Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Listening Journal - 'WIZARD OF OZ' BEWITCHES AUDIENCES UNTIL TODAY


The movie "Wizard of Oz" made Judy Garland famous and created
childhood memories that attracts audiences of all ages until today.
Not you? Check out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-ZULpr8m5o

Feature Title: "It's The Wonderful 'Wizard of Oz' At 70" on Weekend Edition of the NPR News
Producer: NPR
Length: 04:34 min
Link: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112991629

In this feature Scott Simon discusses the 70th birthday of the film "The Wizard of Oz". This piece is full of soundbites from the movie and also includes an interview with the president of the International Wizard of Oz Club, Angelica Carpenter. Simon also speaks with 94-year-old Meinhardt Raabe, one of the actors who played a Munchkin in the film. On top of that this feature serves as a promotion for the screening of the digitized updated version of the movie in over 400 theaters across the US.

This feature is definitely compelling because it plays on the listeners' memories. The producer did everything to create a nostalgic atmosphere, using soundbites from the movie, and bringing in one of the oldest living actors from the movie. This actor is 94 years old but still happens to remember his lines from the movie, which he is happy to recite. The old songs from 'The Wizard of Oz', the extraordinarily funny voice of this old man and the host singing one of the songs himself, make this piece an entertaining feature.

The quality of the sound was good but there was absolutely no natsound. Admittedly, in this case there was really no need to use any natsound. The soundbites from the movie, the two interviews and Simon's own singing make this a diversified feature piece.

The quality of the announcers voice is very good with absolutely no background noise. As for his voice in general, I feel he doesn't take the 94 year-old actor seriously, but he makes up for it when he starts singing a song from "The Wizard of OZ."

As for the length of the feature, it is just right. There was no point at which I felt: "when is this going to end?" The piece is entertaining throughout and offers the ears enough diversity for the listener not to get bored.

Generally, the piece was very entertaining. However, inviting the Munchkin-actor on air might have not been such a good idea. The old man sounds so weird that it drives away the attention from the story. I found myself wanting to listen to it again, not because the story is so compelling, but because the old man just sounds so funny.




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