About a month ago or so, my business consultant Marcy Stahl told me about a new platform that provides virtually instantaneous transcription of Zoom meetings in progress as well as audio recordings of past meetings. [It's called Otter.ai ]
I wasn't sure whether I actually needed this service but the entry level subscription was inexpensive enough to allow me to sign up for a service I wasn't sure I needed.
As luck would have it, one of playwrights in this year's Self-Production Boot Camp which I'm teaching again for the Dramatists Guild Institute came to me with a request for transcriptions of each class. It's long been understood that some of us learn best visually, others learn best by participating in a group discussion and there are still others among us who will retain new concepts most readily when they're presented in written form.
And so thanks to Otter.ai I'm not only able to provide my students with a group discussion in class, a video recording of each class, my usual handouts and homework assignments but also now... for the first time in more than 25 years of teaching, I have the luxury of providing a written transcription of every word that is uttered in every Zoom class.
I am so grateful this came up!
And you may be surprised when I tell you why.
Because let me tell you! It's one thing to review a video of one's teaching after the fact as a means of improving and refining how to communicate more effectively... But.... boy oh boy oh boy! It is quite a bit more eye-opening to confront a solid paragraph of word-for-word transcription of what I actually apparently just said in class. Especially when that solid paragraph almost fills an entire page and is comprised of a few endlessly spinning run-on sentences which lack any discernible beginning, middle or end but instead seem to be constructed out of a stream of every random urgently-tossed opinion, reminder or warning that seems important to share in the moment. Syntax be damned!
We Should All Have the Gift of Sitting Down to Examine an Exact Transcription of How We Communicate When We're Doing So Informally.
The experience of speaking freely in response to the ebb and flow of a natural group discussion and then having the opportunity to read verbatim what was said on the page?
Priceless!
To any of you who are leading Zoom groups of any kind (be they classes, workshops or social gatherings), I urge you to try ordering a transcription of one or two of them.
You'll be amazed at what you discover. And if you happen to be a playwright, screenwriter or anyone who places a high premium on your ability to convey character through dialogue, you may be (as I was) sort of tickled and chagrined to discover just how inarticulate you can be.
Here for your entertainment then, I will paste in one such paragraph pulled from the first 10 minutes of the March 15th session of this year's Self-Production Boot Camp.
Enjoy!
Roland Tec:
fantastic. It was really it was really like meant to be Wow, that's fantastic. You know, I always say, the world needs writers. And it is precisely because the world needs writers that the world often treats them pretty shabbily. Because it's kind of like, it's like, I think something's going on there. You know, it's like, we don't want to need writers, but we desperately need writers. And so there's so many things in our culture, that are kind of designed to say to writers are a dime a dozen, we don't really care. You could do it if you want, but don't bother me. You know. And so you really have to find ways to and you know, the best way. I mean, of course, I would love to think that we could all find it from within ourselves all the time. But that's sort of superhuman, right? So the thing is, when you find people who you love, collaborating with, who share your passion, about what is important in this world, cling to them. They will make this bearable. They will be the people who will keep right. Will keep you going. Yeah. The people who will remind you, what makes you so special is an artist, because sometimes you can't do that for yourself. Of course, you should learn to do it for yourself. A lot of the time, but you know, we're human. Okay. How is all right, first of all? I am assuming that since I didn't get any frantic emails from anybody, that you're all able to use Dropbox and managing it. Yes. Okay. Well, I'm not Yes. Who is not? I met JC. Yep. Why not?
Two upcoming single-session workshops I'm offering:
Page 1, pg. Two. Engineering the Read.
A 2-hr. workshop on all the surface choices you'll make in how your script falls on the page that directly help or hinder a reader's ability to readily imagine your film or show as they read.
Tuesday April 4th 7:30PM, EST/4:30PM PCT
Make Zoom Your Tool (not vice versa)
A 2-hr. workshop to uncover the hidden potential waiting in the dark corners of Zoom to help you maximize the platform for your next performance, lecture, workshop or gathering of any kind.
Monday April 10th 5:30PM, EST/ 2:30PM PCT
