Radio Diaries Training Sessions

STRADCOM Radio Production Training Handout Notes

Sept 22-26, 2008

Session # / What is a story? /
Content / A story:
·  has a beginning, a middle and an end
·  focuses on a person
·  focuses on an event
·  has conflict—the person must confront and get over a problem
·  is emotional
·  shows change
A story can be factual or fiction. It can be told in a drama, in a narrative, by the person who was involved, by a storyteller, by an outside observer, through visuals, through sound, in a song, in a poem. What else?
The major elements of a story are:
·  characters,
·  conflict or complication,
·  action,
·  climax,
·  resolution.
·  The characters are the people who encounter and try to solve a problem.
·  The conflict or complication is a problem encountered by the character. It is an event that triggers a situation that complicates their lives. The complication creates tension, sometimes called suspense: how will the character deal with this problem?
·  The action is how they deal with the problem in a story.
·  The climax is moment when the problem is overcome, at the height of the action.
Stories are at the core of human experience: they are about love, hate, fear, birth, death, joy, comedy, tragedy. Stories are how we interpret life around us, how we start to understand each other, how we come to share experiences, thoughts, decisions. Stories make our life, our relationships, our communities, our decisions meaningful.
Most stories follow roughly the same process: Pick a well known story for that audience—a local myth, a bible story-David and Goliath. Ask:
·  who are the characters in the story?
·  who is the main character (the protagonist)?
·  Who is the character with whom he/she is in conflict (the antagonist)?
·  with whom do you empathize?
·  why?
·  what makes the story exciting? (the unequal fight)
·  what is the main conflict?
·  What happens?
·  how does the story get resolved?
·  What is the main emotion evoked at the end of the story?
·  What do you learn from the story?
Keep these issues in mind for later. Diaries are stories. They must have the same elements as these stories.
Session # / What is a diary? /
Content / A diary is:
·  The personal story of one person
·  A story narrated by the person him/herself
·  An emotional story that takes place over time—e.g. a daily or weekly or monthly diary, not a one-off story
·  Each episode of the diary is about one event in that person’s life
·  It is told from the heart more than the head—engages our feelings (emotions)
Encyclopeadia Britannica: Record of events, transactions, or observations kept daily or at frequent intervals; especially a daily record of personal activities, reflections, or feelings. Written primarily for the writer's use alone, the personal diary usually offers a frankness not found in writing done for publication.
Or: A daily record, especially a personal record of events, experiences, and observations; a journal.
A radio diary takes that idea and puts it into a weekly show. The diary itself becomes the focus point for a show; the diary runs 3 – 10 minutes maximim, and the rest of the show focuses on an issue that comes out of that diary --e.g. about testing, or about relationships with mother or father, or the day you found you were positive, etc.
The radio diary does not have to have any formal educational information. It is a personal story. The rest of the program can be about the educational issues.
Session # / Focus Statement /
Content / A focus statement is a single sentence that helps the producer to focus on the specific topic for one program. There should only be one focus statement and one topic for each interview.
A focus statement is written AFTER the pre-interview—see next session—once the producer/interviewer has had an initial interview with the interviewee, and therefore has an understanding of what he/she now wants to focus on for the recorded interview.
A focus statement has three key elements:
Someone (1) doing something (2) for a reason (3).
The someone (1) will usually be the diarist, or the person you are interviewing. The something he/she does (2) is the key action in the story. The reason (3) is why he/she did that thing. So, example:
John (1) went for an HIV test (2) because he wanted to be know his status (3) before he got married.
For every diary interview the producer needs to write a focus statement before he/she writes out all the questions and starts the interview.
Every story should revolve around an action which demonstrates the person’s inner feelings—he stabbed someone in anger; not he got very angry. He danced through the street; not he was happy, etc.
e.g. John felt ashamed because he was HIV+. That is not a strong focus statement. What is the action that illustrates that shame? He ran away from home. He stopped talking to all his friends. He denied his status to everyone. The action is a much stronger description of how he felt.
Session # / Pre-interview /
Content / A pre-interview has three phases:
The Pre-interview is very important in helping make sure you have a good interview and story from the person you are recording. As the name says, the pre-interview takes place before the actual recorded interview. Its purpose is to help you, as the interviewer, find out more about the person you are interviewing and to find a story that you can get from that person during the interview. A good pre-interview may take from 15 minutes to an hour, depending on how difficult the issue is and how the person being interviewed feels.
During the Pre-interview you do NOT use a recorder; you simply take written notes that will help you prepare for the real recording later on.
It has three stages:
the Search
the Chase
the Clean-up
The Search takes place first. It is the time when the interviewer introduces him/herself and tries to get to know the person better. It is also a time to build trust and show the person that you are interested in their life and story and that you want to hear what they have to say. So you can start with very general questions just to make the person comfortable. After this early “small talk” you can begin to ask them about the issue you are there to discuss—e.g. to talk about their experience in being the first woman to be headmistress at a school.
The Chase is where you dig into more and more detail about her story. You ask the person to describe what happened, what she felt like, how others reacted, how she managed to keep her pride in the face of pressure. Using all the techniques mentioned above to get details, you build enough information to know what her story is. When you think you have enough information, you move to the last phase of the pre-interview: the Clean-up.
The Clean-up is where you ask any more quick questions that would be helpful as background for your edited story: make sure you have her proper name spelled, where she lives, when events happened, all sorts of details that you can use for the narration to set up the story in your programme: e.g. Sheila is 32. She lives in Awassa and she is the first Headmistress in the local high school. She has been doing the job for 2 years. This is the story of how she came to be the headmistress and the pressures she overcame…
Session # / Details, Details, Details /
Content / Strong “visual” details can improve the richness of a good story. What was the expression on the face of the doctor when he came out of the surgery? What did you feel like? What did the Dear John letter actually say? What words hurt you the most? What were you wearing the night you met your wife for the first time? What was she wearing? Where were you? What can you remember about that evening? What was the first thing you said to her? How did she react? All these questions solicit details that will help the listeners re-create the situation, to better help them understand the emotion, the feelings, the relationships, the thoughts, etc.
The interviewer should always probe for more detail on all the key areas. Try different approaches: e.g. paint a picture for me of what you were doing? What was going on around you? What exactly happened then? Take me through the morning of the day you got tested—how did you feel when you woke up? What were you thinking about? How was that different from any other day? What did you do to get ready—anything different or the same? Tell me about the journey to get to the clinic: what were you thinking about? Did you talk to anyone else? What did you talk about?
What happened in the clinic when you got there? Who else was in the room? What did you do while waiting? What were others doing?
A good interviewer will get lots of details during the interview. Some may seem irrelevant, but it is easier to eliminate in the editing than to have to go and ask him/her more questions.
Remember you can always edit—you HAVE to edit to get a strong story, so the more you have to choose from, the better your interview will be.
In every interview you are looking for DETAILS that will illustrate the main issue in the story. For example:
If you are talking to a youth who loves being a DJ, then you might have a very strong story if you ask him: describe for me the feeling you have when you are watching people all dancing in front of you in a club, when you are the DJ? What gives you the most pleasure when you are DJ’ing? Describe the room where you are DJing. What is happening in the room?
For a young man who has decided to be a rapper: Describe the first time you heard a rap song and you decided that is what you wanted to do
For a father who is proud of his son who came first in class: describe the day when you took your son shopping for a reward after you learned he had come first. What did you talk about? What were you thinking about when you bought him the reward ? What did you think about his future and your future as he grows into a man?
Details may sound like they will not be interesting, but they are often the most powerful moments in the story—the small things that people will remember better than anything else.
Details give you “pictures” for the listener to imagine. Pictures are important because:
·  They provide context for the story
·  They take the audience to the scene of the story
·  They make the listener a participant in the story
Session # / Interviewing Skills /
Content / Why do we do personal interviews?
·  To get detailed information
·  To entertain
·  To know a person better
·  To look for answers
·  To balance information—both sides of issues
·  To get special information, evidence, factual information
What are the differences between an interview looking for a personal story, and a more straight forward informational or journalist’s interview, needing opinions?
What kinds of questions work best?
Open questions provide more opportunity for the person being interviewed to tell their story or express their feelings about an issue. Open ended questions usually start with:
What… did you do?
happened?
Did you think?
Did you feel?
How… did you feel?
Did you react?
Did you deal with that?
Why… did you do that?
Did you go there?
Did you think that?
When… is a closed question, but helps to give you useful information: e.g:
When… did this take place?
Did you get tested?
Did you decide to change?
Where… is also closed question, and helps to give to a sense of place for the story
Where… did you go after that?
Did you grow up?
Did were you when this happened?
Other useful approaches will help the interviewee to give you more information:
Tell me more about…your relationship with your father
…how you felt after
What happened next?…
This question tells the interviewee you are interested in their story and want to hear more
Paint a picture for me…
…of the place where this event happened
…of what was happening in the room
…of how people around you reacted
Describe for me…
This is the same as Paint a picture for me. With this question you are trying to get a stronger sense of the atmosphere when the event or story took place—was it hot, raining, crowded, tense, noisy, calm. What were other people doing? How were you dressed?
How did you deal with that? Or
How did that affect you?
What stays with you after all that? Or
What do you think about the most from that event?
All of these questions might sound like small details that are not relevant to the story, but with radio you are trying to tell a story through words and sound, so no one will know it was very hot and uncomfortable unless you ask the interviewee to tell you. And those details will make the listener able to imagine the situation better. And the more the listeners can imagine the story in their minds, the more interested they will be.
Use silence effectively. After a person has spoken, or if he/she is quiet for a while, do NOT jump in with any comment or new question. Wait, with the recorder running, and keep paying close attention to the person. You will often get the best answer when they finally answer (and you can always edit out the silence afterwards). They need time to think what they want to say and how they say it. Don’t rush people.
Things to avoid:
·  Self-answering statements posed as questions: You must have felt really sad at that moment? Answer: yes or no