This was an amazing week where I learned so much, not just audio, but journalism as a whole. This was my first time working with a large and talented team to put such a large project together. It was a challenge to juggle so many tasks at once, but I was exposed to such a high level of journalistic professionalism by having the opportunity to work with folks on the digital team, the visual team, and the audio engineers. Going out in the field to collect interview tapes, natural sound and audio with Maggie was a great experience. She encouraged me to be creative about finding sound and setting the scene, so we started recording before we even left the car and didn’t stop until we were driving away!
We also looked for opportunities for creative sound like asking about certain outfits Fuchis is fond of, or just picking up on the sound of Miss B. Haven’s nails clinking as she moves the hangers on the clothing rack. I definitely feel like I grew the most in my time writing and producing this piece. Balancing transcripts, drafts of written pieces or drafts of audio (mostly all at once) was extremely hard on the first two days. But staying organized as a team really helped.
One thing that helped me was the time we spent storyboarding and drawing out the arc of our narrative. I laughed at the idea of drawing “silly” comic strips, but after a lot of scribbling out ideas and restarting brain maps I had a clear vision of how I wanted the story to go – this made my workflow for the week so much easier. This week has made me exponentially more excited for my future as a journalist and I’m so glad I was exposed to such a fast-paced and challenging project because I can see (and hear) that my storytelling has improved.