Friday, February 27

I spent most of today engaged in making the first lecture in the MOOC Erik and I are supposed to be building. This was an attempt to create a template for production, so that we can make the subsequent lectures quickly and simply.

I spent the morning honing the script, to get it from something that resembled the first draft of an essay to something that sounded like speech. Working on the basis that John F Kennedy delivered speches at 210 words per minute; that the average speaking voice is 120-150 words per minute; and that speaking faster makes you sound passionate and enthusiastic, I opted to attempt 180 words per minute.

Since I had based the lecture on a pecha kucha format (although it will not end up looking like one), I had twenty chapters each supposed to last twenty seconds. Each chapter should therefore have been sixty words. This turned out to be surprisingly little, assuming that I actually want to convey some information. The six minute lecture therefore ended up taking ten minutes to narrate.

Naa joined me for lunch and we ate macaroni. She ate more than me, and then returned to room A312 where she has taken up residence. It is proving to be a good place to revise for her exams undisturbed.

I spent the afternoon with Mirko recording the lecture. I only did three takes so the bulk of the time was spent making decisions that we should not need to make again in future recording sessions.

Now Naa and I are on our way home. The bus has dropped us, and I am trying to take a photograph. Bored with waiting Naa is walking ahead.

In an hour or so Irma and I will begin the weekend by making the traditional trip to Prisma.