Final Post

Michael Shaich and William Ferguson

          For this studio, we were tasked with developing a story on the theme of being uprooted. We associated uprooting with being taken from one's house without fair warning. While a common association is refugees fleeing their homeland, we decided to cover a story on the California wild fires. We felt that homes being burned down and being destroyed is a perfect example of “uprooting”. Hence, we set out to tell a story about victims of the California wildfire. Our goal was to tell the perspective of victims with many different roles in the wild fires. We interviewed firemen who fought the fires and risked their lives for their community, we interviewed weathermen who gave perspective as to what initiated the fires and why they were so severe this year, and of course, we interviewed the victims themselves who lost their homes and belongings from this tragic event. Indeed, to us, the California Wildfires resonated with being uprooted.

        A major component of our project was the organization of the process. We spent the first days doing research on the topic. We drafted potential questions and decided who we wanted to interview. Then we reached out to multiple sources and asked for interviews. However, many people declined our “invitation”. By the beginning of the second week, we gathered 5 solid interviews from victims that could potentially be used in our podcast. On the remaining days, we combined and edited the audio clips to deliver the message. We spent the final days adding technical effects and seeking critique and reviewal.