Podcasting

What will these sound like?

You know the stories on NPR, or other radio journalism outlets?  You will be producing short clips like those.  (We will shoot for five to nine minutes in the editing room – please keep this in mind as you write your scripts.)

 

What are you looking for when you assign a story?

As the Director, I will be working closely with the other staff members to develop pitches for you all that would make a compelling radio story.  I’m looking for stories that have rich soundscapes, the potential for great interviews, and anything that communicates well over airwaves.

Or, in a more concrete way, there are several things I am asking you to do:

• Collect sounds from whatever you are covering (I will provide some ideas during pitch time, but be creative and record what your heart desires!)
• Conduct interviews, like you would for any other story (more information about these later)
• Write a script where you create the outline for your story: including your own narration, what quotes you wish to include where, and where you want to place various sounds you recorded
• Record the narration that you wrote

You will then send all this tape to me, and I will edit together the finished product.

 

What’s the Timeline for These Stories?

Sunday – assigned a story

Thursday – send a draft of your script to me (audio not required), begin recording narration

Next Sunday – send all recorded tape (labeled with a description of what the tape is) and your final script to me

Stories will be posted online either on Thursday with other articles or earlier if the exec team sees fit.  If an important story breaks or an event takes place over the weekend, expect these deadlines to change.

 

Are There Some Terms I Should Know?

Eh, probably.  Make yourself sound fancy! (And help me know what you want when you’re writing your script.).

Ambient sound (more commonly “ambi”) – the background sound you will collect from a place or event (ex.:  water bubbling, paintbrushes moving along a canvas, people chatting).

Crossfade – fading two pieces of tape into each other for a seamless transition.

Direct representation – sound you capture that is actually happening (such as a speech, or applause).

Duck – fading one sound into a sound bed under another (and potentially increasing volume when the second sound is over) for a cool layering effect/crescendo.

Fade In/Fade Out – rising from nothing to a sound/decreasing from a sound to nothing.

Levels – the volume at which you are recording something.

Mood – (copyright-free) music that sets a tone for what’s going on in a story (there’s a place for this [i.e. not news stories] but it’s also very helpful).

Reproduced replication – sound you capture recreating something that has already happened.

Room tone – capturing existing noise in a location.

Sound bed – a low level of one sound playing under another sound (a fancy word for background music and sound, basically).

Symbolic representation – sound you capture creating the essence of something (ex.: a guest says “My life is like a movie reel” and you capture spinning film. RadioLab does this a lot.).

Tape – the sound you capture.

 

Where Will Equipment Come From?
We’re working with DiSCO on this!  They are open on the 4th floor of Rolvaag library any time from M-Th 10-5 or 7-9, F 10-5, and Sun 1-5, 7-9.  To reserve a mic, go to the circulation desk and ask for the Zoom H4 Audio Recorder.  For any questions about reservations, talk to Ezra Plemons (ecp@stolaf.edu).  Here’s some more from him about how reservations work:

“It’s all currently available in the circulation pool for the library on a first-come first served basis. Students can check out the equipment for 3days / 2 nights and have the option of one renewal (in person – not online); This is our attempt to mitigate the high-demand aspect of the equipment. Since it’s always “due back” – it rotates quickly. Only when there are big assignments is the equipment pool generally exhausted. Most people have success if they start looking for the equipment 2 days before they know they NEED the equipment, if that makes sense.

That said – we do have the Audio and video rooms available for reservation. The availabilities are on our website and can be reserved via email to disco@stolaf.edu.”  I am working on setting up standing times for the Multimedia department for producers to utilize when they want to.

In a pinch, we can also work with audio from a smartphone, but the mic on a Zoom is unbeatable and should therefore be top priority.

 

Help, I Have Never Touched a Microphone in My Life

First of all, congratulations!  Learning new things is always so exciting.  There are a lot of questions you may have about how to use a mic, so here are some answers:

+ What else should I bring to an interview/sound-grabbing session?

Spare batteries and a spare SD card (which we can provide you with), headphones or earbuds (YOU SHOULD WEAR THESE AT ALL TIMES so you know that you are recording quality sound), possibly a small notebook and pencil to capture details.

+ What do I even do with this thing?  How does it work?

DiSCO has provided a handy tutorial for using a Zoom recorder.  If you have any more questions, talk to DiSCO staff or to me.

+ Where do I hold the mic?

Under the subject’s (or your) chin.  They (or you) should be speaking over the mic.  This reduces those annoying pops when someone hits a consonant.

+ How far away do I hold the mic?

About the length of your palm away.  Don’t hold the mic too close to the mouth, but also don’t hold it too far away.  Practice this before you go out on your first interview/sound gathering session.  (Get ready to prop your elbow up on something if you’re doing a long interview.)

+ How loud should my levels be?

In the above tutorial, Ben Gottfried gives good advice on levels.  Ultimately, however, you will be the best judge of those, as you will have your headphones on and be listening to the sounds you’re recording.  Try not to record too loud, because it is easier for me to amplify sound in editing than to decrease volume.

+ Anything else?

Please, for the love of all that is holy, triple check to make sure the mic is actually recording when you want it to.  Learning that you missed an entire interview is no fun.  (I say this out of personal experience.)  Also, beware of outdoor recording – wind is lethal to quality sound.

 

How Do I Conduct an Interview for Radio?

You got this!  Interviews for radio are a little different than interviews for a newspaper.  First we’ll talk procedure, then some conceptual stuff.

1. Take the guest to a very quiet location, turn your mic on and do a mic check!  This is incredibly important.  While wearing your headphones, ask your guest how they’re doing so you can get proper levels.  If necessary, say some words yourself.  (“Pumpkin spice latte” is a good phrase to test for t- and p-pops, by the way.)
2. Ask for the guest’s name, and make sure you have permission to record them.
3. Ask the guest to speak in complete sentences.  (This will make my life in editing much easier.)  Here’s one way to frame the question:   “Just so you know, I don’t want to use myself asking the questions in the final podcast.  If you could give your answers in complete sentences that would be fantastic.  For example, if I ask, ‘What’s your name?’ you would say, ‘My name is *insert name here*’ and not, ‘*insert name here*.’”
4. Conduct the interview.  (Note you may have to remind them about the complete-sentence thing.  Don’t be shy about doing this.)  Remember that if you make a lot of noise during the interview, it will come through on the tape – keep “mmhmms” and other noises to a minimum.
5. After the interview, record thirty seconds of silence in the room.  (This is also for the benefit of the editor – if I need to insert a pause, it’s easiest to do so from room silence rather than searching for a pause in the interview.)

As for how to interview, rather than blabbering on about what I think, I’ll let the master speak for himself.  This is a short graphic novel about producing a story for This American Life.  Ira Glass describes his interview process from pages 12-16.  Feel free to disagree with some of his points (everyone has a different interviewing style, after all), but most of what he says is spot-on regardless of style.  (And read the rest of the guide if you have time, too.  It’s very helpful for writing your script, and more.)

 

You Keep Talking About How Storytelling for Radio is Unique – How Do I Do That?

Here are some words of wisdom from Peter Frick-Wright and Robbie Carver of The Outside Podcast.  (They work for a magazine and not a news outlet, but these can still be adapted for news stories and are definitely true when working on more creative ventures.)

+ So, what is a story?  We all know that in movies a story is events in an arc that have a problem, and some action.  Storytelling is trying to solve that problem.  What’s important is not necessarily the outcome, but what is important along the way.  We tell stories to transfer information — what important information needs to be transferred in your story?

+ When listening to a story, we value anything we can emotionally invest in, and the ability to relate.  This is why making a connection to listeners is the most important part of telling a story.  Relevant characters and universality is how people remember stories.

+ With radio stories, the central question is “what happened and what did it mean?”  You’re here to figure out what a story means, and your interviewer should say what happened.

+ Give context for your story as early as possible.  From there, every line should be necessary.  What does someone need to know so they know why your story is important?

+ Details highlighted are important.  If you describe something, it can really contribute to the emotional pay-off of a story.

+ One last thing: music can also be a very important contribution to a story.  It can serve as a break between chapters of a story, it can set a mood.  If you want to use music, think about what your goal is.

 

Can I See an Example of a Script?

Sure.  Don’t take this as self-promotion, but here is a script I wrote for a piece about a women’s choir in Portland, OR.  Here is the piece itself for comparison.

 

How Do I Put All of This Together?

Here are some thoughts that have helped me throughout the script-writing process.

+ For radio scripts, get away from a typical “newspaper” or academic writing structure.  Instead, remember that you are telling a story, and we can pull our audience through it.  Leave them hanging sometimes.  Make it a conversation, and be creative.

+ Let your characters (aka the people you’re interviewing) speak for themselves.  (The good news for you is this means less narration!)

+ When looking for quotes for pieces, keep in mind that your audience will tune out after twenty-five seconds or so.  Keep quotes to the juicy parts, and remember that you as narrator can provide us statistics and other foundational information.

+ Remember that this is a unique format, and while the journalism skills you already have will be useful, there are ways to tell a story for radio that are unique from the written word.  How can you do that?

 

How Does Recording Narration Work?

See that lovely script you wrote for yourself?  You get to get your Ira Glass on and read it!  Using your recorder (and the same procedure you used to record interviews and other tape – that means keeping on your headphones, doing a mic check, and recording room silence), simply read through the narration you wrote, taking pauses after each line.  You may feel awkward hearing your own voice, and you may have to do a line over and over again – this is fine and normal!  I won’t judge you (and I’ll be the only one hearing your narration).

Don’t forget to do this in a very quiet space.  An empty classroom works, but you can also find a time your roommate isn’t in, throw a blanket over your head, and read what you wrote then.

 

I Have a Question That Wasn’t Answered Here…

If the Ira Glass comic I linked to earlier doesn’t answer it, try this article about news reporting.  (Actually, read it anyway even if you don’t have a question. It’s so good.)  Otherwise, feel free to talk to me at any point of the process!  Radio is fun, and I’m so glad you’re here.