So, what kinds of stories are good for audio? There is a common misconception that an audio story needs to be about something “audio rich” – like the story of a Rock band or a noisy factory. It’s not true. As long as your story has character, emotion, or an element of surprise – its already audio rich!
Take some time and secret yourself away – put on a good set of headphones and explore these links.
Then, think about the story YOU want to tell, an idea that YOU may have always wanted to investigate.
What are the voices, scenes, environments or spaces where your story unfolds?
Examples:
RadioLab
*The hypnotist and the warts
https://www.wnyc.org/radio/#/ondemand/299045
Memory Palace
*Natural Habitat
http://thememorypalace.us/2016/07/natural-habitat/
Radiotopia
*Project Cybersyn
https://radio.radiotopia.fm/?utm_campaign=passive&utm_source=radiotopia.fm&utm_medium=Navbar
*Dumb shit we do
http://www.kcrw.com/news-culture/shows/strangers/dumb-sh-t-we-do-3-stow-away
This American Life
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/241/20-acts-in-60-minutes
(Great show – but the stories are longer format)
Transom
Example story http://transom.org/2014/bringing-wes-home/
Example of a story http://transom.org/2014/the-texture-of-glass/
*Example of a story http://transom.org/2014/how-to-be-a-girl/
Here are 2 examples of student projects that don’t quite make the cut. There’s nothing “wrong” with this work – But you should aspire for to do MORE with your project.
Example 1 - This piece relies an awful lot on one element – a song – which is very strong – but the audio program itself is not evocative … at least to me. It relies too much on work that someone else created.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nx8tLuopgaw
While this piece is reasonably successful – consider the way the music works, or doesn’t work with the piece. How would you reedit this piece? What would you add, change, omit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcIMNDBfHO0
Just for fun - The Golden Age of radio!! – Before television superseded radio as the medium of choice