#howsound

From Rob Rosenthal/How Sound - What the hell is a story, anyway?

ACTION - CHARACTER - CONFLICT - RESOLUTION

A story is a sequence of events where a character encounters a challenge and attempts to overcome it.

-From Writing for Story, by Jon Franklin)

Scene Setting

Paint a picture.

Who are you? Where are you? What does it look like? What are you doing?

Start a Thread/Sequence of Events (this will run through the whole piece)

Raise the stakes.

Insert tension, friction, and conflict.

Make the audience wonder what comes next.

A little TWIST (rising tension).

Denouement - release the tension

Conclusion

Moment of reflection.

So What? Why tell this story?

A B D C E

Action

Background

Development

Climax

Ending

Create a FOCUS SENTENCE: Someone (CHARACTER) does something (ACTOIN) because (DEVELOPMENT), but (CONFLICT)...

Think about what moments/places you need to RECORD to capture those elements of the story. Make your to do list BEFORE you go out.

From NPR's Scene Chart Grid:

SCENE 1

Idea: What is the main purpose of this scene?

Character(s):

Setting:

Action:

SCENE 2

Idea:

Character(s)

Setting:

Action:

Great example of this - Joe Richmond's Radio Diaries

Josh's Diaries: Tourette's

SCENE 1

Idea: I have tourette's - what is normal, what is not?

Character(s): Josh, Josh's mom

Setting: kitchen

Action: getting ready for school

SCENE 2

Idea: How does Josh behaves, as a teenager?

Character(s): Josh, guy on the phone

Setting: Josh's bedroom

Action: prank calls

SCENE 3

Idea: What do his friends (girls) think?

Character(s): Josh, friends, Sophie

Setting: school

Action: talking to friends

What happens if you don't have one or more of these elements? David Isay says in order to have a story without a narrative hook you need:

sharp images

strong characterization (great voices - "She lived in her voice.")

anecdotes/little stories

take us to a unique place

via @howsoundtweets: Chorus of Refuge

Once you’ve finished producing a story, what are you supposed to do with all the tape? Just let it sit on a shelf?

Some producers will re-purpose their interviews — turn them into a print piece or maybe fashion a new radio story. Producers Kara Oehler and Ann Heppermann, along with Jason Cady, a composer, created something very different. They re-purposed tape and made sound art. I’m sure someone’s done that before, but, frankly, I can’t think of it.

The piece they produced is “Chorus of Refuge” and it’s a song comprised of interviews collected for Ann and Kara’s series on Weekend America called “One Thing.” Originally, “Chorus of Refuge” was intended for museum installations where six radios played six interviews broadcast from six transmitters all at once. HowSound doesn’t have six-channel surround sound so we’re featuring the stereo mix — just two channels, left and right.

During a recent interview, Ann and Jason cited a handful of creative influences that inspired “Chorus of Refuge” most notably the groundbreaking radio documentary from Glenn Gould, “The Idea of North.” Ann also named sound artist Janet Cardiff while Jason says he had Renaissance music like Palestrina: Missa Papae Marcelli, Gloria in mind as well as the poetry of Jackson Mac Low and Emmett Williams, both of whom wrote poems to be read by two or more people simultaneously.

So, be prepared. This HowSound will stretch your ears. That’s a good thing!