Organizing audio for a documentary

Q: Iris writes, "I've completed all my interviews (four of them) and I'm a bit at a loss how to integrate them with the flow of the script I was planning.... I have downloaded the Audacity program in my computer so I can listen to my interviews and make notes. My difficulty is how to choose which [clips] to include. It's overwhelming. :) Do you think I should start by writing my script for my introduction?

A: The stage you are at is absolutely the hardest stage. But it's also the most fun stage in a way, because it's the most creative moment. Some of the things to think about are:

• What will be a beginning that will engage people's attention?
• What will be an end that they will remember and leave them with feelings about the program?
• What information do they need to know near the beginning to understand things, and what can you hold back until later?
• How do the voices and stories make you feel? Think about the flow of feelings that will run through the show. How will things develop not only in terms of information but in terms of feelings?
• Are some of the voices more pleasant than others? Maybe you don't want to have too many voices that are not as pleasant or easy to understand next to each other.
• Are you going to have each person speak one by one, or are you going to try to come back to different people and organize by related topics?
• Do you want to introduce each person at the beginning of their talking, or do you want to put the voices together and give credits at the end? (If they're wanting to be anonymous, you can still say something about them that gives people an idea about them.) At the end you want to be sure to give some kind of answer to the question - what was I just listening to?

If you'd like to bring audio up to the station for discussion at some stage in the process, I'd be happy to listen with you. You can email cjsfpa at sfu.ca to set a time to talk or get together about a project - it would be a pleasure to hear your work.