Notes 2013

Storytelling and PodcastingSession 4Katie WardrobeMidnight Music

Introduction 3

Curriculum Ideas 3

General Classroom 3

Staff 3

Geography 3

Science/Maths/Biology 3

LOTE 4

History (works for almost any subject) 4

How-to (audio or video) 4

English/Literature/Arts 4

Performing Arts 4

Sources of these ideas 4

Storytelling/Podcasting Recipe 5

Ingredients (gather all of your ingredients before you get started!) 5

Plan, Plan, Plan 5

Method 5

Sample Podcasting (radio show) outline 6

Tips 7

Creating a podcast or story in Mixcraft 7

Tips 7

Extra skills 8

Adding images 8

Adding text 8

Renaming tracks and adding a track icon 9

Exporting a project 9

Useful links 10

Homework 10

Introduction

Storytelling and podcasting - grouped together here because they each involve the same technical skills in Mixcraft - are projects that are easily adapted to almost any topic in music class.

Storytelling allows students to narrate a story, add voice effects, include images, add or create sound effects and add text (subtitles and credits).

The techniques learnt can also be used to create book “trailers”, book reports, movie soundtracks, documentaries and interviews.

Curriculum Ideas

General Classroom

• Class news

• Daily reporter

• Class discussion about a hot topic

• Debates

• News announcements

• Report on a signi"cant event (end of year graduation, school sports day, the school musical, football "nals

Staff

• Record staff meetings

• Record board meetings

• New teacher orientation

• How-to: school procedures

Geography

• Create multi-media travel “brochures”

• Describe places and time, interview people, include pictures or video

Science/Maths/Biology

• Demonstrate an experiment

• Demonstrate how to solve a problem

• Interview “working” scientists/mathematicians

• Problem of the day

• The diet and habitat of an animal

• Life-cycle of a butter#y

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LOTE

• Pronunciation guides

• Read a story in the language being studied

• Learn a language using available podcasts in iTunes store

History (works for almost any subject)

• On This Day

• This Week in Music (or Art, Sport etc)

• Famous Birthdays

• Role-play historical characters

• Re-enact historical events

• Research an event or celebration and present "ndings (ie. Why do we celebrate Australia Day?)

How-to (audio or video)

• School procedures

• How to use a software program

• How to use the library

• Older students could make how-to podcasts for younger students

English/Literature/Arts

• Digital storytelling (if the story is long, it could be made into a serial)

• Word of the day

• Poetry readings

• Book report/review

• Role-play literary characters

Performing Arts

• Perform original compositions

• Arrange a folk tune in a sequencing program and sing the melody

• Create a radio drama (with sound effects and mood music)

• History-based projects

Sources of these ideas

• Kidcast: Kidcast podcast (iTunes store)

• Tony Vincent: Podcasting page on Learning in Hand

• James Frankel: Dr Frankel’s Podcast (iTunes Store)

• Katie Wardrobe :)

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Storytelling/Podcasting Recipe

Ingredients (gather all of your ingredients before you get started!)

• Your podcast topic or story idea

• If you’re creating a podcast, a script for your podcast introduction (will be the same for every episode)

• A script for main topic of your podcast or story

• Intro music - copyright-free or Creative Commons-licensed

• Outro music (good if it’s the same as the intro music)

• Images (optional) to help tell your story

• Musical “bumpers” or “stingers” to go in-between sections of your podcast

• Recording software: GarageBand, Acid, Mixcraft, Audacity and a variety of iPad apps (like GarageBand on iPad) will all work well

• Headphones

• Microphone (optional, but good)

Plan, Plan, Plan

First, plan out the content of your story or podcast:

• For storytelling projects, write the story, decide on “voices” and make a note of where the images will "t in

• Gather any images you might want to use

• For a podcast, decide whether you’ll have segments, what they will be and whether you will include any interviews

Method

1. Record the narration

• short stories work well: 1-2 minutes in length

• if there are multiple narrators, you can either record them all “live”, speaking one after the other at the appropriate times, or record each one separately (on different tracks) and then edit them together

• if you want to use different voice effects (ie. father bear and baby bear), you’ll need to have each part on a separate track

2. Edit the narration

• Edit any mistakes

• Fix the order and timing of clips/regions

• Add voice effects

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3. Add images and line everything up

• Edit the length of the image clips to match the narration

4. Add sound effects

• Drag sound effects in to the project

• Edit the length of the sound effects

• Add automation (volume and panning envelopes)

5. Add music

• Add intro and outro music (podcast) and volume envelopes

• Create soundtrack music (storytelling)

Sample Podcasting (radio show) outline

1. Record your show introduction

• Approx. 30 seconds long

• Work from your script: say who you are, mention the episode number or broadcast date and say what you're going to talk about in the podcast

2. Record your "rst main segment

• Tell everyone what the segment is about

• Expand on your topic

• Introduce any guests or interviewees

3. Record the next segment (if there is one)

• Tell everyone what the segment is about

• Expand on your topic

• Introduce any guests or interviewees

4. Add in your intro music

• Select an appropriate style of music

• Adhere to copyright guidelines: create your own or use copyright-free or Creative Commons licensed music

• It really does need to be short! 10-20 seconds (around 4 bars of music) is enough

• If your software allows, create a fade-out at the end of the music (your next spoken section will overlap the fade-out)

5. Add bumpers or stingers between sections

• Bumpers or stingers are short transitional pieces of music, which help listeners understand that there will be a change in topic

• Make them very short!

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6. Ending

• Thank the audience for listening

• Thank any guests

• Say your name and the name of your podcast

7. Add in outro music

• The outro music is usually the same as the intro

• Keep it short

• If your software allows, create a fade-out at the end of the music

Tips

• Once the students have written their script, they should have them approved by the teacher BEFORE recording anything

• Gather any other materials you will need, before you get started (artwork, images, URLs etc)

• Record each section separately: press Stop at the end of the segment. This makes it easier to redo short parts of the podcast if necessary and you also get a breather between sections.

• Speak clearly and make sure you’re neither too close, nor too far from the microphone

Creating a podcast or story in Mixcraft

Tips

The technical skills involved in putting together a story or podcast in Mixcraft are the same as those we discussed in the "rst three sessions, so I won’t repeat that information here.

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The basic Mixcraft skills include:

• Record a spoken voice

• Edit the recorded audio

• Add effects

• Add automation (fade-in and fade-out and panning)

• Add sound effects

• Add loops

• Edit loops

Extra skills

A couple of things we haven’t covered earlier which you may need for these projects:

• Adding images to your project

• Adding text

• Renaming tracks

Adding images

In Mixcraft, images live on a video track and you can adjust their length just like you do with music loops.

• Go to Track > Add Track > Video Track

• Place the Playback cursor where you want the image to appear in your project

• Go to Video > Add Still Images. Locate the image/s on your hard drive, select it and click Open (you can select multiple images if you like)

• The image will appear on the video track and you can drag it backward or forward along the timeline, or adjust it’s length by dragging the ends of the clip

Adding text

One extra bonus in Mixcraft is a feature which allows you to add text to your project.

You can use text for the following:

• Add credits at the beginning or end of your project

• Add subtitles

• Add karaoke-style lyrics to a music video

To add text to your project:

• Place the playback cursor where you’d like the text to appear

• Go to Video > Add Text (or Scrolling Text if you’re creating scrolling credits)

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• In the Edit Text window (see right), type the text in to the Edit This Text space (it works better if you just do a few words at a time)

• Edit the text colour, position, font and size if necessary

• Click OK

A separate text track will appear under the video track and you can then shorten or lengthen the text clip as needed.

Renaming tracks and adding a track icon

To help keep a handle on all the different tracks in your project, it’s a good idea to rename them so that each one is easily identi"ed when you look at the track headers, or the Mixer window.

• Click on the existing track name in the track header

• Rename the track by typing something new ie. “narrator”

• You can also change the track icon: hover your mouse over the existing image click on the small drop-down arrow to reveal the Track Image window (see below). Select a new image and click OK

Exporting a project

When you have "nished your project, you can export it in two ways:

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• As a WAV or MP3 "le so that it is in a sharable AUDIO ONLY format

• As an AVI or WMV "le so that it is in a sharable VIDEO format (ie. it will include the audio and the images/text)

In Mixcraft:

• Go to File > Mix Down To

• Select your exporting option

• Choose a saving location and click OK

Useful links

Please visit my Podcasting Pinterest board for a collection of useful links: http://pinterest.com/katiewardrobe/podcasting/

• podcasting how-to

• podcasting examples

• Royalty-free music

• Images

HomeworkAs in previous sessions, the best thing to do is to try a storytelling or podcasting project yourself.

I have included some short simple scripts for you to use as a test (or with your students if you wish!) so that you have something to work with.

You can "nd Creative Commons licensed or Royalty-free images online to accompany your story or podcast

Add some text, sound effects and some automation and have fun with it!

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