Shameless self promotion: audio
My persistent pleas to include audio with selected stories have been answered. Here is my second audio piece for the Skagit Valley Herald:
On their toes: One dance school’s desperate search for “The Nutcracker” Prince
Check out some of my old audio from my site (anything from my podcasts section, the further down the older it is page moved due to transition to Wordpress, 7-17-08, visit clips section instead and look for the audio icon). I’ve come a long way. The Western Washington SPJ group has held trainings throughout the fall here, and I’ve learned a lot by attending the sessions.
As far as audio goes, natural sound is the biggest change I’ve added to my audio productions, and I feel it makes a world of difference. I’ve also gotten more used to using a more conversational tone instead of that br o ke n up, highly enunciated, stiff voice that I use in some of my older productions.
My first audio for the SVH was here, about a high-school computer building class. It was a test run for editors to see how long it would take to produce the piece. (I’m not sure how long the links will last, but the Nutcracker one is better anyway.)
For the record, the first one took me about three hours from start to finish, with absolutely know knowledge of how to use Garageband (though I’ve used Audacity before). The second one, probably about 1 hour 45 minutes, but that also includes writing the broadcast script and making notes so I can write a Garageband and Switch tutorial for staff who hope to also do audio extras for their stories.
I am really, extremely excited about this and I hope I can continue to do more audio, and eventually video, for the paper. The more ways to tell a story the better, but of course, make for darn sure that you do it properly.