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.