For this assignment, i listened to several of the different stories. One of the stories i listened is called “It’s going to change your life” directed and produced by Jonathan Mitchell. The story was about the character name Karen Miller who was promoted to a division chief position, but she was not much interested in accepting her new position in the company. In the opening of the story there was background noise that was used as an attention catcher to let the listeners know that the story is related to an office job. There was a lot office background noise, it sounds as bunch of people were on the phone talking with different clients. All the sudden, Karen’s boss called her in her office, and all the background sounds disappeared. To me, Karen getting called in the office was a methaphor for something about to take place, but at this point, being a listener, i was not sure what actually her boss was going tell her. This moment in the story created a suspense because listeners don’t know if Karen was in trouble, or Karen is getting rewarded for her performance. While Karen was in the office, she was informed that she was getting promoted. Now, Karen started to speak, but all nervous and confused. Its sounds as Karen does not know what to do with this new position. Her boss handed her an envelop, and all the sounds disappeared except the sound of Karen opening an envelop. This technique allow the listeners to become curious about the letter inside the envelop, and at this point as being a listener wanted to know what was inside that envelop. For me, this was the moment of curiosity. Finally, Karen boss revealed the big secret by saying there is a round trip ticket to Baltimore, and told Karen that she was going to Baltimore for some kind of position evaluation meeting. To start a new paragraph or new section in the story, Mitchell added the air plane taking off sounds. By hearing the air plane taking off, one can imagine or conclude based on the conversation which took place in the office, that Karen is flying to Baltimore. Next part of the story, open with greetings and “Good Morning” ,one can conclude that this moment is taking place in the morning, and Karen is arrived at the place where she suppose to be evaluated for this new job. They started to have conversation, and they were having a narrative story telling moment. By listening Karen and her sound, i concluded she was quite nervous, and does not want to do anything with her position. The setting of the story changed again when a plane taking off sound were played again in the story. By listening the sound of plane engine the second time, one can conclude that Karen was heading back to her city or state wherever she lived. The two sounds of plane taking off divided the story into two different settings. As the story goes on, for the next setting, a lot listeners can hear background noises such as people taking phone calls at the office. This background sound was the indicator that Karen was back in her office. She were having conversation with her boss regards to her evaluation trip, and she sounded very frustrated. In the next setting, She went to a party. It was sounded that she was in a car, because she were giving direction to a car driver, and all the sudden engine stops and sounded that someone printed a trip receipt. In my conclusion, she was taking a cab to this place. Next, a door bell rung. At the same time, i heard a lot of loud music were being played in the background. Its sounds that she arrived at the party house, and she was waiting outside of the house door for someone to come and open the door. Finally, some one opened the door and greeted her. Now, she was inside the house. Her phone rung which was the indication that someone was trying to get in touch with her. She picked the phone, and she started to argue that she was not giving speech. It was her boss on the phone, and it sounded that they were having an argument over the phone. At last, Karen hanged up the phone, and the background music became louder. It sounded that Karen just quit her job, and now all she wanted is to enjoy that beautiful party.
Second story i listened is called ” Fine Dining” also by Jonathan Mitchell. The opening of the story started with the sound of something sizzling on the stove. The sound was meant to grab listeners attention, and allow the listeners to understand the setting where the story took place. Just by the sound, one can conclude that story took place in a kitchen. However, at this point, listeners were not sure where was this kitchen located. Later as i was listening the part of the story, when wife and husband having the conversation about husband need to go out and talk with customer, I learned that they were in the kitchen inside their own restaurant. The next paragraph or setting started when he walked out of the kitchen, and started to talk with the customer who was not very pleased with the customer service he was getting at that restaurant.
Later, Carol (husband) and Linda (wife), have conversation about how their business doing. In the background there was a sound of beating plates and silverware.It sounds as they were having this conversation when they were having dinner at their house. For the next paragraph intend, the door bell rung. To me this part was the climax of this story, and created a lot of suspense. At this point, being a listener i did not know who knocked on the door. Carol got up, and open the door. When he opened the door, I could hear the sounds of crickets in the background. This is what any one usually can experience when open the door during night time. Next, there was a man; he introduced himself as an attorney, and handed Carol a law suite papers that was filled due to fact that carol restaurant was not in compliance with the state handicap regulations. As a listener, I could make a very good guess that the law suite was filed by the guy name Gavani, who was introduced early in the story. After the guy at the door left, Carol closed the door, and came back inside. During this part of the story, Linda try to have communication with Carol. It sounded that Carol was depressed because of everything that was happening to him. Linda and he got in argument, and eventaully Linda left for walk. She slammed the door very hard when she left the house, to me this was a metaphor in the story. The sound of the door slammed emphasized how angry Linda became when she left the house. The sound of the door, and Linda’s behavior connected me more deeply into the story, because I think anyone can imagine how Linda feel when she had to go throw all of her husband’s mess.
Now at this point of the story, Carol was left alone for days, and there was a very sad sound playing in the background to express the sadness mode of the story. The story goes on, and eventually he got the job at Captain Colby which was located across the place where his restaurant use to be. The second climax in the story took place when Carol was working at Captain Colby, and he discovered that the guy Gavini who filed law suite against his restaurant was sitting on table 14, and ordered Salty dogs. Now, new paragraph of the story started, it was all about taking revenge. He cooked the worse Salty dog, that caused Gavini to get sick and rushed to restroom.
At the same time, a new action took place. While Gavini was in restroom, there was sound of fire alarms. It indicated that the restaurant caught on fire. The sound of fire alarm allow the listeners to imagine this terrified scenario. While I was listening the fire drills, and everything that was going on, for a minute i thought it was happening in real. This kind of sound techniques allow to bring more reality into a story telling. At the end of the story, when everybody was rescued, there was a news reporter talking about the incident. This is usually what happens in real life when something horrible happen, media shows up, and share the news to inform people about the incident.
New paragraph open, when Linda heard the news, and she came rushing to see if her husband is ok. This event brought Linda and Carol together, and once again as always they started to cook together. Whats most important thing i noticed about this story was that the beginning and ending of this story were kind of the same. This story started and ended with the sound of sizzling, and Linda and Carol were cooking together.
The Third story i listened called “Falling” written by Chet Siegel and produced by Jonathan Mitchell. It was a love story, and the story started with the sound of a train honk. The sound of the train was and indicator to allow the listeners to imagine that the story started at the train station. All the sudden in background people was yelling that train was coming ” get out of the track”. Hearing this, one can conclude that there was someone at the track who going to get hit by a train. All the sudden, I heard the sound of train applying the hard brakes, and finally the sound of train coming to full stop. This created the suspense because as a listener i did not know what just took place. At least, after all this shocking event, someone yelled “Oh My GOD” he is alive. Now, as a listener I finally figured that nobody got hurt.
The next paragraph in the story began, when the tv show “Welcome America” called Lious and Amy to their live show, and mentioned how Amy saved Lious from getting hit by a train. In the show, Louis asked Amy for a date. The sitting of the story changed with the background sound. Now, they were sitting in a restaurant, and having lunch. Setting of the story changed again when the sound of the dog barking played. At this stage of the story, she was at the office, and having conversation with her co worker about her date, and this new relation she have with louis. She sounded confused about everything. As the story goes on, later in the part of the story something was sizzling. It appears that Lious was cooking dinner for Amy. Amy started to have conversation about how she feel uncomfortable for Louis behaving and buying her all kind of stuff. Amy told Lious that she does not want all of the stuff that Louis was buying for her.
Next paragraph started with dogs barking. As a listener one can conclude she is back in the office for the next day. While she was in the office, a Fedex guy brought a big box. This created another suspense moment in the story. It left me as a listeners curious because as a listener I want to know what was inside that box. Surprisingly, it was Louis himself, coming out of the box as he was singing a song for Amy. Not only for Amy’s point of view, but listening as a listener perspective; it was a very ridiculous thing that Louis has done. In my opinion, Amy done a rite thing at that time to kick him out of the office.
Next part of the story began when door bell rung. It was Louis at the door. There was the sound of opening and closing door. Louis came inside and they started to have conversation. They got in argument. To me the climax of the story happened, when Amy jumped out of the window, and sounded that she landed on a hard floor. When she fall, the sound was loud, and created a terrified theme. Next thing as a listener i heard the machine beeping inside an emergency room. I could imagine that she was in serious condition, and she got hurt bad. At last, she woke up and Louis was sitting there beside her, and they started to sing a song again.
Based on listening all the above stories, my conclusion was that sound plays a big role in audio story telling. It indicate readers about the current setting, mood, or theme. Sound also help the users to imagine the setting, and things that is happening in the story. Overall, i enjoyed listening to all three of stories listed above.