Nat Sound: Good Technique

Good Nat Sound can complete a package. Nat sound draws the viewer into a situation, allowing them to hear the environment and see the emotions and experience on people's face. It allows people to imagine they are there in the environment and appeals to their visual and hearing preferences. Audio can make or break a story and allow it to take on a whole new meaning.

Shawn Montano of Edit Foundry, has a list and demonstration of why Nat Sound is important. He believes Nat Sound can:

Natural sound helps with action and reaction

Natural sound can help grab the viewers attention

Natural sound can act like punctuation: Use it to change directions, add a exclamation point at the end of a sentence, or a breathing point (comma).

Natural sound at the beginning of reporter track or sound bites can help change location

Natural sound can help with the rhythm of a story

Natural sound should be relevant to the story

 I believe if used correctly, Nat Sound can do this more. He demonstrates a video from start to finish without and with Nat Sound so you can compare them his website.

I am actually horrible at natural sound. I ruin it by talking to people, not using the right equipment settings, and being in a rush. And even though you have to meet deadline and talk to the sources, you can still record quality Nat Sound by taking yourself out of the journalistic role for a moment. What are people hearing? Capturing what people hear during any story will help make sure it is relevant and important. Always keep the camera rolling and listen.

I recently watched a sad journalism video from a station in Texas. The Dallas Morning News created a shorter version of this story for their newscast but they put together this version online after an outflow of support from the public. More than half of the video is Nat Sound and you do not even realize it.

Choosing Thomas is a video about a mom and a child's journey. During pregnancy, they found out that Thomas had a DNA abnormality and that Thomas would not survive but a few days after birth. They could abort Thomas but they chose to keep him and give him the best life he could live. He only survived about a week after birth but more than half of the video is images and Nat Sound, not a person or anchor talking.

 Nat Sound is important in a story and can tell most of it for you. In a tornado, capture the strong wind, the cracking thunder, or emergency sirens. They can do most of the hard work for you and make the story more memorable than your voice saying, "There's a tornado coming." In the case of Thomas, we were able to hear the struggle, hear what was wrong, the cries, the breathing... And we began to truly understand the struggle rather than hearing, "Thomas did not survive and had respiratory problems." The Nat Sound can tell that sentence in a vivid, unique way. It can also take more time but the viewer is more satisfied from the story.

It may be hard to capture the sound and the moment but trying to do so will make your piece go from okay to great. Any broadcast journalists should love the ability to capture these sounds.