Ira Glass Storytelling Summary
Ira is explaining to the viewers what makes a good story. He goes through a sequence of actions and moments of reflection. He explains that sequence is the ability to go step by step about what is going on in the story basically beginning, middle, and end. Moment of reflection is the part of the story that gives the readers the why as they’re reading. He explains that a good story has a good set of sequences of actions and moments of reflection. He reiterates that it is okay to fail or not write a good story at first. Ira explains the story is the hardest thing to figure out. Ira also emphasizes the importance of word choice because if you choose the wrong words it could lead to an unorganized story. Ira also explains that being yourself will get more people to listen to you because there is only one way for you to express yourself. Ira describes when you are telling a story to remind yourself that you are in the story too but not as much as the main character. You will be the person in the story questioning the main character to keep the story interesting. There needs to be a balance between the main character and yourself because it needs to be like everyday life with emotions and dialogue. If the story does not have this balance it will make the story boring.
Jad Abumrad Storytelling Summary
Jad Abumrad shares that he loves television because you are able to see and hear what is going on. He explains that the uniqueness of radio allows for people to have to imagine what is going on. If the radio host does their job right it is a remarkable thing to be involved in. Radio is reliant on the human voice which honestly can take on many forms to help people imagine what is going on in the story. It gives the audience a person to person story rather than just a viewer which is more personal.
TED Radio Hour and Scott Lo Summary
How the importance of music and absence of music are very important to the discovery of their purpose. In Detective Stories, it goes to tell a story but the way the radio host captures the sound adds a different layer to the story. The layer of different types of music give the story layers by adding visuals to the audio. They also give the story texture by using footsteps, voice mail, car blinker, and many more. When the radio host added these sounds it brings the listener to the story and it is not just an audio story anymore.
Then in the TED Radio Hour it shares an introduction to the episode. The radio host giving us the sneak peak of the episode intrigues the listening into continuing on with the story. The music allows for it to feel like a documentary about this animal’s story. The pauses on the story allows for the emotions to switch in the story which is very crucial in the process of storytelling. This short introduction gave us a lot to take in at once in terms of learning about the storytelling.
Scottlo begins his episodes in a very personal way he is talking to us. He includes music in the next episode which gives a new sound to understand which I think was a distracting in the beginning. He uses very different audio to transition the bits between different talking sessions. He goes through almost every audio assignment we are given in this class. He gives us tips on how to complete the assignment while also showing us what he had done.
Summary of the “Moon Graffiti”:
Audio Assignments:
Daily Create:
Summary
I struggled to get my creativity moving throughout this week. I loved the “Moon Graffiti” assignment the way they told the story was impeccable and so captivating. I had a challenge thinking of a story to tell in my audio assignment.
My only complaint was that I did not understand Audacity at first but I got the hang of it after messing with it for a while. I feel as though I completed the assignment fairly well given my knowledge of audio editing prior. The only thing that gave me trouble was the creativity portion of the assignment. I enjoyed editing the assignments the most. I learned a lot of things this week starting with Ira description of storytelling. He allowed me to understand that stories need a sequence of action and moment of reflection to ensure the story is well written enough for someone to be captivated by it. I also learned that having that two-way speaking of the story is important so that there are two sides to listen to. If there is only one the story can get lost as almost an interview instead of a story being told. After listening to “Moon Graffiti” allowed me to understand the importance of music and sound effects in a story. It gave another layer to the story that I was not expecting it to achieve which allowed it to become visual without seeing anything. A big issue surrounding my work just like last week was the issue of my grandpa not having wifi in his home. A huge impact that affected me this week was that my grandpa came home so my dad and I were taking care of him. Unfortunately, he passed away today which was very sad but he lived a great life of 87 years. I have been enjoying this course a lot even though at first it was very hard to grasp it has been a joy ever since. I do not think anything was hard in particular in this course but life has been a little rough since this class began. Even though I am not the most creative person I do enjoy being creative in this class.
