first multimedia, team project

Cam, Keeley and I decided to do our project on bus drivers - they're fundamental to campus, they go unrecognized for their contributions and, most importantly, they make for a good audio subject.
For the b-roll, I just went out and rode the buses. The first loop around on the Gables Connector I realized the voice recorder was low on batteries. After spending about a half hour riding around, I realized the batteries weren't low, they were dead. Finally, after replacing the batteries, and going on another loop with a pretty friendly bus driver, I had the b-roll. Of the twenty or so minutes of recording I had gotten, we used a total of about thirty seconds in our final project, if that. One thing with audio that I learned is that although you've spent the time obtaining the material, that doesn't justify using all of it or even most of it. Similar to writing a story, one often gets attached to a phrase, a sentence or some other seemingly ingenious creation - but if it's not needed, it's not needed.
The hardest part of the project: technology. When we went to work on our project we realized we needed a CD, located in Cam's hometown of Conway, to upload the audio. After overnighting the CD, we were finally able to sit down and work on editing the material.
As a group we interviewed the bus driver, John Steere. So when it came time to put our project together, we all had a pretty good idea of what we wanted to use out of the conversation. All in all, putting together the final sound clip only took about an hour. I was impressed with the way we were able to tell a story. It has a beginning, a middle and an end - but it's not written, it's spoken. I've heard great stories told through song and radio interview and I'm always moved and impressed by the message they're able to get across. But I guess as a writer I'm still not completely use to telling a story through audio or multimedia - but I love the finish product!