Fri Feb 27: keep on Keepin' on!

Greetings, prestigious ones!

Today, your task is fairly starightforward:

A) You will go to ask permission to interview the person you chose yesterday. Be polite, and if you are told it will have to be sometime next week, do not complain, but ask what day would be good to conduct the interview

B) Additionally, you have other parts of your radio shows to do besides these interviews. You know what they are, so let's get active!

Cheers, and have a great weekend,
Mr. L

Thurs feb 26: starting your next shows, part two

OK, now for the second half:

In the past, you all have had some experience interviewing each other. Now I am going to unleash you on an unsuspecting high school...muahwaahahahahahaha!!! Here's what I want EACH of you to do:

A) pick out at least one person in this school who you feel is knowledgeable enough about the topic for your next show that you could ask them questions about it. It could be a student, it could be a teacher, it could be a coach or heck, even a guidance counselor. If they're a person and they're in this building, they are fair game.

B) set up a list of at least eight good questions

C) make a post on our Google group with a subject header that includes your name, plus the phrase "who I will interview, what I will ask them". Include the name of the person and the eight questions you are thinking of asking them.

OK, now for the tricky part: getting to ask the questions. It might be difficult to get people up to our studios, and the hand held digital recorders we have on hand are bloody awful. I will work on my end to try and get some hand held devices that work which you can borrow. For your pat, you need to talk to the person you have in mind to interview, and see if it would be possible to get them here. One way or the other, we need to get this figured out.

So let's get going!

Mr. L

Thurs feb 26: Finishing your theme songs, and starting your next show, part one

Allllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll righty then!, we've got tons to do today, so let's get right to it:

A) You need to finish up your theme songs, and get them uploaded to our folder on Box.net. Make sure the file is named after your group, plus the phrase "theme song". It must be in mp3 format, and it needs to be school appropriate.
(I know that some of you have and some of you haven't. If you have it uploaded, then you can skip this part.)

B) While one part of your team is doing that, the other part needs to start jotting down some basic possible ideas for your first show in March. Whatever you plan on doing, make sure you go along with the following:

1) it needs to be school appropriate
2) it should be CURRENT; ie, either about something that just happened a little while ago or is about to happen. This will fit in with the other part of today's assignment, which I will roll out as you finish up the first half
3) your team must come up with roughly 3 to 5 different possible topics. The topics must be specific. "Sports" is not an acceptable topic; "the Red Sox have started up spring training down in Florida, lets talk about their prospects for this year" is a little more on the money.
4) these topics must be posted on our Google group by just one member of your group. The subject line must include your team name plus the phrase "first March topics"

OK, when you're done, I will post the second half of today's assignment.

Mr. L

Mon Feb 23, Theme songs, part TWO

OK, now that you've looked at the theme song of a professional radio personality (the definition being a guy who makes a crapload of money being on the radio) it's time for you guys to make a theme song of your own. Your group's theme song will have to include the following:

A) some sort of voiceover from at least one member of your team

B) at least three different special effects sounds (use the ones you've collected, or go get some more)

C) some sort of slogan during the voiceover

D) at least two audio quotes (again, you can use the ones you've already got or get new material)

E) some sort of background music (like a back beat, could be anything really, as long as its instrumental)

F) Make it sound cool. I know this is purely a matter of taste, but if it sounds godawful, I'm going to tell you as much.

G) ALL MATERIAL MUST BE SCHOOL APPROPRIATE

Everyone needs to be working on this, without exception. Please upload your first draft of your new theme song before the end of the class to our shared folder on Box.net. Name the file after your team name. Make sure it has been exported as an mp3.

"vegetarians....if you cook 'em right, they're delicious!"
Mr. L

Mon Feb 23, Theme songs, part ONE

Greetings Prestigious ones!

Most of you have created a show for February. Soon, you will be working on your first shows for March. As part of that effort, what you are going to do now is work towards building a theme song which will be played at the beginning of your show.

To do this, I believe that it is useful to listen to what a professional does when he creates a theme song. I have put a copy of this theme song in our shared folder on Box.net. Its called "theGlennBeckThemeSong" Here's what I want each of you to do with it:

A) download it and listen to it

B) listen to it again, and try to imagine that you have to re-create this theme song. How many elements are in this theme song? Does it have any special effects sounds in it? Does it have audio quotes from movies or speeches? Does it have a musical backbeat? Does it have any special quotes or slogans?

C) Imagine you were trying to re-build this theme song from scratch in Adobe Audition. How many different tracks do you think you would need? How would you layout all the different sounds?

D) Now that you've thought about it, you will need to create a discussion post on our Google group detailing your thoughts. Label it "Beck theme song", and in the body of your post, list the following:

1) list all the different elements in the theme song, and describe each one. Say whether its an audio quote, or a special effect, or a voiceover, or some background music. If you know where it comes from, by all means, show off your knowledge.

2) describe about how many tracks you would need in Adobe to re-create this theme song, and describe why.

3) List any opinions you have about this theme song, and explain why you think and feel as you do.

THIS IS AN ASSIGNMENT FOR EACH OF YOU, NOT A GROUP ASSIGNMENT

Cheers,
Mr. L

Friday the 13th: time to rev up the chainsaws!

No seriously, its time to get your feb shows to me in mp3 format, following the guidelines I gave the other day. I need to upload them to a site called DivShare, so that I can stream them off of our website. I will email you the website address where you will be able to access it, and I must insist that you listen over the vacation at least once to make sure your broadcasts are actually working

Cheers,
Mr. L

wed feb 11: three days left until vacation!

By now, each team has been in the production studio next door several times. Your latest assignment today involved you making an "informational segment" where you talk about websites that have to do with your topic.
Now its time to get serious about finishing your first radio shows, so that I can get them on the air before we leave this Friday. Here is what each show MUST include:

A) each show must be at least fifteen minutes in length
B) Each show should be divided up into at least three segments of at least five minutes length for each one
C) each team member must be included in the show's output, meaning you either talk or sing or play an instrument or make something else happen that I can HEAR
D) at least one of those segments must be the "info segment" mentioned in a previous blog post
E) The first segment must be preceded by some sort of "on air identifier", meaning everyone says who they are, and what team's broadcast I'm listening to, ie, say the name of your team
F) the other segments must be "joined up" by some sort of audio device such as "bumper music", or a sound effect, or some sort of audio quote from a movie or TV show

You will need to get this final mix uploaded to me at Box.net, so that I may have it ready to be listened to outside of this building BEFORE the february vacation. ALL MATERIAL MUST BE SCHOOL APPROPRIATE


cheers,
Mr. L

Tues Feb 10: a virtual goldmine of information

Greetings, O keepers of the Prestige!



Going along with the objective of each and every team having a radio show ready to go "on the air" before we break for the February vacation, one of the steps you are going to take is for each team to record a five minute "information segment". This info-segment will have to have all of the following characteristics:



A) The information you are trying to give people must be directly related to the "new show topics" you began last week



B) Each point in the outline you just created for your new shows must be included in this info-segment



C) All the information you talk about must be available online



D) You must list the website address as part of this five minute segment.



In other words, you're going to talk about useful websites that have to do with your topic for at least five minutes.



Before you do this, you must create a discussion posting on our Google group, one per team. The discussion posting must list all the website addresses you will be mentioning in the course of this 5 minute info segment. Please include the term "info websites" plus the name of all team members in the subject heading



OK, let's get going!

Mr. L



PS "If vegetarians et vegetables, what do humanitarians eat?"

Mon Feb 9: Building up your future ideas, and gathering more raw materials

Greetings, commanders of prestige worldwide!

Today, you will need to complete three basic tasks:

A) You will need to flesh out the ideas you had for future shows, which you posted just the other day on our Google group. You will need to build an outline for each of these ideas, by writing up at least six major points you want to make about each idea. Each major point should consist of at least two complete sentences, which explain what you are going to say.

B) Locate some alternatives to "bumper music". One good way of doing is by using audio files that are direct quotes from movies or TV shows. Here are some good places to find them; please gather at least eleven of them, ONLY IN MP3 FORMAT:

http://www.moviewavs.com/

http://www.moviewavs.com/Movies.html

http://www.moviesoundscentral.com/

http://www.moviedoo.com/

C) finish up anything you haven't been able to finish during the past week. Remember, we only have four more classes before the break. My goal is to get a show for each one of you up online and workinmg before we leave for then.

Cheers,
Mr. L

Wed Feb. 4, Part One: finishing interviews, gathering other raw materials

Greetings, O Prestigious ones!



Some of you have recorded your first interviews, while many of you have not yet done so. All of you, it would seem, have set up shop on Box.net, and can upload files there, no questions asked. Here is what you need to do now:



A) Interviews So far, the only interviews I have were conducted by Mike C., Zach D., and Max V. The rest of you will have to conduct yours today. If you cannot agree on who goes first, I will set up a "batting order" for you.



Please make sure to export your interview as an mp3, then upload it to our folder on Box.net. Make sure you name it after yourself, plus the word "interviews"



B) Raw Materials While you are waiting to go next door, and after you get back, you will need to gather some "raw material" for the next show you wish to record. This raw material includes the following:



1) ideas of WHAT you're going to talk about. For example, if you have a show that's mostly about sports, you might want to look up some sporting events that will be happening in the next week or so. That way, you can be ready to talk about it at about the same time it takes place. Ditto for music: if a group you like is touring, you could find out about them, play some of their music, etc etc. Whatever you choose to do, you need to list at least three ideas in a group discussion post; each idea must be writeen out in the form of at least two - four complete sentences. Please label this post with your name, plus the phrase "future ideas, feb 4"



2) This semester, we will be able to create shows that are MUCH longer than the typical 5 minutes we ended up doing last semester. This being the case, you will need to have some files of bumper music setup. "Bumper music" is simply a short clip of a song, maybe about 5 to 20 seconds long, that connects one segment of your show to the next.



Extracting bumper music is pretty simple, and can be done quite easily in Adobe Audition.. If you need help, I will show you how. Please be sure to upload all such files to our folder on Box.net; three or four should do for today



3) at least seven special effects noises -- besides employing "bumper music" in your shows, you will also want to -- at times-- have some sound handy to emphasize some particular point in some particular way. For instance, if you're talking about something you find disgusting, you might want to have a sound file on hand of someone throwing up; to emphasize fright, you can have a file of someone screaming. Adobe Audition allows you to place this sound on a different track from the other parts of your show, and place it at just the right point for maximum effect.



A good site to start looking for these sounds can be found here:



http://www.meanrabbit.com/wavhtml/wavepage.htm



OK, enough talking: let's start doing!



Cheers,

Mr. L

Monday February 2: interviewing, to work on your skills

OK radio gents, for your last trick of the day, I will need to interview each other. To properly complete this assignment, you will need to do the following:



A) make a post in our discussion group. The subject line should have your first and last name, plus the phrase "my questions" The body will include a list of at least 8 questions, each one in the form of a complete sentence. You must also indicate who you are interviewing.

Please take this seriously gentlemen: there will be assignments later on this month that will be much easier if you do.



B) You will need to conduct the interview next door, using the production studio equipment. Please save your session file using YOUR first and last name. Remember when you are done to EXPORT this session file as an mp3 file, also named after yourself.



C) Lastly, send me the file through our shared folder at Box.net. Again, let me know of any difficulties you have in using this shared folder



Cheers,

Mr. L

Monday Feb 2: Assignment #2: Box.net!

OK fellow broadcasters!

For your next trick, you will respond to the invite I have sent out to all of you for a shared folder on Box.net. This shared folder is a place where you can upload and download files, and it helps you to avoid all the problems associated with the school's H drive, which often cannot seem to work properly, esp. with the files we create in the production studios next door.


Please let me know if you have any difficulties with this. Also, if you could do a "test run" on your ability to upload and download files using this folder, that would be good thing, and yes, I'm telling you to do it. NOW.


the faster we go,
the rounder we get,
Mr. L

Monday Feb 2: what's in a name?

Period 2 RADIO -- the winner is...

OK, so here's how the voting worked: each number 1 vote got 3 points,
each number 2 got 2 points and each number 3 got 1 point. Then I added up the
points to see what the results were. Here is what I got from you guys:

1. The Sea Lion Secrecy
2. Offshore Dingy of Piracy
3. Unexplained Uproar

1. Offshore dingy of piracy
2. Hiller soundworks
3. prestige worldwide

1. Offshore Dingy of Piracy
2.Sea Lion Secrecy,
3 Unexplained Uproar

1. Prestige worldwide
2.Hiller Soundworks
3.Htown Radio

1 Offshore Dingy of Piracy
2. Prestige worldwide
3. Hiller soundworks

1.Prestige world wide
2. Hopkinton State radio
3.Unexplained uproar

1. Pestige Worldwide
2. Hiller Soundworks
3. Unexplained Uproar

1, prestige worldwide
2. offshore dingy of piracy
3. Hiller soundworks

1. Prestige Worldwide
2. Unexplained Uproar
3. Htown Radio

and here is how it added up:

Sea Lion Secrecy -- 3 + 2 = 5
Offshore dingy of Piracy -- 3 + 3 + 3 + 2= 11
Unexplained Uproar -- 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 2 = 6
Hiller Soundworks --- 2 + 2 + 1 + 2 + 1 = 8
Prestige worldwide -- 1 + 3 + 2 + 3 + 3 + 3 + 3 = 17
Htown Radio -- 1 + 1 = 2
Hopkinton State Radio = 2

As you can see, the clear favorite is "Prestige worldwide".
The only other vote getter in double digits was the "offshore dingy of piracy" at 11 points

So now, only two questions remain:
A) should we copy a name from a movie, even if it's a really good one?
B) will anyone notice if we do?

Please post your thoughts on this topic. Please make the subject of your post your name and the words "prestigious or not?"

Cheers,
Mr. L