Last week we were asked to think about the question what is storytelling? This week we were asked to expand a bit about what what exactly is audio storytelling.  To help us get some basic ideas about this we were given Ira Glass’ Series on storytelling.  Here is the first part of the series here:

While listening to Ira Glass and what he said to say I found a ton of interesting points that I felt like needed to be pointed out.

• Where do you start with a story?

Do you start with the action? Do you start with some fluffy details to set the stage and  build up to the action? It was an interesting question that I had not really thought about before.  It’s very important to keep your audience interested but it is also important to make sure not to give away the whole story too early.

• Have a good bait

This kind of goes along and helps answer the last question.  Having a good introduction that really sucks your audience in just as important than the whole story. If you have a good bait you are able to pull the audience in and hold back the action until when it is appropriate to share.

• Finding a good story

You need to spend just as much looking for good stories as editing and making the stories. Ira Glass talked about how half to a third of the stories that they make end up getting killed and never finished.  This idea makes total sense but was surprising to me.  I feel like most of the time when it comes to making stories we find it important to tell them well, but what I have noticed so far in this class is that making up the story is often the hardest part.

• Sometimes you just have to get lucky

Sometimes even with a lot of hard work and a lot of planning you still end up with crap.   And sometimes you just happen upon a really great idea that you are unbelievably happy with. Ira talked about how it is important to be okay with this fact and I couldn’t agree any more.  Sometimes great ideas come out of no where.  I think it is important to not question it and just be happy that you had a great idea at all.

After watching Ira Glass’s videos I went on and listened to Radiolab’s Jab Abumrad video How Radio Creates Empathy:

Some interesting part I found from Jab Abumrad’s were

• The coolest thing about radio is what it lacks

I can totally agree with Jab when he talks about being a TV junky.  I love many TV Shows (as you may have guessed after this post last week).  I was at first taken aback when he said a lack of pictures is what made radio special.   As I listened more and more to what he had to say I started to agree with him more than I thought I would.  Radio is unique because you are able to listen to what someone has to say and picture it in your head with out having pictures to influence what you see.   It’s an extremely creative and cool event that you don’t get with TV.

• Radio gives you a connection that TV doesn’t

By listening to what another person describes through the radio, you gain some kind of connection with them.  This is a connection that you share with the person you are listening to because you are forming your ideas off of what they say.  This relationship is much deeper than someone on TV because you see and hear what they want you to when watching TV.  In radio you just get to hear what the person has to say and you interpret their voice in a way that you find best.  This was something that I had never thought of before but made a lot of sense.