Second Note: Never talk about men/women I'd bring home to said Smart House if my significant other will be listening to my online podcast. Unless they're into that sort of thing. But they're probably (definitely) not.
Third Note: Never tell a woman "Its not a big deal" and "Calm down" unless you really have a death wish.
-Rebecca Irons, Common Sense Expert
PODCASTS. RADIO SHOWS. AUDIO STORIES. How funny that my life is crunching together like this. My graduated friends just put out their first Podcast online at smorgasboardwalk.com (shameless plug) and I was just listening to it this morning before sitting down to write this blog. I noticed some interesting things BUT FIRST I will address the assigned materials THEN go to infinity and beyond by making interesting connections.
Ira Glass
Ira Glass claims that there are two main building blocks to any audio story: the Anecdote and the Moment of Reflection.
- Anecdote: Put very simply this is the actual story. It is the sequence of actions in the story - this happened, then this happened, I thought this, she said that, I stabbed her, she died, the end. This sequence of events formula creates momentum in the story, even if it is the most boring events or actions ever. There was momentum in my example until the exciting part happened at the end of it.
- Moment of Reflection: This is the point of the story. The lesson, the main idea. Why does the story matter? If there is no moment of reflection, the anecdote is worthless because it means nothing. You have to have both a good anecdote and a quality moment of reflection to be truly successful in your story telling.
Some of the other really interesting and important things (in my opinion) that Ira Glass said were:
- You trash a lot of what you write/get. AND everyone is Disappointed in their first works, or even if you're not disappointed, its most likely not very good. (Kind of like when you tell us that our first draft is never as good as a second attempt, Heagney)
- If you're not failing all the time, you're not doing enough to get lucky. (This one is exceptionally poignant to me. Holy cannoli.)
Radio Lab
Radio Lab - telling stories in different ways. These guys were nuts but hilarious and probably geniuses. Their plan of attack when producing a podcast story is to start at the beginning. A logical place to start. Good. That's just about where normal ends.
Their beginning starts in a place of unknowing. As they move into the story, they begin to learn and understand and "know" a little more. Then they end with an "uhhh", and unsure knowing and/or unknowing. This cycle, while wild and unstructured, allows for ultimate creativity and you can tell these men enjoy it.
VERSUS IRA GLASS v.s. RADIO LAB
For This American Life, the intro was brief. There was a fun story to pull the listener into the show. This was followed by a brief outline of what would be talked about on that specific show. The background music was a little funky and trippy (apparently "trippy" isn't a word according to Blogger, but it is the most appropriate word I can think of to describe the out-of-this-world quality of the music being used), but perhaps that was just for the specific episode I listened to about animals and their impact on humans. There didn't seem to be a lot of background noise, maybe some car sounds at one point to make it sound like the host was still on location with the story subject, even though he was talking about the subject in past tense. The background noise and music led the host directly into excerpts from the actual interview which made it really compelling and interesting to listen to.
Similarly, for Radio Lab, the intro music was also a little trippy sounding. But before the intro music, we had advertisements to support the radio show. Back to the trippy music. The into is a little crazy. And it led nicely into the topic of the podcast which was on sort of strange music. The hosts were a lot more relaxed during this show than in This American Life. The background music came from the woman that they were talking about during the first story. Behind the hosts talking, you can hear the audio clips from the interviews starting to speak until the hosts cut out and the audio clip is the main focus and the loudest sound. This layering effect was really cool, I really liked the effect it made and the different levels of emphasis.
VERSUS IRA GLASS v.s. RADIO LAB
For This American Life, the intro was brief. There was a fun story to pull the listener into the show. This was followed by a brief outline of what would be talked about on that specific show. The background music was a little funky and trippy (apparently "trippy" isn't a word according to Blogger, but it is the most appropriate word I can think of to describe the out-of-this-world quality of the music being used), but perhaps that was just for the specific episode I listened to about animals and their impact on humans. There didn't seem to be a lot of background noise, maybe some car sounds at one point to make it sound like the host was still on location with the story subject, even though he was talking about the subject in past tense. The background noise and music led the host directly into excerpts from the actual interview which made it really compelling and interesting to listen to.
Similarly, for Radio Lab, the intro music was also a little trippy sounding. But before the intro music, we had advertisements to support the radio show. Back to the trippy music. The into is a little crazy. And it led nicely into the topic of the podcast which was on sort of strange music. The hosts were a lot more relaxed during this show than in This American Life. The background music came from the woman that they were talking about during the first story. Behind the hosts talking, you can hear the audio clips from the interviews starting to speak until the hosts cut out and the audio clip is the main focus and the loudest sound. This layering effect was really cool, I really liked the effect it made and the different levels of emphasis.
Smorgas Boardwalk
Here is where I make connections to my real life - interested? You should be.
Three of my friends who graduated last year put out their first podcast today. Their show is called Smorgas Boardwalk (they're kind of clever and funny. It makes sense that they're my friends, birds of a feather and all). Their podcast was on Smart House (that Disney movie) and Pirates (just pirate jokes, all the pirate jokes). What they were missing was a lot of what Radio Lab and This American Life has. There was no Moment of Reflection. The conversation was good because it was funny, but it didn't really mean anything. I don't know if I would even call it an anecdote, because there wasn't really much action. Their intro and outro music was neat and fun, another one of our mutual friends made it, but they had no music during their show and no background audio clips. The background of the show was eerily quiet like floating voices. Maybe that's good, maybe not. I'm not an expert. Basically, these guys need to follow Ira Glass' advice and keep making podcasts and recordings because with practice, they will get better.
(I would like to explain that today's Rebecca Irons quote is a reaction to this Podcast, in which one host makes the severe mistake of talking about his potentially plentiful "romantic" escapades in a Smart House and then his significant other listened to the online show. Yikes.)
Congrats on Baby Heagney! He looks so sweet and peaceful and not Gollum-like, unlike most babies. I'm impressed with him already.
Most Babies:
Baby Ezra Fox Heagney:
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