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A Handbook for Audio Storytelling evolved out of my fascination with sound, audio production and storytelling. For as long as I can remember, I have been fascinated by broadcasting, and the sound of the human voice. I grew up in an rural setting in upstate New York. I spent a lot of time alone. One day when I was a boy, I got my first FM radio. Soon I discovered an NPR station called WRVO, which was located on the SUNY Oswego campus about 40 miles from from where I lived. The station had very little money, so it played a schedule of old time radio rebroadcasts from the 1940s, which cost them nothing because they were part of the public domain. Soon I was hooked. I spent night after night listening to 40-year-old radio programs like The Shadow,Mercury Theater of the Air, Dimension X, and Escape!. These programs captured my imagination and transported me to another time. By the time I was 12, I was volunteering at the radio station during membership drives. Years later, after college, I became a radio reporter and eventually a radio producer. I went on to work at radio stations in New York and Florida, and was senior producer for a handful of nationally distributed public radio programs.
I love the sound-rich radio documentaries produced by BBC, CBC and NPR. Like Ira Glass, I believe radio is our most intimate medium. I believe you can learn a lot about composition through the act of creating an audio story. I think making these stories can teach you about other people, about yourself, and about life. Building this kind of story begins with the act of listening.
I always wished there was a way to help beginners to learn to tell their own stories using sound. Since nobody else had done this, I thought I'd give it a try. It's a work-in-progress. I plan to keep working on it until I get it right. Please let me know what you think, and how I might improve the site.
Public Radio Exchange --The Public Radio Exchange is an online marketplace for distribution, review, and licensing of public radio programming. PRX is also a growing social network and community of listeners, producers, and stations collaborating to reshape public radio. The mission of PRX is to create more opportunities for diverse programming of exceptional quality, interest, and importance to reach more listeners.
Transom.org channels new work and voices to public radio through the Internet, and discusses that work, and encourages more. Transom is a performance space, an open editorial session, an audition stage, a library, and a hangout. Our purpose is to pass the baton of mission and good practice in public media.
Salt Institute - At Salt, we train aspiring writers, radio producers, and photographers in the art of documentary storytelling — creating thought-provoking, richly worded stories. In the process, our students struggle to find their own voice, learn to sit comfortably with discomfort, and to ask hard questions not only of their subjects, but also of themselves. We encourage students to value and pursue truth, using journalistic skills and ethics to produce powerful, fair-minded, technically astute documentary work.
Excerpt : From Part Two: Essentials of Interviewing
The basis for every audio production is the sound bite. You are going to go out into the world and find some. In “professional” radio circles, this critical piece of audio is called an actuality, but that is just an unnecessary piece of jargon that radio people use to impress each other. I know plenty of reporters and producers who refer to these pieces of audio as “bites,” or “clips.” Call them whatever you like, but they are the golden nuggets you are panning for, out there in the endless river of sound. When you begin working on an audio piece that involves multiple voices and multiple interviews, it quickly becomes a formidable challenge to locate these nuggets, to identify them, and to keep them organized.
The Interview
Being There: It is critical to be present in the moment with your interview subject, in a way that will allow that person to communicate without reservation or distraction. You must establish trust and respect with your subject, or the interview will fail. This involves doing your research, being prepared for the interview and acting confidently. You must be comfortable with your equipment. Be prepared for the unexpected. Arrive early. Make yourself familiar with your surroundings. Introduce yourself clearly. Make eye contact and explain everything you are doing. Smile.
Learn to Juggle Chainsaws on a Bicycle, and Remember to Bring Extra Chainsaws and Bicycles To become a good field interviewer, you must develop the capacity to do two , three, or even four things at once. As you begin gathering audio in the field for the first time, you WILL find yourself distracted by a host of variables that you never thought about before: Have you pre-tested your equipment? Are your recording levels set correctly? Is the recorder working? Is your microphone placed correctly? Is your audio recorder fully charged? Did you bring extra batteries, or battery packs? If the interview goes longer than you expected, do you have enough onboard memory to keep recording? Did you pack spare memory cards? Is there distracting background noise, or wind noise that may render your recording worthless when you go back to edit it?
This is just the beginning. Let’s say things are going great. Halfway through the interview, during an especially sweet piece of audio, your subject’s cell phone rings. You remember asking your guest to turn it off before the interview began. Wait. It’s your cell phone. Ugh. You recover, and ask the question again. Now the interview takes an unexpected turn. How closely were you listening to what the subject just said? Are you prepared to offer a meaningful follow up question?
As you can see, there are a lot of variables which can ruin your recording, or sour an interview. Unless you are interviewing your Mom, your cat - you will have only one shot at the interview. In the real world, there are no “do-overs.” You need to make it count the first time through. Be prepared, and pay attention. Be present.
Leave Markers, but Always Go Back and Review your Sound: When interviewing a subject , or recording an event, it is sometimes easy to identify or “hear” the key moments. One reporter who I interviewed for this handbook says she feels the bites while she is interviewing her subjects. I don’t doubt she is telling the truth. But this reporter has interviewed thousands of people over the course of almost twenty years. For most people starting out, hearing the bite is the biggest challenge. Decent quality consumer or professional digital audio recorders will allow you to leave a digital marker during the recording session. The “Mark” button on your recorder will add a small digital stamp to the audio file which can be helpful in leading you back to the moments that are most memorable during your recording. But don’t make the mistake of relying on those markers alone. Review your audio. Transcribe important interviews, then read them again later. The interviewing process is a highly subjective one. It’s easy to overlook a great moment, if you pre-judge your audio. Listen to your whole recording, and take notes..
Summary: The Handbook for Audio Storytelling evolved out of my fascination with sound, audio production and storytelling. As long as I can remember, I have been fascinated with radio broadcasts and the power of the recorded human voice to reach across time and space. There is something incredibly intimate and powerful about this kind of storytelling
My process involved a lot of paralysis this semester. Maybe paralysis isn’t the right word – maybe it was gestation, more like pregnancy in a way. I feel like I spent a lot of time reading other people’s work. Some of it was experimental and stretched my mind. Some of it was more personal than I felt comfortable with. I have been healing this semester after a few personal losses, and I think that emotionally I have been splinted. I think I had a compound fracture in my creation bone. I struggled to find my own voice. I really struggled, and I felt like my voice was locked inside me. I realized that the best way I have ever found to express myself was through sound. And I started to feel more alive by thinking about sound, and audio production and by listening to things that make me feel alive. My process during the last month involved listening and re-listening to dozens of my favorite audio pieces, including news stories, audio features, and radio productions stretching back to the 1930s. For me this was like eating comfort food. It made me remember who I was. For inspiration, I recently re-read Sound Reporting: The NPR Guide to Audio Journalism and Production, by Jonathan Kern; and Radio: An Illustrated Guide, by Ira Glass and Jessica Abel. About 8 years ago, I led an internship program for student journalists at an NPR station in New York. It was one of the most fulfilling thing I have ever done. I learned a lot about how to teach audio production from my students. I learned a lot about how to listen.
I am always struggling with selecting the right digital recorder--more precisely, I am always trying to figure out the best way to make a digital recorder an "assigned text" for a course. I don't want to ask students to buy something too expensive, but at the same time, I want the device to work and work well.
Nice project. I find the National Archives audio recordings facinating. And, ah . . . Samuel Beckett. I like his take on "'if at first you don't succeed . . . " Samuel Beckett - "Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better."
Shawn, this website is awesome! Very easy to navigate and great for someone just beginning to explore the field of journalism/audio storytelling. I can hear your voice in the writing.. makes it less intimidating for someone who wants to learn, but doesn't quite know everything yet. Love it!
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Comments (5)
Elizabeth Sellers said
at 8:32 pm on Nov 30, 2010
I really enjoyed this piece- Lots of useful information in a field that is relevant and interesting.
ShareRiff said
at 1:23 pm on Dec 1, 2010
I am always struggling with selecting the right digital recorder--more precisely, I am always trying to figure out the best way to make a digital recorder an "assigned text" for a course. I don't want to ask students to buy something too expensive, but at the same time, I want the device to work and work well.
shawn dudley said
at 4:47 pm on Dec 2, 2010
I'll do some research and make a recommendation for the nest low cost recorder.
kms said
at 5:33 pm on Dec 1, 2010
Nice project. I find the National Archives audio recordings facinating. And, ah . . . Samuel Beckett. I like his take on "'if at first you don't succeed . . . " Samuel Beckett - "Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better."
jlgravin said
at 3:33 pm on Dec 11, 2010
Shawn, this website is awesome! Very easy to navigate and great for someone just beginning to explore the field of journalism/audio storytelling. I can hear your voice in the writing.. makes it less intimidating for someone who wants to learn, but doesn't quite know everything yet. Love it!
You don't have permission to comment on this page.