Behind the scenes with an interviewee as sweet as the desserts at his bakery.
Before I talk about the actual production, some backstory:
When I first moved to Qatar, it took me less than a week to get homesick. There was only one cure for that: food. South Asian or Desi food is known to be either extremely sweet or extremely spicy; we generally avoid the stuff in between. In Pakistan, Halwa Puri is a special breakfast meal (usually reserved for weekend brunch) that lies on the sweeter end of the spectrum. Over the first weekend, my cousin asked if I wanted to have Halwa Puri. The only acceptable response to the offer was saying yes. And I have to admit, I was not disappointed. In fact, I was impressed by how this bakery in Doha managed to transport me back home with the power of its food, its ambiance, and the hospitality of its staff. Throughout the experience, it felt like I was in Karachi, dining with my family on a Sunday morning (Sunday is not a weekday in Pakistan). The waiters go around, serving hot puri (deep-fried bread) and chilled lassi (yogurt drink) in the busy restaurant/bakery, as they are surrounded by a colorful backdrop of mithai (traditional sweets). As soon as I got back to my dorm room, I wanted to revisit the place with my South Asian friends; and so I did. This time around, it felt like I invited my friends over to my home as I was introducing them to this place. Whenever we needed anything, I would go and talk to this really nice uncle at the reception. He would respond to my requests with a jolly demeanor, almost as if I was related to him. Nearly two years later, Iffah still remembered the uncle and pitched the story to me privately before she shared it in class.
I usually tend to shy from roles such as a host or a producer, and prefer working behind the scenes. However, I had no reason to pass up on this opportunity, especially considering the fact that I was the only Urdu speaking student in Doha. Initially, Natasha was in charge as the producer but eventually, she reached out to me in order to assist her with setting up the interview. After making a few calls in Urdu, we were able to schedule a meeting with Mr. Ijaz Ahmed Qadeer (I’ll be referring to him as Ijaz uncle in the rest of the blogpost). He invited us to the bakery and suggested to conduct the interview in his personal office. Unfortunately, the office was located next to the kitchen. No amount of fixing in post would have saved the sound quality from all the background noise. Eventually, we decided to postpone the interview to the next day. Ijaz uncle was very understanding and agreed to visit our studio early in the morning. But before we left, he talked to us for nearly an hour over gulab jamun and samosas, and even gave me a box of biryani to take home; all of the delicacies were prepared in his bakery. During our conversation, he practically answered all of the questions we had prepared for the interview. Regardless, Natasha and I were relieved that he was very open and talkative in nature, meaning that he would not have any difficulty responding to our questions in the actual interview. The two of us left the restaurant with our bellies full and our minds at ease.
The next day, all three of us met again at NU-Q way before our scheduled time slot. While we were waiting outside the dining hall, we entertained our guest, or maybe it was the other way round. It was like meeting that one joyful uncle at a family gathering. Time passed in a flash and the production team recording before our interview signaled us to head to the studio after they wrapped up. While setting up the equipment did not take a lot of time, the calibration did. I had already tested the microphone on my laptop at home and for some reason, Audition refused to record. While GarageBand is a good free alternative, I ended up using Audacity on both my laptop and Natasha’s laptop. The only issue with Audacity is you can only see the levels but not hear the audio in realtime. And so I recorded a few snippets of audio and checked the levels in the playback. Once I was happy with the calibration, we proceeded with the interview. I personally feel like the studio setting can be slightly intimidating for the guest. Although uncle remained calm throughout the interview, we were unable to gauge the same level of responses that we did in his office. I wish we had recorded the audio at his office but the quality would not have been up to the mark so there was no point.
During our interview, there were multiple interruptions. In future episodes, we could leave a sign at the entrance to alert people. Since Natasha and I were co-hosting, we could not monitor the levels so Kim took the charge. We had to stop the Audacity recording but it didn’t allow us to hear the audio as it was recording so we ended up going back to the previous method of recording. Natasha and I didn’t really decide how we were going to divide the hosting responsibilities but it still went smoothly. We would alternate and take turns to ask questions. Towards the end, we were interrupted by the team scheduled for the next interview. They later went on to WhatsApp to express how their guest only had limited time which is why they wanted to set up early (all of this is happening during our time slot). I feel that there should be a buffer of at least 15 minutes to avoid such interruptions in the future. All the guests have other places to be so it would be unfair if one guest is treated differently. Since we were almost out of time, Natasha and I wrapped up soon afterward. We were out of the studio a minute or two before our time slot ended. In contrast, the next interview took an additional 15 minutes. Again, a buffer window before and after interviews would help all crew members and allow us to avoid any technical issues prior to the arrival of a guest.
Despite all the issues, I am excited to enter post-production for the Soghaat episode. Ijaz uncle spoke in a mix of English and Urdu; so did Natasha and I. Therefore, the final episode will have two versions: English, and a mix of English and Urdu. Natasha and I can always re-record our lines in English but we still haven’t decided what we will do for his parts. Do I just dub his audio myself or should I find someone close to his age? Probably the latter because my voice would confuse the listeners since I am already featured in the episode as a host. Alternatively, the “pure” English version could still contain the original audio with Ijaz uncle speaking in Urdu, followed by a short translation/explanation by me. The lessons we learned from these first few episodes will lay the foundation for the future. I am glad I was able to actively participate in all production phases of this episode and I can’t wait to hear the final product.
