Creating my first radio bumper was daunting at the beginning. Im still not sure how to use audacity and to completely honest I forgot that this was a tool I could use for this assignment. So I used iMovie and Voice Memo to create my radio bumper.
I knew I wanted to add a voice over of introducing the radio show and having a little bop with it. So I created the voice over in the voice memos and it only took two tries! Then I went to iMovie and created the background music. I started out with the “bright” theme music and I thought it would be cool to have a bit of a tease into the not-quite-right feeling you have with the tech noir theme of the course. So I split the theme music and cut it in random places added some points of silence like the sound is cutting out. I really wanted the music to go out with a distorted shut-down type of effect to the music but I wasn’t able to find the right tools for that so I went with a record scratch and a telephone disconnect sound effect.
Listening to the audio drama Moon Graffiti was something I really enjoyed. Im not sure how I have gone this far without realizing how much I love audio dramas and podcast productions.
In audio storytelling the connection of visual immersion is almost non-existent. I say almost because the use of background music, sounds of people doing things, and the voice acting its almost like I can see what is happening and I can see in my mind in the most clear picture of the scene that is being told.
Although design is purely visual I feel there is an aspect of balance similar to design that goes into audio storytelling. You don’t want the noise in the background to be overwhelming (unless that is the goal) and you want the right balance of emotion to sounds to make an effective mood for the story. In Moon Graffiti there is a scene at 12:03 where one of the men start to die and fall unconscious. The noises in the background got louder and more disoriented until the the other guy snapped him out of the (panic?) episode. This is something that not only do I hear a lot but it is used in movies and TV shows but the fact that I cannot see what is happening does not change how I feel when this situation occurs, and this is because of the sound design!
There are some noises in the backgrounds that you do consciously notice but still creative a scene that you still are picturing the situation and its almost like you are living with the characters. For example, in Season 1 Episode 2 of Limetown the reporter is walking with the person she is interviewing and there is sounds in the background of footsteps walking through grass. Though its a little detail, it added so much to the story and the experience I had listening to it.
Sound design in audio storytelling is so important and something so minuscule that listeners don’t realize its there. But if it wasn’t there, you’d miss it.
Tuning in the ds106 radio for the first time, I was lost at first. I wasn’t sure what I was listening to, nor the type of conversion we were supposed to have on discord. So I brought out a coloring book and listened while coloring.
Mid first episode of Limetown things became interesting. I noticed a lot of comments that the professor was making was on the sound design of the show so I started to listen for those. I thought that the actors voices sounded very clear so I thought it was an AI generated show but after doing a quick google I learned that this podcast is a production of Two-Up which is the same people who created the podcast musical 36 Questions starring Jonathan Groff and Jessie Shelton, and this news made me even more excited that Limetown is a production with actors and a fully thought out creative team and storyline.
I listened to this podcast with a good friend who is not in this class and we were having the time of our lives listening to this. My friend doesn’t necessarily like horror and thriller genre things and I really only read them but this podcast was so tense that by the end of the second episode we were screaming and tensing our bodys. The production was so well done from the acting to the sound effects and background music. So much of the sound design went into the ambiance of the podcast and set the scene in so many ways. The sound also allowed for the listeners to fully picture what is happening and it was like watching a movie without a screen.
Something else that I pointed out was how well done the script is. The premiss is that we are listening to a reporter, so she is recording things while they happen to her, recounting every detials she encounters which makes sense in the world of the podcast as well as benefiting the listener in picturing the scene. This is something that is prevalent in 36 Questions as well and its something I really like about Two-Up productions.
Overall, this experience had taught me a lot more about storytelling and how powerful audio storytelling is. I have a new appreciation for foley artists in addition to my already existing admiration.
Learning about design and what goes into it was a lot more than I expected. When I design things like wallpapers and posters I tend to do these things without thinking. I had the opportunity to check out the book by Chip Kidd and learned a lot from his book. I liked how everything was described by using the design or typeface he was writing about.
The part of the book that caught my eye is something that I have never seen before, reading from right to left! Chip points out the cover of this book “Things We Didn’t See Coming” by Steven Amsterdam.
I have never thought about this type of design and it fascinates me. I have no idea what this book is about but I wanna read it.
I learned that design is both straightforward and complex. Design can be exactly what it means or it can be the complete opposite and all of it translates super well depending on how well you designed it! I also learned how to balance designs better. How too much color can be hard to read, or using a certain font will translate differently than another font might. I really liked digging into learning about design and I now have a better eye out for these things as I go through the day!
not my photo but one of my favorite sandwiches to get at a deli is a roast beef! I give it a 6 out of ten because I feel like it’s not as woke as it could be.
At first I was confused by the photoblitz but I had a lot of fun doing it!
Code: 19:03
Start time 7:03pm
My starting photo that shows my start time was my phones lockscreen that has my duolingo streak (need to do it for today) and my bookly books (how I track my reading!) A new photo of one of my dogs also goes on my lockscreen every hour!
1. Find a grid pattern somewhere (brick sidewalk or ceiling tiles).
For this task I did a photo of the door to my balcony at the UMW apartments! Don’t mind the bird seed on the floor. While looking around my house I had a tough time doing this one which surprised me! There aren’t a lot of grids around me.
2. Numbers are all around you. Find your favorite number.
I don’t actually have a favorite number…BUT I do love this clock I have on my desk. I like how clear the numbers are and the base of the clock can charge my phone wirelessly! Don’t listen to the time it tells you though, its been wrong for four years.
3. Wood has a lot of character and variety. A photo of something wooden.
There is sooo much wood around my house. But I chose to capture this wooden corner shelf that we have above our dining table. It is holding a bunch of our knick knacks and I couldn’t think of a better home for them other than this shelf. Fun fact: this shelf was found in one of the donation bins in the UMW apartments.
4. They’re all around. Make a photograph of a wheel near you.
This wheel is apart of a utility cart that currently houses a lot of my roommates plants! My roommate is currently teaching me how to care for plants so I regularly stare at my plants and hers, just admiring them. So this cart came to mind when I was tasked to take a photo of a wheel that is near by.
5. Play with contrasting scale: juxtapose something small with something big!
So here is where I realized I messed up. Ive decided to keep it because the following task is basically the same thing but in my brain with haste I thought that “juxtapose” meant to use perspective to shift the size of objects. So I took a rubber duck and put it next too and in front of one of the plants in our house and tried to play with the perspective to make it look like the rubber duck is bigger than it actually is. A cool concept, wish I didn’t do it wrong…
6. Take a photo of two related objects of drastically different sizes.
This photo was fun because let me tell you, we have so many frog things in our house. so I took a mini glass frog that is currently living in a plant pot and put it next to one of our many frog plushies that lives on a shelf (with other frog plushies might I add).
7. Two contrasting things, e.g. light & darkness, life & death, cats & dogs.
This is a card I got at the Fredericksburg stationary store. It was one of the first things I bought when I decided I wanted to put more decorative things in my bedroom wall. I really liked the daintiness of the flowers and the black and white with a bit of green. I also like how the saying “I love you more” is on a black card because I feel like that saying brings more light which also ties into the task at hand.
FINISH: 7:23pm
Here is a screenshot of a “relaxing clock” website that shows the time and subsequently the end of my photoblitz.
In the assignment Tattoos that Describe you, I did a tattoo that my character Evelyn Calico would have.
The top right corner tattoo is what Evelyn would have and its a straight spine tattoo. Evelyn is a classy gal and whilst she is a writer she also loves to read books (her favorite are Agatha Christie novels). The roses are her favorite touch to this piece because roses mean so many things. She loves how dainty they are but that they can be thorny and prickly. The sword was added to the design last minute because while she was waiting to get the final design she was looking at the drafts and realized that she wanted something that not only can be straight on her spine but also strong and can show her independence, so she asked for a sword to be integrated into the design. She also wanted a pop of color so she made only the flowers be colored in.
To make this assignment I scrolled through Pinterest and looked for “writer tattoo ideas” and found this one. I then imported it into Procreate for Apple and decided that I wanted to color some part of this design so I decided on coloring the roses and thorns. The assignment also stated to “make multiple copies of that, and add different color effects to each copy. Each Color is unique, and can depict different mood.” So I made multiple layers of the finished product and put them into a grid. I “alpha locked” every layer so that when I made a edit to a layer it would only affect the one selected. I added a transparent color to each layer except the top right corner to make them different colors without hindering the roses. I then played around with canvas textures and hues, each square a different adjustment type. Once I was happy with how each layer looked I had the finished product!
