Monday March 30: swingin' into Spring!

Greetings, Prestigious Ones!

It's getting warmer, and before you know it, we'll be looking at another vacation week. Long before that happens, we need to have another broadcast wrapped up and online. In keeping with it being spring, your topics this time around need to have SOMETHING to do with things that happen in spring: could be "spring training" for the Red Sox, could be the Marshmallow Peeps people get for Easter, could be the final wrapup of "March Madness", could be a new concert tour thats starting or a new CD released just in time for this wonderful season.

Whatever it is, your team needs to do the following:

1) make a group posting that includes a topic chosen and a seven point outline

2) include at least two websites that will be referred to during your broadcast (you know, where people can find out more the topic)

3) come up with a trailer description: a one paragraph three complete sentence affair describing your......

4) trailer, which should be about a minute or two long. the trailer should be meant to grab as much attention as possible. You each need to record one of these today

5) secure at least one or two interviews with people knowledgeable on your topic

6) update your theme song -- thats how WE do spring cleaning. It shouldn't be any longer than a minute, and you need to get some new elements into it.

Additionally, if your team still needs to do some last minute work on your previous broadcast, you have TODAY

cheers,
Mr. L

Friday March 27th: last call for your final March shows!

It is what it is gentlemen: Before you leave this room, I will need you to finish up whatever else you feel needs to be done for your shows to meet the criterion of a completed shows. Here are my final few requirements,by team:

A) Beaver Fever: please reduce the length of your theme song to one minute or less. And, see B) below

B) ECTT: both you and the previous team made predictions on March Madness. I want all members of both teams to add a brief clip to the end of their respective radio shows. This clip will involve all of you comparing notes on how your predictions have matched with reality. Let's see how everyone has done. Time for this clip: anywhere from 5 to 8 mintues worth. Not too long, just enough.

C) Deafening Silence: When last I listened, you had the heart of your broadcast, but none of the peripheral stuff attached yet,such as theme song, on air ID,etc. Please finish that up.

D) penciL: ditto from above, plus you have a few items that need to be edited. Remember, everything must be school appropriate.

OK, that's it guys: get it done, then let's get ready for the weekend, and look ahead to the April broadcasts!

Mr. L

OK gentlemen, let's get it done WAY before the bell rings!

Mr.L

Wed March 25th: where your teams need to be!

Greetings, fellow noisemakers!

Before we begin, let me make a brief announcement: NO GAME PLAYING. If I see it, I will mercilessly play with your mind using LanSchool. So just don't do it! Thank you, and now back to our regularly scheduled broadcast already in progress.............

OK, so we've got a pretty good start on your next shows for March. Here is what each team should have by this point in the process:

A) a specific topic and a topic outline consisting of at least 5 to 7 points posted as a Google group discussion posting

B) a brief trailer - about 2 to 3 minutes worth of material -- named after your team plus something that tells me its part of your upcoming broadcast

C) a brief description of that trailer, posted to the Google group as a discussion

D) some sort of audio content downloaded from Youtube using the method I demonstrated to you yesterday. EACH TEAM MEMBER IS RESPONSIBLE FOR UPLOADING ME AT LEAST ONE XAMPLE OF THIS

E) a rough draft of your show so far, in mp3 format, at least several minutes so far. This must be uploaded to me, and clearly labeled so that I know what it is and who owns it.

Any parts of this that you are missing need to be done TODAY. No more waiting on this.

If you are caught up with this, you are free to proceed with the other elements of your new show, whatever they may be, whether its conducting another interview, getting new special effects or TV/movie clips, getting time in the production studio next door, working with Audtion putting your show together here in 323, etc etc etc.....whatever it is, get to it!

Make sure to mupload whatever you have BEFORE the end of the class

Cheers,
Mr. L

Tuesday, March 24th: adding to your broadcasts in a new way!

greetings, Traffic Dodgers!

Thus far, most teams are off to a good start creating your second show for the month of March. Most of you have chosen a topic and posted it, along with some sort of rough outline to our Discussion group. Most of you have created a "trailer" as sort of sneak preview of what's coming up for your broadcasts. Most of you have also created a brief description to go with this trailer And of course, by now almost all of you have conducted interviews with people who are outside of this class, as part of our ongoing effort to create greater student involvement with what we are doing. This has added some new qualities to your broadcasts, and now it is time to take another important step.

Oftentimes, broadcasts in the real world will use footage gotten through outside sources. One way that you can access material that could be of use to is on YouTube. Contrary to accepted thought, YouTube is not all fun and games: there are often serious issues discussed. For example, I did a little digging about the dictator of Zimbabwe, a man named Robert Mugabe. (One of the teams in this class just did a broadcast on this very topic). I found a very interesting video here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdWKzUOTw0s

OK, so maybe you're thinking: "great Mr. L, but that's a video: what's that got to do with an audio broadcast? Well, as luck or fate would have it, one of your classmates, Trevor, put me wise to a great little site called Listen to YouTube, found here
http://www.listentoyoutube.com/

This site allows you to input the address of a YouTube broadcast, and then launch a process which extracts the audio from the video, after which you can click on a link named "download MP3" When you click on that link, you can start downloading the mp3, AFTER YOU RENAME IT (of course)

Here is a link to the audio I extracted:
http://www.box.net/shared/mychs8yo8y

And here is what I want you to do:

A) Using the website listed above, extract the audio from at least one YouTube video per team member. The video must have direct relevance to your current project; for example, if you're doing a broadcast about "March madness", it would probably be easy to find soem videos about that on YouTube.

B) Include at least one of these audio extracts in your upcoming broadcast. Please identify it as such in your broadcast, so people will understand what it is, and state that you got it from a Youtube video. You also need to include the source for this video; in the example I found, it was "sky news". You will find this in a link at the right hand side of the YouTube webpage you're using.

C) upload your new improved broadcast to me by the end of class.

When this task is completed, you may then tend to other aspects of working on your broadcast, including any assignments you currently owe to me. Remember, grades are coming due soon!

Cheers,
Mr. L

Wed March 18: making a trailer

Greetings, keepers of the prestige!

Today, you are going to continue with your new March projects by creating what is known in the industry as a "trailer". Just like a movie trailer is created so as to get people to come see the actual movie, your trailer is going to be made to get people interested in listening to your broadcasts. In this case, our trailers will be hosted on another production inside this school.

Here is what your trailers will need to have:

A) an on air Identifier at the very begininning

B) roughly 2 or 3 minutes of actual broadcasting

C) Some kind of "hook"; something that will get people interested in your show. What that will be is entirely upto you, but please remember

D) all material MUST be school appropriate

While we're on the topic, your first March shows are up on the website. Some of them had to be "edited" by me for appropriate content, and this lost your teams points in your overall score. Henceforth, let's try to do a little better job of that on your own, m'OK?

Cheers,
Mr. L

Monday March 16: lather, rinse, repeat!

Greetings, prestigious ones!

Today, while I'm doing final reviews of your shows to make sure they aint no cuss words, prepatory to uploading them, you guys will be repeating the process we just performed to make the current shows. New topic, new voices, new outlines posted to the discussion group: you heard the man, you know the drill, so let's get moving already!


Cheers,
Mr. L

PS by the end of the week, I hope to be able to embark you on something new, a technique I learned during my professional development day. And you thought that WE took a day off last Friday --- not so, my fellow noise makers :-)

Tues March 10: see yesterday's list

That's all I'm looking for. Take your time and get it done right

Mr. L

PS When it IS done, please upload it to Box.net and shoot me an email saying that you did so. Please identify your group in the subject line of this email

Monday March 9: a TO DO list for each team

OK guys, time to get this done and get your shows in shape so that they can be uploaded and enjoyed by all the world. Here is what each show needs to have:

1) Each show needs to be at least 20 minutes long
2) each show must include AUDIBLE input from every team member. In other words, I need to be able to hear everyone
3) each show must start with either your teams theme song, or an on air identifier that states the team members names and the name of your show
4) either way, your show must have both your theme song AND your on air identifier
5) each show must include at least some material from each of the interviews conducted by team members.
6) All team members must have interviewed someone at some point from outside this class
7) I must have a digital copy of this interview on hand
8)YOU DO NOT HAVE TO PUT IN THE ENTIRE INTERVIEW, AND ACTUALLY, I AM COMPLETELY AGAINST THAT WHOLE IDEA ANYWAY
9) When you when get to the part of your broadcast where you are going to use some piece of an interview, you should introduce this material by stating what it is. You could say something like "I interviewed an expert on the topic of [your topic here], and this is what he had to say on the subject..." then play a piece of the interview
10) the show must have at least three identifiable segments connected together by either a snippet of "bumper music", a special effect sound, or an audio quote from a movie or TV show.
11) all material must be intelligible to my hearing. I know I'm old, but I'm not THAT deaf yet.
12) ALL MATERIAL MUST BE SCHOOL APPROPRIATE.

OK, that's it, that's what you need to have. Please review the show you have so far, and put together all the pieces you don't already have in it. If you have any technical difficulties, please let me know.

Cheers,
Mr. L

and here is where each group stands:



A) penciL:





B) Beaver Fever





C) Deafening Silence





D) East Coast Twine Ticklers

Wed March 4: we don't have much time!

So please refer to yesterday's post. THAT is what you need to be doing.

Just so it's understood, my intention is to be able to have a "rough draft" your complete shows in my possession BEFORE this weekend, so I can listen to them, then make suggestions for any last changes, then you do that AND add in any last minute changes of your own. I want these broadcasts to be up early next week, so that we can start in on some new material

keepin' it fre$h,
Mr. L

Tues March 3: interviews and show prep

Greetings,owners of the prestige!
Today, each of your teams need to be doing all four of the following:

A) Conducting interviews with the people of your choosing. Remember to ask politely, and if it cannot be done today, make sure to get a SPECIFIC DATE nailed down. (Note: if you've already conducted your interview, you will need to review it and see what parts of it will be the most suitable to use.)

B) you also need to be creating your own material in the production studios next door. You know, all the usual stuff you would doing on your own ANYWAY, even before bringing in anyone else from the outside.

C) Also, all the usual types of activities you would do in creating a broadcast, including any all special effects, on air identifiers, audio quotes, content you yourselves have created etc etc

D) BEFORE THE CLASS ENDS, upload to Box.net whatever kind of show you've got put together so far. I don't care how pieces its missing. Consider it a "rough draft" of sorts. Be sure to label it after your team name, plus the phrase "rough draft March 3"

OK, you know what's gotta get done. Let's get going on it!

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

Mr. L