Rob opens this episode with a note about Transom.org. Transom is dreaming up a new project and could really use your input. If you have a minute, head on over to the Transom homepage and click the link to take a short survey.

Why? Because interviewing is how radio producers mine. It’s how we collect the raw material for our work. The better the interviewing, the better the tape. The better the tape, the better the story.

I mean, sure sloppy writing can kill stellar interview tape.

Same with bad production.  Conversely a

bad interview can be saved by rock solid writing. But really, if you nail your

interview, the rest will come easy. Okay. Not easy, but easier. And the story

the tape is based on will likely be more satisfying.

Put another way, interviewing is the keystone of audio

storytelling.

That’s why it’s important to examine the work of the best practitioners and Cathy FitzGerald is just that — one of the best. She possesses an uncanny ability to capture “humans being” in her interviews. And she approaches it in unusual ways with her penchant for recording interviews in scene; her use of participant observation, which is a fancy way of saying she doesn’t just ask questions, she gets involved; and her use of props to prompt conversation. On this episode of HowSound, Cathy chats about those approaches and we hear extended examples of her work.

As a bonus, during our chat, Cathy turned the tables and

asked me questions about

interviewing. And that led us to talk about our weaknesses and what we both

would like to improve and to this positively lovely analogy for interviewing —

weeping with one eye.

The picture was there to help with tracking. Narration will

sound more conversational if you pretend you’re talking to Studs, the thinking

went. After all, that’s the goal, right? To track like you’re just talking to

someone.

Hanging up a picture and talking to it may be a good (and slightly weird) first step toward tracking naturally, Sruthi Pinnemaneniof Reply Alltakes things a whole lot further because she’s driven to avoid sounding like she’s reading something written. She very much wants listeners to fall into a story because her voice sounds unaffected and genuine. 

“(At Reply All) we try to track in a way that is closer to ‘I’m telling a story to somebody,'” she says. “When we’re tracking, we almost always have a producer or someone in the room where we’re trying to recreate that feeling of ‘I’m here and I’m feeling the excitement and joy that I know exists in this story.'”

She says it’s not just a matter of talking to that person in

the room. They help, too. They offer feedback, of course. But, they also play

tape. Sruthi listens to a quote in her story then, right as it finishes, she

narrates.

“The tape always carries a certain kind of emotion,” she explained to me. “Either you’re surprised by what the person is saying or what the person is saying makes you laugh. And so you want the tracking, the line that you’re saying out of it, to carry that emotion.”

What else does she do? Sruthi lays it out in this episode of

HowSound.

* I listen to the radio. A lot.

* I ask people “What are you listening to that was really interesting? Or that pissed you off?”

* I pick the brains of my students. They often get out their phones and rifle through what they subscribe to.

* I’m always scouring newsletters and emails on radio listserves I belong to:

a. The list for the Association of Independents in Radio

b. The Transom Story Workshop Alumni listserve

c. The list for the Sonic Soiree, a local listening group in Boston (I bet there’s a group near you).

d. The newsletter from the Bello Collective

e. The newsletter from Hot Pod

f. Sam Greenspan’s occasional newsletter YSLTF: You Should Listen to Fridays.

* I’m a member of a couple of Facebook groups:

a. The Podcasters Support Group

b. The BEA Teaching Audio Production Group

* I subscribe to podcasts that feature work from a lot of different producers:

a. Short Cuts from the BBC

b. Unfictional from KCRW

c. The BBC’s Between the Ears podcast

* I search for subject matter I’m personally interested in. For instance, I might search for “Arctic” and “podcasts.” Or, “podcasts on the environment.”

I’m sure I’ve left something out. (What would you add?) Perhaps the short answer is: my ear radar is always on; I’m constantly on the hunt.

I should mention, too, that as I’m listening, I look for a way into the story for a HowSound episode. Is there a “teachable moment” in the piece? Did the producer do something unusual and notable? Do I find myself wondering “How the heck did they do that?!” Sometimes it’s just a matter of being satisfied by the story or a production technique.

That’s what this episode of HowSound is about. On a recent road trip, I listened to several hours of stories and made a mental list of segments from those stories that caught attention, that I found satisfying. This is a different way of producing HowSound. Typically, I find one story and interview the producer. But, today, I feature a slew of clips that caught my ear and I offer some thoughts about what worked and what didn’t. Stories from Earshot, The City, and Sound Africa.

If you get a chance, let me know if this episode worked for you. And, tell me what I should be listening to next.

The post The Vietnam Tapes of Lance Corporal Michael A. Baronowski appeared first on Transom.