For the Audio Story assignment, I chose to create an ad for assumed campaign Animal Rights PNW – a real local activist Facebook page. To view the draft of the audio story, visit the Audio Story: Draft page.
After reading the feedback to my ad, I recognized several issues:
Add pauses to my narrations. My editing was too tight and I had to separate the parts apart from each other to make the narration sound more natural. Some comments were to add a few more sound effects, animal noises, especially at the very beginning.
After getting valuable feedback from my peers Queton Williams, Steve Steinhour, Christine Tully and Prof. Chelsea Newman the consensus was
- my voice sounded good (although I had a cold – depending on the cold, sometimes it affects the vocal cords with a positive, from a sound perspective quality).
- the music choice for the theme was effective, however, the copyright for the end part of the ad was bugging me, I made a decision to replace it with the Cinema Themes audio (a copyright-free collection of music for video/audio production and editing).
- My rough cut was missing pauses at the strategic locations and sounded as if I was reading the script under one breath. I added pauses by separating the sound bites with the ambient sound.
- With adding a smooth transition between the opening and closing themes and the narration pauses at the strategic points I hoped to achieve a more cohesive piece.
- I chose to leave the animal sound effects out of the first part of the track for the purpose of not overwhelming the audience with the dramatic effects and rather concentrate on the text. At the end, however, I do have a call of the bald eagle to highlight the celebration of animal freedom as the goal of the Animal Rights PNW campaign.
Opening theme – “Unnatural Situation” by Kevin MacLeod, royalty free music (2008). I chose to keep it due to it’s dramatic, intense, and dark tones that reflect the pain and suffering of the animals who are mentioned in the narration.
Closing theme – “Cinema Track” a royalty free audio for video/audio production and editing. Happy, uplifting, motivating to the call to action, to persuade the listeners to support the cause and become a part of the campaign.
Here is the final piece. I hope this may become something I can use on my Facebook page Animal Rights PNW as a real piece of the campaign.