IN: “I’m not ashamed…”
OUT: “…for a moment.”
DUR: 2:05

Bio: We all have to go, but what if that space is actually an outhouse in the middle of a forest? Darrel will briefly describe her not so private moments of motion.

Reflection – My scope of emotion was joy tickled with surprise which was a conscious angle as our collective global experience is rather turbulent at present.

Third Coast Festival spoke volumes to me in defining this projects concept as a precise, evocative and transportative storytelling tool. Sound is tremendously powerful & by critically listening, I onboarded a new skill during this phase of my research. To structure my project I employed the inverted pyramid that was flecked with a few extra senses such as smell & sound, and aimed to start with a hook, make a connection and include a twist .

Podcasting in a time of crisis downloaded crucial knowledge for me on how to actually elicit audio from afar which is fundamental at present. Facilitating a time and space that suited my time constrained friend ( a mother and nurse) almost killed this idea and despite drawing on the lecture 3 Interview notes I still failed to ask vital questions the first time around and had to interview again where I better negotiated an ‘exchange of gazes'(Portelli, 1997) . Non-linear subject matter combined with this being a shared experience meant multiple edits to resequence and trim the interview content.

I originally wanted to use both interview and narration to anchor the listener but the slender time parameters meant I had to ‘Shoot my’ lofty ‘puppies’ (Campbell & Huang 2011) and angle toward the punchy and immersive. Determining what to use proved ponderous, whilst also remembering to save a couple of beats for breaths and giggles to respect the pace.

I opted to start with a ‘montage teaser’ as I believe it instantly anchors the listener in the outhouse. I played around with feedback from both Steiner and Jennifer in factoring in what to omit and how to form my structure and blended this with my own instincts.

Rolling with Allen Halls mantra, that no sound is innocent ( Biewen & Dilworth, 2017), I utilised freesound.org to find proximity appropriate effects that resonated authentically as I obviously can’t record British Columbian ATMOS. Whilst providing a nostalgic forray for me, I don’t think listeners in this country would recognise a barred owl, a black bear or even necessarily a squirrel but I was able to recreate those animals exactly as I remember. My intention was to evoke the essence of the outhouse, captivate the listener and promote a good belly laugh.

• Reality Radio Anthology, Biewen & Dilworth, 2017, UNC Press.
• Campbell, B & Huang, P 2011, ‘Shooting Puppies: A tutorial’, Transom blog post.
• Macey, J, 2021, ‘Week 3 lecture – developing Audio as narrative’ UOW JRNL 102
• Mchugh, S, A 2007, ‘The aerobic art of interviewing.’

Outhouse Overtures sound

• Free music archive.org, Bumy Golden – River, Mountain
• freesound.org
• The delightful Darrel Weaver