When completing my JRNL 102 assignment I interviewed 19 year old netball player Casey Reynolds taking a look at the underlying effects a fractured finger has had on her netball career and life as a whole. 

Prior to doing my interview or even taking photos I started to watch a few examples from previous years to figure out what approach I would take when conducting my interview, shooting the images and even adding audio effects. I came to the conclusion that to truly encapsulate the emotion and uncertainty in Casey’s voice throughout the duration of the interview I wouldn’t use any background music but rather just sound effects to put a focus on what she is saying and feeling throughout the duration of the audio story.

A reading titled ‘iMovie basics’ was useful in learning the basic skills used to edit the audio and images to flow quick and cohesive format. The reading gave an overview of the controls of the software as well as examples of audio logs, these not only made the application a lot easier to navigate but also gave me potential options to use when preparing the visual component of the presentation.

In the week 2 lecture titled ‘The Power of Sound’, Siobhan McHugh goes in depth describing how a key element of storytelling is using sound itself as its own story. This as well as the exemplar’s provided allowed me to understand the sheer impact that sound effects can have to the story, using this I then used sound effects at key moments of the story to highlight the importance. These included the crack sound effect following Casey talking about her injury and then the sounds of an indoor netball court once she began talking about her return to playing. These moments were also emphasised by the text on screen of key quotes.

‘The Power of Sound’ Lecture was also incredibly useful when completing the interview as it provided tips and advice on how to properly conduct the interview. A minor tip that led to larger results in my story was the audio location. McHugh’s lecture stresses the importance of recording in a quiet location and not to interrupt the pause of an interview. Using this advice, I recorded in a quiet room with a pair of headphones connected to the microphone so I could simultaneously listen to the audio as it was being produced and conduct the interview, adjusting sound levels whenever I needed to. There were also moments throughout the interview where there were prolonged pauses, this not only allowed time for Casey to regain her focus and elaborate on her answers, providing useful quotes.

‘The Visual Toolkit’ Lecture was a useful source in showing the impact that photos can have solely from the way that they’re taken. The lecture shows various forms of techniques that can be used to take photos and the impact it can have on the story. For example, the way Benjamin mentioned how close-up shots use ‘intimacy and detail’ was extremely relevant to my own piece as I used images of Casey’s hand in her finger splint to ensure that the entire focus of the shot is on the fractured finger. Similarly & unintentionally the use of the black and white x-rays of the fractured finger helped frame the tragic aspect of the injury as it sets a dull mood to the story. 

In conclusion, there were a large number of readings and lectures that assisted heavily in the production of my audio story and bringing it to fruition the way that I intended. These included tips from Siobhan McHugh regarding interviewing techniques and the importance of sound effects as well as points from Benjamin Ball’s lecture that allowed for me to utilise every photo in the story to portray key moments in the piece. These factors were greatly beneficial in the production of my audio story.