The listening homework for next week is:
Ira Glass on Storytelling #3
Ira Glass on Storytelling #4
The reading homework for next week is "Chapter 3: Writing for Broadcast" pp. 25-38.
And this week the homework project is a Person, Place, or Event Profile:
* The piece must be at least a minute and a half but not longer than two and a half minutes.
* The piece must include at least two voices other than you. That means if it's a profile of one person, also get some tape of the person's best friend (for instance, could be someone else), or have a scene in which the main subject interacts with the friend.
* The piece must include at least 2 ambient or natural sounds. Feel free to have more if it makes sense in your piece.
* You must get your story approved by me before your do it. That means if you change your pitch from the one you submitted in class, e-mail me the new pitch before you do it to make sure it will work.
Have fun
Friday, February 26, 2010
Friday, February 19, 2010
Homework for Feb 26 Meeting
Glad we're back in session. As promised, here are those details for the next homework, as I went over in class:
The project for this week is to create a man-on-the-street style audio piece on a (journalistic) topic of your choice. It should be an issue of the day that the people you interview are likely to have a strong opinion on.
There is no length restriction, but it must have the following elements:
* Must contain voices from at least 3 subjects. I recommend interviewing at least 4 people and using the 3 best clips in the final edit. No more than 5 subjects.
* Must contain at least 1 clip of natural sound related to your theme or location of recording. Again, the easiest approach for this assignment might be to situate your interviews all at one distinctive location, and capture a sound from that location that will set the scene. The sound doesn't have to have anything to do with the issue itself. After all, what is the sound of a president resigning? I have no idea, but I bet you could find a sound on campus somewhere that will make it clear you're at the campus doing the interviews.
* You should be talking to strangers, not people you know.
* Each person should be identified in the piece, by first and last name, and by one detail about them that tells something of who they are (i.e. John Smith, a University of Maryland student).
* Think of this as a feature piece you would run on the Diamondback's Web site or some other publication. It should feel like a piece of journalism not a random collection of opinions.
* Edit the elements together. Use a scripted intro and conclusion in most cases, unless you can have the people in the piece give enough context for a radio-diary format piece.
* Must be posted to iTunesU dropbox by noon on Friday, Feb 26 (start of class).
This project is more involved than last week, so it's best to start as soon as possible to leave some time for editing. Having a plan in advance (what questions you will ask and what kind of setting you want to focus on, etc) will help immensely. If you're not sure about your plan feel free to e-mail me any questions you might have.
No reading this week, but again, start early on the project so you'll have plenty of time to do the editing.
As always, e-mail with any questions.
The project for this week is to create a man-on-the-street style audio piece on a (journalistic) topic of your choice. It should be an issue of the day that the people you interview are likely to have a strong opinion on.
There is no length restriction, but it must have the following elements:
* Must contain voices from at least 3 subjects. I recommend interviewing at least 4 people and using the 3 best clips in the final edit. No more than 5 subjects.
* Must contain at least 1 clip of natural sound related to your theme or location of recording. Again, the easiest approach for this assignment might be to situate your interviews all at one distinctive location, and capture a sound from that location that will set the scene. The sound doesn't have to have anything to do with the issue itself. After all, what is the sound of a president resigning? I have no idea, but I bet you could find a sound on campus somewhere that will make it clear you're at the campus doing the interviews.
* You should be talking to strangers, not people you know.
* Each person should be identified in the piece, by first and last name, and by one detail about them that tells something of who they are (i.e. John Smith, a University of Maryland student).
* Think of this as a feature piece you would run on the Diamondback's Web site or some other publication. It should feel like a piece of journalism not a random collection of opinions.
* Edit the elements together. Use a scripted intro and conclusion in most cases, unless you can have the people in the piece give enough context for a radio-diary format piece.
* Must be posted to iTunesU dropbox by noon on Friday, Feb 26 (start of class).
This project is more involved than last week, so it's best to start as soon as possible to leave some time for editing. Having a plan in advance (what questions you will ask and what kind of setting you want to focus on, etc) will help immensely. If you're not sure about your plan feel free to e-mail me any questions you might have.
No reading this week, but again, start early on the project so you'll have plenty of time to do the editing.
As always, e-mail with any questions.
Monday, February 15, 2010
Homework for Feb 19 Meeting
Hey class,
To help keep us on track, I'd like everyone to go through this interactive exercise by Poynter before we meet for class on Friday. This will be the only homework this week. It takes about an hour, and I'm sure some of you will do it in less time. If some of the galleries fail to load on your computer, just keep moving through the exercises and do what you can.
Here's the link: http://www.newsu.org/courses/telling-stories-sound
You will have to create an account with this service to enroll in the course. It's free and only takes a couple of minutes. This will work on Mac or PCs and on most any Web browser, but you'll need to be able to listen to the clips of course so have speakers or headphones ready.
Important: You'll need to email me a course report when you're done, so I know you've done it. To do that click "Course Report" at the top right of your Web browser that launched the pop-up window for the course. If you have any trouble sending the report, I can help you in class on Friday, and the system will remember what you've done. Just relax and have fun with this -- it just gives an overview but it will help you as we quickly move through the material in the shorter time we'll have in class.
E-mail with any questions.
To help keep us on track, I'd like everyone to go through this interactive exercise by Poynter before we meet for class on Friday. This will be the only homework this week. It takes about an hour, and I'm sure some of you will do it in less time. If some of the galleries fail to load on your computer, just keep moving through the exercises and do what you can.
Here's the link: http://www.newsu.org/courses/telling-stories-sound
You will have to create an account with this service to enroll in the course. It's free and only takes a couple of minutes. This will work on Mac or PCs and on most any Web browser, but you'll need to be able to listen to the clips of course so have speakers or headphones ready.
Important: You'll need to email me a course report when you're done, so I know you've done it. To do that click "Course Report" at the top right of your Web browser that launched the pop-up window for the course. If you have any trouble sending the report, I can help you in class on Friday, and the system will remember what you've done. Just relax and have fun with this -- it just gives an overview but it will help you as we quickly move through the material in the shorter time we'll have in class.
E-mail with any questions.
Monday, February 8, 2010
Homework for Our Feb 12 Meeting
Because class was canceled on Feb 5, I'm revising the syllabus and will discuss the new grand plan at class on Friday.
So ignore what it says on the syllabus for this week. That means *no project due* this Friday. We can't do our edited audio pieces until we learn how to edit audio.
That said, I do want you to do the next reading:
* Sound Reporting, "Chapter 6: Story Editing" pp. 92-119
It's not very long but it will help you get a jump-start on what we'll cover this week. Also, I have one new required listening I'd like you to do:
* Crafting Radio's Driveway Moments: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92716706 This is a short interview with the author of our textbook.
That's all for this week. I hope we can have class on Friday but again we'll go by the official school policy. So watch the university Web site for updates.
-Jeff
So ignore what it says on the syllabus for this week. That means *no project due* this Friday. We can't do our edited audio pieces until we learn how to edit audio.
That said, I do want you to do the next reading:
* Sound Reporting, "Chapter 6: Story Editing" pp. 92-119
It's not very long but it will help you get a jump-start on what we'll cover this week. Also, I have one new required listening I'd like you to do:
* Crafting Radio's Driveway Moments: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92716706 This is a short interview with the author of our textbook.
That's all for this week. I hope we can have class on Friday but again we'll go by the official school policy. So watch the university Web site for updates.
-Jeff
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