Hella Solutions blog: "Document. Share. Inspire."

Yes, an 8-minute version of my larger documentary, “SisterLove: Keeping It Real, Globally,” is getting an international airing all this week on over 200 stations. So, plug in that old receiver and crank up the sound. The program is called “Making Contact” and is a weekly 29 minute report with stories, issues, perspectives and voices often left out of the mainstream. I edited down an this version from my larger work for the show and it will be featured as the closing segment. I’m sooooo excited! So, please check it out via the good ol’ radio. And be sure to tell me and the radio station what you think of it! Of course you can stream it online, too.

Here’s the info you need:

The Color of AIDS: Bringing “Risk” Up to Date [#48-07]

The Station list (includes int’l stations link).

The Show page.

Best!

Noah

p.s. I’m in post production on the second chapter in the SisterLove story and hope to have it out by January 2008. If you haven’t done so, stop by the project web site and be sure to sign up on my program email list.

If you can listen to this audio and not cry then…I don’t what then but…I’ve listened to this story 4 or 5 times today and tear up every time. StoryCorps travels the U.S. collecting stories from everyday folks and they post the best of that on their web site and this is some really touching work here…StoryCorps is a great project and this is a great piece of audio.

“How would you say the diagnosis of your Alzheimer’s has affected us?”
Bob Chew to his wife, Jo Ann.

Listen to it at PRX.org (Registration needed – free)

Listen to it at StoryCorps.org (no reg. needed – free)

Check out this piece from Susan Stone, a recent recipient of a USA Fellowship. What I like about it is the many layers, the creative use of music, audio manipulation and natural sounds and the choice of topic. It’s dark, edgy and yet positive. It’s entertaining. I don’t know where my head has been as this is the first real conscious listening of her work that I’ve had. Sure, I probably heard her work before but, man!, this is awesome! Thank you Susan…you are an inspiration of difference in a world of repetition.

Here There is No Moon
by Susan Stone.

A college student leaps from a bridge, a young mother walks into a lake, a widow clings to a ledge. Impulse. Depression. Illness. Grief.

Here There Is No Moon is a portrait of the suicidal mind from the perspective of those who have survived the bullet, the bottle, the jump; and those who have helped in rescue and intervention. There is the limbo in which some live: Why am I still here? Will I try again? Can I resume the life I almost left? There is relief, for others, in having a second chance at life. And there are the doctors, philosophers, counselors, and poets grappling with suicide as epidemic, violence, and the siren song of suicide landmarks.

(National Suicide Prevention Week: May 3 – 9, 2005)

Listen to it online via KPFA

…

The other week I got word that a radio program was looking for pitches (a concise, flushed out idea for a story) for an upcoming program of theirs on HIV and AIDS among women. The catch was that I had to have it in within a few hours. My gawd, I thought to myself, this is my first pitch to a radio program and I only have a few freakin’ hours?! I have to admit, I guess I also felt lucky because what they were asking for was exactly what my SisterLove documentary project addressed. So, I clicked into high gear and wrote out a pitch and sent it in – not really understanding what a pitch should look like but trusting that my project was what they were looking for. Low and behold they loved it and hired me to produce an eight minute segment to be included in their 29 minute program! YES! I was and remain so excited!!!

So, all you SisterLove: Keeping it Real fans will be able to hear a re-envisioned 8 minute segment on an upcoming installment of the nationally and internationally syndicated program Making Contact with host Tena Rubio. It will broadcast on or around World AIDS Day (December 1st) so stop by the National Radio Project’s web site for a list of the over 200 stations that air their program to find your local station. You can also get Making Contact via a pod-cast or even stream it online. Visit www.radioproject.org for all the info. They are an asset to the radio community and a great program to listen to!

As an independent radio producer I’m asking you to please support projects like Making Contact because they in turn use your donations to support producers like myself that larger entities don’t always do. You can do it now and online! Please do so…

For those interested in the after-hire process here’s a quick synopsis: After receiving word that they wanted me to produce a piece based on my larger project I spent a lot of time crunching my 18 minute piece down to 8 minutes. Then I got word from their editor that they liked my 8 minutes but wanted some structural changes and it needed to be cut down to around 6 or 7 minutes. And this needed to be done by the next day. Holy crap! With the assistance of their editor, I got the structure revamped and the time down to 6 minutes !!! Then, that night, I was told that they actually needed the piece to be back up around 8 minutes — since mine is being played last in the 29 minute segment I guess it is being used to take up any slack left by the others. So, we worked out some ideas on where some time could be added and voila! Okay, it wasn’t exactly that easy but we got it done. And I quite enjoyed the process…really, I learned a lot. So, all you first time producers: Don’t be afraid to submit your pitches (and keep revamping and re-submitting them if they are not accepted the first, second, or even third and fourth times). Also, if you are asked to rework your pieces, don’t be afraid to revamp and re-work; it’s a great learning process!

A friend sent me a link to this and wow! Listen to Gordon talk about silence, sound, noise intrusions, listening and his own deafness. There are a series of chapters that are about 2-5 minutes a piece. Really beautiful stuff here, folks. Check it out at http://radioprimetime.org/specials/silence/index.html

I just completed some updates to the web site for my SisterLove documentary project. The best of which is that you can now listen to the 2-minute teaser with no sign-up hassles. However, if you want to hear the complete 18-minute version of chapter one then you will have to sign up, albeit free, on PRX.org. Anyway, all of the details and more are now available at www.sisterloveradio.com . Please stop by and pass the link around to your friends!

I got back from the Third Coast International Audio Festival at the beginning of this week and I’ll post my report and thoughts on this over the weekend. But in the mean time I came across this while surfing. Enjoy …

The 2007 Third Coast International Audio Festival (TCIAF) officially kicked off this evening with an opening meet-and-greet schmooze of the 400 or so attendees. This is my first time at this event and I have to say it’s been a tad bit intimidating. Don’t get me wrong, the people are all easy going and very friendly but I feel like I’m invading their territory. I keep asking myself, “Do I belong here?” Answer, “If you want to work in radio production you do!”

Tomorrow the sessions start and I am excited. What I have lined up are the following: “Making a Scene: The Use of Verite to Show, Not Tell, Your Story,” “When and How to Sell Out” [a pod casting seminar], and “Stand Tall” [field work seminar]. That takes me up to about 6 p.m. and then at 9:30 begins a party put on by PRX (www.prx.org) and Vocalo (www.vocalo.org) which sounds like crazy fun. Vocalo will be web casting live from the party and will be featuring some of the works of attending audio producers like myself. So on Friday November 2, be sure to be listening to www.vocalo.org between 10 p.m. and 12 a.m. (Central Time) and you will hear some of my work as well as a live interview with me. You can also listen to and comment on my SisterLove project any time at http://vocalo.org/node/9055 .

…btw, it’s not hyperbole, the festival truly is international as I chatted it up with one producer from Ireland and another from New Zealand…nice!…

This year Halloween is bittersweet for me. Bitter because I don’t get to celebrate the best holiday of the year; it’s sweet because I am attending the Third Coast International Audio Festival (TCIAF) in Chicago, IL. TCIAF is three or so days of nothing but audio workshops, sessions, screenings, discussions and parties. It’s my first time going and I’m really excited! I’m hoping to learn some good skills for constructing stronger audio pieces and I’m also hoping that I’ll be able to build my contact base. You want some icing to go with that? Well here you go:

The week before coming here I was forwarded a message that a certain radio program was looking for people to pitch ideas for audio pieces that address HIV/AIDS and women (especially women of color and other marginalized communities). The catch was that I had to write this pitch, my first ever I should say, in less than 24 hours. Granted, this fit my SisterLove project to a “T” and so I really didn’t have to do more than outline much of the work I have already completed. So, I did complete the pitch and spent the next couple of days doubting myself. Turns out the producers looking for stories loved my work and hired me to complete an 8 minute segment for their 29 minute program. Awesome! My very first paid radio gig! It was quite a confidence boost and just in time for me to come out to Chicago and rub shoulders with some of the top audio producers in the world…shweeeeeet. I’ll post who hired me and when the show airs once all is completed.

Here are a couple of photos of the airline workers enjoying Halloween. The flight crew was so friendly and funny it was scary. May be everyday should be Halloween.