Radio and audio can be used really effectively to tell a story or form a narrative. There’s something more powerful about listening to a story and having to visualize it yourself – these stories can really affect listeners.
Your job is to come up with a topic or a story that you can tell about something that happened. You will mix in audio from an interviewee, as well as music, and edit your piece together to form a mini documentary. These are really good for highly personal stories. Tell about a tragic event, your biggest achievement, fears, dreams, etc. Interview me, a classmate, someone in the school, a family member, or a friend.
These tend to be longer than news pieces! It is impossible for me to say exactly how long your piece will be, but you want to try for at least 4 minutes. Find a story or person who has lived an interesting life, and get them to tell you the story. You will add in your voice to introduce the story, tie parts together, and wrap it up.
Here are some examples:
DNTO – How not to break up with your girlfriend...
Spark – Can Zombies use touch screens?
This one is a lot more personal, so you can show emotion and opinions here. Ideally, the story will be told primarily by the person being interviewed, but you need to talk as well to frame and guide the piece. These are a little more difficult, but can be a lot more fun.
Use good instrumental music in the background of your piece. I like the following sites (your job is not to sit around listening to music, it’s to quickly choose music you can use in your piece. I have some instrumental music available for people overwhelmed and distracted by the number of choices):
dig.ccmixter.org – this is one of my favourites. Free songs that are legal to use in your own stories. Add search terms to search for specific instruments, genres, or feelings, or browse through and find the piece for you.
The general rule for content like this is that you need to give credit to the source, so put something in the credits at the end of your story, which tells people who created the music you’re using, and where you got it.