Raw interview with Amanda Biggs, a.k.a. Katniss Ever-Beans

For this latest assignment, I had the pleasure of interviewing the person sitting next to me, Amanda Biggs. For the interview, I went to her house and we sat and talked for two or three hours, just chatting. I think we were both kind of searching for something to interview the other about, trying to dig up a great interview topic. Once I had found out that she was well involved with the improv troupe at the university, I knew that was it. Surprisingly, she has had quite a bit of time with them and spent quite a bit of time doing it.

The conversation we had leading up to the interview was great and natural, once I turned on the recorder, however, things got weird. Both of us got really awkward, because all of a sudden there is a lot of pressure to not misspeak or mispronounce a word. Also, you don’t want to have this embarrassing voice about you the whole time. So, we both kind of stiffened up and were forced out of are comfort zones. Following six attempts at recording the interview, we finally got it done. I find that by making jokes people become more comfortable because it makes the interviewer more relatable. It shows the subject of the interview that they aren’t the only one that is nervous.

Then the tables turned and Amanda interviewed me. As I state earlier, things were awkward at first. It’s hard to be natural in such an unnatural situation. But, I think having interviewed her first, helped me to stay calm and speak naturally and learn from her mistakes.

The thing I enjoyed the most about this assignment was getting to learn more about my tablemate. It was cool finding out more about her life and her passions. I also enjoyed putting someone in an awkward situation and making one of the more chill people in our class, become unchill.

If I could do anything different when it comes to the interview, I think I would change the way I talk. I’m just kidding. I would probably change the fluidity of my questions because I think I may have gotten choppy throughout the interview because I too was nervous to be conducting the interview as well as being interviewed.

Overall, this was a great experience. I have worked in audio before, having produced a podcast in the past, but I used GarageBand for editing. I am excited and anxious to figure out how to work Audacity.