This assessment requires you to record and edit a vox pop. You will need to come up with a relevant and/or topical question and then record responses from members of the public (you cannot record classmates or other people you know). You will then assemble (edit) those responses together to make an engaging piece of audio – the vox pop. You will also need to submit a cue (or intro) that the presenter of the program would read if s/he were playing your vox pop on air.

This is an individual assessment but for reassurance and safety, you may record your audio with a fellow classmate. 

The assessment has been designed to assist you with developing skills in designing questions, interviewing, writing a cue (or intro), field recording and audio editing.

Assessment Criteria

The marking for this assessment will consider: research and content, presentation and technical skills. The emphasis is on your creative skills in asking appropriate questions, gathering a diversity of responses and combining those to create engaging content, rather than your technical proficiency. This allows some space for you to build your technical skills as you progress through the unit. 

NOTE: Bookings for recorders will close three weekdays (Monday to Friday) before the assessment deadline. This means that the last day you will be able to book a recorder for this assessment will be Wednesday 27 March, 2019. If you have exceptional circumstances which you think justify the loan of a recorder after this date, you will need to email your tutor and make a case for access. Please avoid this if at all possible. 

Submission

Audio – Due Monday 1 April, 2019 – 9.59am

Submit audio via Workstation DropBox BEFORE the week 6 lecture. Submissions made during the lecture will be considered late submissions.

1.30-2 minute individually edited vox pop

Documentation – Due Monday 1 April 2019 – 11.59pm

Submit to Turnitin via iLearn. 

Cue 

Self-assessment via the rubric 

For this assessment you will choose someone to interview and record. You’ll then edit and shape your interview into a profile or ‘portrait’ of that person. Think about how you might 'capture' your interviewee with the microphone. 

This is not just about extracting information. Your subject can be: 'a character', an expert, a personality, a person you know with a story to tell or a person whose life is revealing in some way. There are no restrictions on age, ethnicity, gender, cultural/social background. They can be old, young, shy, gregarious; have the most unusual job in Australia or one we think we know well, but don’t. Make your choice, and then organise a time and location to record.

Location recording presents opportunities for ‘sound portraiture’, so consider the location for your recording as carefully as your subject. Make sure you record some ‘atmosphere’ or ‘actuality’ of their home or workplace or any other location you’ve chosen. When you arrive, pay attention to the small details you can see and consider how the things you can see can add to your story. It may help to record notes into your recorder. If possible, capture ACTION. You could record your subject going about their daily activities or their job. Recording your meeting might be useful too. Think as creatively as possible.

When you come to edit your interview think about the most compelling audio you’ve managed to record. This will often be the piece with the most emotion. Consider putting this at the beginning of your piece to draw the listener in. Think about how to best piece together the sequence of the story to make it compelling, and ideally surprising, for the listener. Don’t assume the sequence of questions and responses you have recorded is the structure the edit has to take. You’ll likely need to record and include narration to link the pieces of ‘tape’ together.

Audio stories can bring us voices we've never heard, or stories overlooked in our fascination with fame, experts and celebrity. Don't talk too much yourself and make sure you LISTEN. (Interviewing is as much an exercise in listening as it is in talking.) 

You will need to include a cue and your final script for the documentation component of this assignment. You don’t need to fully transcribe your interviewee’s responses although you may have chosen to do this as part of a paper edit. If not, just include your script as you’ve used it to assemble your audio (your narration and your questions). 

Assessment Criteria

Programs will be judged on the interest of the subject/content, how well they communicated through choice of actuality sound and voiced presentation, and on demonstrated technical competency. The technical weighting of this assessment task will still be relatively low as this is still an early assessment task using portable audio equipment and audio editing software.

NOTE: Bookings for recorders will close three weekdays (Monday to Friday) before the assessment deadline. This means that the last day you will be able to book a recorder for this assessment will be Wednesday 24 April, 2019. If you have exceptional circumstances which you think justify the loan of a recorder after this date, you will need to email your tutor and make a case for access. Please avoid this if at all possible. 

Submission

Audio – Due Monday 29 April, 2019 – 9.59am

Submit audio via Workstation DropBox BEFORE the week 8 lecture. Submissions made during the lecture will be considered late submissions.

4-5 minute edited interview

Documentation – Due Monday 29 April 2019 – 11.59pm

Submit to Turnitin via iLearn. 

Cue 

Script

Self-assessment via the rubric

For this assignment, you will work in pairs to research and produce a short (6-7 minutes) radio feature or podcast episode.This American Life is a model program with examples of the kinds of stories and approach. You should include more than one edited interview. Consider a variety voices, narration and other sounds (music, effects, original actuality recordings). Interviews and narration can be recorded on the portable recorder and then edited with well-chosen music, sound effects, audio 'beds', or actuality to create a feature on a specific topic, theme, person/s or that tells a story. The feature is designed to be suitable for broadcast on a community radio station or as part of a podcast series.

This assessment requires you to demonstrate competence with story selection, editorial judgement, interviewing, microphone technique, recording, editing, and mixing and thinking radiophonically.

Assessment Criteria

Programs will be judged on the level of technical skills demonstrated (you should aim for broadcast quality) and well as their creative/journalistic application to the content and presentation of the subject as rendered in sound. There will be a higher weighting for the technical aspects of this assessment than for the previous two, but the creative ideas remain the focus.

While you will work in pairs, your individual contribution to the team is assessed independently. You will document the role you played and the elements of the final product that you contributed in an accompanying 800-word Reflection. Your individual contribution will make up 50% of the mark, and the other 50% will be a team mark for the produced program you submit. 

Your Reflection should begin with a brief summary of your topic and your aims for the program/podcast. Include some detail about how and why you pursued the treatment you did and a timeline for your pre-production, production and edit. Consider areas of strength and weakness and how you might develop strengths and improve on weaknesses, as well as any other important learning. It is useful to provide an overview scripts you wrote, the interviews you conducted and your contribution to the edit, to assist your Tutor to recognise your individual and team contribution. You may attach appendixes.

To conclude your Reflection, consider where you think your piece could be programmed, podcast or presented. Examples include: a magazine program on 2SER, Triple J's Hack, a specialist podcast series you have identified, or another suitable venue. 

The best features may be offered (with your permission) to our community radio station 2SER, or you can approach other community broadcasters for possible programming. This helps you to build up your portfolio of creative and journalistic work. 

NOTE: Bookings for recorders will close three weekdays (Monday to Friday) before the assessment deadline. This means that the last day you will be able to book a recorder for this assessment will be Wednesday 29 May, 2019. If you have exceptional circumstances which you think justify the loan of a recorder after this date, you will need to email your tutor and make a case for access. Please avoid this if at all possible. 

Submission

Audio – Due Monday 3 June, 2019 – 9.59am

Submit audio via Workstation DropBox BEFORE the week 13 lecture. Submissions made during the lecture will be considered late submissions.

6-7 minute feature

Documentation – Due Monday 3 June 2019 – 11.59pm

Submit to Turnitin via iLearn. 

Cue Sheet 

Script

Reflection 800 words

Self-assessment via the rubric

Listening, reading and timely preparation of your assessments is crucial to this course. You will see in the Unit Schedule that there are set readings and listenings as well as tasks you should be completing to ensure you use your time effectively in the completion of the assessments. Please ensure you regularly check the Unit Schedule as the required readings and listenings will likely be updated and added to as the unit progresses. You will also be expected to do your own listening and to discuss this in addition to the set listenings/readings and your assessment progress in the tutorials. 

Lecture attendance, participation in tutorial discussions based on the listenings/readings and completion of the recommended steps for assessment will be assessed each week by your tutor and will contribute to your participation mark, as does active involvement in technical workshops and the on-time return and respectful use of recording equipment.