Audio profiles and notes

So I assume everyone is working away and doing fine, but please don’t hesitate to let me know if you run into problems. To review from the video and class, the key thing that will help you is Working From A Plan:

  1. You’ve all recorded your primary interviews so far. Listen to them a couple of times and write down good quotes and the time signatures from your recording (like 5:40-5:55).
  2. Compose your voiceovers–the sections where you tell your subject’s story to intersperse with their quotes. Record them, ideally in separate files.
  3. Go back to your reporting and export those good quotes (soundbites) to separate files.
    1. (This is my personal hack: name them in the order you want them to appear.)
  4. Open up Audition (or Audacity or something else), create a new multitrack file, and import your files to the timeline.
  5. Make sure the audio levels are comparable (i.e. it doesn’t sound like you’re shouting and your profile subject is whispering.)
  6. Upload to soundcloud and link as instructed in the module!

Thursday is work time for doing interviews for your profile, two of which are due Friday. If you’re having trouble getting hold of your profile subject, you need to switch to your plan B now and contact. Interviews should be done in person or at worst, over the phone. I’ll be in the classroom to answer questions or discuss anything you’d like, but you don’t have to come.

Poynter tests are due Oct. 1. Good luck!

Photo Package: Flint is Family

I chose Latoya Ruby Frazier’s photoseries Flint is Family for my photo package. The gallery, as well as the larger story, can be found at Flint is Family Frankly, this piece alone has completely raised my view of the publication up a notch. It’s obvious why Frazier is a winner of the MacArthur Genius award – her photos are striking but not overly stylized, photojournalism if I’ve ever seen it. The word that came to mind most often when I was viewing her piece was honesty. I think it would be easy to paint the women of Flint as helpless victims or unnecessarily bleak – rather, it just felt like getting a peak into the lives of normal Americans dealing with a surreal, indefensible situation.

Photo Package: Solar System

I chose this package because I’ve always been fascinated by outer space and the solar systems, and new detailed photos of such are really exciting to me. I really liked the format of the photos in the package and how the slideshow was seamless with short and detailed captions. I also thoroughly enjoyed the crispness of a lot of the photos. However, where I feel like it fell short was in the overall abundant quantity. With 73 photos and a lack of real structured organization, it was hard to get the most out of the photo experience.