Details for the Homework - Man-on-the-Street Assignment

For this week's homework:

* Put together a man-on-the-street interview piece (one produced audio piece that weaves together different interviews on a topic of your choice). There is no length restriction, but it must have the following elements:
* Must contain voices from at least 3 subjects. I recommend interviewing at least 4 people and using the 3 best in the final edit.
* Must contain at least 2 clips of ambient sound related to your theme or location of recording.
* You should be talking to strangers, not people you know.
* Each person should be identified in the piece, by first and last name, and by one detail about them that tells something of who they are (i.e. John Smith, a University of Maryland student).
* Think of this as a feature piece you would run on the school newspaper's Web site or some other publication. It should feel like a piece of journalism not a random collection of opinions.
* Edit the elements together. Use a scripted intro and conclusion in most cases, unless you can have the people in the piece give enough context for a radio-diary format piece.
* Must be posted to class by noon on Friday (start of class).

This project is more involved than last week, so it's best to start as soon as possible to leave some time for editing. Having a plan in advance (what questions you will ask and what kind of setting you want to focus on, etc) will help immensely. If you're not sure about your plan feel free to e-mail me any questions you might have.

We also have a short short reading assignment (I decided to cut the required listening to give you time to focus on the other assignments). It shouldn't take long but this is an important part of the class (and it should help you do the assignment). There will be a short quiz at the start of next class on the reading and what we've learned so far:

* Reading: Sound Reporting, pp. 92-119.

E-mail me with any questions.