IT WAS MY TURN TO BE A PRESENTER!

I did once on air on SYN FM when I was at Foundation. That was pretty awful when I listened back to it. I am always nervous when talking in front of people and this time in front of a mic I got pressure to give instantaneous response and I mumble a lot whenever I am worried. I practised the script and read the runsheet over and over again before the show. Having a script made me feel secured but I began to worry that I would sound like reading from script (as Elizabeth mentioned about the last show). Me and Tim didn’t really get to run through the whole thing once before the actual show because our interviewees weren’t settled down until two days before the show. The whole thing was nerve cracking until the day I sat in the studio and put on the headphones. It was really fun and interesting to be a presenter. Thanks for Tim’s lead and Bella’s encouragement. Tim sounds very fluent and natural on air. I wasn’t doing really well to engage with the interviewee during the interviews and that was the thing I need to improve. We listened to Elizabeth’s advices on sharing questions between both presenters in the interview. When I listened back the show, I feel like the interaction is really stronger when both presenters are participating and sharing ideas rather than just one presenter was only responsible for one’s interview. Besides, it was all out first time to conduct a phone interview and luckily it didn’t go wrong. For me, I felt more comfortable doing a phone interview instead of a live one in studio.  As Josie said, I was able to gesture more expressively and I put more attention on the interviewee’s responses since there was only his voice I can focus on. I guess the show ran smooth and everything sticked to our runsheet.

 

I really enjoy working with Tim, Bella and Nora. They are all very helpful and I learnt a lot from them. Guys I am looking forward to our third show 🙂

Choir of Hope and Inspiration is our feature topic. Today we went visit the choir’s rehearsal at Deakin Edge. The members of the choir were amazing. Their voice sounds very warm and passionate. Seeing them sitting around in a circle and following the choir conductor, it was surprising how well they cooperate to sing a hymn. I guess the choir and singing itself really help people build up confidence and create friendship among them. The members were playing around with each other and smiling all the time during the rehearsal. I can feel the positive attitude from them.

I am very excited for our interview with them next week!

     a picture taken by Tim while me, Nora and      Bella were sitting on the bench enjoying the hymns :)

 

So everything was getting real now. Our first show at RWAV, Triple R was happening today. I wasn’t confident and experienced neither to be a presenter for the first time nor a panel operator, so I would be the producer staying behind keep an eye on all the details and running of the whole show. It was pretty fun for our first time except we ran a little bit under time so we got to repeat a song at the end of the show to fill up the gap. As a producer, I haven’t communicated well with the presenter. As a result, there was misunderstanding and that led to the poor time management throughout the show.

From the beginning we looked out ideas for interviews, then we reached out the interviewees to confirm the time for them to come in studios, we had rehearsals, we did a demo and we started working out a runsheet, today we sat in the studio and got the show running all by ourselves. That was challenging but promising, We are definitely going to get the second show better delivered.

My interviewee suggested doing the interview at the store so that she felt more comfortable and it could be easier for her to pick up different items to talk about. There were so many things I didn’t realise until I listened back my recording later. I didn’t notice the little background noise at the store, the ceiling fan and people’s footsteps. I have looked up online for some software to eliminate the background noise when editing. But this is one thing I learnt, if I have recorded it in a quieter background there would have so much more I can add on to construct different feelings and atmosphere.

I guess the most difficult part for me was keep it conversational and natural. I tried not to look at my interview questions too often but then I got lost when asking and I mumbled. I got nervous sometimes when my interviewee talked so much that I didn’t know how to give an instantaneous response and lead her back on track. I learnt a lot from this interview and I am sure I can do better next time, which is when I am going to present at RWAV 🙂

 

 

I kept changing my individual interview topics until this week. I settled down on the topic on collecting things. The idea was to explore the relationship people have with things. At first, I wanted to start off with the problem of hoarding but I wasn’t able to look for any source or particular person I can focus on. Then I moved on to an easier approach – antique shops, vintage stores. I was walking down on Chapel Street the other day and I found a bazaar selling different kind of stuff, old and second-hand stuff, from toys, accessories to clothes and furniture. And I saw this cosy store at the corner, Fat Helen’s.

The store owner of this store is very nice. I chatted with her for a while and she told me the story of her started collecting stuff and how she decided to open a store to share with other collectors. I guess it could be a nice place to develop my interview 🙂

I have listened to All the Best as to look for a way to set the idea of my individual interview. All the Best is an interesting weekly radio show telling stories in different forms and styles. It includes documentary style, personal narrative, interviews and even storytelling with a narrator. They use music, ambient sound and the editing style to construct the piece. The story they explore are not very heavy but it is always informative. They also discover some interesting stories from ordinary people. All the Best is quite impressive in its way of audio storytelling.

Telling stories with only sound lets audience focus on the person’s voice. I reckon it’s a more intimate form of storytelling than using video. I should also think about the sounds, not only the speech, I may record to create the atmosphere. And there is so much to learn on editing and recording.