“Tell a story using nothing but sound effects.”

I used sound effects from Freesound.org to make this story. In Audacity, I complied them together into a recognizable pattern that would tell a story. I trimmed up sound effects where I thought it was needed and overlapped sounds to make a more effective story.

I listened to other sound effect stories to find inspiration and found a lot of suspenseful stories. I was then reminded of what Ira Glass said about story telling, “the power of the anecdote is so great that no matter how boring the material is…there’s suspense in it.” That idea struck a chord with me, the sound effect story does not have to be blatantly suspenseful to be a successful story. Why not use boring material to create story? This question made me brainstorm of boring situations. Where is the feeling of being bored the strongest? The last minutes of a class, obviously. The sequence of actions is completely boring, a person watches a clock, feels bored, sighs, and then finally the bell rings. Simple story but there is a underlying suspense that is just a strong as running from an unknown attacker.

There is a sense of anxiousness in the story, we all now that everyone is waiting for the bell to ring. You remember the feeling of being antsy waiting for that bell. That leads us to the question, why? Why are they impatient? What is happening that they just cannot wait for? The possibilities are endless, a date, a vacation, or simply freedom from school. Where is this person headed next? I left the end of the story to you.

This is my first shot at the DS106 Radio Bumper. For some reason, when I was creating the bumper I couldn’t stop thinking about the Looney Toons. I found the opening theme on Frogstar.com and added the theme in as an opener. I then clipped several different songs to create the message in the bumper. I complied all the clips together in Audacity.

Having an assignment like this that is so open to creative interpretation is amazingly fun, yet at the same time, frustratingly hard. You want to create something awesome and memorable and you have to narrow down which resources you use and the multitude of ideas that you have brainstormed. I played with the idea of adding in clips from Doctor Who, The Simpsons, and Star Trek. I toyed with the idea of a musical interlude, different sounds, and different song choices. This was the final cut and I had fun manipulating it until I was happy.

While I was making this bumper, I was trying to figure out how the Looney Toons figured into DS 106. Yet, I thought of all the fun and craziness that accompanies the Bugs Bunny and all his co-cartoons. It definitely makes sense now and has it says in the Tiny Toons theme, “Expect the Unexpected” which seems to be a guiding philosophy at DS 106.

So in the words of Porky the Pig, “That’s All Folks!”

Take a mainstream artist and chipmunk them

I love those crazy woodland critters that can sing better than me. I have listened to many songs that have been chipmunk-ed. So I was highly excited to see this assignment. In Audacity, I changed the pitch of the song and voilà! I was done.

I love so many songs and couldn’t think of just one to chipmunk. Eventually, after careful consideration, I chose You Can Call Me Al by Paul Simon. Everything about it was just perfect for this assignment. Even if the singing is high-pitched, this song is still a favorite of mine.

Take six very short fragments from six different songs and ensemble them into a single piece.

 

To start off in Audio, I decided on the “Contest that nobody could win.” I love guessing games and especially musical guessing games. I clipped sections out of six songs and mashed them together in Audacity, which, is quickly becoming my favorite program on my computer.

Saying nobody could win seemed harsh to me, but I was so lost in which six seconds and which six songs to choose. Eventually, I scrolled through iTunes and saw a clump of songs by the same artist. I loved each song individually and decided, why not? So, guessing will be easy and there really isn’t a specific phrase it spells out. The only theme in this mashup, other than the artist, is the sections of song all (sort of) have a pronoun.

In my family, writing well is very important. Any piece of paper, text, email, or dialogue should be grammatically correct or else… I always liked pronouns. They are very social parts of speech. Pronouns remind us of someone or a group. He, She, We, They, even It all evoke an image in our heads. Pronouns are important and should not be ignored, but they are often taken for granted.