50 points
Assigned: Wednesday, September 2, 2020
Due:
RAW AUDIO: Monday, September 14, 2020 (Bring the audio to class – we’ll edit in class)
FINISHED STORY: Tuesday, September 15 in Box by 11:59 pm
Your first audio story!
Goals:
- To begin to think about what makes a compelling story
- To practice the interview skills we discussed in class
- To gain proficiency with the hardware and software
- To learn to use best practices for safe reporting during a pandemic
** Following department guidelines for safe reporting is required. This means you have two options – using a boom pole to hold the recorder or having your subject record their own audio on their phone and sending you the file. We’ll talk about this in class. **
We are going to steal from Jay Allison, one of the great audio storytellers. He produces what he calls Sonic IDs – short (30-60 second) ‘fragments’ of a person’s life.
The goal is NOT to tell someone’s whole life story in 30 seconds. It’s to find that one piece of their life, one moment, one observation that can be contained in these short, almost poems.
- NOT A FRIEND OR RELATIVE. You MUST find a stranger (friends of friends are ok, as long as you don’t know them).
- Interview them – get them to tell their story in rich detail. Remember that details and reflection are the keys.
- Your interview should be 10-30 minutes long.
Tips from Transom.org students
“…search for people. Read through the classifieds and see if there’s anybody doing something strange. Or just start driving in one direction, and if you see anybody who looks salty or interesting or fun to talk to, stop and start talking to them.”
“Then, just chat about anything – their job, their childhood, what they’re passionate about. If you’re patient, the sonics should emerge naturally.”
“Sonics go somewhere. The beginning matters, but it is the destination that delivers.”
“A warning that sonic collection can become addictive. If you’ve such tendencies, be sure to carry your gear with you at all times, force yourself to go and chat to that curious person (even though you really could just walk away), and for the sake of all womenkind – get that microphone in close!”
“A few lessons I learned from sonics are ones that I learn each time I set out to make radio: don’t apologize, let your curiosity lead you, and be open to the potential wonder that a passing stranger is eager to unleash into your recorder.”
Objectives:
- Good, clean, rich audio quality
- Compelling story
- A finished piece told ONLY in the voice of your subject. I DON’T want to hear your voice at all in the finished audio
- An accompanying text document that serves as an introduction and gives context to the story. (If you listen to the Sonic ID examples, the text would mirror the introduction Jay Allison makes to each ID)
Grading:
- Is the audio quality technically strong
- Is the editing smooth and invisible and natural sounding
- Is it interesting!!!! Does it make sense
- Did you spend enough time in the interview to get good rich interesting information
- Does your Text story enhance the audio,and follow AP style
- Maximum Length of final piece: 30Â seconds not 31
upload your entire project folder with raw video, your finished, edited .mp3 file and your text story on the server named:
YourFirstName_YourLastName__sonic_SubjectName.mp3
YourFirstName_YourLastName__sonic_SubjectName.doc
For every assignment, you must also turn in a text story to accompany your multimedia. These can be short, a paragraph or two. They are NOT an explanation of what you did. They are a news story that supports your multimedia – perhaps adding details or facts that didn’t make the multimedia (or in this case audio). They are the introduction that someone might read before clicking to play your story.