Short multimedia videos from The New York Times

"Girl Boxer"



"This is What a Refugee Looks Like"

 


 "Midnight Three and Six"

 

The Power of Music

Source: Music for Makers

Best movie dialogue of all time

We'll revisit this later when we start talking about dialogue in movies, but these clips might also be useful for your podcast script.

How do I post a recording from Audacity to my blog?

1.  Record your snippet on Audacity. 

2. Save your snippet. If you don't save it, you can never go back and edit it. 

3. Go to file and click "export audio."

4. Save the file in WAV form on your desktop or in your Audacity files. 

5. Log in to Sound Cloud. You will have to create a user name and password to do this, but you do not have to download software. 

6. Choose the option to upload your file (upper right hand corner). 

7. Find your file and press "open." This action will then transfer your file to SoundCloud.  

8. Save the file in SoundCloud. You can add details and even a related picture. 

9. Click on the link to the file you've just uploaded.

10. Find the "share" option. 

11. Click on it and choose the "embed" option (in the middle). 

12. Copy the html code. (it will start with soemthing like this "<iframe width="100%" height="300" ........</iframe>

13. Open a new post on your blog. 

14. Choose the "html" option on the upper left corner, next to compose. 

15. Paste the html code into the document. 

16. Select "compose" to view it. 

You are now able to share this with the rest of the world via your blog. 

Billy Collin poetry

"Workshop"
BY BILLY COLLINS
I might as well begin by saying how much I like the title.
It gets me right away because I’m in a workshop now
so immediately the poem has my attention,
like the Ancient Mariner grabbing me by the sleeve.

And I like the first couple of stanzas,
the way they establish this mode of self-pointing
that runs through the whole poem
and tells us that words are food thrown down
on the ground for other words to eat.
I can almost taste the tail of the snake
in its own mouth,
if you know what I mean.

But what I’m not sure about is the voice,
which sounds in places very casual, very blue jeans,
but other times seems standoffish,
professorial in the worst sense of the word
like the poem is blowing pipe smoke in my face.
But maybe that’s just what it wants to do.

What I did find engaging were the middle stanzas,
especially the fourth one.
I like the image of clouds flying like lozenges
which gives me a very clear picture.
And I really like how this drawbridge operator
just appears out of the blue
with his feet up on the iron railing
and his fishing pole jigging—I like jigging—
a hook in the slow industrial canal below.
I love slow industrial canal below. All those l’s.

Maybe it’s just me,
but the next stanza is where I start to have a problem.
I mean how can the evening bump into the stars?
And what’s an obbligato of snow?
Also, I roam the decaffeinated streets.
At that point I’m lost. I need help.

The other thing that throws me off,
and maybe this is just me,
is the way the scene keeps shifting around.
First, we’re in this big aerodrome
and the speaker is inspecting a row of dirigibles,
which makes me think this could be a dream.
Then he takes us into his garden,
the part with the dahlias and the coiling hose,
though that’s nice, the coiling hose,
but then I’m not sure where we’re supposed to be.
The rain and the mint green light,
that makes it feel outdoors, but what about this wallpaper?
Or is it a kind of indoor cemetery?
There’s something about death going on here.

In fact, I start to wonder if what we have here
is really two poems, or three, or four,
or possibly none.

But then there’s that last stanza, my favorite.
This is where the poem wins me back,
especially the lines spoken in the voice of the mouse.
I mean we’ve all seen these images in cartoons before,
but I still love the details he uses
when he’s describing where he lives.
The perfect little arch of an entrance in the baseboard,
the bed made out of a curled-back sardine can,
the spool of thread for a table.
I start thinking about how hard the mouse had to work
night after night collecting all these things
while the people in the house were fast asleep,
and that gives me a very strong feeling,
a very powerful sense of something.
But I don’t know if anyone else was feeling that.
Maybe that was just me.

Maybe that’s just the way I read it.

Audio: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xhyar6_billy-collins-workshop_creation

Podcast script example

There are three things a listener hears in a radio drama: 

• Dialogue
• Music
• Sound effects

Each of these audio components is called a "cue"—because they come at a specific time in the script and the director may have to physically point to someone ("cue them") to produce it. An instance of dialogue, no matter how many lines, is considered one cue. All cues are numbered and music/sound effects are additionally underlined.  

1.  MACBETH:          That will never be. Who can impress the forest?

                      Yet my heart throbs to know one thing. Tell me,

                      if your art can tell so much, - shall Banquo’s issue

                                               ever reign in this kingdom?

2.  SOUND:            THUNDER (2X).

3.  MUSIC:            WEIRD MUSIC-UP. DUCK FOR VOICES.

4.  ALL WITCHES:      Seek to know no more.

5.  MACBETH:          I will be satisfied. Deny me this, and an eternal

                                    curse fall on you! Let me know!

6.  SOUND:            INTENSE BUBBLING-SLOWS-STOPS. THUNDER (1X).

7.  MACBETH:              Why sinks that cauldron? And what noise is this?

8.  FIRST WITCH:          Show!

9.  SECOND WITCH:     Show!

10. THIRD WITCH:        Show!

11. SOUND:           THUNDER (3X).


Podcast Plotting Device: The focus sentence

• Start with the idea that you have a character in motion toward her goal. 
• S/he has a motivation for doing that thing (a desire). 
• But somehow, that thing is not going to be easy to overcome (danger/challenge). 

DRAMA = Desire + Danger

Focus sentence: Heidi goes back to where she used to work because she wants to know what happened to her, but the government (and her own memory) are against her.

Homecoming Podcast, Episode 1

https://soundcloud.com/homecomingshow/1-mandatory