Here goes Audio Week!

I am honestly so nervous for this week to start. When I first read on the syllabus that we were having an audio week my immediate thought was “shoot. I hate listening to myself talk.” Watching the weekly video and reading the “To-do list” for this week put me somewhat at ease. Now, only Audacity is scaring me. I started thinking about the impact audio has on story telling and it’s huge. Quite frankly, I love listening to other people telling stories: in person, on the phone, in tv shows, and in movies. The voices people use do a lot to convey the tone. However, before I hadn’t really considered how much the sound effects make an impact. Music I always sort of knew made an impact because music can create a tone all on it’s own so logically, I felt it could help influence the tone of the story. Just think about Spirit. That story is told through a horse’s perspective so music dominates in the telling of that story. However, the sound effects are rather minimal and I never really have noticed their impact.

So far, I started out by reading “Radio Noir in the USA” by Jess Schlotterbeck. Not surprisingly, I had never heard of radio noir but the interplay between radio noir and film noir was very interesting to see and quite logical. It was also very interesting to see how some people chose to break away from the film industry and develop their own crime radio shows. The article also really brought out some of the distinct advantages to radio noir- it was something everyone could enjoy, not just the elite. Some of the stylistic techniques of radio noir noted in the article were: how sound effects and music are used extensively to play into the mood, how often the sound effects work against continuity and realistic principles, and taking advantage of the “blindness” of the audience.

I then went on to watching the assigned videos. In the Touch of Evil opening the background noise was dominated by music. The drums initially gave a really eery vibe. As the couple walks around downtown, the music begins to convey a more upbeat tone but then adds a sense of mystery as if something is going to go wrong. When the conversations begin it adds to the tension between the individuals. When the car explodes, the music stops as if to symbolize the transition between happy times and bad. The explosion also answers the mystery presented by the tension in the music earlier in the scene.

I was hoping to listen in to ds106 radio and participate in the “tweet-along” but I plan to do it tomorrow and I’m really looking forward to it!