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Heywire: The slow sizzle of SFX

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Heywire: The slow sizzle of SFX

SUBJECTS:  English

YEARS:  9–10


Without the benefit of visual images, audio texts often rely on sound effects to create a mood or to position the audience, sometimes without their realising it.

Analyse how Rafiqua Fattah's sound effects affect you as you listen to her Heywire audio story, which presents her perspectives on life as an Australian who is not always recognised as one.

Could you write or record a similar story about yourself and/or your community?

The ABC's Heywire competition calls for stories from 16-22 year olds in regional Australia. Enter to get your story featured on the ABC and score an all-expenses-paid trip to the Heywire Regional Youth Summit in Canberra. More: https://www.abc.net.au/heywire/


Things to think about

  1. 1.Take a moment now to listen. What do you hear? What do these sounds tell you about where you are? Describe or draw a picture of a typical childhood memory of your own. What sounds do you associate with this memory? How do they make you feel?
  2. 2.What does Rafiqa's story tell us about her childhood in Australia? What sounds do you hear in the background as Rafiqa describes her childhood memories at the beginning of this clip? What sounds do you hear as Rafiqa describes her family's experiences during a stopover in Bega after 9/11? What atmosphere is created by these sounds?
  3. 3.How might the sound effects at the beginning of the clip connect Rafiqa with what is commonly seen as a typical Australian summer experience? How might we respond to Rafiqa's experiences in Bega because of this connection? What background sounds or music would you use if you were creating an audio story about your own perspectives on life in Australia?
  4. 4.Sound in multimodal texts can be described as either diegetic or non-diegetic. Find a definition for these two terms. Are the sound effects you identified previously in Rafiqa's story diegetic or non-diegetic? Explain your answer. Diegesis, the root of these terms, is a Greek word. Find out what it means.



Date of broadcast: 31 May 2013


Copyright

Metadata © Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Education Services Australia Ltd 2012 (except where otherwise indicated). Digital content © Australian Broadcasting Corporation (except where otherwise indicated). Video © Australian Broadcasting Corporation (except where otherwise indicated). All images copyright their respective owners. Text © Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Education Services Australia is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0).

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