Free Inquiry Week #6 – An Interview!
This week I dove into video editing. At the beginning of the planning process for my free inquiry process I wrote down that I was going to do a video interview as one of my technology explorations. Video editing is something that I have done very little of, and know very little about. Last year, at Christmas I made a funny “Christmas bomb” photo were I panned across my living room and then threw a Christmas ball onto the floor and then POOF, it was decorated for Christmas. It was only two transitions and 3 really short video clips. I don’t think you can actually call that video editing.
None the less, here we are. I have lots of little friends with Down syndrome and I wanted to interview some of them to give you a glimpse into their lives… what they love, what makes them happy and how they experience love. Stay tuned for the video…
For the video editing itself I chose to use an app that my daughter recommended called CapCut. It looks like the app is downloadable to Windows laptops and also IOS devices. Unfortunately, I ended up editing the videos on my phone. The actual videos that I took of my little friends were too long to send to my laptop. It was tedious on my phone, but not impossible. Thankfully my daughter was able to give me a couple of tips, which were super helpful. I was going to make a short screencast to show some of the editing process but it downloaded as an app on my laptop so I was unable to use the screencast extension as it wasn’t a website.
The CapCut app is fairly basic. You are able to upload multiple videos, insert static images for titles and credits and can easily add in a transition effect between clips. You can move clips around and shorten or lengthen them as needed. I was unable to figure out how to add some music in the background. I also had a challenge with short clips and transitions, if the clip was short there was a glitchy thing that happened with the audio after the transition. The app was also glitchy and I lost audio often and had to reload the whole app. So, as far as video editing apps go, it completed the job, however, I’m sure there are better apps out there for video editing.
As far as the interview itself, there were no glitches! My friends were more than happy to have me interview them. I provided everyone with the five questions before the interview happened. I thought long and hard about the questions as I didn’t want them to be too abstract, but I also wanted open-ended questions so that answers were not YES or NO. Here are the questions that I used in the interviews…
What is your name?
How old are you?
What are some of your favourite things to do?
What makes you happy?
What makes you feel loved?
Originally, I had wanted to interview the amazing parents of my little friends. Initially, they all agreed, but then for one reason or another decided that it would be best if they didn’t participate. I can empathize with each of them. It’s not always easy discussing the past and future when both are filled with so many emotions, trials and victories. Parents who have a child with Down syndrome have been called “The Lucky Few” — meaning that they consider themselves part of the lucky few because they have a person with Down syndrome in their immediate family. The Lucky Few Foundation was created by a parent of a child with Down syndrome. This is just one example of a huge community of advocates and supports that exist for individuals and families who need some extra encouragement along the journey.
The Lucky Few Foundation is a global storytelling movement, shifting narratives to create a more inclusive world where everyone belongs. The Foundation ensures that family members, friends and loved ones of a person with Down syndrome have the opportunity to share what it means to be part of “the lucky few,” and everyone else has the opportunity to access it.
