Your feedback on your workshop group’s blueprint posts is due today. Consider the following as you read and comment don their posts:

• Would you listen to an episode like this? What would draw you in? Is there anything the creator can do to capture your attention more immediately? 
• Is the episode concept focused? Would narrowing it make it more effective?
• Will some of the interview questions elicit stories from guests? 
• How might the one-liners be sharpened or made more lively? 

Of course, you may have other ideas for feedback. This is just a guide.

Preparing for class tomorrow is pretty straightforward:

• Be sure you fill out a Podcast Analysis Worksheet for the episode of Lulu Garcia Navarro’s First Person. I gave out hard copies in class, and I’ve posted a PDF to the calendar and to our Documents page.
• In Weldon’s NPR Startup Guide, review p. 35-36 on blueprints, one-liners, and titles, p. 136 on sound collection worksheets and 105 on sound collection lists and interview lists, and 160-161 on interview questions.
• On the Calendar, review what’s due Friday and Tuesday.

That’s it!

Let me know ASAP if you’d like to attend the Ira Glass event–and get the opportunity to meet with and talk to him.

“I want the interview to be a narrative and not a questionnaire. I always try to figure out where to start, what’s the right entry place for this interview.” — Terry Gross

“I’m looking for a narrative. What I’m making is narrative, and I’m looking for a narrative. . . . The structure of stories on our show is there’s plot and there are ideas. Those are the two elements you’re constantly monitoring to know whether or not you’ve got them. “ –Ira Glass

“The blueprint is the narrative of somebody’s life, but 9 out of 10, we get caught up in current issues. . . . I find a lot of my interviews of late shift from what’s your story to what are your views.” –Reggie Ossé

You’re going to practice interviewning a partner in class today, by pretending to be one of the interviewers we’ve listened to and then trading and pretending to be a guest . These are the steps to follow:

• With your partner, decide on your roles. An an interviewer, who will you pretend to be? As an interviewee, who will you pretend to be? Note: The roles should fit together logically.

• Once you made a a decision, conduct pre-interviews with each other. Informally, find out a little about the interviewee–and how they might sound recorded.

• Then write 4-5 questions for your interviewee. Consider formatting. What size font? Should anything be bolded or in italics? In a color? Should anything have a note attached to it?

• Then, do some of the vocal exercises we read about in the “Finding Your Voice” chapter of Glenn Weldon’s NPR Podcast Startup Guide–and that we practiced in class together.

• Once you have your questions and you’re warmed up, decide who will interview who. Conduct the interview. When you finish, trade roles and conduct the second interview.

• In both roles, practice using your voice. How do you want to sound? How can you experiment your voice to get that sound.

• If you imagine turning your interview into an episode, what might the narrative be?

Some interview advice:

• Show your curiosity; be aware of your own pleasure and amusement
• Empathize: Imagine your interviewee’s experience
• Listen
• Ask follow-up questions; ask for examples
• Get your interviewee to tell stories
• Get your interviewee talking about ideas and their beliefs
• Listen for magic moments–the ones that will move or startle audiences, get them thinking and feeling with you

For Tuesday’s class you should do the folllowing:

• Choose an interview technique or piece of advice to discuss from each of the episodes of The Turnaround we’re listening to, with Larry King and Audie Cornish. Make it interesting by choosing very different examples.
• Choose a moment from the “Acing the Interview” chapter of Weldon’s NPR Podcast Startup Guide that resonates with your choices.
• Be prepared to discuss your choices in relation to each other in class.
• Watch the Audition tutorial and come to class with any and all questions about it.
• Be sure to download Auditon, using the link to Adobe Creative Cloud listed under “Tools.”

Our classroom is G-Building 200. Some of you have asked how to find it. Here’s a campus map that will show you. See the orange arrow and circle.