“Making a Scene”

A break-out session seminar at the 2007 Third Coast Audio Festival conference.

A well-crafted scene, heard on the radio, opens a window onto a new world and allows the listener to fly right in. Claire Schoen explores the process of creating scenes — showing real people living their lives — for an audio documentary. Recording a single scene may require spending days with a subject. Back in the studio, bits and pieces of audio are layered in multiple tracks to reconstruct a place and time. The result is an experience that relays information on a visceral and emotional level.