The podcast I heard for this assignment was from the website This American Life. The podcast was an audio documentary called Superpowers (178). A small intro to the podcast (which I pulled from the website) is this:
We answer the following questions about superpowers: Can superheroes be real people? (No.) Can real people become superheroes? (Maybe.) And which is better: flight or invisibility? (Depends who you ask.)
A detailed idea and documentation of this podcast is available here
I am basing my reflections and analysis of this podcast on the elements of sound discussed in the McKee paper, “Sound Matters: Notes toward the analysis and design of sound in multimodal webtexts”
Firstly the vocal delivery in the podcast is of superior quality. This is probably achievable due to the access to the right equipment, studio and production team. But apart from these, the choice of narrators and their vocal personality adds to the topic of the podcast. Superpowers. The narrator is not an overpowering person or the central figure in the podcast. Instead, he has a non-descript voice and personality with intonations and modulations that are only expressed at certain areas that require special effect in the narration. In fact, the central characters in the podcast are the people interviewed for the program, those who aspire to be superheroes or have an obsessive desire for superpowers.
The musical special effects are befitting to the theme of the program. While they are very super-power-y and tend to be sometimes stereotypical of what we think is super-heroic, this is actually good for the program and is used to add to the topic. Another good thing I could appreciate about the music is that it is judiciously used and that the program is not over-laden with music effects that would steal away the focus of the program. Again, the importance of the interviews and topic and script is maintained. What was also interesting, and added a very cool effect was the surrounding environment sounds during the interviews with people. The sound of other people at the background, clutter of silverware on ceramic plates suggested a restaurant, sounds that are typically found in a home setting suggested the interview took place at the interviewee’s home. This added to the program as a whole and avoided monotony of the hour long podcast.
Silence was sparingly, but intelligently used. In this podcast, silence was utilized to express sadness, of grief, of losing hope, of being let down etc. I thought that the pauses (that conveyed the silence) were extremely effective. It was something that had the power to move even the most detached, rational listener. Silences during an interview definitely had a touching and moving effect, something that could not be conveyed by words.
Overall, I thought this podcast employed fine professionalism. The producers of podcasts of the Chicago Public Radio certainly have a great deal of experience that is clearly demonstrated. Listening to some of these podcasts is a good way to learn to make podcasts indeed!
No comments:
Post a Comment