FIELD REPORTING FOR AUDIO STORYTELLERS

Description

Monson Arts hosts "Field Reporting for Audio Storytellers with Nora Saks and Robert Smith" For Mid-career producers, editors and reporters. It’s time to take your audio productions and reporting out of the studio and into the real world. Over the course of a three action-packed days, you’ll get a chance to experiment with a variety of field reporting and recording techniques and tools in a supportive, learn-by-doing environment. Using the town of Monson, the Appalachian Trail nearby, and other surrounding areas as our classroom, you’ll learn how to capture vivid scenes, natural sounds, and create compelling action in the field to establish an authentic sense of place. As time and experience permit, we’ll help you turn the elements you gather in the field into a short produced piece. You’ll leave the workshop comfortable with a variety of field recording and mixing techniques, plus the ability to find and capture stories and characters anywhere you go. This new experiential workshop is aimed at mid-level audio producers, reporters and editors who have basic audio reporting, recording and production skills. Please bring a field kit (deck, over-the-ear headphones, external mic, batteries, etc) you feel comfortable using. If you do not have your own kit, contact info@monsarts.org for options. All participants need to bring over-the-ear headphones and AA batteries, and a laptop + DAW (Reaper, Hindenburg, Audition, Protools, Audacity, etc) of choice. This course is DAW agnostic, but basic proficiency with a DAW is required, as the course is focused on field recording, not post-production. A car is helpful, but not required, and we’ll organize local carpools as necessary! This workshop is offered in collaboration with the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies. Robert Smith has taken listeners around the globe on NPRS Planet Money to hear economics in action. He’s aimed his microphones at rocket launches, oil derricks, Christmas tree auctions and pasta factories. Robert specializes in creating interactive audio scenes with emotion and action. He teaches at Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism. Nora Saks – Whether reporting on toxic waste sites in Montana, humpback whale research in Alaska, or the evolving maple syrup industry in Maine, Nora Saks is dedicated to getting to know the real people and places at the center of complicated stories. After producing podcasts for Montana Public Radio and WBUR, and teaching audio storytelling at the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies, her love of Maine and narrative journalism in all its forms led her to Down East Magazine, where she’s an associate editor.