Skills Development
Podcast
Context
In the first lesson of podcasting, I and another group were taken into the radio studio to learn the basics of the system. I relearnt the terms from the Collins of faders and nobs. First leaning to pre-fade listen and fading one song into the other than finding the levels for presenters and cueing them into a speck.
Intro to podcasting
Podcasting is a pre-recorded audio show which can be both fiction and fact. Is often ampturely recorded and unscripted or oppositely narrative-based. It is extremely popular gathering 15 million listens in 2020 alone its wide audience is largely due to its accessibility to which ti can be listened to and produced. The lack of visuals means it is easier to be listened to on the go and can be downloaded easily on various apps most popular including apple music and Spotify. The lack of visuals also means location, set design, cameras extra is spared so the budget can be vastly smaller than other mediums.
Evan the recording equipment is not necessarily high budget often you will see a team simply recording on a phone.
In class, we went over some tips to keep in mind making a scripted narrative podcast.
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Keep it engaging
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Don't confuse the audience by moving quickly between locations
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Have distinctive different voices
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Maintain good quality audio to make audiences engaged
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Have only a small group of people within the story
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Use distinctive folly to establish the location
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Action and fight scenes are hard to pull off
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Use names early - so the audience connects the voice and character
Video Essay
We were put into groups to create a introduction to podcasting. ON google meets we shared our sections.
Audio drama
We were given The Culling as our audio drama to focus on and analys. The Culling describes itself with this synopsis:
On a remote planet, a team of researchers creates a long-range transmitter. It works, but what else listens to the signal that calls into the darkness of deep space?
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I listened to the pilot episode to understand the genre and style. THe opening set-up we learn that “[A once quarantined earth is free to travel, teams are sent out to rebuild society, scientific breakthrough is highest priority. On a remote planet we find our character secretly researching.]”
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Charector profiles
Click to see the website
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Zen
Zen has been on the base for a while before the series. From her voice we can presume she is of British nationality, middle aged and white. She's a scientist and Parker is her assistant.
Harker
Harker is the main charector in the seris shes sent to the base on the first eposide to be Zens assistant. Shes amercian and young. Harker takes a dog called pip with her.
Dr Ronberkle
Dr Ronberkle is the doctor on the base. We can guess she is in her 20s or 30s and american. She is kind and accepting to Harker.
Select ONE scene that suggests this drama was best told via sound, rather than visually
The opening beautifully used folly to paint the scene. Without stating the location or action the audience knew the characters where in a plane or spaceship from the sound of the engine, helicopter blades and wind. We also understand that Zen is at base because her audio is from the walky talky radio reported source whereas the others such as the pilots and Harker speck not through the radio.
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Select ONE great sound effect used in the audio drama that supported the storytelling
I think the use of echo is extremely effective in The Culling essipally in the base where it affirms the isolation of the inhabitants. It also creates an eerie atmosphere of emptiness and damage. When visually there is nothing to be seen this is effect is extremely useful in building serspence.
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Narritve
The episode didnt follow normal narritve struture of Indroduction, development, complication, climax and resolution. Instead it spent the eposide introducing the charectors with small bits of dioulge between eachother and the setting with foley of snow and wind when outside and with an echo and water dips inside. There wasnt any complication raised and ended the episode with Harker loging her progress meeting the team.
Fairy tale
In practise for writing our own dramatic podcasts we convertd a fairy tale into a podcast by breacking down the narritive structure of the stroy and listing what foly we would use for each section.
I choose The Pied Piper
