2. Audio slideshow project
• Audio slideshow storytelling is two tasks in one: a slideshow, and a
news story. In this class, you will learn two skills: how to create an
audio slideshow, and how to tell a story using visual narrative
techniques.
• Skill needed:
1. Taking & editing photos
2. Conduct interview
3. Editing sound and pace
4. Verbal narration
3. Why audio slideshow?
• Slideshow is one of the oldest forms of multimedia reporting, dating
back to 1800.
• There are many reasons why journalists still use slideshow for
storytelling. For example, video can be too obtrusive.
• Best part may be that it tells story with pauses and time for reflection,
letting ambient noise and images linger for emphasis.
• Video can give you some of these results, but audio slideshows
provide a further level of emphasis, detail and intimacy with the
subject matter.
4. Requirement of your story assignment
1. Photos: Even 5 pictures make a story. Examples we saw were over
20. I ask you to do at least 7 photos.
2. Time: 1:30 to 2 minutes is the standard.
3. Audio: at least one interview other than yourself. More than 3
different types audio files.
*Examples of audio: narration, interview, music, natural sound, sound
track from other media.
4. Titles and captions.
5. Photos should have movements (pan & zoom). Do not distribute the
same time for all pictures.
5. Other recommendations.
• Audio recording is clear and noise-free.
• Audio interview demonstrates interview techniques (open-ended
questions, interviewee repeating questions, no closed-ended
questions).
• All photos are properly framed (composition, frame).
• Has a proper mixture of shots to build a sequence (wide, medium,
close-up, etc.).
7. Shaping stories: You may find ideas but they are
not stories .
• Structure: Stories are presented in narrative styles. Typically they have
beginning –middle – end.
• Set up: characters, location, time and other elements.
-in a way that allows events to unfold so that audience wants to know
more and more about it
-tell how are your characters are affected
-how they develop a solution (or not) and finally where they go
from there.
• Decide audience and tailor your story accordingly.
8. Narrative stories v. Reports
(Pyramid) (Reverse pyramid)
*Freytag’s Pyramid: originally developed to analyzed Greek and Roman plays.
Exposition: Introduction to the characters, the conflict and basic setting.
Rising action: More detail. Reveal the nature of the conflict.
Climax: the moment of greatest tension. Turning point for better or worse.
Falling action: heading to the conclusion. Sometimes continued tension.
Denouement: where complications are resolved and the story comes to end.
*Compare it with the reverse pyramid.
9. In our projects most stories will be
shaped according to 3 act principle.
Storytellers think of story structure as three act play (Means
recommended by the instructor).
Act 1. Introduce your characters. Let us meet them. Show location
and time. Give a reason why we should care about them.
Act 2. Reveal the complication. Usually the longest part of the story.
Let the complication intensify.
Act 3. Resolve the complication. And finish the story in a satisfying
way. What choices were made in the crisis?
10. Point of view (POV)
• First-person POV: e.g. Greys anatomy. Many of bio videos.
• Second-person POV: Direct address by the actors to the audience.
e.g. Think of on-spot TV anchors.
• Third-person POV: Most common in storytelling. Audience are
detached observers.
• Character POV: One character is dominant in a series of stories. e.g.
sit com Seinfeld.
• Conflicting POV: Mixture of different point of view.
11. Exercise: identifying structure and POV
• “Hungry: Living with the Prader-Willi Syndrome”
Identify the three part acts.
https://vimeo.com/5717103
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5BSpxvqL2A
• Sofa by Wayne Richard
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPrnDD51Y5s&list=PL7AC307C5
535EF045
13. Types of camera shots.
To build a complete story, you have to capture different aspects of an
object using a series of different shots – wide shot (WS), medium shot
(MS), Close-up (CU), Reaction shot (RS), Point of view (POV), and
others.
Here are types of camera shots from mediacollege.com. Please
understand and study each type.
• http://www.mediacollege.com/video/shots/
14. 5 shot rule: This is an example of 5 sequence storytelling illustrated by
Poynter institute.
Shot 1. The scene setter
• Use Wide shot or Extreme wide
shot.
• Where is your story taking place?
• What does it look like?
• What is the mood of the place?
(Think of audio to go with it)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feat
ure=player_embedded&v=N_3m52fz
BV0
15. Shot 2: Connect the character
• Use Medium shot
• The spot of your action
• The character connects with the
setting.
• The area of the building or town
where your subjects are.
• This shot narrows your story’s
field of view and should bring
you closer in
16. Shot 3: the portrait
• Close up
• Who is your main subject and
what does he or she look like?
• This can be a traditional head
and shoulders shot or a wider
shot that shows surroundings.
• It’s always best to take a variety
of portrait shots.
17. Shot 4. Capturing detail.
• Extreme close up shot
• Detail shots work especially well
for transitions, but can have great
storytelling potential all their own.
• What are the pictures on someone’s
desk? What books are they reading?
What’s that post card they have
tacked to the wall?
• All of these things tell us a little bit
about our subject.
18. Shot 5: capturing action
• Medium close up, Over the
shoulder, or point of view shot.
• Action shots show your subject
doing something — this shot may
be your theme.
• This is the shot some photographers
spend an entire shoot trying to
perfect, often amounting to the
same shot being taken 30 times.
• Photos of your subject in action are
essential in your story.
19. Next step: plan the storytelling.
• As a producer, once you have a concept, you need to find a way to
finance its production.
1. determine the essential content and structure of the story and the
best way to treat the story
2. determine the best audience/market for your story
3. develop a sales presentation for the story.
20. Narration & sound
• Not too much narration. Its essence is conveying a sense of space,
shifting time and place, and atmosphere.
• A good audio slideshow makes extensive use of sound effects. Look
around, see and hear the local circumstances. If the sounds are
relevant, use them as a deliberate feature. In a forest, for example, you
might use the sounds of moving through the trees.
• When on location there will always be some background sound. This
could be the hum of an office or a noisy street scene. Make sure you
record plenty of this, even if you do not think you need it.
21. Audio is very important. Interviews and
sounds lets you tell powerful stories.
Example of story where natural
sound is crucial.
• Desperate journey
http://kobreguide.com/video/?pare
nt=7488&meta=22870
Example of story where music
crucial.
• The magic castle
https://vimeo.com/13533092
22. Interviews
• Limit the interviewees to three or four. And leave room for the
ambient noise, sound effects and music.
• In general, collect only about 40 minutes of material for four
interviews, excluding ambient noise and sound effects. This should
give plenty to choose from, leaving unused but interesting material for
other features or as stand-alone interviews.
23. Exercise: Give response to following
slideshows.
• Local issue: Seattle art community evacuated by city project (U of
Washington)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYsHLKqbPfo
Student project
1. To make the story more interesting, what kind of sound would you
use more? For example, interview, narration or natural sound?
2. What kind of photo shots would you use more?
3. What kind of information would you add to the story?
24. <Work flow>
1. Gather material and research
2. Write a script (check a sample file)
3 Choose your location
4 Gather natural sound + Take a wide shot photo
5 Prepare your subject
• Take medium shot photo
• Try delayed recording : some rehearsing needed.
• Mark the best spots, find operative words for recording.
6 Get action shots
7 Add narration. Add music sound or photo
8 Edit with software (Adobe Premiere)
25. Editing
1. Overall structure of the story
2. Edit audio file first in most cases.
3. Movement and pace: Photo sequencing. Zoom and Pan.
4. Play around with the structure. Begin with the ending and end with
the beginning.
26. Movement
• We don’t want the slideshow to consist entirely of stills, but we don’t
want it to be all moving pictures either. Use a few stills in a segment,
followed by a segment of moving pictures, followed by another still
segment, and this pattern repeats till the end.
• Bad example https://youtu.be/ypMF0kmsKDI
• Extreme case. No more than three or four photos (still or moving) in
one group.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=4MaGX
mBKxBE
27. Links to example and free sources.
• Good place to find professional audio slide
http://journalists.org/2011/12/22/social-shares-top-audio-photo-
slideshows-chosen-by-onas-community/
• Make use of free music sites.
E.g., http://freemusicarchive.org/music
• Collaborative work
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkGIsjcc2N8
28. More student work examples
• Introducing lifestyle
https://9f3c6c519eb2c191f64d8d4f982b551fb528dda0
.googledrive.com/host/0B8_BOkL-
3AyFMGRzRVBPcmdIUTQ/index.html
• Introducing an academic cause
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z34Xz-
tmZrE&feature=youtu.be
• Business
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvbXRAiPkTA
• Introducing activism or movement
With Love XOXO
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xn_237DauL0&fe
ature=youtu.be
• Share food
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xn_237DauL0&fe
ature=youtu.be
30. Before recording interviews…
• New York's wiretapping law is a "one-party consent" law. New York
makes it a crime to record to record or eavesdrop on an in-person or
telephone conversation unless one party to the conversation consents.
N.Y. Penal Law §§ 250.00, 250.05.
• If you operate in New York, you may record a conversation or phone call
if you are a party to the conversation or you get permission from one
party to the conversation in advance. If you intend to record
conversations involving people located in more than one state, you
should play it safe and get the consent of all parties.
• Poynter institute guide.
http://www.poynter.org/uncategorized/70385/think-before-you-
record
31. Digital recorder may be the first choice
-Request a digital recorder that can easily
transfer sound files (MP3 and/or WMA
format) to a computer with a built-in USB
slider. ,
-The department has Olympus recorder
shown right.
-If you are at an event, this equipment
can record many people’s voice at one
time.
32. Using smartphones as a portable audio
recorder
• Free recording apps: iTalk by Griffin Technology and Recorder Plus HD by
Turbokey Studio (both available from the iTunes store; they also work on
iPads). Android users can check out Easy Voice Recorder by Digipom and
Sound Recorder by Needom Studio.
• The apps turn smartphone into a recording device, useful when you are
conducting in-person interviews. Dozens of other free and paid recording
apps are available in the iTunes store and Google Play.
• Be sure to change the settings to to Airplane Mode so you are not
interrupted by phone calls and other notifications during your interview.
• BBC’s tips
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/academy/journalism/article/art20130702112133
386
33. Using equipments for smartphones
• An external mic can help improve sound quality of your recordings.
If you are conducting an interview where there is a lot of
competing noise, an external mic will help. Many microphones are
geared for musicians and may be overkill for your purposes.
• Although most smartphones have a 3.5mm jack, it really doesn’t
limit the microphones you can use. A Pearstone OLM-10
Omnidirectional Lavalier Microphone with a 1/8″ (3.5mm) Stereo
Mini Plug is widely in use by journalists. under $25).
• It good to have an external charger available. Mophie Juice Pack
has the rechargeable external battery housed in a protective case
for the phone.
34. Using Smartphone to record a phone
interview
• iPhone and other smartphones with applications fully record an
outgoing call and an incoming call.
• Examples of apps.
Iiphone: TAPEACALL, Call Recorder, Call Recording, and
CallRec.me.
Android: Record My Call: Call Recorder that you can find on
Google Play.
• https://www.journalism.co.uk/news/5-apps-for-journalists-to-
record-phone-interviews/s2/a565782
35. Skype
• Skype is probably the most affordable and well-known video calling
service. Also, there are apps that integrate into Skype that let you
record incoming and outgoing calls. Call Recorder for Skype (Mac
only) There are dozens of similar apps available from Skype’s website.
• Skype is really good all-around service, but, before using it for phone
or video interviews, understand that some call quality issues that may
flare up occasionally.
36. Google Voice
• Google Voice is a free voice-over
Internet protocol that works on
most smartphones, landlines or
cellphones.
• Best of all for us, Google Voice
makes it possible to record
interviews with any phone, and
promptly delivers .mp3 files into
your in-box, which can be
downloaded, emailed, and more.
• The .mp3 files produced by Google
Voice can then be imported into
Adobe Audition and many other
editing programs.
