Reflection on Audio Storytelling
Audio storytelling has the ability to change the way the listener perceives the world around them. Having a person tell a story can create a connection between the listener and narrator, which leaves a huge impact. “Audio storytelling is a potent agent for stimulating human emotion, memory, and imagination.” (Jar Audio).
I also found this TED talk, which talks about the societal impact of audio storytelling, which is a huge part of human history and current connection. Many people listen to podcasts or, in the past, radio to keep up with current events, and other topics that they were interested in. This created a sense of community and bonding between those, sometimes, all over the world.
Reflection on listening to a podcast
“Spooked” is a podcast that features real stories, told by the people themselves, this particular episode being about the narrator’s nephew, who was a baby at the time, and how he interacted with an entity in his room. This provides a sense of authenticity to the story, and also allows for the teller to convey details such as emotions, and the way they want the story to be told. The producer used music to set the tone for the story, including multiple fade ins and outs to create suspense. The music goes on for several minutes, switching between different music, to create contrast.
The choices in tone of voice was the technique that stood out the most to me as a listener. This podcast didn’t follow one of the pieces of advice in Ira Glass’s series: talk like an average person, rather than over- dramatizing or using a “broadcast” voice. It is possible that the reason why this person chose to do this, was to match the suspense and drama in the story itself. It seemed to be very expressive of the tone of the podcast. This article that I read when researching the topic of audio storytelling.
My Own Audio Storytelling Creations
Oral History of a Famous Chilean
In the oral history of Pedro Pascal, I used the applause sound effect in the part when I mentioned his awards and nominations to add effect of the achievement.
Sounds of Public Transport
In the story, I used three background sounds: background conversation, birds chirping, and a fountain. As each of these things were mentioned in the story, I included them when relevant. I used the fade in and out feature for the sounds, to give the effect of me getting closer or further away.
A Trip to Chile Through Sound
In the following story, I used three background sounds: background conversation, birds chirping, and a fountain. As each of these things were mentioned in the story, I included them when relevant. I used the fade in and out feature for the sounds, to give the effect of me getting closer or further away.
Daily Create
This week’s daily create focused on the metaphorical meanings of color and the lack of. This connects to the unit of sound because that is also about conveying meaning beyond what is obvious. Sometimes it takes multiple experiences to understand the layers to a project. Just like “darkness” can mean more than the physical absence of light, sound can be used to convey a different meaning beyond what is first heard by the listener.
Summary of the Audio Unit
From this unit on sound, I learned that sound not only supports images like we learned in our visual unit, but enhances the design of the story that it is conveying, as I learned in the design unit. Instead of thinking of these forms of media as separate, I now think of them as connected to create a cohesive project. I’m glad that I learned about these forms in the order I did, because it felt like building blocks, as Ira Glass mentioned in the series on storytelling.
At first, I didn’t understand what he meant by “building blocks” because I didn’t think of all of these aspects as being parts of a whole, but when I started the assignment on Audacity, I saw the different features and sound effects I added, and how they came together to create something unique and whole. I can see how this will be very useful when doing the interview assignment when we are in Chile, to pull all of the aspects together to form not only a finished, but polished product from those interviews.