The Intern Editionprogram includes several workshops and trainings designed to tune our ears for sound and stories. Below are recaps of some of our most exciting Intern Edition workshops!
NPR's Fall Interns were treated to a session about "Writing for Radio" with Sora Newman, Executive Producer in Career Development. In discussing how writing hits both the ear and the mind, Sora explained that writing should grab by the hand and lead a listener in and out of a piece. "You can take a well written script and read it badly," she enlightened, "but you can never take a bad script and read it well." A few other tips Sora offered the group:
1. Use "Conversational Style." Writing in a conversational style appeals to the casual listener. 2. Avoid jargon in writing. It is easier not to write with jargon than to ask an interview subject not to use it. 3. Avoid long sentences. Long sentences lead to difficult reading and difficult listener understanding.
If you'd like to learn more about "Writing for the Radio" please check out the links below.
Several months ago, NPR Senior National Editor Ellen Weiss passed out a Bingo game to the National Desk and Washington Desk reporters. The cards, authored by NY Correspondent Robert Smith, contained 24 squares, each with a creative use of sound in a story. Justice Reporter Ari Shapiro won the game hands-down. Bingo!
This Wednesday Shapiro, NPR Justice Reporter, gave us a crash course in how to enliven our stories with sound. Interns learned a wealth of tips and tricks, including how to effectively use a “butt-cut” and a “vox-pop” -- and that every once in a while, breaking the rules is the most effective way to tell a story. Although there were no prizes or uncooked-macaroni, Shapiro used the Bingo cards to bring his points home, as well as several of public radio’s finest examples of shaping sound.
Some tactics Shapiro suggests to enliven radio stories:
Butt-Cut: Break the traditional rhythm of “act, track, act, track” by playing two actualities back-to-back (I’m a poet and I didn’t even know it). Example:Play a quick exchange between two arguing politicians without the interruption of an intro or an ID. Using a Butt-Cut almost necessitates the use of a...
Back I.D.: Identify the speaker after a quote/actuality, not before. Example: ACT: Public Radio is built on the backs of hard-working interns. TRACK: That was Joe/Josephina Shmo from Such and Such… You may use a lot of Back I.D.s if you decide to use a...
Vox-Pop: A sequence of un-interrupted voice-actualities. Think of it as a series of multiple Butt-cuts, or as a Sound Montage with just voices instead of music or ambi. If you were expecting another clever segue, well, life is full of disappointments.
The Pregnant Pause: Sometimes silence speaks louder than words...or...really loud things. Silence on the radio is rare enough that when it occurs, it has the ability to express emotion in a way of which the audible is incapable. Example: When asking a politician a difficult or incriminating question, including the long pause before her answer may mean more to listeners than the soundbite that follows the pause.
Intrigued? Check out Ellen Weiss' Bingo card: Sound BINGO!
