Weekly Post February 11, 2010

This week was spent putting the final touches on the audio piece.  I worked with sound for about 15 hours this week.  

I worked on editing the piece so that the word "doorknobs" isn't so repetitive.  I cut out about four "doorknobs" in total.  I typed up a new transcript for the sound piece; I am going to include the audio transcript in the second draft of my thesis.    

On Friday I recorded the sound piece's introduction in the V-Room.  For this first attempt, I tried to sound professional, but it ended up coming out monotone and unnatural.  

I listened to "Talk the Copy" a podcast recommended by Stephanie.  In the hour and a half podcast, Marilyn Pittman teaches you how to be a better storyteller.  

Not only does she give great advice, but she is also a comedian and is absolutely hysterical.   I took some notes on the podcast:  

After listening to her advice, I realized just how monotone I sounded.  The best advice from the podcast was to say "Well Marilyn..." right before you speak.  For example, "TODAY IN THE NEWS..." sounds much different than "Well Marilyn, today in the news..."  

I recorded a new introduction yesterday and it sounded much better; however, I still was unhappy with it.  Last night, I spent another hour rerecording the introduction, and I think this last piece recorded is the best one (see last couple of blog posts).  

I spent about an hour today listening to previous submissions to the Marathon of Homelessness.  I am submitting my piece tomorrow.  

I really enjoyed working with sound for the past 6 weeks.  I want to continue perfecting the piece before the show, and I also want to work on other elements of my project in the upcoming weeks.  I think I may put the sound aside for a week or two, so I can come back to the piece with completely fresh ears. 

What is next?

I want to put together a week-by-week plan for the next 7 weeks.  I'm also going to put together some visual solutions for how my work might be presented in the gallery.  The goal is to have a few options to show the class in critique on Tuesday. 

I am planning on writing up a draft of the AnnArbor.com article so that I can send it to Megan Levad by Saturday.  

I also want to talk to Patrick Young about the collaborative photo series.  Some of the pictures seem murky and not a crisp black; I want to find out about different Photoshop tools & techniques I can use to make the most of the images.

I have a strong interest in creating a book that works with the images I present in the gallery.  Maybe I will present 8 large images of the collaborative series in the gallery, and on the side, have a book that encompasses all of the 35 images.  These are things I'd like to discuss in class on Tuesday.  This way, I can have somewhat of an idea of how to go forward with the presentation, and then perfect the technical aspects of the project.