Creative, meaningful and fun!

Wednesday, 17th of October 2007.

It is a hectic day today in the radio department. Everyone is finishing up their slide shows. Sound and images bind together. Quite a challenge, I have to say. Though I kind of knew what everyone was doing (I knew what the stories were about), I was very much amazed by what I saw today.

I’ve seen and listened to some slides today; some were almost done and had even already added the pictures to the sound. Others still have a lot of work to do. The deadline is Monday, so I’ve heard.

What I was really amazed about was the originality and creativity of some students. For example, Christie Jacobs had found a very creative way of showing some statistics in the slide show. She had a picture of a child standing in front of a wall, and on the wall she added some statistics saying that fifty percent of all kids in South Africa do not live with their fathers. I thought that was a smart way of bringing that into a picture, very creative. Another example is the work of Mellisa Parkin. In the beginning of their slide show they’ll view a lot of pictures of the father that they’ve interviewed with his tattoos. You won’t see his face but you will see his body, his scars and his tattoos. They want to show these photo’s on the beat of the music. I think that is a really cool idea, very original. I hope these ideas will work out the way it is meant.

I have had the chance to talk to some students today. They were all very busy with finishing their work, they seemed quite stressed and I wondered if they enjoyed what they were doing. In the following I will view two quotes from students that I have spoken with.

“Our story is about a father who is an ex-drug addict. I am very satisfied with my work. I think one can always do better, I can. I might go back and make some more pictures if it is necessary but I think I did okay. I liked this course very much because it was something new, a new experience. We had to think in visuals and in sound which was nice. I had to think about which picture fitted at what sound. I never did that before. I am interested in radio and in photography so this was very nice to do too. I also liked it because I had a partner. Usually I work alone as a photographer, now I had someone to make decisions with. I think I’ll definitely work with slide shows in the future, I enjoyed it very much.” (Mellisa Parkin, photographer)

“The story that we’re telling is about how religion impacts parenting, or fatherhood. The father in our story is a progressive Jew. He is very dedicated to his fatherhood role and that is for a big part because the traditions in his religion are family focused. I am very happy with the way the story ended up to be. I like the pictures and the sound. I expected that it would be a mission to combine radio and photography and I was right because the software that we have to use (Soundslides Plus) is not very nice to work with. It goes quite slow and that is very irritating. But I do like the whole idea of working with audio slide shows. I think there is definitely a market for it and I would want to work with it later as a journalist.”

While I was looking around today I realized that I was quite jealous… It seemed like so much fun and I realized that I miss the actual production work. I miss the buttons and the frustration that you do not have that one quote in sound, or that you’re busy for hours just to get that one cut perfect. I miss it and I was jealous. I had to watch them having all the fun while I was ‘observing’ them and bothering them with all my questions. It was asked if I wanted to help with the production this term, I said no. I thought it would be too much work next to writing the essays and the blogs. Though I have improved I still struggle with English sometimes and I felt uncomfortable and insecure with interviewing fathers in my wretched English. They wouldn’t take me serious. Besides, I was already stressed out with my other courses. I don’t regret my decision because I would be broken by now and I would be in a computer lab half of my time of South Africa; that’s not why I am here for. But it did hit me that I miss it and that I love journalism. It is creative, meaningful and fun!