Photograph by Chi Brown.
The Center for Documentary Studies (CDS) is offering three summer audio documentary learning opportunities through its Continuing Education program. These intensive sessions, lasting from two to eight days, are open to the general public (and their completion counts as credit toward the Certificate in Documentary Arts for those working toward a certificate). Information about the courses is below; for more details, and to register, click on the link for each course.
Hearing is Believing I: An Audio Documentary Institute
July 15–21
Center for Documentary Studies
1317 W. Pettigrew St. Durham, North Carolina
Hearing is Believing I: An Audio Documentary Institute is a weeklong immersion in making audio documentaries. You’ll learn hands-on skills in recording and digital audio mixing; discuss issues such as the ethics of documentary work; explore varied uses for audio documentaries; and hear accomplished producers play and talk about their work in evening presentations. During the week you’ll collaborate with a fellow student to produce and edit a short audio documentary. The institute will be led by CDS audio program director John Biewen along with other CDS staff members. This year’s visiting artist is Alex Chadwick, the longtime NPR reporter and host currently working on the public radio project, BURN, An Energy Journal.
Hearing is Believing II: Making it Sing
August 6–11
Center for Documentary Studies
1317 W. Pettigrew St. Durham, North Carolina
Hearing is Believing II: Making it Sing is an intensive, intermediate six-day workshop for students who’ve recorded interviews and gathered sound and are ready to construct a six- to twelve-minute audio documentary. This course is designed for those who have a basic grasp of audio editing software, or for individuals who have completed the Make That Audio Doc class and/or the Hearing Is Believing I summer institute. You’ll get lessons and personal guidance from seasoned radio documentary producers as you structure and script your piece, record your narration tracks (if any), and mix your documentary. The institute will be led by CDS audio program director John Biewen along with other CDS staff members. Visiting artists and editors will join the institute faculty, including Neenah Ellis, Ben Shapiro, and Shea Shackelford.
Digging In: An Audio Retreat with Big Shed
July 29–August 4
Center for Documentary Studies
1317 W. Pettigrew St. Durham, North Carolina
Digging In: An Audio Retreat with Big Shed brings together documentary makers and storytellers of all stripes—audio producers, writers, photographers, filmmakers, multimedia creators, et al.—for a productive, rejuvenating week of digging deep and making meaningful progress on your individual project. The folks at the audio and media production company Big Shed designed this retreat to help you delve into the work that’s most important to you, whether you have a story you’re trying to finish, a project you’re researching or developing, a proposal you need to write, or just need some space to think about your creative trajectory. Guiding the way will be Big Shed’s Shea Shackelford and Jesse Dukes and documentary maven Kara Oehler.
About the Faculty:
John Biewen is audio program director at the Center for Documentary Studies. Besides teaching Summer Audio Institutes and undergraduate courses, he produces documentaries and features for NPR, PRI, American Public Media, and other public radio audiences. Biewen has been making radio since 1983, including eight years spent producing documentaries for American RadioWorks. His work has won many honors, including two Robert F. Kennedy Awards, the Scripps Howard National Journalism Award, and the Third Coast International Audio Festival’s Radio Impact Award.
Shea Shackelford is an audio documentary producer and creator of the Place + Memory Project, a public media project mapping a landscape of remembered places. When he isn’t producing his own stories, Shea’s busy training producers and helping organizations design and create their own media projects. His awards include a Bronze for Best Radio Documentary at the 2010 Third Coast International Audio Festival. Shea has been part of the CDS Summer Audio Institute team since 2005, and he is a founder of Big Shed, a public media shop specializing in audio and multimedia production.
Jesse Dukes has been working as a journalist since 2005, producing audio and multimedia stories for radio and the web. He also writes magazine articles. His radio work has aired on Studio 360, Weekend Edition and Day to Day and other national and regional radio programs. Print and award-winning multimedia work has appeared in the Virginia Quarterly Review and Global Post.
Kara Oehler is a radio documentary producer, media artist, and interactive designer. She is co-founder and editor-in-chief of Zeega, an open-source platform for creating interactive documentaries supported by the Knight News Challenge. Since 1999, her stories and projects have received Peabody, Third Coast Festival and other awards, aired on shows such as RadioLab, Morning Edition, Hearing Voices and Studio 360 and been exhibited at MoMA and other venues.
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