My New-found Affinity for the Headliner App Format
My multimedia journalism just gained a new creative perspective.
By KRISTIAN TREY KODMAN
Throughout the climate change battle as an environmental journalist, things can distract you from being at the forefront of fact-based information delivery while managing the best community engagement. It is wise to step away from the elements and take in a different perspective of how citizens are consuming media and in ways that they digest it for their benefit.
So, in this process of staying hip within the realm of authorship and multimedia production, the easy-to-use Headliner App was recently introduced to me by Damian Radcliffe at the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication. But being an independent journalist, I had to ask, is Headliner something I can use to make my stories reach a wider audience? Time will surely tell as I have only begun using this app.
Audio Independent News Reports When Video Footage Isn’t Necessary.
As an academically educated multimedia content/culture creator, I have the bow of my metaphorical ship breaking waves constantly in the sea of Adobe’s Creative Cloud Suite on my Windows laptop. But brainstorming on how and why I would use Headliner has me thinking about what I may need to report immediately, even if only through social media instead of a well-designed publication on a newsletter on a personal website while in the field.
I may not have time to dedicate all of my attention to conducting audio/video editing software programs to make the most professional presentation of the facts, context, and nuance collected for a story. And this takes our story, here, back to the simplicity of Headliner.
The Android version was quick to understand how to use and free upon download from the GooglePlay store. The Pro version looks even more necessary for the seasoned journalist using this regularly in their A/V productions.
What If I Used HEADLINER In My Filmmaking?
That brings my thoughts to another field of specialty in focus today in my repertoire. That is the role of the documentary. Being a fairly new documentary filmmaker myself, my interviews and every other non-fiction filmmaker have been restricted to socially distant interviewing during the Covid-19 pandemic. In fact, I recently noticed this audio plus waveform format used in Stefan Milo’s Gobekli Tepe And The People Who Built It: A Conversation With Archaeologist Jens Notroff on YouTube from April of 2020.
Being that filmmaker mind has my mental process outlining how to incorporate the video clips rendered from Headliner. It opens all these new avenues to properly and professionally displaying an audio conversation in a larger film production instead of possibly having a continuous overlay with coinciding visual content. Sometimes you may not have a substantial amount of visual content to rival, for example, a long podcast conversation.
Just the Basics! Audio, Still Photograph, Text, and Waveform
The idea of an audiogram is to overlook consistently changing visual information coming through video footage and for us to listen instead. With a tease of the scene or subject with just the snapshot, the audio is the inspiring factor to the listener’s imagination to visualize what must be happening/has happened. But as the audio is the star of the show, everything must deliver the content properly.
The waveform animation and appearance may be equally important as what an audiogram creator types for the text, at least to deliver as pleasing to the eye. The text appearance has everything to do with the audio content. Let the audience know who is talking, ranting, or educating. Heck, throw in the 5-Ws for good measure. Any good writer can answer at least three in two sentences.
Taking the HEADLINER Plunge.
It may take a couple of attempts on the free Headliner App to get the knack of creating your own audiograms, but remember, they only allow five free initial renders per month. If this app pulls you in and gets the creativity popping upstairs as it did to me, you may want to get ready to buy the Pro version.
Below, originally posted on my YouTube channel, is my first finished audiogram from the free version of Headliner.
