Link to the audio:
https://soundcloud.com/user-364198477/sound-ass2-fear-interview
Reflecton:
In this assignment, we did an interview about emotions, there is no doubt that I will let my interviewee tell a story that is mixed with strong emotions. Sharing emotions is a very private thing. Before the interview, I thought about how to start it and how to guide the interviewee telling the experience into the microphone without scruple. Before studying this course, I rarely had the experience of doing audio interviews. In my cognition, people talk face to face and record with a camera is how a complete interview works. In Tiffanie Wen’s(2015) article, she talked about the charm of audio, an audio uses a dramatic structure, telling stories through dialogue can stimulate the audience’s imagination rather than narration from the perspective of God. They can generate more vivid images in their minds and easier to associate with them. Such stories can arouse people’s emotional resonance and interest. In order to make the whole interview clearer and smoother, I prepared a rough script for myself, so that I will not lose the rhythm and clarify the purpose of my interview. Although I can use post editing, I still need to control the rhythm of the interview due to the 2-3 minute time limit. Chris Wodskou(2016) explained 16 techniques for creating scripts in his article. He believes that scripts are a way to adjust the listener’s ears so that the listeners can prepare for the next thing or absorb the ideas, stories, or information which I’m presenting. I wrote down my thoughts and questions to ask, and some key words as reminders. Before starting the interview, I told my talent that this conversation will be showed public as an academic work, but I hope she can feel free to tell her story. Getting permission from the interviewee is particularly important for their privacy protection. In order to make the interviewee more clear about our purpose, I also communicated with her for the intention of this interview in advance. During the interview, I guided her to tell the story by asking questions.
Before editing, my audio length exceeded a lot. I tried to make a complete and clear story, therefore, I deleted a large part of it. As an audio interview, I added different sound effects and background music to make the story more attractive. Tiffanie(2015) mentioned the importance of using sound effects in her article, representing the sound of the object or the environment, and the sound lens. This effect makes the listener feel more spacious of distant sounds. I added different background music at the key moments of the story. In addition, I interspersed some environmental sounds and the voice of the “protagonist” possum to restore the story scene as much as possible, so that the audience will be more substituted into the scene. I still have a lot to learn about making audio. I hope I can tell a more profound or shocking story for the next time.
Reference:
Tiffane W, 2015, Inside the Podcast Brain: Why Do Audio Stories Captivate?, The Atlantic, https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2015/04/podcast-brain-why-do-audio-stories-captivate/389925/ viewed 25th Aug 2020.
Chris W, 2016, The craft of writing for radio: 16 tips from a veteran script-writer, CBC, https://www.cbc.ca/radio/docproject/blog/the-craft-of-writing-for-radio-16-tips-from-a-veteran-script-writer-1.3562474, viewed 25th Aug 2020.