Transom Shows: Neal Pollack Takes on America

NOTE: After Jonathan got back from Arizona, we talked about production. How to dub, log, edit, structure, mix, the whole world of digital audio workstations and software, etc. Jonathan was brand new to all of it. I wondered if he'd like to write about what it's like entering this world, naked. He wrote back....

>============== > >Jay, > >I'd be willing to write a piece about digital editing. I'm no expert, but I suppose that's the perspective you're looking for. There are lots of bits about digital editing out there that I sought out myself, but still...I had this feeling before I dove into things myself that it was simple and required little investment, which I suppose is true if you're doing basic single track pieces. I know that those articles were written like a lot of things on the web about public radio tend to be in an effort to democratize public radio and make it more accesible to new voices, which is something that inspired and excited me and I fully appreciate. But I can't help but feel it was misleading in some way. That in order to create pieces that will sound like the things you hear on the air, you've got to be willing to invest some time and money and really know what you're doing before you tackle it. Maybe I'm just being a little too picky about the details but it does make sense right? Maybe I just found a perspective for the piece... > Jonathan > >============ > >Jonathan, > >urg. Guilty. you're absolutely right. Because people like me are zealots, we want to believe in the idea of a nation full of untold stories and in the power of having those stories shared. (Even as I write that, I still believe it.) So, we send out an invitation. We make it sound like it's fun and important and pretty easy. But we leave off the fine print. We forget to mention that YOU have to be a little bit of a zealot too. > >Welcome to the club. > >-Jay > >==============

When I heard Neal was coming to town, it sounded like a good idea: stick a microphone in his face and follow him around for a couple of days. From his writing I could tell he was going to be funny and engaging and I knew something at least slightly interesting was bound to happen. Neal said yes, Jay said it sounded interesting and before I knew it, I was recording the story. Neal said I had to come to all of four of his Southern California readings. Then he said, I should come to Las Vegas with him. I said yes to which he said, "You should really come to Phoenix and meet my parents too." So I did.

What resulted was a little more than 23 hours of raw tape, all of which had to be logged. A total of 136 pages which didn't include the parts where I recorded Neal reading from his book which I left out since they were already in print in his book. While doing research myself about how radio stories were put together, logging tape always sounded like it was the most tortuous but necessary part of the process, something akin to pulling out a near mouthful of perfectly fine teeth to make way for dentures. But it was then, sifting through the words as they ran through my ears and onto the page that a picture of the story that might one day be first became apparent.

I should also say that I did very little standard interviewing while I was taping. I didn't have to. I had read every review and article about Neal and had lots of general questions prepared, but Neal likes to talk, and each day he was meeting people like Commie Girl, Dana, and his parents who had lots of questions of their own about how the tour was going. So I just sort followed him around and let others ask the questions for me, interjecting here and there when I needed details. The only material in the story that was generated by any real question and answer period is the scene in the car on the way to Las Vegas where Neal and Regina are talking about McSweeney's and Neal's place and affect on literature. It was a product of the fact that I'm still really new at this and haven't developed my own working style yet and the fact that each day I spent with Neal he was really busy just trying to get the event together. But it ended up giving the story a different feel. Neal sounds like he's talking to friends rather than a reporter because he is. It lets him reveal facts about the tour in a way that I hope stays with the flow of the more verite parts of the story. That being said, I don't have any idea whether it's a good way to work, it's probably not. But it worked for this story.

Once I had logged the tape, it was clear that the story had grown into something much larger than the 5-7 minute feature piece I initially envisioned. I had enough material to take the story 5 or 6 different ways and I chose what I thought was both the easiest and best way to tell the story. Using a chronological structure gave it a more interesting diary-like feel and also conveniently split what was a whirlwind week into these nice, smaller individual stories. I wanted to give a sense of what it felt like to be Neal on tour as it happened; make listeners feel the chaotic nature of the tour at those times when it seemed like it was on the brink of falling apart and also let the audience in how little Neal seemed bothered when it didn't seem to work out. I also had some reporting to do to ensure the story made sense to people who had no idea what Neal or McSweeney's was about. Finding a way to do that subtly, a way that might also give me an avenue to say some of the things I had noticed about Neal's tour was the biggest difficulty I encountered in putting the story together. I'm still not quite sure whether it works the way I intended it to or if it was the best way to present the story.

The whole time I was recording in situations that were less than ideal, in bars and at the beach with lots of wind blowing. I was scared that it would be completely uneditable. Some of it almost was. The nature of this story meant that I sort of had to record it in this manner, but trust me, do whatever you can to disregard my example. Read up on all of the technical articles about recording you can get your hands on (like Jay's on this site) and practice until using your equipment comes as naturally as reaching to scratch an itch. If at all possible, record in quiet situations. When you sit down to edit it will make you much happier.

But even with all of the setbacks my recording situation had placed on me, I can say that ProTools can work magic. I did my editing on an iMac. I had done little sound editing before I began the story. What I had done was watch one of the producers of Good Food, our local food show at KCRW, as she edited pieces for the show. That show is edited using a different sound editing program but it's basically the same concept no matter what program or platform you're using. If you can, find someone who can show you the basics too. It's one thing to read about digital editing but actually watching someone in action who has the skills down is invaluable.

ProTools looks intimidating because it is. I still don't know what half the functions are for. And because the manual is written with music production in mind, seeking out answers there is even more scary. But do it. Read the manual, the answers are there. Like anything else, it requires lots of time just playing around with all the different functions before it becomes second nature. Find someone who knows what they're doing to help you as well, and once you do, don't be afraid to ask them questions. Take this excerpt from an email exchange between Jay and I for example:

>=============== > >Jay, > >What's the best method for putting sound underneath narration? I >was just lowering the gain on that section and doing crossfades to >make the transition smoother but is there a better way? > >Jonathan > >============== > >Regarding volume and fades, you need to put the tracks in "volume >automation" mode and you can record fades while you play (using the >mouse like a mixer fader, one track at a time), or by drawing the >fades in Volume view, pulling the volume graph line up and down. > >Jay > >===============

After that email from Jay, things made SO much more sense. Though figuring out things on your own has its merits, ask when you need to. I put together the first version of the story using the method I described in the email with disastrous results. It sounded awful and did some pretty permanent damage to the sound files. Permanent enough that when I wanted to revise the story, I had to go back and redo about 50% of the work I had done putting the story together the first time around.

Know this fact as well. You will probably get frustrated. Listening to the same piece of audio over and over again as you try and make an edit sound natural will do that to a person. Going into this process of putting together the story, I thought that because I knew how to tell a story and report in print, I'd have no problems applying those skills to doing a radio story. On the contrary, doing my first radio story felt more difficult than any of the serious academic work I had spent the last couple years of my life doing. I had to really bathe myself in sound, sort of learn to swim in it, before I felt comfortable enough to use it effectively as a storytelling tool. But doing a radio story can be incredibly fun, I feel like I had the experience of a lifetime doing this one. Hearing the end product, and then realizing that other people might as well...there's really no other feeling that can compare.