For the group Soundslides project, students in our class composed a series of stories about people and events in Laramie. Zach Greubel and Peter Stevens chose to do their story on Mitch Kunce, the brew master of local restaurant, The Library. I really loved their idea to do a profile on a local restaurant that has a great following of the people in Laramie and especially students of the university.
When I began to view their project, the photos immediately drew me in, they were really well done and interesting. The content of the interviews was well done, however, the voices were hard to hear. I originally thought that it was the quality of the recorder they used but towards the middle, Kunce, mentions the pumps running in the background, so I would assume that is where the noise was coming from. Ambient noise would have been okay to use over the interview, but I think in this case, it really drowned out the voice of the subjects.
Regardless of this, they did an excellent job of organizing their photos to match the audio. I especially liked the part that Kunce was going over the process of the brewing beer and he ended with saying that the beer is ready to poor. The next photo was of the beer taps and ambient noise of a beer filling a glass. Their transition from speaker to speaker was really smooth and I could not hear any rough cuts.
Finally, the flow of the story was easy to follow and effective for the purpose of this piece. They ended with an interview from a frequent Library patron and it was a good way to end on a positive note. It was also beneficial for them to include on the last slide, the hours that the establishment is open.
Jaron Jenkins and Bridget Wilson did their Soundslides project on Domestic Violence Awareness. I thought that their story idea was interesting and relevant because October was Domestic Violence Awareness month. The sources used in their story were prominent figures that are advocates against domestic violence, which made the story really strong.
The photos were interesting and well done. They did a good job of capturing the essence of the story. They chose to include photos of advertisements and signs about domestic violence, as well as some of their own photos, which worked in this situation. The photos also matched with the audio well, which made the story run smoothly. I also like that they included a song as ambient noise. Finally, their cuts in between speakers were smooth and I did not hear any rough spots. Overall, their story topic was interesting and very informative and they did a good job of presenting the material
Jordan Dixon and Megan Tanaka did a piece about student workers at the University of Wyoming. The idea of this story was really interesting and something that all of us in the class can relate to. I personally have had a job throughout my entire college career so it is interesting to see how others balance their time.
One of my favorite elements to this story was their decision to use black and white photos instead of color. It was unique and I think effective for their purpose. The quality of the photos was strong and they did a good job of capturing artistic value in each shot. I like that they shot from a variety of angles and perspectives as well.
Their audio interviews were interesting and I think that they collected a lot of relevant information. However, the quality of the audio was poor and I could not tell if it was ambient noise in the background or if the recorder that they used was just scratchy. I had to listen closely in order to hear what each interviewee was saying.
Aside from that, their transitions were strong and I did not hear any significant rough cuts. They also organized the story well so that the audio and photos were in sync and the flow of the story worked well. It was good that they interviewed a variety of students with different situations.
Overall, I think that the group Soundslides went well, other than a few kinks in working out the programs. I am excited for the individual Soundslides project because I think that we have seen the right and wrong way to go about the project and we can see what elements make a story stronger. I thought the use of black and white photos was ascetically pleasing, so I am hoping to do the same in my individual piece.
andieknous 