had not yet gotten to use this program to edit an interview such as this.

The audience of this interview is UCF students. The purpose is to show both the positives and negatives of multimodal composition and how multimedia can be used in learning and writing. The people I interviewed were classmates from my Multimedia Writing & Composition class.

I framed the interview in a way that emphasizes the positives of multimodal composition - both starting and ending on a high note. We did not ignore situations and examples where multimodalities can be conflicting or used improperly, but there was more of a focus on what works well.

I incorporated royalty-free music clips from Bensound.com, and the last song was an instrumental version of my original song, How To Be Happy. Two sounds were from YouTube - the Wu-Tang "Bring Da Ruckus Instrumental" and "Patrick's Laugh" sound effect.

I tried to combine the most fitting sounds I could to go along with the audio. Each time I asked a question, I would play the same clip called, "The Lounge" from Bensound. That sound acts as a transition to let the audience know a new question is being asked. I also tried to match up responses to music I thought fit well with what they were saying. For instance, when Joq talked about the Wu Tang article we looked at in class, I played "Bring Da Ruckus" in the background. 

Our interviews were recorded in the UCF library. I recorded the introduction and conclusion after completing the interviews.

I tried to edit out a lot of the "ums" and "likes" and even some of the breaths/loud background noises, but there were a lot of them, and I felt that some of the idiosyncrasies were essential to showing personality.

Without further ado, here is the interview!