In this audio piece I am interviewing Laura and trying to connect a series of questions to make a story out of why she made her choice at Wagner. The process was somewhat long and drawn out due to not knowing what to exactly ask at first then settling to write some questions down before hand to help the question and answers run smoothly.

During the editing process i needed to pinpoint what pieces of audio would be sufficient to make the interview sound smooth throughout. i started with the empty spaces (silent areas) to break down the audio to a shorter length. Next it was onto the cutting of the voices asking the actual questions, that was not too difficult. It was rather tedious due to where to cut the file, or when the last word ends to make it somewhat sound clear.

After the silent spaces of the audio file are cut and the pieces where the questions are asked, we are left with nothing but the person being interviewed and their voice. The room-tone and environmental sound are places in the background of the audio as well.

Iacono_AudioProject

Reflection:

I think the biggest struggle when putting my audio piece together was trying to figure out the order of topics that I wanted to use.  At first I listened to the interview and divided it up into the different themes that were present within the conversation.  As I wrote down times, I quickly found that this was not going to be very useful.  This is because once I had organized and divided to audio on my paper, I then had to go back and delete the footage of my voice.  This completely changed the times of the occurrences, which meant that I needed to go back and find everything again.  Organization was definitely a major challenge in this project.

I also found it difficult to make the big decisions on what to include and what not to include.  In a way, it felt strange to just cut out parts of the interview that seemed important but were no longer useful in the final piece.  However, as I deleted more and more extra material, it became easier to organize it and space it out.  Also, transitioning from one theme to the next was tricky.  I tried to include gaps in the interview where the theme would change and fill them with environmental sound that would lead to the next part.

While listening to the interview I realized that as the interviewer I did not do such a good job.  There were times in the interview where I asked a question and I could not include it because the listener would not have been able to follow what my subject was talking about.  By having simple “yes” or “no” responses, interesting information that could have been included was instead deleted.  Next time, I will try to include more double-barrelled questions.  I could also ask the person I am interviewing to repeat my question in their answer so that I can include everything that I believe to be necessary.

Video Storytelling final

The process of creating my audio file was very long. The most difficult part was deciding which parts of all my audio I wanted to use. It is very hard to limit over 20 mins of audio into a short 2-3 minute clip. First I started with editing out my voice in the conversation audio. Then I analyzed the entire audio and took out peices I wanted to use for my audio profile. I chose the parts of the conversation audio that I thought would tell the story of my classmate and would be worth sharing with an audience. I started with a timeline and broke up the profile into 3 main parts. The first part lets the audience know what the peice was going to be about and a little about my classmate. The second part was the bulk of the information my classmate had to offer and the main focus of the profile. The last part tied everything together and ends with a cliff hanger leaving the audience hopefully wanting more. Breaking the profile into parts made it a lot easier to come up with the final peice.

In the previous assignment  4 sounds were recorded: Natural, Environmental, Room Tone and Conversation. The ways in which I recorded these sounds had a large impact on how this profile was created. I chose very dull places to record these sounds and it made it difficult to encorporate thesm into the profile becuase I felt as thought they didnt belong anywhere. Also I felt as though they had no link to the story I was trying to tell. For example, the natural and environmental sounds I recordered were nothing but voices and it became hard to find a place to put noise in  between my converstaion sound in which the background should be silent. The most helpful sound was room tone because I was able to use that audio too fill in silent gaps and pauses during the interview.

For the next assignment there are a lot of things I will do differently. First off, I will choose audio that relates to the story I am trying to tell. Not only will I do that but I would plan better. This includes already knowing what I want my peice to be about, how I will go about getting It done and what can I do to make it better.  Secondly, I will try to connect more to the audience. I may think that my peice is very amusing but to others it may be nothing special. I plan to do all that I can to get a good reaction from the audience and hopefully grow by learning from my mistakes.

http://www.thirdcoastfestival.org/library/136-scared

Narration-00

Baby sounds- 10

Music (lullaby)-15

Convo between dad and baby- 26

Narrations 35

Baby noise40

Toddler speaking48

Narration

The same child speaking at different moments (age) “growing up” 100

Music stops at 150

Outside dark (crickets) 156

Young girl speaking 203

Telephone message 212

Music enters back in 227

Convo between girl and dad (music still there) 237

Music ends it

Up above are the different sounds I was able to catch through out the 3 min blog post. When at first listening to the podcast you think this is about a lover talking about the body of another. As baby sounds come in at 10 seconds with a nursery tune “itsey bitsey spider” following 5 seconds later, you realize that this is about a father and child. This sets the tone differently from what was heard before, grasping the listener to continue to be intrigued.

Throughout the audio clip you realize that the sounds of the baby begin to mature into a young teen. You then realize getting closer to the end of the clip that the father had been recording his daughter since she was a baby. At least this is what the producer would like the listener to think. However, after listening closely and noticing how each baby noise recorded is similar in quality of sound to the recording of the teenager, I’m thinking all of those recordings are from different children, not just one. I like the effect he gives it, the room tone probably helped with this set up. It really made me think that he had been recording him and his child for the past 13 years.

Misfire by Sarah Varney and Paul Frey

0:01      Voice, violin

0:22      Voice, drums like heart beat

0:39       Crunch, can opens, pouring beverage

0:44       Feet on gravel

0:53       Transitions into maraca

0:51        Thunder

0:55        Violin

0:56        Panting

1:07        Waves

1:25         Voice

1:30         Commercial song with full band

1:40         Voice, drums heart beat

1:58         Violin

2:09         Static

2:24         Wind chime like instruments transitioning into something reminiscent of the music in Alfred Hitchcock’s films

2:32         Violin, water drops

2:44         Slurp

2:45         Crunch, can opens, pouring beverage

2:49         Gravel

2:53         Violin

3:02         Panting

3:07         Rain wind

3:25          Slurp, burp, violin

3:48         Voice

3:55         Voice, heart beat drum, violin, commercial

4:12          Silence

I found this podcast very interesting.  It “is an experimental sound piece that blends 1940s Dr. Pepper radio ads, original violin music, and sounds of thirst and thirst-quenching.”  The transitions were designed with purpose: though uncommon in most musical pieces, many were choppy or sudden.  I believe that this decision provided the piece with more interest, as it allowed the listener to focus on each set of sounds, rather than hearing them as a singular piece.  The sounds worked together beautifully to tell the intended story.  The Dr. Pepper radio ads combined with the opening of the cans, pouring of the beverage, slurping, and burping provide an ideal image.  They allow the listener to see an individual experiencing the refreshment of a cold soda.  Beyond that, the sounds of the panting and feet running on gravel, can cause the listener to sympathize with the individual that the piece has suggested; an individual who, one can assume by that noise, has been exerting him or herself and is exhausted.  Therefore, the soda appears even more appealing and deserved.  There are several other ways to interpret the piece, but, based on the design of the sound clips, that was what I felt was the purpose for the listener to grasp.

Isabel Barbosa

The audio clip began with erie, abrupt, repetitive sounds that seemed to echo each other and enter and odd times. Then an low toned male voice entered speaking in a dark matter. The voice kept using the words black in each sentence and used different historical, factual, and dark, dimal references. “The Blackness of” would usually be used, to describe the depth of black itself.

An echoing technique would often be used and intensified to translate the deep, creepy feeling associated with black. The final editing touch to the clip had a tremendous effect: the male voice kept going, but all other sounds were cut. This stressed what the male voice was saying because the actual content of what he was saying was that “black” was at the root of everything; the core.

• 0:19 Footsteps
• 2:02 Dishes
• 3:03 Finger Snapping
• 3:18 Eating Utensils
• 4:04 Food being Fried
• 4:18 Adam biting into an onion ring
• 6:29 Waitresses talking
• 7:30 Eating Utensils clinging to plates
• 7:31 laughter
• 7:32 Costumers Talking

Reflection

I chose this audio because it incorporates exactly what I’m doing here. We are using our ears to tell us a story instead of using our eyes. The audio started off with the narrator walking through a hallway to the actually eating area and with each step the light are getting dimmer. By time he is seated he can’t see anything and that’s when hi meal begins. The experience was as if he were an actual blind person eating dinner and that’s what he found most interesting. At first he was a little antsy because it is a natural action that human body does. The eyes are working over time to see even though the mind knows that there is no way that it’s going to see anything. However, when one sense is lost, the others are heightened. The narrator heard everything clearer and things that he normally ate tasted better.  The waitress in the audio explained this perfectly,she used a carrot as an example; she said that when we see a carrot the mind tells us what its supposed to taste like and that’s why it tastes the way it does, however if you eat something blindfolded and don’t know what it is, the mind can’t take control and you must go strictly off of what your taste buds tell you.

While listening to the audio I could hear the costumers talking, the waitresses snapping and talking to let one another know where they were, plates and forks clinging, and foot steps. It just goes to show how important it is to listen and feel things. The experience must have been amazing because the narrator got to experience eating in a whole new perspective. When leaving the restaurant the narrator described the feelings of the lights as cruel and harsh. I guess it was like a reality check because the eyes were back to ruling everything.

http://www.thirdcoastfestival.org/library/128-dinner-at-the-blind-cow

http://www.thirdcoastfestival.org/library/137-forest-to-desert

Sounds:

• Beginning – Wind
• 0:09 – Birds Chirping
• 0:11 – Thumping
• 0:34 – Car Starting
• 0:42 – Car Beeping
• 0:45 – Angry Voice
• 0:48 Cars Passing
• 0:50 – 1:46 – Broadcast with city noises in the background,
• 1:50 – 2:00 Voice Overlap
• 2:03 Rain and Wind
• 2:14 Rushing Water
• 2:23 Heavy Wind
• 2:29 – 2:35 – Silence

Reflection:

The sound Forest to Desert Produced by Sarah Boothroyd consists of primarily environmental sound. There is a progression from beginning to the end that signifies how this piece was put together. In the beginning, there is a lot of natural sound. These sounds are much like the sounds likely to be heard in a forest including; Rain, Wind, Birds and insect noises. As the piece continues the mood from nature theme turns more into an environmental theme. This environmental theme is the foundation of the piece with use of city sound. Instead of hearing nature themed sounds there are sounds such as; Cars, Voices, Beeping and Human Movement.

As the piece progresses more, the environmental sounds of the city soon become a background for a radio broadcast in which the focus is on voice. There are voices in the broadcast louder than others and there is a lot of voice overlap. The broadcast represents the technology of the past and towards the end of the piece there are sounds of technology from the present with all the advanced sound effects. The basis if this piece is to show the nature vs. city and the technology in the past vs. the technology in the present through sound.