Month: July 2020

https://alinbasuljevic.exposure.co/corona-chaos?source=share-alinbasuljevic

Hope y’all enjoy!

Discussion

Photo essays: screening and feedback as a class.

Intro to Radio Reporting

For your radio stories, you’ll be creating something called a wrap: a scripted feature with narration, natural sounds, and sound bites all woven together.

Sample wrap.

Sample radio script.

Here are some basics you’ll want to keep in mind as you set out to collect sound:

Choose your environment wisely. Be aware of your surroundings. If you interview someone under a subway track, your recording will be impossible to understand. Pick a relatively quiet space. A little background noise is fine and adds atmosphere – except for music. Music makes editing difficult, so avoid it if possible.

Check your batteries beforehand. It’s a real bummer when you start interviewing someone and realize you only have ten minutes of life left on your recorder or phone. Bring backups!

Cell phones off. Yours and theirs. If you’re using your phone to record, make sure it’s set to silent.

Don’t forget your nats. Natural sound is a crucial element of any audio piece. Think about what sounds will most effectively place your listener in the scene. Footsteps, dishes clinking, phones ringing. Don’t be afraid to get in there and get close. Music is fine to use as a nat sound, but not as background to an interview. It will mess up your ability to edit.

Don’t forget your ambi. “Ambi” refers to ambient sound, also known as room tone. Basically, this is the background noise from wherever you happen to conduct your interviews. Even if you record in a very quiet place, nothing still usually sounds like something because of how the acoustics vary in different rooms. Before or after every interview, always record 90 seconds to two minutes of ambi. This will go under your narration to make the story feel seamless.

Ask open-ended questions. Yes or no questions won’t give you good long responses filled with usable quotes.

Get close, but not too close. Putting a mic right up against someone’s mouth can result in popping and crackling sounds on the recording. Make sure to test your equipment so you know roughly where to hold your recorder for optimal sound quality.

Ask your question, then shut up. Active listening is a fantastic skill for a journalist to have, but if you keep murmuring “Uh-huh,” “Yeah,” and “Sure,” while they’re answering your questions, you won’t be able to use the material. Stick with smiling and nodding.

Using an audio recorder. Always monitor your sound with headphones while recording, if possible. Hold the mic 1-2 feet from the interviewee’s mouth. Never let the person you’re interviewing hold it. Use the handle to reduce handling noise.

If recording an interview remotely, try to do a tape sync. A tape sync means recording both ends of a phone interview in person and then editing them together. This will allow the sound quality for both voices to be high-quality and clear. Typically, radio hosts hire freelancers who live in the same city as their interviewee to go out and record the tape syncs, but in the pandemic it’s become more common to ask the interviewee to do it themselves and then send it to you.

A couple more radio stories:

Example of a clever host intro:

Need to release stress? Scream into Iceland’s abyss.

Great example of a local NYC story:

At this Brooklyn restaurant, you can get Korean food with a side of Russian history

A story reported by a Baruch multimedia student after the lockdown started last semester:

Online Challenges for the Special Needs Child

Guidelines for radio pitches

Assignment #2 will be a 3 or 4-minute news radio feature (a “wrap”). A wrap is a scripted radio piece that weaves together natural sounds, interview clips (known as “actualities”), and reporter narration to tell a story.

These are the components you are required to submit for the final draft:

1. A good headline/title.
2. Your final 3-4  minute edited audio file, posted to Soundcloud and embedded on the blog or on Exposure.
3. At least one photo.
4. The final draft of your script.

Monday, July 27: Pitches due for radio story.

August 3: Radio scripts due.

August 5: Radio stories due.

https://asfriedmanphotography.exposure.co/project-belmont?source=share-asfriedmanphotography

Here’s the link to my project, thanks for reading!
https://acandelario.exposure.co/tough-breaks

Visiting Astoria, whether it’s to get a couple of frappes and some pastries at a cafe, ordering  souvlaki platters at restaurants, to going to the clubs on the weekends has always been a part of my big Greek family.

It’s a place where Greeks from all over get together and enjoy traditional Greek music and food. When walking down Steinway Street past many of the restaurants- the music and the conversation- it’s almost like I’m being transported back to my family’s hometown, Ptolemaida.

Due to the Covid-19 Pandemic, businesses and restaurants all over the country are struggling to stay open. Astoria being in Queens, one of the hardest hit areas, is especially struggling. Many restaurants, clubs, and cafes were forced to permanently shut their doors.

Restaurants that have been able to stay afloat are working very diligently to accommodate the current social environment. Where you would normally see cars parked in the street, you will now see makeshift tables and booths that restaurants have built so people can still enjoy eating out. Some have added huge plants and decorations that cover the less than appealing NYC background.

Today Astoria is a changed neighborhood. Everyone is wearing a mask and keeping their distance. You can still hear Greek music playing, but you will not see anyone dancing to it.

 

 

 

As an essential worker, I would like to capture what a work day looks like. I would like to show the regulations that have to be followed in the building, and how often they are actually acknowledged by workers/customers. I would also like to capture my morning commute, as the streets/parking lots are now mostly empty compared to how busy they were pre-pandemic.

My plan is to capture how different members of our city and local businesses are adapting or have adapted their lifestyle  during covid-19.

– how an essential workers adapted during the pandemic

– how newly returning workers And their tactics for remaining safe

– how a business such as a dealership functioning on the inside

– how public parks are maintaining social distance.

my goal is to capture the new norm and bringing together what the future may hold for us.

 

 

My photo essay pitch is a character-driven human interest story.  I would like to tell a story using images the new norm for students learning at home.  I am thinking of creating a kind of a photo journal essay of my 11-year old nephew, Jake, who is super active and super social, but due to the circumstances of the pandemic, his life has changed completely.  Although I cannot access many students at this time, I feel capturing a very normal middle-school student and how his life has changed upside down would be reflective of other children his age.  Some of the moments I would like to capture are: Zooming in for classes on a makeshift desk set up on the deck (for summer classes and other activities that would normally be done in person), his mom cutting his hair in the bathroom, Jake playing basketball by himself (whereas before he used to play with the other children in the neighborhood), fishing by himself at a lake in the neighborhood, baking in the kitchen with his mom (new hobby), he and his father sitting side-by-side watching TV together on a weekday afternoon (one of the silver linings to this pandemic being family time), etc.  I’ll try to make it interesting by taking some regular shots, wide-angle shots and some close-ups for personal shots.

1. People not wearing masks in public

-grocery stores, asking to talk to cashiers about how comfortable they feel working when people act in this way, asking customers why they don’t want to wear a mask/wear it properly.

2. Obnoxious Trump Supporters in my Neighborhood

-Giant Trump posters, burning wood pallets every week which smells up the whole neighborhood, always having people over not wearing masks. I want to ask them why they love trump, what values of his do they feel is important, and what is their stance on masks.

I might want to tie these two topics together in a “Trumps America” type story.

3. The New Normal

-Someone close to me has multiple orthodontist practices. I wanted to report on what their new protocols are, ask how business is doing, and how are clients responding to the way things are now.