Slides from Week 2, and Info on Next Homework

Here are the slides from class on Friday.

For this week's homework:

* Put together a man-on-the-street interview piece. There is no length restriction, but it must have the following elements:
* Must contain voices from at least 3 subjects [NOTE: changed. I said 4 in class but 3 seems enough considering all we're doing this week]. I recommend interviewing at least 4 people and using the 3 best in the final edit.
* Must contain at least 2 clips of ambient sound related to your theme or location of recording.
* You should be talking to strangers, not people you know.
* Each person should be identified in the piece, by first and last name, and by one detail about them that tells something of who they are (i.e. John Smith, a University of Maryland student).
* Think of this as a feature piece you would run on the school newspaper's Web site or some other publication. It should feel like a piece of journalism not a random collection of opinions.
* Edit the elements together. Use an intro and script in most cases, unless you can have the people in the piece give enough context for a radio-diary format piece.
* Must be posted to class by noon on Friday (start of class).

This project is more involved than last week, so it's best to start as soon as possible to leave some time for editing. Having a plan in advance (what questions you will ask and what kind of setting you want to focus on, etc) will help immensely. If you're not sure about your plan feel free to e-mail me any questions you might have.

We also have a short listening assignment and a short reading. Shouldn't take long but this is an important part of the class (and it should help you do the assignment). There will be a short quiz at the start of next class on the reading and listening:

* Listening: On the Media: Pulling Back the Curtain (only about 14 minutes)

* Reading: Sound Reporting, pp. 92-119.

I made changes to the syllabus to reflect the quiz and update info about the assignments, so go by what is on the Web and not by the paper we handed out on the first day of class. Link to the syllabus is at the top right of the blog.