Storycorps project.

For this assignment we were instructed to go to storycorps.org and pick out 5 pieces to write a brief overview of. Two of these pieces were to be animated and three just audio. Storycorps is a pretty interesting project where people are given the chance to record a story from their lives and have it converted to a short segment on the website. There are a number of interesting pieces, but here are the ones I chose along with the reviews for them.


Audio
1. I came into the German bar you were bouncing

The audio starts out with the story name and an explanation of the title right away. The story is organized by audio bits from both participants, each pieces the story together in small clips, presented as a conversation with one another. They met because she needed money to support her family and decided to enter an amateur stripping competition and ended up meeting the bouncer and together they went to college. They hadn't even completed the 10th grade, but they were able to finish together and obtained biology degrees. There was no music throughout the story until the end. It serves as a nice close to the story.

2. Most of my interaction with people was the worst moment of their life

A man telling a story of having to inform a mother that her husband and father of her 3 young children had died in a car accident. The key piece was having to explain to a child what had happened and why he felt it was important to be honest rather than lying or covering up the truth. He ends the piece by expressing how difficult it was to do this all the time, but that he felt he was born to do it. Once again, no music until the end of the piece.

3. I have spent a lot of years just hiding it

This piece was a woman telling a story about how she didn't feel special as a kid but found acceptance with a group of white supremacists and the extremes that these beliefs went to and how much it took for her beliefs to change. She tells a story about how violent the group was, often drinking and going out to look for fights. One night they went out and confronted a vehicle full of black men and the women's boyfriend beat one of the men with a bat, resulting in his death. She managed to get away from this group, and while she never stopped feeling guilty about what had happened, her beliefs had changed and now her own son is standing up for a child who is different in his school. Music at the ending.

Animation
4. The Human Voice

An extremely uplifting piece told by Studs Turkel, who according to the website and the intro to the animation was a great inspiration for the creators of the project. Turkel tells a story about an experience on the subway in which a young couple were late and caused the conductor to announce a 30 second delay. This resulted in everyone giving a death glare at the couple. Turkel tried to lighten the mood by making a light-hearted joke, only to receive the same treatment. He then asked a baby "sir or madame, what is your opinion of the human species?" resulting in a giggle from the baby and Turkel exclaiming "Thank god, the sound of the human voice." A very nice piece presented, once again, as a first person recollection. No music until the end. This anmiation could have easily been presented as audio only, though the animation certainly adds to the story, though mainly for comedic value with this piece.

5. Germans in the Woods

This particular animation was presented in nearly identical fashion to the audio only pieces. It was a man recalling a story from his past, explaining in detail the events that led up to him having to shoot a young german soldier and how he has felt haunted by this his entire life. I believe it would translate perfectly into an audio only piece, but the animation really added a lot more depth to the piece. It helped to bring his words to life as well as add a bit more humanity/sadness to it. The music was just like the others, added only at the end to signify that the story was coming to a close.

Five Criteria

It is hard to really pin down what makes for great audio/video, but I think that these 5 points are fairly essential for a truly engaging piece.

1. Clarity. Both in aural quality as well as storyline. You want the listener to understand the speaker as well as the story being told.
2. Flow. If telling a story, you want to make sure it is told in a logical order so the listener can piece it together properly. If telling the story out of order, the listener should be able to clearly recognize this.
3. Connection. The listener should be able to make some sort of connection to the story. Even something as simple as a story about turning your homework in late and the anxiety it causes can do that as it is something most of us have experienced.
4. Imagery. Whether it is video or audio, the piece should provide strong imagery for us to play out the story in our mind. Describe the important places you go or the things you do in a way that people aren't left guessing too much.
5. Music. Don't let music or sound effects overpower what you are doing. It should blend in and serve as a beginning, end, or transition unless the music itself is part of the piece or can significantly add to it.