I am completing my last week at KBIA, NPR affiliate, this week. I have really enjoyed my time there. I am thinking that I would like to work there as part of my editing class next semester. Just the atmosphere is greatly different from KOMU (the NBC affiliate). It has a laid-back nature, but everyone is working on what they need to. It is a smaller newsroom with more opportunities to work on stories. In the coming months, I would like to work on longer-form stories with tons of natural sound.
Yesterday I worked on a story out of Boonville about a development issue. It was more complicated than most stories that I work on just because I have no background knowledge of development issues. I read a previous article 3 times to try to comprehend the issues. A reporter needs to know about a lot, or at least learn how to understand… I LEARNED how to understand more about development. Listen to it here
Newsroom week
March 11th, 2008The Best Radio Host in America
March 10th, 2008Our convergence class hooked us up with some freebies—including a free ticket to Ira Glass, host of This American Life. My friend from Lawrence was in town and we ventured to Jesse Hall together. It was great because he opened with his voice among the darkness. He said that he tried to persuade the producers of the show to have the entire show in darkness. They told him that maybe that would fly in Lawrence, Kans., but not here.
It was one of the most inspiring performances/ speakers that I have ever witnessed. We are just about halfway through the semester, which means that I am incredibly burned out with pretty much everything. Thus, to hear from someone who has the same perspective on journalism and his own formula for making it work, I was enthralled. Journalism can be about people and life, not just hard news.
Glass talked about how he got into radio. And what was really amusing about it was he played one of his radio stories eight years in that was self-admittedly really awful. It is okay to suck, at least initially. And it may take awhile to find that voice. He then shared his formula for a great story, which includes motion. There is always a bigger “thing” in his stories. Everything moves in that story to a greater thing—clues or information or something that is essential to the story. He also mentioned that there can be a little something in a story that is just there purely for the enjoyment of the journalist or highlighting the humor lightheadedness of life.
Among his advice to aspiring journalists, he played some interesting and FUNNY stories. One of his stories that I really enjoyed was when he went to the Oreo cookie factory, he was actually surprised that it smelled, well, like cookies since he was so used to Oreos being a processed food. Who knew that Oreos smelled like cookies. Only Ira Glass.
A radio week
March 6th, 2008I love public radio. I have always loved public radio from listening to Morning Edition before school to Car Talk on Saturday Mornings. The dial was always tuned into NPR, and I continue to love it and wake up to it. That is why I was super excited for my shift at KBIA as part of the convergence reporting class.
The first shift, I worked on a day turn story. The most challenging part was figuring out how to record a phone conversation on the phones. It is fairly simple if you push record. I didn’t. Needless to say, I had to do the interview again. Not the most pleasant experience, but good for me to learn. I feel like I learn by mistakes more than anything else.
Also, I pitched another idea about the volunteers for True/False Film Festival and was able to work on it. The most important thing about this class is coming up with solid story ideas (and a lot of them). I really enjoyed working on this story and talking to the volunteers. I got some killer natural sound (nat sound as they say in the radio world) and some interesting characters to highlight. The piece turned out well. Give it a listen.
True/False Film Fest
March 4th, 2008
(I helped make this– too much work.)
The Greening of Southie was about a green building project in South Boston. It was interesting because I’ve heard about the green building project, but the film was told through the eyes of the construction workers which brought in a human element to the story. This is from the directors of King Korn. (This was a favorite of my friends from True/False last year.)
Order of Myths was visually sound and the subject matter was intense- how director Margret Brown found that Marti Gras was still segregated was fascinating and unexpected. I really enjoyed Cat Dancers about two ballet dancers and the addition of wild animals (big cats) into their act. How it incorporated archival footage to tell a moving narrative was wonderful. I was engrossed in the story.
And then Man on Wire was so beautifully and creatively done. Just overall amazing. It was fast, bringing in a blend of old footage of training to the actual event. The characters were fascinating. The films that I saw had such distinct styles.
And in seeing these different film styles, I realized that I could do this. Finding a great story and subject matter is vital to telling the story, but I realized that these stories can be told in creative ways. I was getting ideas on framing and especially on how all of these filmmakers interviewed the subjects in their homes. They followed them around and spent time with them. I love this so much. I am so inspired to do something like this. I now want to learn as much as I can to be able to achieve this.