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(2) Question…. How do you get students
more involved in the events put on by the Chartered Institute of Public
Relations? Well, it's always been a problem for organisers at national
and regional level. PR undergraduates usually have their sights set on
a rewarding career but they often fail to recognise the link between that
goal and Public Relations' leading professional body. The Wessex CIPR
Branch has now taken on that challenge by developing a much closer relationship
with students at the two Universities in its region, Southampton Solent
and Bournemouth.
Since undergraduates are usually 'up' for most things, the
Wessex Committee and CIPR regional student reps put their heads together
and came up with speed-dating. Not in the usual sense…..but a chance
to chat for five minutes with lots of local PR professionals across a
range of industry and organisational sectors.
That's what's been happening at Southampton Solent University
(3) (start atmos bed fade in) with PR employers from
more than (4) twenty organisations and around sixty students
who were 'up' for an evening of chat, networking and a few laughs as well.
Mike Kean (5) as well as being Chair of
the Wessex Branch was in charge of proceedings…. 'MC' I think they
call it….and so was in control of the vital whistle.
Getting around sixty students to turn out on a cold winter's
evening is no mean feat….but it's something which was worthwhile
Cut: Vox pop 1 names audio (10)
Dur: 1'29"
Out: I think (fx fade out)
Tracey Williams was one of the PR professionals talking with students.
She's from the Chartered Institute of Public Relations' Head Office and
her job is to support the regional groups….. and to help promote
events like this
Cut: CIPR Tracey (11)
Dur: 55"
Out: particular areas
Another PR practitioner on hand was Keith Lewis who's Press
Officer at Zurich Insurance
Just five of the PR professionals who'd been questioned
about all aspects of their jobs by the students at Southampton Solent
University.
When he wasn't blowing his whistle … Master of Ceremonies,
Mike Kean, was busy making sure everyone knew what to do…. And he
took time to tell me about some of the other people talking with the students……
Cut: Mike tour (14)
Dur: 48"
Out: practitioner now.
(mix to atmos separation)
Cut: Short atmos clip mike link
Dur: 5"
Out: Atmos ends
(mix to)
Cut: Mike intvu
Dur: 35"
Out: very soon
One person who was 'perhaps' looking for some careers advice
was Dr Anne Hill, who oversees the running of the Communications, Advertising
and PR courses at Southampton Solent University. She chose the right table…..there
were three graduates of the Public Relations and Communication degree
at Southampton Solent, who are now working in PR and Marketing…..,Lucy
Bridgewater, Sarah Moody and Belinda Shaw……
Cut: Anne & students (15)
Dur: 46"
Out:: it out (laughter fades….long)
As the event drew to a close, the students all agreed that
it had been a great success and needed to happen again next year, but
what had they actually learned by meeting the professionals?…..
Two hours after the first whistle had blown, it was time
to pack up. It was the end of a busy few weeks for the two CIPR student
representatives from Southampton Solent University, who were the main
organisers, Public Relations and Communication undergraduates Emma Podmore
and Lee Goodenough……
For those two students organising the event was undoubtedly
excellent experience and great CV material. They can look forward to promising
careers in Public Relations and Communication as well as the other students
who came along to 'Meet the Professionals'. (18)
CIPR PODCAST SCRIPT ANNOTATIONS
1. Script
This recorded script and inserts are what would appear as an 'audio file'
icon. The file is likely to be on a web page together with photos and
a short description of the event. There will be a 'click here' button
on the web page to play the file. The name of the narrator isn't usually
that important, but the names of the people who are included within the
audio piece are. These are included within the script either spoken by
the narrator or by the people themselves. The narrator's name will probably
appear on the website within a short introduction to this piece, but this
sometimes isn't necessary.
2. First voice clip
This is quite a long introduction to the actual audio clips. This is because
it is more or less 'self-contained' or 'self-cueing'. That means press
the button and the full story is there. Compare this with the 'Colden
Common School' feature which has a cue, read by the presenter in the studio
and the audio package itself which is read and produced by the reporter.
The introduction focuses on CIPR Wessex involvement. If I were doing this
as a promotional piece for Southampton Solent University, the clips would
stay the same together with the other links, but this introduction would
be reshaped to stress the SSU and student involvement.
3. Atmos or ambient/background sound
The atmos bed is faded in so the listener knows that they will be 'taken'
to the event in a few moments time. It is genuine atmos recorded at the
event and looped once to create a long enough bed. The atmos can be faded
down and up in multitrack to co-incide with the presenter's voice coming
in and finishing.
This is an atmos bed as the voice lies on top of the bed,
just as one would in a real bed. The bed to sleep in is there to support
the body just as the atmos bed is there to support the voice. This is
also known as ducking but this manual fade in and out in multitrack is
by far the most effective as it allows time for the listener to actually
hear that the atmos has gone down and so they know speech is due to start.
The atmos needs to be in the background to add atmosphere and aid communication,
add to the sound picture not hinder intelligibility. If atmos is too loud,
you won't hear what's being said by the presenter. This is easy to adjust
in multitrack with separate atmos and voice tracks.
The voiced links have been recorded separately into a professional
recorder after the event and put into the multitrack and mixed with the
atmos. This is standard practice.
Recordings at the event i.e. the various actuality inserts,
have been recorded in the room where the event was taking place and care
needed to be taken on the night that the right balance is obtained when
the recording is done in the first place. Too much background atmos at
this stage and you are stuck. You will not be able to obtain the right
balance (bed) of atmos and speech.
Also, be aware that there will be different levels of atmos
at different stages of proceedings, beginning, middle, end etc.. It can
be problematic recording atmos because unless you count up to 30"
while you are recording you will always underestimate and may have to
loop several times with the repetition of certain sounds every few seconds
(like the Tom and Jerry cartoons). Also people will usually come up to
you and start talking because they will feel sad for you thinking that
you are on your own, recording, apparently, nothing!
4. Numbers
Spell out numbers as they are spoken. There may be a house style when
ther numbers are written in capitals.
5. People being interviewed
Give (generally speaking) their full name and position they hold or what
they do. No need (generally) to say Mr. Mrs or Miss, but perhaps Doctor,
Professor etc, as illustrated later in the piece
6. Clip Details
You need to write in the script the details of the audio insert. Cut/Clip
etc. Duration and out i.e. last words or sounds heard. This helps you
estimate the length of the overall piece and gauge the balance in length
between the various inserts. If you are mixing this live (probably not
nowadays) then the duration is very important so you know when the end
of the clip is approaching
7. Automatic Level Control (ALC)
A loud whistle is a very shrill noise. It starts and ends very quickly.
Machines using Automatic Level Control may distort as it takes time for
the ALC to kick in when it senses a very loud noise and to return to normal
at the end.
8. Cross fade
This is when one sound source merges into another and there is some overlap,
you may no particular end to one piece as it merges with another. This
is deliberate. It is designed to illustrate a range of sounds or clips
of speech This is particularly evident in 'emp mix mixdown' clip. See
below.
. 9. 'emp mix mixdown' clip
This is a separate 'mixdown' to mono of five separate clips which have
been mixed in the multi track. Here, there is a pot pourri of speech examples
from various employers and students. The effect is intended to show indicative
examples of what employers were talking about and some of the student
comments. It is not meant to be an interview nor an absolute record of
what was said. It is 'listening in' to some of the talk, as if you were
walking around the tables. It should give the impression that the recorder
(or producer) is not there. It is good practice (!) to ask in advance
if you can just record what is going on but ask them to just talk normally.
You only need a few succinct sentences from each person. Experience will
tell you what to get and when enough is enough. Get half a dozen examples,
allowing you to mix male and female voices etc. You don't need names of
people for this type of thing. In this particular insert, the final clip
illustrates that the recording was done 'as live' as people are waiting
for the whistle which appears just at the end. They have 'escaped' being
captured in sound and it is amusing to hear the relief, albeit joking,
as the final sounds heard. This was unplanned and a spontaneous reaction.
Humour is generally a good thing.
Note how each separate clip in the multitrack is faded in
and out so that they overlap to allow a smooth transition from one to
the other. The multitrack session mix is them 'mixed-down' to a single,
separate mono file. This new file cannot itself be 'unmixed'. That is
why it important to save separately the multitrack session (and its associated
files) if you want to play around with it at a later stage.
Note too that the end of this mixdown is faded out. Fade
outs are much better than abrupt, 'hard' endings. Also use fade in for
a smoother transition at the beginning of the clip.
10. Vox pops.
This stands for vox populi, the voice of the people. In this case 'the
people' are the students at the event. Usually vox pops don't include
names but a recent trend in some radio/audio work is to get people to
introduce themselves. It is literally 'giving voice' to the individuals.
By the contributors giving their actual names, it can seen as contributing
a more personal feel to the piece and so a closer connection not just
with the student speaker but with the listener i.e. person listening on
the computer. You can also ask the individuals to say what they do (what
course/year they are on in this case) as well as their name. Note the
mixture of male/female voices. 90-95% of students on the PR & Communication
course are female. What should be an appropriate representation of female
to male voices? Always put good speakers at the beginning and end of a
vox pop. The last words said need to be a smooth and effective finish.
11. CIPR Tracey
Tracey's is the first of the interview inserts from the PR professionals.
It is linked from the previous student vox pop by a few lines of 'straight
read'
12. Keith Lewis
One way of linking a succession of clips is by a short voiced link as
in this case.
13. Other ways to link
Another way is to effectively get the speakers to link the pieces themselves
by asking them to give their name and position/role. A bit of atmos included
at the end of one speaker acts as the link to the next. This is how Keith
is linked to Sarah and Julius from Lawton and from them to Rhian.
14. Walkaround
Another effect is for the presenter or someone else to describe what's
going on. It's usually best if someone involved in what's going on does
the talking. In this clip, Mike walks round the tables with me, there's
a bit of spontaneous chat and interjection from a student, that's good
as it shows it's not too staged! In fact the listener doesn't hear from
me and that's good. It's as if Mike is actually talking to them and taking
them around. A few names mentioned and he's a little off microphone (too
many mikes!) when he turns round to talk to people. Actually this is a
good effect as the listener can hear he's turning around. Normally being
off microphone is a bad thing but this is momentary and adds to the 'talking
to the listener' effect.
A good effect, if you can achieve it, is to move between
rooms or spaces with different acoustics. Walking around a house, or factory
or office with various ambient sounds is very effective. Keep the recorder
running and you (or someone else) continue talking as you move between
the spaces. The transition from one acoustic space to another will come
through clearly. In the case of 'Meet the Professionals', it is just one
acoustic space but the ambient noise (atmos) was at various levels at
various times in the evening.
Note that Mike ends his 'tour talk' with his voice going
up. Normally I would try to find another comment which ends with the voice
going down. But one way of getting over this is to end the 'tour talk'
this way, add some extra atmos and then link straight to the clip I have
chosen about how he feels the evening has gone.
15. Anne and Students
As I mentioned in comment 9, it's usually good to get some humour and
spontaneity into things. This clip was certainly unplanned. Three graduates
from Southampton Solent University were on one desk telling students how
they'd fared in the worlds of PR and Marketing. The Programme Group Leader,
Dr. Anne Hill, was chatting to them as I turned up. It was said, as a
joke, that Anne herself should ask for some career advice, so that's exactly
what she did, on the machine. It wasn't rehearsed. If it had been it would
have fallen flat on its face, things like that normally do. The last sound
heard is the extended laughter. This is genuine and it's OK to let the
laughter go on for its natural length. The listener knows the whole event
was a fun occasion as well as being really useful for information and
contacts. There's one issue of whether and how to name the three graduates
involved. Sometimes, you could use just first names to get a more 'personal'
touch. If they were still students then it would probably be OK (I could
have done this with the named students in the vox pop earlier) but as
they're here in a professional capacity, then they probably need both
first name and surname.
16. Vox pop 2
Once again a mixture of female and male voices, this time without the
names. You can use different clips from the same people you've covered
in the vox pop earlier. That's fine as it's a different aspect they're
commenting upon
17. Lee & Emma
This is recorded at the end of the event and people are, literally, clearing
up and stacking chairs and tables. You can hear the different ambient
noise or background atmos. This tells the listener that it's all over
through the background sound as well as in my link.. The two students
are introduced in my link, the person speaking first appearing right after
his name and the second person being introduced by me within the interview
by her first name.
18. End of script
In a 'wrap' or package on radio then the reporter normally wraps thing
up with a final sentence or two otherwise it can often seem as if the
piece is left hanging in the air. Otherwise, the presenter in the studio
can give a 'back anno' or back announcement saying "that was Fred
Bloggs reporting on snow in summer". That facility isn't available
online so the person presenting the podcast would normally finish the
'wrap' (wrapping the sound clips with voice) with these few words.
In the corporate world or working for a client, you could
have your own (copyright free or paid) standard music out ('music out'
is music with which you finish your podcast. 'Music in' is your standard
music which you could use at the start, should you choose) with details
of your organisation, contact etc, next podcast due when and on what topic
etc…..
EQUIPMENT
The podcast actuality audio was recorded (on location!)
using a Marantz PMD670 at a sample rate of 48 kHz, 16 bit resolution in
.WAV format using ALC with a Shure PG48 microphone and XLR m/f lead
The narration was recorded using a Fostex FR2LE at 48 kHz,
16 bit resolution in .WAV format with a Samson CO-1 studio directional
condenser microphone phantom power microphone and XLR m/f lead
The podcast was edited and mixed using Adobe Audition
1.5 single files and multitrack at a sample rate of 48 kHz, 16 bit resolution,
mono and mixed down and converted in Audition for web placement to mp3,
44100 kHz 16 bit.
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