Catherine mentioned in her last Producer's Journal entry that we are in the thick of production on a story about the Martis Valley, where folks have generated a unique solution to what seemed like an intractable stalemate between environmentalists and developers. Just recently Catherine and I sat down to test out recording ourselves as narrators for the piece. What a hoot! And a challenge. I’m used to being behind the mic, not in front of it; to coaxing the best out of folks, not having my best lured out of me.
We were fortunate to have Claire Schoen with us for the recording session. She’s a longtime radio producer/editor with a sharp eye for details and even shaper ear for recording. Claire operated the gear, interviewed us, and listened carefully to what we had to say to help us better articulate our ideas for the narration.
We've roped Claire in to being a story editor on our hour-long 2008 Earth Day documentary special. She’ll be helping us think through the story structure and, judging from our first work session, infusing even more spunk into our media making process. I'm somewhat new to radio documentary production (I was a DJ/announcer for many years at our local community radio station, co-produced a public affairs series for the local NPR affiliate, and helped launch a low power radio station in my town, but I haven't done a whole lot of radio journalism), so having a seasoned professional like Claire in the mix to remind us of our project goals, ask us tough questions, give critical feedback on our scripts, and listen back to our edits is tremendously useful. Plus she brings along her spiffy new gear that makes our recorded narration in a café setting sound amazing.
I’m about to sit down with the transcripts of our recording session and then listen to the recordings to gauge the outcomes from our experiment. If we like how is sounds, Catherine and I may decide to be the narrators for all of the pieces that will make up our public radio Earth Day special (the Martis Valley story will be one of three that are featured in hour long documentary).
Stay tuned for what we decide. And for upcoming musings on how falling in love/belonging with a place moves folks to get involved conservation efforts to preserve it for future generations.
