Audio Slideshows

This year I started off my Convergence Journalism class with a project called Audio Slideshows.

The audio slideshow is a way of telling a story over a subject using:

• Sound bites from an interview
• Nat noise
• Photographs. 

These three elements are weaved together to tell a story. 

The LA Times produces great examples. Here is one.

1. The first step is to choose a subject for your project. The person should be a good character. For a subject to be a good character, they must fit the following criteria:

• They must WANT to be a character.
• They must be articulate
• They must have a good story to tell. 

I had my students pick a subject and create an Audio Slideshow over how they contribute to the Raven Nation (our school's mascot). 

2. They developed 21 interview questions for their subject. I use this guide to help students develop their questions. It has been the best way I have found to generate questions. Check it out.

3. Next, students conducted their interviews and recorded the entire thing using a voice recording app on their phones. We are working to use devices at our school, and this was the perfect opportunity to teach students how to record interviews that we will use later on in the year.

4. Using their phone's camera, the students then took pictures of their subject doing the activity. It should be something very visual: playing basketball, working on a computer, creating art. They used the 6-shot system to compose their photos. Read this post to learn more about the system.

5. The next step is to capture NAT NOISE of their subject performing their activity. If the story is about playing basketball, sounds of the ball bouncing, game noise or whistles blowing would be appropriate. These sounds will be layered underneath the audio to help tell the story.

6. Finally, it is time to edit the project together. We used Final Cut Pro X to edit the audio and video. Soundslides is another option to create the Audio Slideshow, but it costs money to purchase.

I tell my students to always start with nat noise to draw the viewer in.

Check out: "What makes a good audio slideshow" for more tips and tricks.

Here are some examples my students produced:

This project is a great way to teach students several skills:

1. Interviewing
2. Nat noise
3. The 6-shot system
4. Composition
5. Editing audio and video.

Questions about this project? Please post in the comments below!