An audio slideshow on Roast Coffee & Tea Trading Company in Patchogue, NY.
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Coach uses soccer to teach life lessons
Sue Ryan has been the women’s soccer coach at Stony Brook for 28 years. Ryan, who played for SUNY Cortland in the eighties, celebrated her 200th win with the Seawolves this past season. Her team ended the regular season last week with a record of 9-6-3.
Coach uses soccer to teach life lessons. from Catie Curatolo on Vimeo.
Save-A-Pet Animal Rescue by James Medley
Audio slideshow profiling the Save-A-Pet Animal Rescue in Port Jefferson, NY. The piece is narrated through interviews with Lynne Schoepfer, the Executive Director of the shelter. It was produced by James Medley, a journalism student at Stony Brook University.
Instructive hints for audio slideshows
Producing a quality audio slideshow involves painstaking work and I have recognized a number of helpful pointers for producing one. Below, I have listed my three most important audio slideshow tips.
A New York Times close-up shot of mailed ballots in Florida. Credit: Sarah Beth Glicksteen for The New York Times.
1. Move in close with your camera:
Filling the frame allows you to hone in on your subject and remove needless background. Cameras all have helpful optical zooms, but shooting close-ups enhance the clarity and detail of your photos. This is especially helpful in audio slideshows about someone who works with their hands because viewers will be able to see their skill and dexterity.
The Pictures Worth a Thousand Words (and the words to go with ‘em)
Let me start by saying that I’m very new to the whole concept of audio slideshows. However the piece that the LATimes did on Edwin Shneidman was beyond good. The way they used to dialogue and images was both powerful and compelling, this piece really showed me the depths that this medium is able to reach.
Though the idea was simple, its execution had such a large margin for error. I mean this man Shneidman is sick and elderly, and actually seeming to be looking forward to his own death. As author of the article that accompanied the slideshow, Thomas Curwin put it;
“Edwin Shneidman knows what the end will be: You’re driving down a road in the desert, and the engine suddenly stops.”
Audio slideshow of Kamaka, a tribute to Hawaii’s oldest ukulele crafters
A worker sanding wood of the ukulele at the Kamaka ukulele factory.
Though Hawaii’s oldest ukulele factory, Kamaka Hawaii, Inc., offers free tours, the Los Angeles Times’ audio slideshow of the business allows people to view inside it without having to leave their homes.
Christopher Reynolds’ piece, “A ukulele is born,” details the Kamaka family business and the history of the ukulele. It is very touching because it shows how the company, established in 1916, takes pride in keeping its “family name.”
Let’s go for a walk
The Guardian has a whole section of their website devoted to audio slideshows.
A picture of the Meads family from the Guardian’s audio slideshow
I particularly liked A family walk around Fountains Abbey, North Yorkshire. The slideshow depicted the charming Meads family as they take a four hour walk around Fountains Abbey, which has been declared a World Heritage Site.
The slideshow could’ve been better, in that it sort of seemed like the family put it together themselves at times.
However, if this was an attempt to make people want to go to Fountains Abbey, I think it worked. They really captured the picturesqueness of the place.
Inmates Turn Actors In This Audio Slideshow
This audio slideshow by Deborah Luster for NPR published on June 23, 2012, features ten separate yet connected audio slideshows that are a little different from conventional slideshows.
Instead of featuring one subject with multiple pictures accompanied by audio, this project profiles ten inmates from the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola.
The prison has its own drama club that performed “The Life of Jesus Christ,” and this piece tells the story of ten, of the seventy inmates in the play, finding pieces of their own lives inside the characters that they were portraying.
Ten different characters are profiled, each telling their own story. My favorite was that of Terrence Williams.
Terrence Williams, an inmate convicted of murder and serving a life sentence at Angola, played the part of a Roman soldier in the play.
NPR’s audio slideshow: Prisoners At Play In ‘The Life Of Jesus Christ’
The piece features natural sounds of birds, voices and chatter, and what sounds like closing jail cells. Mr. Williams describes how he used to be a hit man on the street and his character of a soldier expresses the hatred that was embedded within him on the streets.
Mr. Williams hopes that the performance will inspire people stay off the streets and “make a statement back to the public that we (inmates) can change.”
When sources become storytellers
Before I took JRN 320: Online Journalism, I was convinced that I wanted to go into print reporting. But then I got to class and dove into the world of multimedia. I saw how fun online journalism could be and I fell in love with audio-slideshows.
The New York Times audio-slideshow series Coming Out is a five-part series on the stories of gay and transgender teenagers in America.
The New York Times is my go-to place for all things journalism. So I immediately visited its website when I needed to find an example of a good audio-slideshow. In the series Coming Out, the Times looks at five stories from teenagers who are gay or transgender.
I watched all five stories and I felt that all were very good. However, I think two were stronger than the others.
My favorite is Gaining Confidence From God, the story of a 15 year old girl from Texas who just recently came out to those around her. She is a Christian and was worried about how others Christians, including her father, would accept her. Continue reading
Political story time
My favorite movie is Despicable Me. When I move back to school each year, I make sure I have a new coloring book coming with me. I ask my friends to come play with me, instead of hang out.
Yes, I still act like a child sometimes. And just like any child, I love story time. So when I saw The New York Times Convention Storybook, I was ready for my story.
And that’s exactly what I got.
The New York Times Convention Storybook is an audio slideshow by Michael Barbaro analyzing the political conventions this past year. Above, the “front cover” of the piece.
This piece by The New York Times is a prime example of great multimedia use on the web. Instead of just writing an article about the conventions and accompanying it with a photo gallery, this piece uses audio recordings of the journalist’s voice – in this case, it’s Michael Barbaro – partnered with the classic photo gallery with captions to tell the story of this year’s conventions.
Literally, a political storybook. Continue reading