An interesting event I witnessed this past month was when I was on a visit to New York City a couple of weekends ago.
- The setting is on subway of the New York City metro. My family and I were riding from downtown Manhattan to the Upper East Side. While everyone on the train were distracted with their own business, sitting and staring at their phones, a man started to sing.
- He tried to make eye contact with anyone who would give him the attention. It was difficult because I wasn’t sure what to do; I wanted to give him the attention because he was a good singer and no one else was listening, but also, he might pressure me to give him money. The man was dressed in darker clothes that seemed fairly worn and really depicted he didn’t have much possessions. He didn’t carry anything on him as if he were just hopping from station to station just singing to anyone who would listen.
- Towards the end of the song, every bystander continued to stare at their phones. I waited for people to acknowledge him and, finally, a couple of young women smiled at him and gave him some bills. It’s most interesting to me that the young people are the ones who acknowledged him, rather than clutch onto their belongings in a tighter position.
- I think for this scene, I would use a camera that would give a high quality closeup to the man singing, as well as a stabilization device, which would serve a good use as the environment was on a moving train. I would also want closeups of each bystander and their reaction to the man, as well as a good sound-recording microphone that would really capture the man’s voice.
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