When Daniel and I first heard about the opportunity to cover this event we jumped on it. From the description, the event seemed a little out of pocket and odd, and we both agreed that it would make a fun story.
Because this was such a unique event, we decided that our angle would be to focus on the odd aspects of the event that distinguished it from other flea markets in the area.
When we interviewed the organizer of this event, Kaleb Gay, he made a point to tell us that every artist who had a booth was a Lynchburg local. He said he wanted to showcase the artistic creativity that Lynchburg has to offer.
Through covering this event, I found that I am quite good at making conversation with random people and getting them to chat. Since I grew up in Vietnam as a missionary kid, I spent a majority of my life handing out gospel tracks to people I didn’t know, or answering questions from people who came to Vietnam for short term mission trips.
I believe that particular aspect of my childhood allows me to overcome any shyness I may have once had, and socialize or talk with anyone without feeling uncomfortable.
I found that the best approach was to ask some warm up questions and get to a comfortable level with the interviewee before addressing some of the bigger questions we had prepared. In hindsight I think we should have prepared more questions, and asked different people different questions to get a more diverse array of answers.
Working with Daniel was comfortable and allowed us both more room for mistakes. When one of us would slip up on a question, the other would be quick to more the conversation along. Having a partner also allowed us to move quicker, since there could be one person doing interviews while the other could take notes or photos.
Although the event was not what I initially envisioned, it turned out to be a enjoyable learning experience that gave both me and my partner a glimpse into community reporting.
