As the first story I listened to began, entitled: To R.P Salazar, with Love, an upbeat acoustic instrumental track played as the opening credits and exposition were shown on screen. The music faded out slowly as the animation and story began. The most prominent thing I noticed about the recording was that there were few pauses. The couple took turns talking, and their breathing seemed taken out of the final cut. The lack of breaks in the track made the story flow seamlessly, but I think that maybe just one or two would’ve been helpful in allowing the listener to process the narrative. Besides that, I thought the pacing was perfect; it was fast enough to retain my interest entirely. However, I felt that the levels were relatively stagnant throughout the whole thing; there was no rise in suspense as the story progressed.
The second story, 10 Years After Sandy Hook: Remembering Jesse Lewis, began with a short, quiet piano introduction. As the exposition is verbally explained in a separate voice, the piano fades into the background and eventually into silence. One of the first things I noticed about the recording quality was that the two women’s sibilants were very noticeable compared to the first video. Furthermore, I really enjoyed that in order to convey the darker, sad tone of this story, they left in many of the pauses that the grandmother had throughout her storytelling. The overall pace and linearity of the narrative were much slower than the first, but I still found myself interested throughout the duration of the clip. They included music to introduce and fade out the stories in both stories. Both levels did an excellent job matching the audio production with the story’s overall theme.