Behind One Weird Trick, Part I: Ideation and Interviewing
MCAD Online Learning rolled out our One Weird Trick (OWT) video series last month. We thought it would be neat to get a behind-the-scenes look at how they’re made. So, we coaxed the man behind the curtain, Alex Mitchell, to reveal his secrets!
Background
OWT was conceived to showcase innovative methodologies, tools, resources, and tactics employed by instructors at MCAD. Subject matter ranges from the concrete or tool-based to more abstract tricks that articulate a teaching philosophy. The goal is to explore education beyond the intersection with technology.
Each OWT installment starts as an idea, often large in scope, that ultimately yields a short, focused audio-visual production. We’ll look at that challenging process of getting from loose concept to honed presentation.
The process consists of three phases: Ideation and interviewing of the subject, audio recording and treatment, and creation and implementation of visual assets. To start things off, Alex will descrube the ideation/interview stage.
Ideation
Eric Kline: Tell us how you begin the process.
Alex Mitchell: I start by contacting faculty who are kind enough to participate, and we have a conversation about what teaching tips or tricks they might like to share. At this point, I’m looking for an idea that feels exciting, innovative, or useful—and that I know I can convey effectively in about two minutes of video content. In my experience, if an idea can be given a useful, descriptive name and then accurately and engagingly described in 1–2 sentences, then it’s a keeper. This is called a logline in the film industry.
It forces clarity of purpose and outlines the boundaries of the project. Even later in the production process, you can look back and ask how each of the parts of your video are serving your ‘thesis statement’
EK: Can you talk a little more about that concept of the logline?
AM: It’s a good methodology for any educational video content, really. It forces clarity of purpose and outlines the boundaries of the project. Even later in the production process, you can look back and ask how each of the parts of your video are serving your “thesis statement.”
The Interview
EK: How do you prepare to interview the instructor? What kind of set-up do you use?
AM: Ahead of the interview, I might do a bit of research on the topic, to see if there might be any additional questions I should add to the basic set of questions I ask everyone.
We conduct the interview in the Faculty Production Studio in the MCAD Library. The room has pretty good soundproofing, and it’s small, quiet, and private. I like to go in ahead of time to prepare the space, making sure that the equipment is working and ready to record.
I record directly on my own MacBook using an external Yeti USB microphone and the program ScreenFlow. We’ve talked about moving over to Audacity for sound, but ScreenFlow and carefully monitoring levels seems to do the trick. At this point, I might do a preliminary sound check to make sure that the settings aren’t totally out of whack, but I’ll always do another when the interviewee gets in.
EK: OK, so it’s time for the interview. Walk us through it.
AM: I conduct the interview along with a colleague. This seems to work best, as the second person can ask a question a different way, helping the subject refine their answer. With two of us, we end up with between 10 and 30 minutes of material for the video that is both relevant and lively.
During the interview I am always thinking about the final deliverable, the video. I monitor time and audio levels and try to maneuver the conversation into bite-sized explanations or quotes that I can pull from later.
The person we’re interviewing usually sits across from the two of us, and we take turns asking questions and listening to answers. We usually start by having them introduce themselves. This gives us a good place to start when I put together the video later.
I try to structure all my questions so that we touch on those key points I listed earlier. “What is your one weird trick?”, “How does it work?”, “How is it useful?”, “What should an instructor know or do to use this trick in their classroom?”, “Is there anything to watch out for?”
During the interview I am always thinking about the final deliverable, the video. I monitor time and audio levels and try to maneuver the conversation into bite-sized explanations or quotes that I can pull from later
And this whole time, the other person is asking questions that elicit elaboration or fill in gaps. We usually end the interview with a couple of questions, “Do you have any resources that we could direct people towards that relate to the topic?” and “Is there anything else you’d like to say?” We’ll often include those resources in the blog post the video is featured in, and the final comments are often a good ending phrase I can use to cap off the video.
Stay tuned for the next phase of the One Weird Trick process—processing and editing the recorded audio!
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