For this creative assignment, we will be using sound editing software to create “podcasts” of our favorite short stories.
In groups, you will select a short story that you think would lend itself to a play-like reading.
As a group, you will record the short story with various group members narrating and speaking the different parts.
Finally, you will edit your recording together into a “podcast”-like production. You will break the story into chapters or scenes andmix music in musical interludes between the various sections. (Your chosen music should be thematically or tonally related to the short story and some analytic thought should go into these selections.)
My production of Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s short story, “Light is Like Water,” is offered as a model and available for listening on the class wiki (Thanks to Patrick, Brooke, Ta’Ron, and Gray for their help!)
The first step will be to use class time over the next week to read around in various short story collections and choose a short story for the project. Then production can begin…
Groups will keep a log of all work for the project on the class wiki listing tasks, time taken, and who participated.
Your podcasts will be housed on the course blog. You will need to create a blog post with some minimal content. You might, for example. upload an image of the book title from which the short story comes and then offer a teaser in the form of the first few paragraphs of the story.
Your podcasts will be housed on the course blog. You will need to create a blog post with some minimal content. You might, for example. upload an image of the book title from which the short story comes and then offer a teaser in the form of the first few paragraphs of the story.
A one-page write-up of your experience creating the podcast must be submitted at the end of the project. I am interested in what you learned about the author and the art of the short story in particular.
The most difficult part of this assignment will be the editing of your audio essay, because this is a technical skill that many of you will have little to no experience with. Time will be devoted in class to an introductory tutorial on the free sound editing program, Audacity, as well as workshop time for groups to record and edit their “podcasts.”
Our “Audacity Tutorial” with Brian Gray will be in the Foreign Language Lab on Monday, January 30th.
Podcasts due Friday, February 10th.
