Soundslides Group Project Critique

The first group project that I decided to critique was Adrienne and Courtney’s. I liked this project because I enjoy music. I’m not a big fan of country but I can appreciate bands in any genre. I thought it was very interesting that most of the members of High Country aren’t huge fans of country music, it’s kind of interesting when you think about it. I really enjoyed the pictures that they took and I thought they lined up with the audio very well.

One of the things that bugged me about their soundslides project was that the cuts weren’t very smooth. You could hear most of them very clearly. I’m not sure what the rules are about bad language for this assignment, but I did notice some words that wouldn’t be very appropriate if it was on a legitimate news site.

The second group project that I decided to critique was Zachary and Audrey’s. I really liked this project for many reasons. I liked how the first person compared the marching band to a battle. I also thought that they took good pictures and had some good captions.

I noticed that they didn’t have captions for some of their pictures which was kind of disappointing. I also noticed that the pictures and audio didn’t really go together that well. Some of the cuts weren’t very smooth and I liked the fact that they switched around the audio for the three different people they interviewed, but sometimes it was kind of confusing trying to remember who was who.

The last group project that I decided to critique was Dyann and Brooke’s. One of the things that I really liked about this project is that they interviewed players, the coach, and a fan so that they covered all angles for the story. All of the pictures they took were very good and fit well with the story. I also liked how they had background noise during the whole project.

A couple of the cuts were pretty rough, but overall they were good. I couldn’t really find any other bad things about the project. They did very well.

Sound Slides Group Project

We ended up doing our sound slides project on the Laramie Animal Shelter. We talked to Steve Amrine, the supervisor at the shelter, and Gene Lang, a long time employee. We didn’t really come with any questions prepared, we just asked them as we went along and I think it turned out better that way. Working with Tracie was good. I always dread group assignments in classes because it seems like they always go bad for me, but this time was different. Tracie was a good partner.

I had been to the animal shelter before, but Steve gave us a tour because Tracie hadn’t been there before. Even though I had been there before, I still learned new things that were very interesting. While we were doing the tour, Steve told us about a lot of the cats being sick (I can’t remember what it was called) and that they had a lot of cats die recently, so that was pretty sad. Unfortunately, we weren’t recording at the time so we couldn’t add it to our sound slides.

When it came to putting everything together, the SoundSlides program made it really easy. We just added the pictures, added the audio, and the program made it really easy to move the pictures around so we could match them to the audio.

One of the problems we had during the interview was the audio recorder memory card ran out of room and stopped. We were kind of panicking because we didn’t know how long it was stopped for, but it ended up only cutting off the very end of the interview so that was a relief. If I had to change something with this project I would have had the door closed for the room we were in during the interview, there was a lot of background noise (dogs, radios, etc.) and it was hard trying to work around that when editing.

If you want to watch/listen to our SoundSlides project, click here.

3 Soundslide Story Ideas

I am about to do a soundslide project and I came up with a few ideas for a story.

A Story About The Daily Life Of An ASTEC Coordinator

I would like to do a story about the daily life of the ASTEC Coordinator, Andrew Hays. I would focus on a what his typical work day is like, some challenges that he faces in his job and what it takes to be the ASTEC Coordinator. I thinkt this story is Newsworthy because people might not have even heard of ASTEC before and this would give them a chance to find out about it. An obvious source would be Andrew. I could also talk to a couple of the employees to get some additional information.

A Music Story About Being In A Band

I have a couple of friends that are in a band in Ft. Collins, CO and I think it would be interesting to do a story about what it’s like being in a band. Some topics could include: how to form a band, some challenges and setbacks of being in a band and how to get the word out about your band. I think that people would like a story like this because who hasn’t wanted to be in a band at some point in their life? I think people would take an interest in this kind of story. As I mentioned before I have friends in bands and they could be used as sources.

A Story About The Laramie Animal Shelter

I think it would be interesting to do a story about the Laramie animal shelter. I think that interviewing some of the shelter employees and maybe a person that has adopted an animal from the shelter would make for an interesting story. This story would interest people because the majority of people like animals and a story about an animal shelter would maybe pull on some heart strings. As I mentioned above, sources for the story could be shelter employees and people that have adopted an animal from the shelter.

Audio Profile Critique

The class is done with the audio profiles and we were asked to pick three to critique.

The first audio profile that I critiqued was Zachary Callaghan’s. I thought this profile was pretty interesting. However, I didn’t feel like it went far enough as far as the way the person felt about soccer and his own personal feelings. It described more of how he participates in soccer. I think the profile would have been a bit more interesting if it talked about his feelings for the sport and his passion for soccer. The cuts and edits sounded very good to me. I think some ambient noise would have helped add a little more to the profile.

The second audio profile that I critiqued was Tom Hesse’s. I really enjoyed this profile. The trip to San Fransisco sounded like tons of fun. I think the cuts and edits could have been done a little better. I think that adding some kind of ambient noise could have helped the cuts sound a little better. Another thing that kind of annoyed me was a high pitched noise in the background during the whole profile. The average person might not be able to hear it as well, but having a job in sound kind of helps point out those kinds of things. Overall, the profile sounded good and was very interesting.

The thirds audio profile that I critiqued was Cameron Patey’s. I thought this profile was pretty boring. It doesn’t really go in depth about why he chose to become an English major and the poem that is read seems like it was only there as filler. I also had to crank the volume way up just to hear what the person was saying, the sensitivity should have been adjusted on the recorder. I thought the transitions were pretty good. Overall, the profile was boring and dull.

Edited Audio Profile

Here is my final, edited audio profile.

Edited Audio Profile by nbehnke

I found the editing of my audio profile to be a bit challenging at times, but overall it wasn’t too bad. I had some trouble adjusting the volume levels of the clip of the children playing in the background. I did this because I wanted to clip to play for the whole profile but I needed it to be at about half volume when Jessica was talking.

I learned quite a bit during my editing. Splitting everything up and cutting things out wasn’t very challenging, it was just time consuming. I also learned that adding background noise isn’t too difficult of a process.

I really enjoyed putting this audio profile together. It really shows you a lot about a person when it’s all done. I also enjoyed the feeling of accomplishment. One thing that I didn’t enjoy was having to cut out a lot of good material from the interview. It’s tough taking a 5 minute interview and cutting it to 2 minutes.

The only thing that really surprised me during the whole process is how hard it was to cut out information from the interview. I feel like 2 minutes wasn’t enough time to squeeze everything in.

There are a couple of things that I wish I could have done differently. First of all, I wish I had told the person I interviewed to answer the questions with the question in the answer. It would have made the final profile sound much better. I also wish that I would have asked fewer questions so the final profile was easier to cut to 2 minutes.

I also wish the interview went a little smoother. There were a lot of “um’s” and “uh’s” that I had to edit out of the final profile.

Audio Profile

Here is my unedited audio profile.

Audio Profile by nbehnke

I enjoyed doing this assignment because it gave me a chance to learn about recording someone. Overall, it was a good experience. It was kind of awkward at first, but I enjoyed it.

I learned quite a bit from this assignment. I learned that anyone can have an interesting story if you dig deep enough. I also learned about the kinds of questions needed for an audio profile.

I wouldn’t have done anything different for the interview. Overall, it went very good and I enjoyed it.

The part I enjoyed the most about this was getting to know more information about the person I interviewed. The thing I enjoyed the least was trying to find good questions to ask.

Ambient Noise

We also had to record ambient noise, which consisted of noise from outside, an apartment or house, and in an office or classroom.

Car Starting by nbehnke

This was my fiancée starting her car. I recorded it outside of our apartment complex. I think that this sound could be used in many different audio journalism stories. It could be used in an audio journalism story about the “Cash for Clunkers” program. Or maybe it could be used for a story about whether or not used car really are in decline.

Tea Pot Whistling by nbehnke

This was the sound of a boiling tea pot whistling. It was recorded inside of my apartment. Perhaps it could be used in an audio journalism story about a tea company, such as Celestial Seasonings. Or maybe it could be used in a story about the benefits of drinking tea.

Flipping Pages by nbehnke

This is the sound of my boss flipping the pages in a book. It was recorded in the ASTEC office. It could be used in an audio journalism story about a library. It could also be used for a story about the literacy of the United States.

Microwave by nbehnke

This is the sound of a microwave starting and stopping. It was recorded inside of my apartment. It could be used in an audio journalism story about whether people prefer to use microwaves or stove-top ovens. It could also be used for a story about obesity in the United States.

Toilet Flushing by nbehnke

This is the sound of a toilet being flushed. It was recorded inside of my apartment. I thought it would add a bit of humor to my posts. Perhaps it could be used in an audio journalism story about the benefits of indoor plumbing. Or maybe it could be used for a story about jobs getting “flushed down the toilet.”

Counting to 10

For this assignment, we had to count to 10 out of order and then edit them so that they were in the right order. The purpose of the assignment was to familiarize ourselves with the free audio editing program, Audacity. Instead of using Audacity, I used the free program Reaper to edit my files. Here are the files:

Original Counting by nbehnke

Edited Counting by nbehnke

I thought this assignment was pretty easy. I’ve had previous audio editing experience, so this assignment was a piece of cake.

Audio Journalism

I picked 3 audio journalism stories to critique.

The first story I picked was Mark Mocha: The Ex-Bank Robber from the New York Times. Mark describes his experience as a bank robber. He explains that he went into the bank many time but it took him a while to actually go through with robbing the bank. He also says that he took his wife on vacation after he robbed the bank and that she had no idea what was going on. He eventually went to prison and he explains that when he got out, he noticed his prison instincts coming out in every day life. What I really like about this story is that he had the courage to come out and say that he was a bank robber. I thought the journalist did a good job of showing Mark for who he is. The fact the the journalist didn’t say anything really appealed to me. There wasn’t really anything that I didn’t like about the story.

The second story I picked was In Germany, Voices Against Immigration Grow Louder. It basically explains that many Germans are complaining about the amount of Muslim immigrants coming into the country. I thought that the story was very interesting because there seemed to be a parallel between this immigration issue in Germany and the immigration issue in the United States. But, instead of Muslim’s, Mexican’s are the focus. It seemed like the same rhetoric used here was being used in Germany as well, mainly by the conservative Christian political party. The journalists in the story were OK. I didn’t feel that they brought much to the story except for basically explaining it. Overall, I thought the story was very good and I liked the fact that I could relate to it in some way.

The third story I picked was Pro-Gay Groups ‘Desperate’ For Obama To Take Action. This story explains that gay rights activists are angry at President Obama because of his failure to repeal the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy. This story was very interesting because it pointed out that a lot of these people voted for Obama in hopes that he would do more when it comes to gay rights, but these people feel let down by the lack of progress President Obama has done. I didn’t really like the journalist in this story because her voice just wasn’t very appealing to me and I thought that she could have talked a little less.

Web Reporting Project Critique

The three stories I have chosen to critique are Life in the Music Department, Religious Studies Professor Enjoys Working With Students, Learning as He Teaches, and A Ride Along With George Gladney and Patrick Schmiedt Across the Field of Journalism.

I learned a lot about these stories and a lot about different professors at the University of Wyoming. One thing that I really liked about the first story was that she took the time to ask the office assistant some questions. I liked that she went out of the way to complete the story.

One thing I liked about the second story was the fact that it was very well written. Brad did a very good job at writing the story and piecing the whole thing together. The last story was pretty good too. One thing I liked about it was the fact that she interviewed a second person for the story. This added to the story detail to the story and helped it significantly.

I thought the first story was excellent and didn’t have any major issues that I could find. The second story was also done very well, but some of the pictures weren’t as good as they could have been. The third story had enough information, but there were several grammatical errors and the pictures could have been a little more diverse.

I learned a lot about this assignment. One very important thing that I learned is to make sure you asked more than enough questions so you don’t have to go back later and ask more. I also learned that I need to take more pictures and figure out ways to take pictures and make them interesting.

If you would like to check out the story I wrote, click here.