Podcast or Slideshow

In addition to trying to put my feature together, I've spent the last few days considering whether I want to do the podcast or slideshow for my next class project. I personally love the slideshows. Besides video, slideshows and maybe interactives are usually the multimedia options that I try on websites. For some reason, podcasts have never really interested me. This could be because most aren't particularly good - it's just a bunch of talking heads, and I'd rather read a story. At least this is how I am at ESPN.com.

But obviously I'm not just going with personal preference. Juanita always makes the wonderful point that the story should exploit the full capabilities of the chosen medium (though I thought she was wrong about the karate podcast played in class - I've seen a thousand martial arts movies and never just encountered it through sound, which made it a very new and interesting experience). So for my project, there's no real circumstances that would make a podcast--pure sound--a good vehicle. Maybe I could get some kids talking, like mini-testimonies, but that would be mawkish and video would be better anyway. So my idea is a slideshow of East New York, partially narrated by me. I've reported on East New York for another class, on the community gardens there, and maybe I could do a little community walk kind of thing. Also, for my video I recorded my subject David doing a walk and talk from the storefront of the non-profit I'm covering to the non-profit's building for its high school program. I really liked some of the things David said--about the projects, the liquor store, the pharmacy--which had an authenticity, candor and humor to them. But the footage was bad because I had to walk and talk and turn and shoot all at once with that tiny camera.

So for the slideshow, I could take some photos of the neighborhood, maybe of some of the class rooms where the non-profit runs its after school program, and narrate a it there, and then end with the walk and talk voice over by David, accompanied with pictures of the things he was talking about. This sounds awfully complex and may be structurally tenuous, but I guess this is the time to try out things. After all, last Friday we were told it's ok to fail. So here I go.