Rewind

 
Length- 15:00

An audio documentary about classical music

The documentary is organized in 3 parts.
The beginning is all me talking about myself and my music, as well as my experience with classical music, then there’s a transition saying that other musicians also seek classical training, and I took Nesma Mahgoub as an example.

Then I have Nesma carrying over the next part of the documentary where she, being a professional musician/ pop artist, talks about how important classical music training was for her and how she incorporates it in her work, whether it be the songs in her album or for her vocal training.
then she talks about opera and there the transition happens where Baboukis takes over.

In The third part of the documentary, John Baboukis takes over talking about providing classical music training for young musicians and his experience doing that. He also talks about how important classical music training is for professionals to produce more sophisticated music.

I was very meticulous in the selection of my music. I wanted the music to rhyme with the mood of the content. Whether it was soft and calm opera, or loud and vivacious Allelujah.

Copyright-
I used three sources for the music in the documentary.

1- Nesma Mahgoub’s songs, which she approved the usage of, and cleared me from copyright issues.
2- My own music, in the beginning of the documentary. I took the audio from some of the video of me playing and singing myself.
3- choir opera music- recorded the music from my choir practice, The Cairo Choral Society.

I used Final Cut Pro for editing, because it’s faster and I’m better trained using it.
I recorded using an M-audio. The Voice Over was recorded in the sound proof booth at the Adham Center.

Radio Show- Adam and Nouran

The Scarlet Ibis- James Hurst

Amy Frega Interview

Rewind- PROMO

Rewind-
Promo

Kohn, an account of defeating the impossible...

Kohn
A documentary published in the Third Coast International Audio Festival
The documentary was produced and Narrated by Andy Mills. It’s about 8 minutes long.

KOHN

The documentary was bio graphing Kohn, a 26 year old who’s accident caused his speech and movement to be impaired and slow. Mills talks about Kohn’s accident, which occurred when he was 8, fractured his spinal cord. The narrator speaks of Kohn’s condition, while Kohn say the same words but with a much lower pace,   how he came to speak the way he does, the first time he heard himself, growing up in a home with two deaf mute parents, and Kohn’s hobby as a singer.

The documentary was very interesting and captivating. It was very touching, had a very humanistic angle to it, and I thought told the story in a very moving and simple way.

The quality of the audio was pretty good, and the quality of the nat sound was also very good.

Mills was very creative in his use of NAT Sound, I was very impressed with the part where Mills talks about the first time Kohn was shocked to know about his condition and the little girl who he had a crush on when he was 12. When Mills talked about her, he added Nat sound of little girls giggling which gave the situation life and made it more visual.  When talking about the way Kohn walks, Mills involves Nat sound of slow footsteps and limping.
When Mills starts talking about how Kohn chooses to walk instead of using a wheel chair, and cook for himself instead of hiring help, showing the strength in his character, he adds some happy guitar music in the background which helps elevate the mood of the story.

Mills’ vocal quality was very warm, soothing, medium-pitched and evenly paced. I thought his voice was a perfect Radio voice.

My favorite passage in the script was the introduction. How simple and captivating it was, amazed me. All what Mills said was ask Kohn if he’s ready to start talking, and by the time Kohn replies, we already know there’s a problem with his speech. Mills then says “This is my friend Kohn,” he asks for his age, and then he says what he already hear, “He talks slowly, in fact everything he does, he does slowly.” And that in itself was enough to hook me to the story and get me interested to know what the story was.

The documentary wasn’t long; it was 8 minutes long, so I thought that was an appropriate length, enough to tell the story, and not too long to lose the attention of the audience.
The documentary begins very strongly with the Nat sound of Kohn prepping himself to start speaking, and then talking with his slow pace and weak voice. Mills asks him a bunch of questions, which he replies to very slowly, and it immediately catches the listener for the human-interest aspect of it, and the emotion attached to the situation. The documentary also ends very strongly with about a minute of a recording of Kohn’s singing, which is very moving and quite beautiful to listen to.

Nouran Khalil