I have a deeply hidden and inarticulate desire for something beyond daily life.
— Virginia Woolf.
How can you have a favourite song? Why does it appeal to you?
Do you relate to the lyrics, does it have any lyrics at all?
I don’t have a favourite song, not really. People are forever changing, forever evolving and learning. To have a favourite song surely it fits to all feelings, just one or a memory; maybe a person.
When you listen, close your eyes. Understand.I want you to imagine deep waters, heavy rain, picturesque sunsets, magic, war, love, hate.
Nature.
Life.
You.
I cannot pick a favourite person, flower or book without having experienced them all. The same goes for music. If you want to dance along, dance. If you want to cry, cry. If you want to lie and listen for a while, find your reason.
Here, mycurrent top ten: // 13.01.2020. 22:14. //
I tried to put this playlist in an order that not only went through some favourites but also takes you on a journey of its own and although not every song ties neatly together, The feeling of empowerment and grace they give me personally is just the same. The songs each have their own moods and stories behind in both lyrics and rhythm.
For this unit I worked as a team with a classmate (James Reynolds) to create a podcast that we would both enjoy listening to as well as being interactive for everyone that should listen. Our original ideas were to tell stories of real crimes, possibly unsolved or shocking enough to be interesting. We then discussed the idea of producing a podcast surrounding things that we both knew things about but in different ways. This resulted in our final products idea; a podcast about films you should know (How we created the name.)
‘Films you should know’ Is a podcast surrounding the idea of watching different film genres and entirely knew films to the both of us that would allow us to give fresh and unbiased opinions on the movies we asked each other to watch. The movie I had selected for James to watch is an animation named Big hero 6.
Big hero 6 poster.
Big hero 6 is a film about a smart pre-teen named Hiro Hamada that regularly attends bot fights, his brother Tadashi disagrees with this hobby and says he should attend his school (Otherwise known as the “Nerd Lab.”) Hiro doesn’t want to go until they visit and a life changing event happens… There is an explosion at the school and Tadashi runs in. Hiro then goes on to attend the university and creates a team of superheros.
The film Big hero 6 is a huge contrast to the movie that James had chosen for me to watch and review, True Romance.
The movie True Romance is a film about a nerdy guy named Clarence who falls in love with a call girl named Alabama. Their love story would have been nothing out of sorts if it weren’t for Clarence deciding to go to pick up Alabama’s clothes (He definitely didn’t have just that in mind, though.) and it turns quickly to an interference with the local gangs and Alabama’s pimp. Rather than picking up Alabama’s clothes, Clarence somehow ends up finding that he accidentally had a bag of cocaine worth hundreds of thousands.
The contrast between two films would have made for a podcast that involved all kinds of film fans while opening up opportunities to discover new movies to watch, recommended by someone with similar tastes to them. This idea would have gone well, we had written the script and layout of the podcast but there was one issue… James hadn’t watched my movie suggestion in time for recording.
This was our very first problem with planning and creating our podcast, it was easily fixed with audiences being unknowing to our changes and mistakes however this changed the layout of our entire podcast, throwing off all previous script ideas aside from the few questions we had written out. After everything was organised once again we had to then record.
When recording was to happen we had booked all of the equipment that was necessary (zoom H1) and find a quiet place to record, the studio was fully booked
Our podcasts need to be a minimum of 5 minutes and a maximum of 1 hour however we can record more than one hour of footage and then edit it which will contribute to production marks.
Due 5th of march 2020, units 5 and 6. submission podcast 3rd of feb.
Fictional or non-fictional in a radio-drama – oracle links.
Podcast structure ;
Stories change our behaviour and can grab our attention and we have scientific proof of this (e.g. https://youtu.be/q1a7tiA1Qzo ) Storytelling is an essential part of our lives, we tell short stories to make people laugh or to share experiences. We share stories to relate to different people in different ways, every day we tell a story. Our podcasts will need to be interesting enough to grab attention and keep the audience intrigued but casual enough to feel like a friend, casual enough with common words to be a comforting thought.
Every story we have ever told has a beginning, a middle and an end. Sometimes it is in chronological order, other times not so much. If you’re talking about a real issue and involving facts, chances are there will be a typical order with experiences of others mixed in.
Technical elements –
Sound design, req. an ident.
An ident is something that allows people to identify you. If in a team, choose a production name.
Expected – intro, outro and credits.
bumper – slogan or vocal line.
cacophony – instrumental over vocals because too many vocals can sound out of place.
A one on one interview podcast is one where you have a singular host that regularly books in guest speakers or sometimes two people that discuss a topic while asking each other questions. This could also include debates and discussions about certain topics that interest both parties.
(Debates could technically become another format.)
This type of podcast format is probably one of the hardest to be able to create and manage due to requiring a group of people with different schedules, everyone requiring a mic and controlling all extra background noise alongside this.
There are a lot of content creators out there and obviously many won’t stick to just one format, podcasts like the example listed use a monologue or solo commentary to start their show, to then move into an interview or panel discussion format.
There are many podcasts out there that are recordings of live events like TED talks that are recorded and shared the same way that a podcast is. This can be helpful to many people and is in it’s own way, a little bit like a monologue.
Mind map // bullet points of podcast ideas:
Sounds –
Foley sounds, Background music and an intro theme song.
Foley sounds could be rain, background chatter as if in a café and maybe small things like faint clicking of pens to make it sound like the listener is in the room with you.
It might be a little difficult to record this and I will have to check the copyright claims and terms on other rain soundtracks. This sort of audio would be used in my podcast if I were to make it about something like books or comics and movies, something that you would sit around with friends and talk about or an activity you would partake in on a relaxed rainy sunday afternoon cuddled up with a pet and hot drink.
Podcast themes and talk ideas –
Books, movies, comics.
most likely – give a film or book to talk about to each other and give opinions.
reference the research of science in radio (mostly) , cinema and television in podcast.
In my personal development blog I will be talking about work experience and all the things that are important to me as a person. A topic we touched upon was “Ikagi” which is the “key to happiness” in Japanese culture and workplaces.
Creating tables that talks about podcasts. The first one is “The right to bear arms.”
Thursday 9am, create table of your chosen podcast – analyse. // Homework //
– Speech –
The manner in which words are spoken, enunciation, pitch, accent, timbre, clarity, etc.
Prevent “popping”, fillers, cussing and being too close to the mic.
Usually formal language .
Voice track should be equalised in post.
– Music –
Highly important
Sets the mood, tone and setting of a scene.
Most consider the audience.
Should not be louder than speech, unless solo.
– Sound –
Ambiance sound.
Special effects.
3d perspective.
Aural signposting.
– Silence –
Dramatic effect.
Accentuates a moment.
Ending of scene or section.
Breaks the dialogue.
Gives breathing break.
Prevents from switching off.
Thinking moment.
– Narrative –
Linear. (Order of chronological events.)
Non-linear. (Builds an argument without a timeline.)
Single stranded. (One individual presents/analyses theme ; can have temporary guests. )
Multi-stranded. (Two or more presenters discuss a theme. )
– Finding sounds –
To find the required sounds from a list we were given to complete our task we had to go out and walk around with the mic set, Taking pictures as evidence on a classmates phone who then uploaded them to word-press. Something that was difficult during this task was walking around carrying the equipment due to how large the boom mic was as well as how much taller all the boys in my group are than me. Long leads helped to overcome the height issue however it had created a new one… Tangled wires.
If the tallest boy wanted to listen to the audio he would take the earphones and then keep them while I recorded the next sound on the H1, height was then an issue.
Aside from this, actually finding the locations and resources to create or capture these sounds was an interesting and challenging task in itself. For example, we had to record an engine starting. After eventually taking in my suggestion of texting everyone we knew with bikes or cars and asking them to let us record it starting it was too late for us to get a reply so instead we went with my other idea of following a bus as it started up and left it’s stop.
Naturally in-between everyone complaining, I was complaining about them not taking in my other suggestions. Confidence was my self improvement goal that day but the group didn’t really take in what I was saying so working in a team and being heard is certainly an area with room for improvement.
Despite all of the petty dramatics, I enjoyed the exercise and learnt a lot from it.
SFX, any sound other than dialogue, music and speech that will add excitement and realism.
ADR automated dialogue replacement.
A good microphone could theoretically record anything however each microphone has a different speciality so naturally it is better to record on the required or recommended mic.
We use sound to make the audience feel as if they are there in the moment with you/the character. The sound will help us send the messages we want to send.
A foley artist will need performing skills themselves to better understand actors.
The podcast I will often tune in to listen to and have followed since release is named Nerd on! The podcast.
This podcast is made by directors, cinematographers and people in the media industry alongside “Kate”, who has no experience in the field but enjoys the atmosphere.
Nerd on! The podcast is my chosen podcast to analyse. The episodes are on average an hour long with little background music or Foley sound, this is how I prefer podcasts to be though due to having no distraction from the music it also allows me to concentrate on what each person has to say, this also helps due to the many voices to pay attention to.
They work in a panel format, sometimes debating the topics/opinions, other times doing a Q&A or interviews and talks with star guests like voice actors.
Their jingle is made by one of the members of the group who works in sound production and artwork is made by the artist of them all. Each have occupations within the field aside from the female that is later introduced, she is simply a consumer of products they talk about; This makes the podcast much more enjoyable for me as I can learn more about the film industry itself as well as terminology they use while listening to nerds talk about nerdy things.
The fact that there is a group of them discussing a topic also makes me feel more involved as a listener, they bounce off of each other with smooth running commentary like they would off-camera / mic too. Something about it being both casual and professional is enticing to me.
Pros & Cons: The Podcast. 