A Little Slice of Mary Kay

Ok. It's done. Again, more computer problems. I actually had to call my IT boyfriend to have him remote access my computer from Long Island to fix it for me because Audacity hates me. Movie Maker wasn't so bad though. I actually had to leave my computer open all night last night just so that my dad's interview piece would actually upload to my blog. I may have to do that again. Let's see, it's 5:30pm now.

I am quite happy with this piece. It really came together as like a human piece about the women who make a living being Mary Kay beauty consultants. I also plan to send this piece to the head consultant who was kind enough to let me sit in on her session to do this piece so she can show it to the group if she would like. I really hope they like it as much as I do.

So, here it is: Being Part of Mary Kay.

Fail.

And after over two hours of sitting here watching/listening to other people's pieces and waiting for my video to stop "uploading" and actually upload, I gave up and went home. Then I tried it again at home, and left it alone for 3 hours. I came back to an error message that my blog does not like my video. Woohoo.

So now I'm trying the "post it to YouTube" route. Hold please.

Well, embedding the YouTube video didn't work. Screw it. Go to the link. Thanks.

Mary Kay Project Link

Interview with My Dad

Yes. I finished it. A few days ago actually, but I finally got around to fighting with my computer to make it into a file that I could post on my blog. Now that that is finally done as well, here it is!

I like it. It turned out better than I had originally thought it might. I like the blend of talking about the economy, his struggles as a lower working class small business owner, and just being a guy worried about providing for his family and not killing himself trying to do so. It's a pretty good tribute to my dad, showing that I really appreciate everything he goes through and I want to share that journey with the world.

As for the pic, it's from the day that Help Me Howard found him on a street while he was cleaning windows and Howard found a woman to give $1000 to who in return gave it to my dad. He was seen as a struggling man who could use the help and he couldn't have been happier. It's only too bad I couldn't include a clip from that day as well, because we do have it on tape from the weekly commercial on TV! Very cool, and very funny. And was definitely the inspiration for this piece.

So, without further ado, my dad.

Now I'm going to bed. I'll fight with my computer to post the Audio Story Slideshow piece in the morning. Night.....

Coming to a Close

Now that we have finally reached the end of this semester, it is time to start thinking about whether or not I'm actually ready for my final deadlines!! So let's run down the list.

Project #1 - Finished, handed in, seen by class. Am I happy with it? Well, I think it was a pretty good first try at something I was completely unaware of before the class ever started. So, I'd give that a check.

Reality Radio Readings - All read and commented on. Good stuff. Will definitely be referring to that book in my future should I ever have to do an audio story again.

Project #2 - Tape recorded, snippets to be used have been selected and documented. Now I just need to order the selections and put them together in layered tracks with my ambient and natural sounds. Not done, but on its way.

War Reading - Read most of the book. Would like to finish it, though it will most likely be after the end of the semester. It may not be my favorite bit of reading, but I don't like to leave a book unfinished. I have certainly learned a lot from Junger though in terms of his entire piece of multimedia storytelling.

Project #3 - Tape recorded. Next step is select the snippets, order the selections, and layer the tracks. At least its started right?

So, current status update? I have a couple hours of work left to do but it's all stuff that I feel confident will be in good shape by next Thursday at 630pm. Here goes nothing.....

Story #3 - Check!!

Yes. I finally got it done. I spoke to my friend about going with her to her next Mary Kay meeting, spoke with the beauty consultant director in charge of her group, and last night, went to the meeting to get some tape and pictures!

So last night went very well. I interviewed some of the Mary Kay beauty consultants and took pictures of the girls, the guests, the products, and the event. I got a lot of great tape about how they got started with Mary Kay, what the benefits are for such a job, and what they've learned from their experiences. It was all very positive and upbeat.

I decided over the weekend that I really did like this idea because it was like a modern-day version of the Kitchen Sister's piece on the tupperware parties. The Mary Kay girls talked about being independent, having a flexible work schedule, and earning great rewards like free products, substantial incomes, and even cars!

I enjoyed doing this piece, which was what was important for me when deciding what to do in the first place. I think I was able to feel better about it after remembering the tupperware piece and liking the modern day parallel. I was able to get a better idea about how I wanted the piece to go; less in the direction of focusing on the economy like my second piece and more focusing just on it being a highlight piece about a specific group. It made it more unique for me in terms of the three pieces I have created this semester.

So that's it. Three pieces planned and taped. One piece done, the second piece almost done, and the third ready for editing. I guess the next week is gonna be pretty busy.....

Story Idea #3??

The end of the semester is fast approaching and I could not be more stressed out. LOL

Ok. Back to business. Over the past two weeks, I have been giving much thought to my ideas for Story #3 whilst trying to finish my piece for story #2. It's coming along, and so far I'm pretty happy with it. I just need to finish it asap so I can get one more thing crossed off on my list.

As for Story #3, I borrowed the ComKit over the Thanksgiving break in hopes that I would be able to get the audio and pictures while home on Long Island. First I tried to make it in time for my mom's bowling league night in order to do a story about the women there and get some great photos of the psychadelic bowling. However, holiday traffic ruined that plan.

Then I wanted to test out the "what are you thankful for this year" idea, but no one who wanted to share was around this thanksgiving, making that a bust as well.

Then I had an idea to go out on Black Friday and interview the nut jobs running around for the sales. Or I even wanted to take the equipment with me that Saturday to document my cousin's preperation for her wedding during our bridesmaid dress shopping event. Neither happened.

So now I'm here, thinking of ideas that I actually find interesting. And that's when it hit me. Maybe now would be the perfect time to revert back to my early in the semester idea of doing a piece of fiction. I would create a story that could be read audibly by characters and tape some friends reading the parts out loud. Then I could take pictures of this cast of characters in shots I think are representative of the story. This could work. However, I still don't really like it.

My problem is that I actually liked the ideas for my first two pieces before doing them, and I continued to like them while working on them. This one, I've had ideas I've liked, but missed out on the working on them part. And I have plenty of ideas I don't even want to work on. So where does that leave me?

With no ideas and no work. Awesome.

So now it's crunch time. I need to get this done asap because I have enough to worry about trying to finish my thesis. So here are some ideas I have that I absolutely need to pick from, because well, I'm out of time.

One. Documenting young girls who are turning to self-made businesses such as Mary Kay because they need all the work they can get during these economic times. Not a bad idea, and a friend of mine does this, so I definitely have an in. They meet Tuesday nights and I think it would be a good visual piece as well.

Two. Well. There really is no two. So I guess, One it is! Oh boy.....

Junger's War: "Fear" and "Killing"

While perusing through Junger's site recently, I found that the combination of information on the book, information on the movie, and connection between interested peoples/fans to the actual people in the documentary research made for a multi-layered and workable piece of multimedia. However, after my perusing and reading to the end of Book Two: "Killing", I still find myself very uninterested in this particular subject.

Yet, I must still evaluate them as a unit to assess how they tell the story of these men fighting a war in a far away, and very dangerous, part of the world. Each element does a particular job to express the harsh realities of a place so few people truly understand, let alone have heard of. I am one who had no idea that there could be such a distinction when referring to specific places where US soldiers were being deployed to during the war. I had no idea that there actually could be a place with such a terrible story to tell. Junger does a great job of capturing all the elements of that place by really showing the unaware what the realities of the situation are.

For example, the book itself goes through terminologies, names of places, and ranks and names of many soldiers that Junger came in contact with. We are able to see that though the unit as a whole is important to defeat the enemy, it is the many individual parts that make up what the whole really is. Each weapon, bunker, mission, soldier, officer, location, and attack come together to show us that war itself is not more than the sum of its parts.

The movie then acts as more of a visual stimulator. The book does a good job of making us aware of the impact war can have on people and places, but the movie really shows us the realities of a situation that seems so far away. And then the site itself, connecting real readers with the real-life characters from the documentary, takes those realities and shoves them straight up your nose. Together, with each step, we are more and more thrust into the reality that a war fought over seas is anything but far away.

Overall, I find that this way of telling one story in multiple medias really brings its impact to the heart of those that experience it. I may still be bored while reading jargon and names I don't understand or recognize, but I am able to appreciate the effort it took to bring those pieces to a light that will have a greater impact on the people it was created for, as well as about.

Brainstorming Ahead

Now that I have spent the past week working on my Audio Story piece, and cramming in some thesis writing time between working at the diner and the writing center, all while thoroughly being completely distracted by the fact that Harry Potter 7, part 1, comes out tonight at midnight and I am waiting for my brother to arrive here in Philly from long island so we can go together to see the movie tonight, I am ready to start thinking about this next project that I will have about 2 weeks to work on. Awesome.

So. Ideas for my slide show audio piece. Well, if I thought they would've let me, I would have loved to bring the audio recorder and a camera to the Harry Potter premiere tonight to get stories from the attendees about their Harry Potter experiences. But, I'm pretty sure the theater will not allow me anywhere near that movie with any kind of recording equipment. Oh well.

Other ideas? I've been thinking about doing more of a sentimental type piece, by recording the things that my family is thankful for on Thanksgiving. But I don't want the cookie-cutter responses. I want the real stuff. The stuff that really shows what people have to be thankful for this year. Especially as compared to the audio story piece I've been working on about my dad. What kinds of struggles are other people going through and how do they remain cheerful during such a difficult holiday season?

Another idea would be to describe one person by using photos of them doing different things, quoting them with things they commonly say, and basically putting together a personal profile of one person in an abstract type of way. I'm not really sure how well this would work, but I'd like to be able to show who a person is in a very fictionesque type of way, by showing instead of telling. That way my audience could make their own assumptions and conclusions from the material I give them. I think that might be an interesting idea to pursue, but I'm not sure how well it would go.

I still need to think about some things, but I hope that I will be able to create an interesting way to combine audio and still photos to really tell an interesting story.

Reading Junger's War (Book One)

I have recently begun reading Sebastian Junger's documentary novel titled War, and have just finished Book One: Fear (which will be followed by Book Two: Killing and Book Three: Love). So, what do I think thus far?

Well, for one, great book to read for boys. It has a lot of gun and war terminology, definitely some good jokes about the natural instincts and behaviors of the male species. However, as one who is anything but interested in war and its politics, I am not impressed.

Yes, Junger did some amazing research. Yes, he captured war life in a way that felt both natural and surprising. But did he capture a wide audience, outside of war enthusiasts and documentarians? Not so much.

So far, Book One has been about getting to know the soldiers Junger has met during his time in the Korengal Valley. We see how they live their day-to-day lives while deployed in Afghanistan. They clean their weapons, sleep, eat, work out, go on patrol, build new outposts, and defend themselves against the enemy. That's about it. It is a constant repeat of just surviving until you can go home, either in a plane seat or below in a wooden box. Either way, going home is the only thing to look forward too.

The way that Junger easily navigates through narrative, description, internal thought/comment, and reflection allows for a piece that does come together nicely. He shows us that documentary can be personal and not just factual. By being able to describe the situation from his own point of view, as well as including the viewpoints from the American soldiers, he was able to craft a documentary with a very established human element.

I still don't really find this particular book and subject that interesting, but I guess it's not really about that. What am I learning from Junger about multimedia storytelling? Well, I'm learning that shocking is interesting, repetition is boring, and too much detail can be confusing. Keep it simple and let your audience draw their own conclusions. After all,  it's their emotions you want to insight anyway, not your own.

Hashing Out My Story

No, we do not have class tonight.

Yes, I still need to figure out today what I'm doing for this Audio Story.

Why? Because I'm taking out the ComKit on Monday, driving to Long Island, and going to work with my dad the next day to get all my taping done. I have to do this in one planned day because, well, I simply live too far and am just too busy to go back for a day two before this is due. So, with a fire lit under my butt, here goes.

In class last week, Prof Lyons suggested that I might spin the story to be more of a father-daughter thing, about pride and being lower working class. Do I think this applies to me and my father? I guess. I've known my whole life that I wanted to be more than my parents. I wanted good grades, an education, a college degree, and a life not spent always feeling like we were living beyond our means just to survive.

We never really had a lot. But we weren't without either. My parents did everything they could to make mine and my brother's lives happy and comfortable. That's kind of a hard thing to do on two entry-level salaries. My dad has been a window cleaner almost his whole life. 40 some-odd years now. My mom has bounced between such jobs as in data-entry, clerical work, being a substitute assistant for the school district, and finally working her way up to a teacher's assistant position in the school district my brother and I attended our whole lives. She has finally hit the point of making a livable salary for a mother with two kids in college.

My dad, on the other hand, has been losing more and more business lately. His self-owned and operated small business is a dying breed. He's a window cleaner who cleans store-fronts and the occasional building or house. In these days of a "do-it-yourself" mentality, that certainly includes windows. Businesses are opting out of their $50 a month contract with my dad to add the simple responsibility to another employee's list of things to do. Are the windows as clean? Not really. But who cares? They're just windows.

That brings me to myself. I have been a working girl my whole life too. Camp counselor, concession stand worker, bagel girl, waitress, and bartender are just some of the jobs I've had since I was 14 years old. None of them were anywhere near what I wanted to do with the rest of my life, but they got me through years of needing my own money to help out the burden on my family. And I was happy to help. I know how to work hard and I don't mind putting in the necessary effort to get through each day. I'm proud to say that I'm smart enough and determined enough to successfully make it through life with something to show for it.

But has that affected my relationship with my father? I don't really know how to look at it. My dad is very proud of me, especially when it comes to my education. His favorite thing to talk about is me and all of my accomplishments. He rattles them off to whoever will listen like stats. I've been honored by being as important to him as his favorite sports teams. He writes down little notes about things I've done to keep in his wallet to remember to talk about later. And his bedroom wall at the head of his bed is covered in framed degrees, honors, awards, and certificates, one of the few things he spends money on that isn't considered "necessary". It makes me proud to know how proud he is of me. And it always keeps me striving for more things to give him to be framed.

So, has my father been an influence in my life on who I am and who I want to be? Absolutely. He may not be smart or knowledgeable, but my father knows that I am and is proud to know that I am his daughter.

Ok, now that I've gotten all that down, what does it all have to do with my audio story? I think it may just be the angle I had been looking for. My dad's small business is falling apart and he blames his lack of a retirement future on his own lack of a proper education, as well as the current economy. I think that's where I want to focus some of my questions for him. Not only do I want to know how he's being effected by the economy, I also want to know why he continues to work so hard anyway, instead of giving up, something he probably feels like he should do considering his deteriorating health. I want to know not only how his life has changed in recent years, but also how he finds the motivation to keep moving forward anyway, and how his determination has been tested. For the struggling man, how does one keep going?

I hope all of that makes sense. And I hope I've finally reached my focus. I guess we'll just have to see how it goes.....

Prepping for My Audio Story

This week's readings had some key ideas that I feel I should be thinking about while prepping to do my Audio Story. First, I'll start with some of the notes I got from each of the readings:

Emily Botein, "Salt is Flavor and Other Tips Learned While Cooking":

• Keep some little bits of ammunition to help you get moments of surprise. This can be when your guest becomes the most animated and gives you the conversation he hasn't rehearsed in his head.
• Salt is Flavor: sometimes, a little is enough. Let the tape speak for itself.
• Silence, or a pause, "sounds the way people speak. Meaning, sometimes they don't... Pauses break up the rhythm and add complexity. Pauses help us to listen better" (181).
• "Good Tape" is in the ears of the individual.

Jay Allison, "Afterword: Listen":

• What stories do I have to tell? What voice will I use to tell them?
• "Stories define each of us. They have the power to divide or connect us as individuals and communities" (184).
• Create an "illusion of companionship" between your subjects and your listeners.
• Listen. And, if you will, speak up! (195)

So what does all this mean to me and my new quest? Well, I think it makes some of the differences between an audio interview and an audio story clearer, sort of. I think that one major difference is that the audio story will be more of a chance for listeners to really connect with the voices they hear. They need to be transported into the story itself, at the time and place it happens, to really feel affected by it. The interview, conversely, was more of a chance to see what would happen as the interview progressed. This story will be more about getting to that deeper issue while talking about the topic at hand.

So, what is my story? My story will be speaking to a larger issue from the point of view of one individual. In this case, I will be working with my dad. He will be talking about his recent experiences as a small business owner and how his work and life is being effected by the current economy. Do I want this to be about our current economy? Of course not. That would be boring. But from my dad's personal point of view, I think I could get a lot of good, really interesting stuff. As long as I keep him from talking in major tangents, that is. Wish me luck on project #2!!!

Famous People, Communism, and the FBI

This week's task was to go through some of the files in the FBI's FOIA public records. For one, I should say that it is quite the big site, containing associations of people being researched and connections with FBI investigations and information. These records have been made public for research and information purposes, but have a lot of "secure" information blacked out, as any good government document should.

So, where to start? I began by flipping through the suggested search parameters, going through some names in the "Gangster Era" and "Violent Crimes" categories. It was ok, but mostly consisted of stuff I already knew. So then I went to the frequently requested information section and picked a letter: D. That's where I found Dorothy Dandridge. And it's where I learned that she had been suspected of being part of the Communist Party.

After further reading of some very obscure documents on Dandridge, I learned that she had been written about in a west coast communist newspaper as being associated with various communist groups, affiliations, and ideas. Because of these articles, Dandridge responded to the newspaper with a letter denying each of the claims the newspaper had made about her communist associations. Some were clearly refuted, while others were simple statements of "I have no idea what you are talking about." From my standpoint, she was sure doing a bang-up job of denying being a communist.

This strange information led me to put in the search criteria: Communism. Now that I had found something worth giggling over, I wondered who else had been a secret communist. Turns out, Lucille Ball. I think I had heard that somewhere before, but it was still kinda funny to think that the ditsy red-headed wife always getting herself into jams could somehow be a communist. According to the FBI files, she registered as a communist party voter in 1936 and 1938, a fact that was discovered by the FBI after hearing about some rumored affiliations. The red-head voted red.

The second name I found associated with communism? Albert Einstein. Yup. The genius himself, who was rumored to have not been able to put on his own socks, or something to that effect, was also a communist. But the FBI's proof on him seemed a little more substantial than Dandridge's or Ball's. Einstein was said to have been connected with 34 communist fronts between 1937 and 1954, serving as honorary chairman for three different communist organizations. Maybe the genius was on to something?

So it turns out that communism was quite the popular way to go for some pretty big names. Maybe it's true, maybe it's here say, or maybe it's just that according to the government in the 1930's and 40's, everyone was a commy.

Audio Story Cluster Model

Ok, so after much work and anticipation, here is my cluster model. I included two pictures, the first that shows how it actually looks, but without detail visual, and the second a collage of the closer pictures I took and pasted together.

As you can see, my cluster model began with the idea of the current economy and how it is affecting people's ways of life. This branched out to the Job Market, Small Businesses, Student Employment, and Costs of Goods. A few went a few steps, but the two that I found that went out really far into the reaches of actually interesting stories were Small Businesses and Student Employment.

For small businesses, my model continued through cut backs, loss of businesses, big chain businesses, and my father's small self-owned and operated business, Al Gail Window Cleaning. I branched out to a few of his old stories about how he got started as a window cleaner with the Jewish Mafia, how the economy is affecting him, and how his business is all he has. I think there is a potentially interesting story here, but I'm not really sure if it has enough substance and focus right now. For one, it's focused on one person, and it still has to large of a feel. I'll have to continue stretching my cluster model I guess.

As for the student employment bubble, it went through issues faced, increases in responsibility, coping techniques, parental dependence, low wage jobs. It eventually led me to the idea that students are often expected or forced to get jobs to help supplement their parents' incomes, or lack there of. Sometimes it's easier for a younger person to get a simple job because they can enter the work force at much lower wages than some of their skilled parents. This helps parents when they simply don't have the income to support their own families. In this part, I know a few different people that are in such a situation, myself included. I think that's why I like this idea a little better than the small businesses one. I have more people to talk to for my piece, and I can include the self-expression angle that the readings discussed. By being able to connect myself into my story, I may be able to better find the powerful message.

I still don't really think I'm focused enough yet for my audio story. But hey, my first time doing such a cluster model and I think I'm getting the hang of it. I guess we'll see....

Becoming an Adventurer in Sound

This week's readings were pretty interesting. The first, Karen Michel's "Adventurers in Sound", tells about stories that deal with the personal experience perspective and self-expression. These stories are more powerful to listen to because they make people want to listen and makes the connections listeners crave. The second piece, Lena Eckert-Erdheim's "Dressy Girls", says that motivation for a piece comes from the experience of feeling unheard and wanting to assert an identity. Scratching an itch you have can help the pieces fall into place naturally.

This got me thinking. By tomorrow night, I will have to have created a cluster model for a subject I am interested in in order to find the personal stories that are way outside the initial bubble. Essentially, I have to focus on the small and specific rather than the large and general. Got it. However, I don't really know what I'm interested in to begin with.

So, in prep for tomorrow's blog post which will include my cluster model and its explanation, I first need to do some brainstorming. And what better place to talk out my ideas than here, right? Yes. So please, be nice and let me "talk it out".

My first idea is inspired by where I currently and quite frequently am located: the Writing Center. Writing Center would be my first bubble. It would then extend out to things like training, pedagogy, tutoring, directing, conferences, manuals, techniques, tutor stories, tutee stories, and would keep on going... I hope. Hopefully, with some brainstorming and cluster modeling, I can find a really focused story that comes out. I'm not really sure if one will though.

My second idea is more of a wishful thinking type of idea. In the perfect world where I have all the time in the world and access to everything I need and a teleportation device to unlimit my current spacial situation, I would like to work with the idea of drugs in high school sports. I'm still kinda stuck on that idea from my first ideas for the audio interview. The cluster model would include such things as performance builders, peer pressure, coping techniques, initial introduction, the more powerful drive, dependence, and on. Maybe someone I know got introduced to drugs because of sports. Maybe someone I know got off drugs because of sports. Not really sure if that's specific and interesting enough because of the focus on more of the singular person rather than a shared experience, but I'm still just considering the idea.

My third idea, well, right now I've only got the two. I guess I need more time to think about what itches I have that need scratching. First, though, I have to spark the interest. Till tomorrow then.....

Finally Posting My Finished Audio Interview Piece!!!

Yes. It is done. It took me awhile due to obstacles including needing to rerecord some stuff and being sick, but now it is done and ready to be heard. I did find my Big Idea story. This started out as being diner sounds, but during my recording, a close friend and the girl who had hired me began her quitting process, and lucky me, I got a lot of it on tape. Good stuff. I guess people really love to vent out loud to as many people as will listen.

I still did use a lot of what I refer to as diner sounds. I used a few different voices, some ambient noise, some real sounds of cooking and coffee making, and even some humorous antics such as singing and skipping. The coffee making sounds became my bookends for the piece, as I feel no diner is complete unless it opens and closes with coffee.

So, on that note, enjoy. I like it. I may not have done much with it in terms of laying low tracks of music or anything, but I don't think this particular piece needed that anyway. Let me know what you think.

DINER SOUNDS:

Elements of a Good Audio Story

In my recent readings, I have come across what I think may be good elements of an audio story. Overall, I learned that voices telling the story are key, and that it should first be a story, then be in audio.

While reading Stephen Smith's article "Living History", I learned the following:

• The historical story in audio should transport listeners back to that time through the voices of those who were there and the stories they have to tell.
• "Some might say we are built of stories. At the very least, we are changed by stories." (135)
• "Historical characters and their stories become part of our own narrative." (136)
• Good pieces focus on particular stories or themes, not on sweeping historical surveys.
• "Hearing history transports us to the past in a powerful, imaginative way." (146)

While reading Sandy Tolan's article "The Voice and the Place", I learned the following:

• An audio documentary is best when it is a "nonfiction drama set on an audio stage with scenes, characters, narrative arc, dramatic tension, and even silence." (148)
• It's essential, and often difficult, to find the human story that will move beyond the bigger picture.
• "Sometimes the main 'character' is not a person but a place, brought to life by 'scene building': weaving voices with strong, succinct description and telling use of sound." (151)

From all of that, I now know that I need to first find the story, then find the characters, and then tell it out loud. Now, just to come up with a good story idea.... To be continued.

Finally Uploading My Interview

Yes. I have figured out how to upload my audio interview to my blog. Turns out the easiest way was to use Windows Movie Maker to attach a picture to the audio and thus make a "movie"! Yay! And yes, I know it's a picture of a cat. It was all I had on short notice when learning how to do this. So, ignore the cat, and I hope you like the piece.

Ghetto Life 101

I recently listened to the radio piece by radio producer David Isay and two young boys from Chicago, LeAlan Jones and Lloyd Newman, titled "Ghetto Life 101". The piece is done by the two boys carrying around recording equipment for 10 days to capture their lives living on Chicago's South Side, one of the most dangerous housing projects. The piece is "a portrait of poverty and danger and their effects on childhood," as according to SoundPortraits.org.

I found the piece to be very powerful. It was an honest look at the stuff that goes on in the lives of such young boys that have the unfortunate luck to have been born into such a struggling community. However, that is exactly what some people may have felt was exploitative about the piece. These two boys are tools to tell a story and get the honest reaction out of people that may not have been as open with just a regular journalist. But just because the piece was so powerful and successful, does that mean it was exploitative?

I don't really know if I feel that way. Sometimes a journalist has to be creative in order to get real honesty out of the people they want to interview. If they can add to the piece by having the interviewers be a part of the piece itself, then I think, more power to them.

I guess that I believe that these two boys have gained as much from this project creating it as Isay did producing it. Did they get the same recognition? Yes. I even read online that one of the boys is running for Senator now, 20 years after the piece was produced! I definitely think he got something out of the experience. So, vote Jones I guess!!

Newest, and Hopefully Finalized, Interview Idea

This past weekend I spent a lot of time working on my audio interview ideas. I borrowed the Comm Kit from ITDL and kept it with me at all times for both motivation and inspiration. However, I spent the vast majority of my weekend working, which led me to a new idea that I am finally going to keep.

If you happen to know of the book Noise From the Writing Center by Elizabeth H. Boquet, it's a similar idea. I want to do "Noise Inside a Diner". I started thinking of the idea because of Alan Hall's article in Reality Radio titled "Cigarettes and Dance Steps." I was sitting at work, listening to all the sounds in the kitchen and dining room of the diner I work at and realized how interesting it would be to highlight sounds throughout a piece that centers around the chatter from the workers and diners. The diner I work at is currently having a lot of trouble staying afloat and it's affecting the workers and patrons alike. This chatter about the issues and wishes of both groups says a lot about running a successful business and how the current economy is affecting that business.

Do I think this is a terribly interesting idea? Maybe not as much as some of my more controversial and shocking ideas. But it is a story that we don't often here, something that is unique from my other ideas. I also think this new idea has a lot more potential for Big Ideas and is also something I can formulate good questions for.

I would want to maintain the idea of "Noise Inside" by potentially cutting myself out completely and letting the clips of noise, lack of noise, description, and voiced comments from the workers and patrons tell the story. I don't want it to get too analytical with anything like me explaining what the comments mean about business practices and the economy. That would make this much less interesting in my opinion. But by cutting the clips together, I think that they would make the message more thought-provoking.

Is it my best idea ever? Not really. But I like it. And I can do it. And I can hear it in my head. So, I'm gonna do it. Wish me luck!

More on Interviews

So, last night I finally finished my final editing of my peer audio interview about our most embarrassing moments. Yeah, was not fun. Audacity is a pretty interesting editing software, but I still need some work on how to create a piece that I actually like.

For instance, while editing my piece, I quickly learned that I could not add any of my music files because they were no longer working links on my computer. Instead, when I tried to add them in audacity, all I got was some really loud static screeching noises blaring through my headphones. Yeah, not pleasant. Then, to put in breaks, I had to use music sounds I recorded using my computer's internal mic while playing the music on my computer from YouTube! It worked, but was not as pure a sound as I would've liked. Also, I felt that I had limited options for adding sound breaks because of a lack of stored file sounds in Audacity itself. I could "Generate Silence" or some obnoxious monotones, but nothing like a sampling of ring tones type of thing. That would be very helpful to have.

For the editing itself, I got the hang of things fairly quickly and was able to cut and move things, amplify the main voice to minimize the background noise, and found out how to change the speed of the music clips I was adding because at first they were all super speed compared to the rest of my audio. I really need to figure out the best way to record music and my own voice onto Audacity.

So, now that I have finished, I have to say, I hate my piece. I don't think I did very well at all. And also, my own recorded voice at the time of the interview was completely unusable so I'll have to work on that for next time. Unfortunately, it is not exactly the first thing I would have liked to have created for this class, but it's done and due, so I guess it'll just have to do for now. I promise to do better next time.

Now let's just see if I can upload it here for you to listen to....

Nope. Didn't work. I'll have to figure that out I guess....

Interview Ethics: When is it No Longer an Interview?

While doing the readings this week, I couldn't help continually returning to damali ayo's piece "What Did She Just Say?" The piece talks about ayo's unique approach to interviewing and creating audio pieces using footage she gets while secretly taping her subjects during created opportunities for them to talk. In her own words, "creating a situation that offers people an opportunity to be themselves."

So what does this concept of creating interviews, steering them in a way, have to do with my current dilemma of having to interview someone for class? Well, for one, I find the fact that I have to jump right in and find someone interesting to interview in the first four classes very unsettling. It took me a whole semester to work up an idea and the courage the first time. Though I find this class interesting, I did not know that I would have to come out of my quiet, shy writer shell to get a story. With my venting done now, however, I still have to figure out what to do.

Another problem is that everyone I know and find interesting are on Long Island whilst I am here in Philadelphia, working too much to have time or money to go visit these people to get an interview. So, dilemma explained, what am I to do?

That is where ayo's piece comes in. Do I have to formally interview someone for this project, or can I create my interview? Can I structure it to explore a part of society that I find interesting? Because if so, I have some great ideas for that. Not so much for a normal interview though.

How about young mothers? Lower class working young mothers. I seem to know a lot of those. And they have some of the most interesting stories of struggle I've ever heard. I guess this idea would be able to be a regular interview.

But how about confessions of users? I know a lot of those too. But I think things would be more interesting if I just taped them, without really formally interviewing them. I don't know. I guess I still need to give this stuff some serious thought in the next two days, get my idea down so I can ask the right questions in class on Thursday.

Till then, I just want to say, ayo has some pretty interesting ideas about how to get people talking and get to those Big Ideas. Just sayin.....

Occam's Razor

Let me start off with a brief explanation of what Occam's Razor is for those of you out there who don't quite know what it is. Because when first beginning to listen to This American Life's audio piece about it, I had heard the term but never really had it explained. Occam's Razor is basically a principle that states that "the simplest answer is usually the correct one." This means in a little more depth that if you have two or more hypotheses that explain a situation, the simplest one, the one with the least details in explanation, is most likely the one that is most correct. With me so far?

Ok, so based on this small explanation, let me tell you a little bit about the audio piece based on Occam's Razor that was aired on This American Life. The entire piece is titled Family Physics and is about an hour long. It includes a prologue and three acts, the first one being Occam's Razor, which is a 30-minute long segment about 7:30 into the audio stream. Pretty cool story, so go check it out: Occam's Razor.

Basically, the narrator Cris Beam tells a story with voice clips from her story subjects, a family that had one theory about their family and when that theory became no longer adequate, they changed their theory. The original theory: that their first born son was a very dark Italian child, despite being obviously different from his parents and siblings. The reworked theory: that he was actually bi-racial and had a different father, a black man his mother had also been sleeping with when she became pregnant.

So how OR works in this story is that the family was in a sense avoiding the other possibility by sticking with their original theory. No one wanted to brooch the subject and have to come to terms with the reality. They were forcing a theory that was failing. Once they did change their theory though, to the simpler and thus correct theory, their lives began to fall into place. Their simplest explanation finally came to light.

The thing about this story is that Beam is both a prominent narrator and a character in the piece, something that as mentioned in my previous post is a highly debated choice in the multimedia storytelling world. Does it work? Yes. It makes things a little choppy in places, but it gives some quick background and explanations that might have had to be longer if Beam had stayed out of the piece.

So, my personal opinion? I like it. I want to be a part of my pieces if I am a part of them during their creation. You can't cut yourself out completely if you really were there, helping the story happen along in the first place.

To Be or Not To Be....A Narrator

Ok. I know. It's been a few days. My job's got me quite busy and tired all the time. I swear, I'll get the spaced out through the week thing down asap. But for now, you're just gonna have to deal with back-to-back days of posts.

So, today's title. A little corny, but completely appropriate. I've read a lot about the role of the narrator/interviewer in a multimedia story, including audio interviews, video, and audio storytelling. Quite the debate going on out there in multimedia story world.

On the one side, such mentions as "[The Kitchen Sisters] reputation for no narration, which we think of as a sort of ventriloquism - we speak through other people and other people speak through us".

On the other side, "The most interesting stuff usually came [in other people's stories] they interacted with the people in the stories, where there was a back and forth" (Ira Glass); and, "I break the rules of journalism in every paragraph. I write in the first person, and I have not kept any objective distance" (Katie Davis).

Jay Allison also touched on the subject, expressing how he believes that "If you interrupt or overlap your voice with your interviewee’s, you won’t be able to edit yourself out. This will eliminate that sense of the interviewee communicating directly with the listener; instead the listener will be an eavesdropper on your conversation."

But which is the side for me?

I guess I will have to continue with the recent discovery of my own purpose of writing, as developed in my summer class "Writers on Writing." I now look at myself as a postmodernist writer. I like the in-your-face way that I write so that readers know that they're reading. Do I want my readers to lose themselves in my writing? Yes. But only sort of. I still want them to be aware that they are readers. That they are not a character in the story I've created. I want to maintain some of that distance in an effort to really bring to light some of the ideas and thoughts my stories elicit. I want you to know who you are and be able to use that personal perspective to react accordingly.

So, to be or not to be a narrator? To be.

More on Maierson

So I was so occuppied with getting my first blog post done that I kinda realized now that I didn't really express my own opinions about Eric Maierson's piece Three Women. So let me take a moment to do some of that now.

First off, I think Maierson is a very gifted writer. He has written and directed, as well as done some editing on, a few different pieces. One, and my personal favorite, is Three Women. What do I like so much about it? The way it tells a story without needing to say too much. The pictures evoke a multitude of feelings ranging from fear to compassion. The words spoken by the actors are even more powerful. They are easy to hear, but difficult to think about. I'm telling you, go check it out for yourself: Three Women

As for Maierson's other pieces, they cover more of a range. The Party is about speaking the truth to a stranger. His other two pieces are described on his site, but not available to watch. They are a little more on the comedic side.

Also, in my interest search on the man behind the material, I found Maierson's website: ericmaierson.com. On Maierson's site are his blog entries about such things as iFont and other multimedia writers, his television shows, his movies, a list of his awards, his favorite multimedia pieces, Tweets, and various other things. It's quite the detailed site. Again, go check it out!!

Alright, enough about Maierson for now. I just really think that he is one of the interesting multimedia writers I've discovered so far. I hope you enjoy him as well.

I know, def a cutie ;-) JK Eric!!

And so it begins....

Hey classmates! First off, welcome to my blog. I've only ever kept a blog once before and I'm not really sure if anyone actually followed it, so I only hope I can find a way to keep things interesting. Here goes, I guess:

This first blog is about an audio/image multimedia piece I found while perusing the suggested pieces our esteemed professor gave us as a jumping off point. I watched a few that sounded interesting and happened to like both pieces by Eric Maierson, but liked Three Women the most. I like how Maierson created both pieces from a scripted fiction story that explores a reality "readers" may not consider. That's kind of what I do when writing my fiction. I give voice to the people and situations we don't often feel comfortable considering or experiencing.

Three Women is voiced by three different women who vaguely share their personal thoughts about themselves and their lives, which they consider to be insignificant. We see still photographs accompanying the script that also show three women to go with the three voices. I like that this is an abstract story without a tell-tale "typical" plot, but nonetheless it tells a story.

Ok, enough out of me for now I guess. Go check it out for yourselves, it's def something I would recommend:

Three Women by Eric Maierson