Memory (9 min. 2020), Produced, directed, and edited by Lester Alfonso, sound design by Jared Bremner, a look at memory loss due to brain injury originally produced for the Peterborough Currents podcast.
Let’s call this a demo of what I can do in audio format when it comes to storytelling and creative nonfiction production and this is embedded here to showcase my recent work-in-progress and my collaboration with audio genius Jared Bremner. The pitch is to do a series done like this on the subject of kindness. Read the pitch below.
IN DEVELOPMENT
Podcast: SoundProof is creative nonfiction for audio with field recordings, personal journals, musical investigations, and more. This podcast is available on iTunes and its official website.
Season Working Title: On Kindness, a six-part mini-series for SoundProof about true stories of acts of kindness.
Schedule: Every two weeks, producer and host Lester Alfonso will share personal stories in a 20+ minute audio documentary.
On Kindness is a collection of heart-warming and uplifting stories from all walks of life. From artists to scientists, people are asked how they define kindness. Each episode tells the story of a significant act of kindness that changed their lives. Each episode starts with an act of kindness that has made the news. Science says there’s a surge in the brain chemical serotonin not just for the recipient of kindness but also in the giver. Further to that, a witness of the same act of kindness gets a serotonin rush too. Why does kindness seem to be the exception to the rule instead of the norm?
Audience: In the new global economic and social reality, kindness is more important than ever. This podcast will lead the way for many who just want a lift in their day or take it as inspiration for their everyday lives. “While the wilderness survival skills certainly can’t hurt it will be empathy, generosity, and courage that we need to survive. Kindness and fairness will be more valuable than any survival skill…” says Chris Begley, archaeologist.
Description: The phrase “practice random acts of kindness and senseless acts of beauty” was written by Anne Herbert on a placemat in 1982. The title of the series, On Kindness, is embroidered on a placemat to reference this story for its logo.
This sets the tone visually on the app. This phrase started a global movement. The podcast takes up where Herbert left off for an audio compendium of true heartwarming and uplifting stories of kindness.
The mini-series will continue with a format I previously established for SoundProof which begins with an introductory audio piece that sets the tone of the episode before an introduction by myself of the episode’s story.
For a possible episode called The Man Who Didn’t Shoot, it begins with sirens and radio news reports of the Van-ramming Attacker in 2018. The podcast focus is on Ken Lam the single Toronto police officer on traffic duty who did not gun down the suspect even if he was repeatedly provoked.
The episodes are edited using sound effects and music for a creative nonfiction approach instead of just talk. Interviewees are talking in the first person instead of a question and answer format. Sound effects and music dramatize the words.
Other possible episodes include: The Science of Helping Out — the science is out: “to help yourself, start by helping others;” Mitzvah — Judaism teaches “the world is built on kindness.” What do other religions say? Shoes, lottery winnings, kidneys — people are willing to give big to those who are in need.
Role: I can be the host and producer. I can deliver it all by myself from where I live but I would like to work with my composer, co-producer, and sound engineer. I can produce the episodes and conduct interviews or outsource them. I can write and host the episode and edit as well. I can also essentially be a showrunner for the podcast as well.
Stay tuned! More soon! —LA