News Pakage Practice and Other Things

Aloha,

So I've mainly been working on the usual YVH and other responsibilities and I'm happy to say that this week we stuck to a good schedule and the production and editing went a lot smoother.

I also had a chance recently to try my hand at editing a news package. It was cool working with a voice over and matching it to the appropriate Reuters clips. It's a different kind of challenge telling a story this way and I think I did ok for my first try. One thing that stuck out to me was the importance of using ambient sound in the appropriate places. The story I worked on had to do with Iraqi military testing and the deadline for American Troop withdrawals. There was a section about certain activist organizations protesting the potential extension of the deadline and I found that using audio of the protestors chanting made the story much more powerful. It also brought back memories of my school days in Durango, producing radio news stories. We were always told to study really good radio programs, like "This American Life", that used ambient sound effectively and try to mimic them. I guess what I'm getting at is that there is formula for good story telling that appeals to all the senses and that's what we should strive to accomplish in our work.

That's the rant for today.

Aloha,

Mark