Week Seven, in which the intern produces the first segment

What I am starting to see in my sleep.

     Yes, just like the title says, what I worked on this week was the first segment in a series of four that I need to produce. I spent a total of three days on "Citrus Tower". The first day was spent editing sound bites from the interviews I conducted with the two owners of the tower. The second day I re-wrote the working script I had to fit in with the interviews and recorded my voice reading it. The third day I spent putting it all together so I would end up with five minutes of run time for the segment. Then I sent the piece in to the FHS.
     So now what did I learn in this experience? First I learned that I need a better sound editing program, which by the way I did get after putting the piece together. So now I may re-edit everything again so the piece sounds a less bit rough. But at least I have it for the other three. The second thing I learned was that the outcome of the final product was never like what I intended for the piece to be. I wanted to discuss the idea of automobility and Florida tourism, which I did get to insert into the segment, but after the interviews I had to use what was said in the interviews. And I got a notion of using the concepts of Rosenzweig and Thelen (how the public engages with history as a personal engagement) and decided to use the idea of the carillon bells that everyone in Clermont hears as a sort of identifier of and with the tower. Then I used that to segue into the history and then back into the idea that the bells signify an idea of home and community. I bookended the segment with the sound of the bells chiming. I would say that the process was very different than I imagined it would be.
    About half of the ideas that I had on my pre-planning chart went out the window due to several criteria that I needed to meet. I needed to get everything I wanted to say with the piece in five minutes, I had to use what was said in the interviews, make it interesting enough for the public to listen, and it had to be about Florida history. A lot of the historical understanding at a master's level I had to forgo, otherwise it would have seemed too inaccessible. I had an outline of what I wanted to do, and it helped, but the piece came out totally different from what I initially envisioned. It is sort of similar to the historian writing an essay and going where the research takes them.
     As I have now finished the piece I wonder if the others will follow suit or even if I will go with my original ideas. It all depends. This process is very organic. Again I have to go with what I have and follow the criteria. Other than that everything is hunky dory. I am starting to understand that Veni, Vidi, Vici does not stand for "I came, I saw, I conquered" but is starting to take on the meaning "I read, I write, I edit" this summer.