Learning about Storytelling Reflection
When reflecting on the knowledge I acquired about audio storytelling, I learned that it takes longer to actually find a worthwhile story over the actual production process for said story. This stood out to me because I can relate to the feeling of having a lot of ideas for a story, but having to shift through them, almost like a trial and error, to decide which one is the strongest. Certain people can freeze up during interviews or simply are bad at interviews as they don't add much emotion, making the editing process difficult to come off as engaging, however, you cannot simply ignore that someone is a "bad speaker" because everyone has a story to tell. It's in those moments that editing can really be your friend to help amplify someone's story. Something else that really stuck with was this idea of having bait within a story that can raise questions and build onto the tension of a story. Even when a story is super boring, the tone in which it is told can change someone's perception of the story itself. Audio storytelling is not only about the actual sound effects or editing of audio tapes, but that is actually about the power of the spoken world and the stories it can help tell. Using this nuanced understanding of audio storytelling, it will help me to apply these concepts and ideas to my work. Read more here
Podcast Reflection
The episode titled How Rage Got Me Through Law School the Spooked Podcast follows a young black man throughout his journey in law school and how he employed an internal rage and what he described as a "bargain with darkness" to persevere through the challenges. To fully submerge the listener into the story, the producers employed several audio storytelling techniques, including sound layering, music, and silence. Sound layering was used to enhance the burden of his fellow peers mocking him and to show how the anger within him was building up, while the moments of silence emphasized important moments and words that convey the story's emotions. In terms of music, it was primarily used as an emotional anchor to help carry the story's plot, transitioning from an initial mystery into a darker, more frightening tone. Therefore, all of these choices affected my understanding of audio storytelling techniques and my overall emotional response towards the episode itself. Generally speaking, this highly emotional episode felt very heavy, as the music, silence, and sound layering emphasized a deeper meaning and enabled it to carry itself as a sadder, more realistic reality of being in law school rather than a simple redemption story. Read more here
Creating My Own Audio Reflection
It was a typical sunny afternoon at North Carolina's Outer Banks (OBX), where the relaxing yet playful nature of the beach always drew people in from all over the US. Unfortunately, mother nature had other plans for this day as suddenly, destruction striked as the sky turned grey and thunder began to start, causing people to pack up their belongings in a panic and race to their cars and homes for shelter. In the meantime, the rain quickly ascended from the clouds while the thunder's unsettling roar became louder, and the once dusty hot sand became soaked in rain water and turned into mush. The waves increased in height and crashed loudly onto the shore as the winds speed increased, lasting for what felt like hours to disappointed beach goers. Then, as many summer storms will do, the rain stopped and the sun came out. The day's activities resumed as the people emerged from their homes and cars to admire the clear skies and colorful rainbows, with temperatures beginning to increase as the sand became drier and the waves began to calm down. Eventually, the beach was full of people once again as it had before the storm, and in the end, it was like the terror of the thunderstorm had never occurred. Read more here
Audio Storytelling Unit Reflection
The audio storytelling unit really taught me a lot of the power of the spoken word and why it's so special. Many of the pieces of media that I listen to tend to be very conversational yet inconcise when editing it applied. After completing these until assignments, I realized the importance of clean audio editing and how certain techniques, when applied correctly, can really add value to a piece of audio. I have edited video projects in the past and have struggled when it came to editing scenes and the audio, especially when syncing up, and tended to focus more on the actions at hand over the audio as a result. However, after this unit, I learned that you can edit audio, by itself, to make it concise before you simply cut out audio for a scene. In the end, this unit taught me a lot about how audio can really make or break pieces of work when edited well.
When applying what I had learned from this unit into the assignments, there were some difficult and easier moments. In terms of the difficulties, I struggled a lot with editing and writing aspects. On the editing side, I had a hard time with avoiding any popping sounds or moments of silence when editing the sound effects for the create your own audio assignment, since that had been a major issue in the past. It was hard to make things sound sequences at times without having moments of dead silence. For writing, I had a lot of issues with trying to write longer form stories about audio without making it into one-two paragraphs max. It was in these moments that I really had to slow down and make outlines for each story over simply just writing random things down. In terms of the easier moments, I found myself having an ease with many of the design bank assignments, solely on the creation side of them. I have always liked making playlists that connect to periods of my life, so getting the chance to do that was really fun. Also, many of the software's I got to use were very easy to work with which made this all a lot easier.
Outside of the unexpected moments of ease and difficulty, something that drove me crazy was Freesound's sound effect's collection and the length at which they where. The website had some great options for the create your own audio assignment, however, they were over 30 minutes long, in total length. As a result, I worried about trying to download lengthy pieces of audio to my device and possibly maxing out storage in the midst of it . While I did try to edit some audio in the website itself, it seemed to not work when I would download them after the fact. Unfortunately, it became difficult to find audios were under that time frame, I which I had to use on a different platform. This all drove me crazy because it felt like I couldn't get a platform to "work with me", which was bothersome when I would find great sound effects that were in turn 2 hours long.
In conclusion, this unit presented many difficulties and hardships that made doing all of the assignments that much more rewarding. Many of the technologies and writing prompts challenged me to think outside of the box, which is always beneficial. Along with that, it was a very enjoyable as I got to experiment with new technologies and Audio techniques that I had never been exposed to before. It also gave me the chance to improve upon my editing skills when creating my own audio. This was certainly one of my favorite units and I'm excited to use the skills I learned in the next units and after this class..