Weekly Response 8

1. One of the things I found most interesting in this chunk of the book was the part about writing in threes - I agree, it has a certain rhythm - four examples is a boring list, two isn't enough proof when you're explaining something.  Three is the perfect number for this sort of thing.  I also agreed with what he had to say about using natural sound in stories as a way to get people to pay attention.  As a news viewer, I am often preoccupied with something else, like eating breakfast, when the news is on, and natural sound makes me look up because I'm not so certain of what's happening when it isn't being told to me by the reporter directly.

2. Pianist loses fingers in snow blower, lives to play - Jan. 21, 2013

3. There is natural sound at the very beginning of the story as a pianist performs at the festival while people clap. There is a little bit of natural sound of Jim stepping through the crunchy snow as he describes what happened to his fingers. The next occurrence is the sound of cars driving by in front of the hospital Jim went to after his fingers were cut off. After that is the sound of a snowblower at work.

4. The first shot I really like is the close-up of the fingers of the players at the festival, the camera a little below the height of the keys. I also like the mid-shot of a man snowblowing with the report from Jim's injury interposed over it. I like the extreme close up of Jim playing with his right hand bandaged - showing off the technical skills he still has in abundance. Finally, the close-up shot of the mallets inside of the piano moving as he plays is really interesting.

5. Injured pianist plays on

6. One thing that Boyd Huppert does well in this story is use interesting soundbites, interspersing them throughout to recapture the attention of viewers. I particularly liked the one where Jim tells the nicknames he's come up with for each finger stub. It humanizes the story as well as adding a little humor to it. He also uses natural sound very effectively in this story, allowing the piano to speak for itself throughout, which shows Jim's triumphant return to playing piano much better than just saying that Jim returned triumphantly to playing piano - like the cliche "a picture is worth a thousand words."