Sound Project
What follows are the guidelines and due dates for the sound project. There is also a list of resources that you may consult for information and inspiration.
Evaluation Criteria
I do not expect the sound projects to attain the quality level of a professionally produced piece of audio. Composing in audio format is a new experience for most of you, so a high level of difficulty and possibly frustration should be expected.
Remember, you have been writing essays and research papers for roughly 10 years and are still not a professional at those written genres, so as a class we can’t expect to develop 10 years of audio experience in less than one semester. After all, you are students and the goal in any class is to practice developing skills and to gain knowledge that will allow you to perform better next time. Perfection is not the goal. This is why the reflective statement is the critical piece of this assignment. I am interested in what you learned by completing the project and in what your intended outcome was even if your actual audio did not realize your intentions due to technical difficulties and beginner status with the medium and genre. Thus, I expect your audio to be complete but not seamless in its execution; that is, I expect it to be at least a full 5 minutes with a recognizable beginning, middle, and end and I expect you to be able to articulate your intentions, choices, and composing process in the reflective statement.
Deliverables (What you turn in on 12/11)
- Audio in Mp3 format (minimum 5 minute length)
- Reflective Statement (see below for details)
Guidelines
- Final audio must be at least 5 minutes long. There is no time maximum, but your final piece should show evidence of editing or mixing of several audio tracks.
- The final project will include a 1-2 page (double-spaced) reflective statement. This document is a place to assess the work you’ve created and reflect on how the project worked (or didn’t work) for you as a writer and student. You might explain your choice of genre: were you modeling your audio on any particular examples?; why did you choose to include various types of sound (voice, music, sound effects, etc.)?; if you interviewed someone did you rearrange the order of questions & responses, why or why not?; did you “clean up” the interviewee’s answers by editing out pauses, umms, aahs, etc., why or why not?; Did you include your own voice asking the questions, why or why not? Also include any reflections you have about your composing process including an analysis of the peer workshop session. The statement also should represent the research you conducted in the process of composing your audio. Please include an analysis/commentary of all research you did regardless of whether or not that research became part of the final text. Research in this case can include learning about different audio styles (interviews, storytelling, etc.) by listening to examples and/or learning about the technical process of editing audio; research can include but is not limited to learning about your topic or subject matter. Finally, make sure to discuss your intended audience and purpose in the reflective statement.
Resources
Five Minute Fears
Here are some short, scary audio stories–a little late for Halloween, but still fun.
This American Life
TAL is a public radio program that broadcasts shows incorporating various genres including interviews, short stories (fiction & non-fiction), and news magazine style journalism. You can listen to past episodes on the website and subscribe to the podcast or listen live on 91.5 FM KUNC the local public radio station to hear current episodes. If you visit the website’s “About Our Radio Show” page you can learn more about the program’s history and purpose. Here’s a taste:
One of our problems from the start has been that when we try to describe This American Life in a sentence or two, it just sounds awful. For instance: each week we choose a theme and put together different kinds of stories on that theme. That doesn’t sound like something we’d want to listen to on the radio, and it’s our show.So usually we just say what we’re not. We’re not a news show or a talk show or a call-in show. We’re not really formatted like other radio shows at all. Instead, we do these stories that are like movies for radio. There are people in dramatic situations. Things happen to them. There are funny moments and emotional moments and—hopefully—moments where the people in the story say interesting, surprising things about it all. It has to be surprising. It has to be fun.
Radio LabRadio Lab is an hour long audio program, usually on a topic related to the hard and social sciences, that uses interesting and complex sound techniques.
StoryCorpsStoryCorps is national project that records families and friends interviewing each other. The website describes the project this way:
StoryCorps is an independent nonprofit project whose mission is to honor and celebrate one another’s lives through listening.By recording the stories of our lives with the people we care about, we experience our history, hopes, and humanity. Since 2003, tens of thousands of everyday people have interviewed family and friends through StoryCorps. Each conversation is recorded on a free CD to take home and share, and is archived for generations to come at the Library of Congress. Millions listen to our award-winning broadcasts on public radio and the Internet. StoryCorps is the largest oral history project of its kind, creating a growing portrait of who we really are as Americans.
Audacity
Audacity is a free, open-source program for editing and recording sounds; this is the program you learned to use in class. Go to the “Downloads” page and be sure to choose the correct version for your operating system (choose the “stable” version and NOT the “beta” version). Also download the “LAME MP3 Encoder”; a link to this is listed under “Optional Downloads” on the download page. You need the LAME MP3 encoder to create MP3 files.