Project Diary

By Director/Presenter Adam South – 14472597

Entry 1 –

Initially starting the project for semester 2 got off to a slow start, it wasn’t until the 24^th of January that we landed on a solid idea – all we knew at the first meeting was that we wanted to perhaps go for something more light-hearted than last semester’s serious drama piece.

The seed of an idea that we came up with on the 24^th was during our group chat, which we had pre-established on social media privately between all members of the group; the premise was roughly a showcasing of local talents, from the creatively gifted, to the seemingly mundane, with a remit to demonstrate all types of learning away from university that go on in the city.

Jess and James seemed to get on board and liked the notion of serving the wider community – and so we got to work on fleshing it out almost straight away. We presented the concept to Dylan Roys in our tutor meeting the following morning – he seemed positive about the community element and aspect of giving something back. Also, as it will be contained in a podcast, we can hopefully perfect the audio, add in additional actuality and music to get the sound of the piece as close to perfect as possible.

Our next stage is to think about starting up a blog, considering the press pack requirements, and to form a proposal as soon as possible.

Entry 2 –

By the end of January, we had the bare bones of our proposal pieced together, which I put together on the groups behalf, simply because I had a clear set idea of what we wanted to achieve.

An initial problem which arose was deciding who would take on which role for this project – and indeed what roles we would require for a podcast; as this was the first time any of us in the group had participated in attempting to create one. Originally I put James forward to try and do the technical side of things, however after some deliberation, he convinced us that he would be best suited remaining as Producer – he was comfortable with those responsibilities entailed, had a good experience in the role already, and said that he would not be comfortable necessarily with handling technical capabilities. As I wished to head up the director duties, Jess agreed to lead technical.

Eventually I believe we found these basic role titles to be mere formality, as our main duties were shared equally – to journalistically seek, perform and record interviews, to present during our debate intermissions in the eventual podcast episodes, and finally to edit together as a group.

Entry 3 –

One of the first subjects we lined up to consider for contribution to the podcast was one of my connections; a friend I knew through an older University graduate, that practised poetry regularly and performed with groups of other poets at live events – Gemma Baker.

Early on, in terms of format, there was some discussion as to how we wanted to present the content – how we would lay out the podcast, what we wanted the length to be, who would speak/present, when, about what, in what capacity etc.; however, one of the larger issues at play was that we envisioned, if it was possible, trying to set up something in the way of a live element.

Our concept and proposal originally included space at the end of the project to arrange for an exhibition style event, which would feature some audio clips presented in a live format, as well as some of the guests from the interviews demonstrating their knowledge/skill live.

Due to time constraints, as well as financial aspects to consider, and difficulties associated with garnering permissions for accessible venues and premises for the event – not to mention drumming up business and an audience for the event – we decided to scrap this element. Whilst we found this to be regrettable in as much as it would have been a nice idea to see through in theory, ultimately we had to be as thorough as possible, and true to our own abilities, and our honest conclusion was that this would have added far too much to our workload to keep up with in a capacity that would have produced anything professionally successful.

Entry 4 –

On the 1^st of February I attended a poetry event at the Drill Hall, during which I gathered audio of our first contributor – the interview with Gemma. This was arduous, as I had issues which I didn’t foresee with equipment; the memory card provided by media loans at university failed and so, without a spare (which was henceforth a contingency that we insisted on for every interview), I was compelled to resort to using the sound recording function on my mobile phone device. My plan was to simply apologize to Gemma and ask that we re-record should the quality deem it necessary, however, thankfully, the audio from the phone was fine sonically speaking.

In our group meeting, we decided collectively on some subject we could possibly pursue for further contributors, which was as follows; literature, sport, art, music, history and languages.

From this shortlist, the next area which showed promise was the latter, as James organised an interview with one of his University contacts; a female student, Alina Burney, who learnt English after immigrating to this country as a child.

Entry 5 –

At our next tutor meeting at the start of February, we got some useful notes on progress thus far and how to proceed moving forward;

• Keep up with paper trails, always get consent signature, music forms etc.
• Don’t let personal research and blogs fall behind
• For James to follow up his leads on contacting Lincoln FC for a potential contribution from a player, and to speak with Alina Burney
• The exploration of cooking could be an interesting avenue to pursue
• A minimum of 30 minutes is a good length to work up from
• 10-minute-long interviews would be far too long, might exhaust the listener’s attention span – keep content fluid, entertaining and concise in it’s nature
• Consider audience in all aspects
• Contingency contacts if Alina Burney falls through for language aspect; JiaMin Ong & Dan Davison (Adam’s contacts).
• Consider music; stings, jingles, interludes
• Explore existing, similar work in podcasts

The first comment we organically addressed was that we got in touch with Su Roys about potentially contributing an interview as we knew she was an avid cook; thus covering the food element of our podcast. She seemed to get on board straight away, which was a big positive, as she seems keen on imparting her wisdom and speaking about farm to table, which is an appealing subject for discussion.

Not long after this, the next progression in production was James contacted Lincoln FC, who informed us that their ‘liaison officer’ would be in touch with us at some point soon about potentially setting up an interview with a player.

Entry 6 –

For the next tutor meeting, unfortunately, I was under the weather – thankfully, Jess and James were able to pass the feedback onto me that I had missed.

• Consider the buskers in town for music interview / contributions
• Alternatively, two students as contingency; Elliot Wright & Tom Cairns
• Aim to have the majority of interviews completed by week 6
• A good figure to aim for would possibly be 5 interviews per episode
• Make sure we capture the correct ambience associated with each interview
• Follow up contact – Cassandra Balosso-Bardin; a bag-pipe player based at the university
• Arrange all the interviews and sort an order for each episode of the podcast

Shortly after this we held a group meeting during which we considered another contact, James knows of a creative writer, Will Helps, he plans to contact, who has been writing from a very young age.

Entry 7 –

Over the next few weeks we garnered some interest in potential interviews in diverse areas – I had a contact, Liam Senior, studying computer sciences who was on board to discuss programming; as well as a singer/songwriter contact, Graham Wilsoncroft, and a local German wine specialist/business owner I was to contact, James Tob. Meanwhile we were still awaiting some of the pre-confirmed interviewees to confirm/become available – as well as looking out for additional opportunities.

After focusing on paperwork for a while, keeping up with research etc., we decided to check in on the group chat – at this stage, we had approximately 9 remaining planned interviews to conduct, and so decided to divide them as such:

Adam to conduct interviews with, Graham, Liam, James

James to conduct interviews with, Alina, Will, Lincoln F.C player

Jess to conduct interviews with, Cassandra, Su, a local business owner

Eventually however, for numerous reasons, a few of these opportunities fell through. Liam declined to interview for personal reasons, James Tob had to close his business for a month due to health reasons and so was rendered unavailable, and we were still awaiting contact from Lincoln FC who seem to be giving James the run around.

Entry 8 –

By the next tutorial meeting, we had organised three interviews to be conducted directly after – we would meet with Dylan at 11, hold the meeting as normal, then Jess and I gain the interview with Su, whilst James speaks with Alina Burney and Will Helps.

The meeting and interviews all went according to plan and in fact exceeded expectations; especially Su Roys, who discussed her subject, of passing on healthy, useful, farm-to-table cooking skills and ethics, at great length. We feel confident that there is already a large amount of high quality content that we can go through in the edit – the plan being currently that we will aim to edit each interview down to a similar length of approximately the 5-minute mark. Su in this regard will also be the most difficult interview thus far to edit, as the interview in full, uncut, is around half an hour long.

It was shortly after this that Cassandra Balosso-Bardin got in touch and we set up and conducted the interview with her, which also went particularly well – we were able to gather a funny, natural, entertaining sounding and in-depth discussion with her about her passion for music, as well as an actual live excerpt of her playing her instrument.

Entry 9 –

After our next tutor meeting with Dylan, our plan of action from this stage going forward is to pursue a new idea – to gather content for one additional podcast featuring interviews with some of our family members, adding a personal touch, talking about skills that they have passed on to us and so on; this felt like a nice way to complete the series, adding an inclusive element, and giving the listener potentially a better insight into the team. This however is an idea for now, which we will pursue purely as an add on to the existing planned content – if nothing comes of it, there is no contingency, as it would be additional anyway.

Towards the end of February, James has set up an additional interview with a contact he knows on the subject of fishing which should make for an interesting discussion. Meanwhile I have gained a positive sounding interview with my songwriter contact, Graham Wilsoncroft – this made for good audio because he is a mature student and also a father, bringing what I feel is a unique perspective to the subject matter.

The next time the group spoke on the chat, as it stands, no one has yet been able to gather any interviews with family; however more positively, Jess gained an interview with a contact who has been horse riding for 20 years and now teaches horse care – Samantha Waterer. The next stage is for James and I to gather interviews with James’ fishing contact, and local DJ and audio technician Craig Bratley, respectively.

Entry 10 –

On the 2^nd of March I gathered my interview with Craig Bratley – I felt that this went well in spite of some difficult obstacles technically which I was able to overcome. Initially, I was due to record at an earlier date, but Craig became unavailable, and so this opportunity arose quite suddenly – as such, getting a hold of James to book out a zoom was too short notice, and when I attempted to book one, all of the usual Zoom models were fully booked out for the scheduled interview time. Knowing that Craig was a busy man, and re-scheduling may be problematic, I opted to loan out an older model which was tricky to get to grips with initially but I dealt with fine – for my contingency I set up my phone and garage band on my laptop to record simultaneously along with the older recorder, just to be certain some audio was gathered. Another unforeseen disturbance came mid way through the interview, when we were actually interrupted by another student entering the room which I believed I had booked, forcing us to start the interview again. This was disappointing and made me feel unprofessional – luckily Craig and I happened to be on a relatively informal basis already otherwise I felt this would have severely affected the audio. As I discovered afterwards, the error was with media bookings – the individual had actually booked the room we were using, my booking had not worked for some reason, however the staff at the loans desk clearly gave me and the other student keys to the room within minutes of one another – a clerical error which I thought was frustrating and easily preventable had they used common sense, or simply had one set of keys to the room that they permitted out at any one time.

Entry 11 –

Shortly after this, James gained an interview with his fishing contact, Matt Mosey. He said that the interview was good, the atmosphere clearly indicated that he was fishing at the time, and there was a good amount of detailed discussion related to the technical elements associated with fishing.

Additionally, Jess gained a new interview with an artist who paints and sketches people, pets, and fantasy art work, Tiana Mae. The interview was unfortunately only able to be contacted at her convenience, at her home – as to best capture her during the process of creating her art; and the interview was naturally punctuated at one stage by the distant sounds of traffic, however, this is not overly problematic. Our contingency is to keep what is on the whole a solid interview, and weigh up our best option in the edit come the post-production stage.

Entry 12 –

At this stage in production, we feel that we have a good amount of material to move forward in the process – James has booked us some session time in the edit suites to start cutting down interviews and organising content. Provisionally, our intention is to focus more on the creative contributors in one podcast, and more practical based skills in another.

We also have booked some preliminary studio time, to gather recordings of our discussions on the interviews to insert between contributors in each podcast. This will initially be a test run to practise what banter naturally occurs, as well as any related anecdotes we wish to record and get a sense of timings and how the format is going to apply properly later on.

Entry 13 –

Our next tutorial took place around the middle of March, in which some of the key feedback from Dylan was about proper recording technique in the studio for our discussion segments of the podcasts. We were given advice on using the AKG 414 microphones, how technically they should be operating, as well as proper set up, and a friendly reminder to keep a watch over levels and listen out for background noise.

We spent the next few weeks editing all of the interviews down to a reasonable length, aiming for an average of 5 minutes which fortunately we were able to stick to. Technically speaking there were no major issues with the edit, everything went smoothly and is relatively according to plan. The requirements as we are aware of them are all being conformed to; the audio is engaging, we have some interesting sounding material that I feel positive we can discuss in a significant, relevant, entertaining way. The plan moving forward is to finish the interviews for two podcasts worth – after which we will gather our discussion, and edit together two full, complete pieces of audio for our podcast series.

Entry 14 –

At the moment everything seems to be on track – the editing of the interviews has finished, and we have recorded our discussion for the first podcast – the only concern as it stands is that the length looks as though it will be towards the hour mark, which shouldn’t technically pose much of an issue, so long as we justify that are output falls in line with suiting our intended audience’s needs, which I personally believe does.

As of Easter break, we have recorded our discussions for both podcasts 1 and 2, now simply remains the task of editing everything down together into a uniform, engaging, informative piece of audio that suits our listeners’ needs and is fit for purpose. We also have prepared our press pack and have handed this in ahead of schedule.

Entry 15 –

Over Easter I managed to complete the podcasts to a standard that we thought was at a satisfactory level, and James made sure that it fit the criteria outlined in the brief – MP3 format, 16 bit, 44100khz, in stereo, and both playable and downloadable from our end platform.

I also took it upon myself to put together a very basic WordPress site, which includes sections on the following; a welcome/home page with a brief synopsis of the project – and a social media section below, an about page with a more thorough summary, a meet AJJ Productions page, Podcast 1, Podcast 2, contact us form, and a blog section.

The last task of the project has been a ‘tidy-up’ session over the course of the past week, in which our technical operator Jess made sure that the format was correct and everything met the outlined specifications in that regard, and our producer James oversaw the completion and finalisation of all necessary paperwork for the production – and finally, I and the team as a whole made sure that we were completely satisfied we had a project for submission which was achieved to the best of our capabilities and conveyed a professional final product.

Overall, I have been extremely pleased with our progress – I felt over the course of this semester we grew and developed as a cohesive team, and formulated and conceived an original project which satisfies our needs, but also went above and beyond any of our expectations in creating a professional, entertaining, engaging podcast series which we can be proud of.

Diary

18^{th of} January 2017

Today we had our first meeting with Dylan, he reminded us to start a diary, start our press pack which is worth 5% of our grades.  We wanted to consider either doing a live podcast, which would be a big challenge and maybe not as effective as a pre-recorded episode as we wouldn’t be able to time it a perfect as we wouldn’t know how long each interviewee would talk for. We also considered a documentary style show where it would focus on a few people with different talents but we don’t know how enjoyable that would be. For research, we were told to check out Radio Lab podcasts as they are similar to something we expressed we wanted to do, with wild talk and with a close mic so it sounded like we were in the listener’s ears. We were also given Ted Talks to listen too. We are going to go away and work out which style of show would benefit us and even think of some people we know who have weird/interesting skills that they haven’t learned in school.

24^th of January 2017

I had decided that I would like to talk about weird facts and talents that people have gained over the years and find people with inspiring stories. Adam also come up with the idea of how there is certain skills and knowledge that we crave to gain rather than ones we are just prescribed i.e. maths skills or English skills. It would involve a lot of different disciplines around the local community. The name could be Pass It on and people would inform us of their skills whether it be musical, language, food, sport. They would have to have learned the skill from an elder family or friend or have taught someone else that skill. We could even have a live segment at the end of the show to showcase the talents we have seen.

25^th of January 2017

We decided on the show A podcast show about life, learning and the lessons we teach each other. About learning that occurs outside of the conventional classroom – the notion of certain skills and knowledge that we crave rather than are just prescribed. This would involve loads of different, varying types of skills from the local community – people would tell us about their specialist skills in the podcast; be it a musical talent, or a knack for invention etc. or something more physically based and practical. It would be about generations of people who have passed down these skills whether it be mother to daughter of Grandfather to grandchild. At the end, we would then bring back our guests for a live interview and give them a chance to pass this on to any of our listeners.

On the show, we would like:

• Sound effects under interview to make them sound a bit more interesting
• Try and find people from the community
• Play this on Siren FM
• Set up a website and blog to give extra information and show photos of the people

Next we will need to start the written proposal to get our ideas on a document.

30^th of January 2017

We came up with a proposal and went over our roles, the technical role was thrown around and eventually I was given that role, which I was not too excited about. But I realised it would give me a chance to take on a new role and learn something new as I had never been the tech before.  We planned to do a longer show 30-40 minutes long but I think we will have to make it a tad longer to maybe 60 minutes. To start off with our first interview Adam suggested we visit a poetry event on Wednesday as poetry is an acquired skill and is usually something you teach yourself and not many people are into it as much anymore. Unfortunately, me and James already have something on that day so Adam will have to record this one on his own. He plans to record the event if he gets the permission and get some photos for the blog. He has set an interview with Gemma one of the poets and me and James will post on the Facebook sites to see if there is any people we can find who have good talents or have been inspired by anyone. James had an idea to get one of the Lincoln City players and has emailed them.  Someone contacted us about singing but they were not from Lincoln but we can keep them just in case we struggle to find enough people. One of James friends contacted him about learning a language which can make up a good part of our show as she has an interesting background story.

Areas we should explore:

• Literature (poetry, different languages) Adam
• Music (song writing, instruments) Adam
• Sport (coaching, playing) Jess and James
• Art, Jess

1st of February 2017

Today we had our meeting with Dylan and he gave us the idea of talking to a lady called Rosie who works with people who are in prison. She has taught them how to create radio shows in this tough environment. We liked this idea as it is something different but it goes against our proposal as we wanted to talk about skills that people learn that are not on a syllabus. But I thought it was a really interesting idea as these people learn how to cook and do hairdressing and some actually turn their lives around.

What we got from Dylan’s meeting today:

• Start on the blog document and add the poetry content tonight
• Keep it up to 30 minutes long around 10 minutes for each person
• Work on who our audience will be
• Talk to Jaimin and Dan Davidson on languages and what they have taught their selves

We also got a response from Sue Roys who will speak to us about her love of cooking and where she gained her skills.

8^th of February 2017

Today a Lincoln city player liaison officer will be getting in touch with us about getting a potential interview with a football player. In our meeting with Dylan I mentioned that there were music players everywhere on the streets of Lincoln and I thought they would have a story to tell so we planned on talking to some of them over the next few weeks. We need to have the interviews all finished by week 6 and interview someone who plays the bag pipes as this is something you don’t learn in school and see every day. Also, we were to look up folk club, Elliot Wright and Tom Cairns as they are involved in music.

13^th of February 2017

After our lecture, we had a short meeting to discuss some more people we wanted to interview, we looked at some business owners like carpentry, handymen, Sue Roys and her cooking, creative writer Will Helps and bagpipe player Cassandra. We are to research Radio Labs, Ted Talks, other podcasts and previous Radio shows and 1 podcast each.

Given that we have 9 interviews left I think we should each lead three.

Me: Alina, Will and Lincoln City FC

Adam: Graham, Liam and James

Jess: Cassandra, Su, Local Business (TBC)

We were able to set up an official interview with Cassandre for 4pm.

14^th of February 2017

Plan for the 15^th

• 11am tutorial with Dylan
• 11:30am go and interview Will, Adam and I will interview Sue
• 3pm meet in audio 1. Check and upload audio, then stay and interview Cassandre at 4pm
• then interview Alina at her house.

15^th of February

Today me and Adam interviewed Sue Roys and she gave a huge interview and gave us a lot of material to work with. She talked about her childhood and who she would cook with and what she learned from her grandmother and mother. She is all about farm to table and eating real food. Hopefully she will inspire some of the listeners when she talks about what she learned from other people. We ended up with 24 minutes’ worth of audio.

17^th of February

We all need to interview a family member for our show, we need to find a skill that they have. My sister is one of those people who is just great at everything and can pick things up a lot quicker than most people. I could also interview my dad who is always building something and has built his family a lot throughout his life. I also need to start on my individual research. In our meeting with Dylan we also thought about interviewing a musician and someone who has found God at some point in their life.

Who else can we speak to? — branch out of Lincoln!

– Adams mum, carer.

– Adams uncle, tyre fitting.

– My sister, learning skills easier.

– James, football dad.

– Me, Amsterdam opportunities?

– Me, handyman dad

22^nd of February 2017

James got the interview ready with Matt Mosey someone who has been fishing for a while and has wanted to teach other people along the way. Also in our meeting with Dylan we decided we needed to start to edit our interviews that we have also we need to interview Graham with his music and song writing, Fudge also needs contacting to talk to them about how they make their fudge and run their business. What skills bring people together and also talk to Craig about being a Dj and where his job has taken him from.

26^th of February 2017

I was able to interview my friend Sam who has been horse riding for a long time and this has been passed down from her mother who also has done this for a long time. She didn’t speak for long but she could tell me whether she was going to pass this down to her children she also informed me that she gave lectures on horse welfare which is something different. Sadly, half way through the interview we were disturbed and we had to reschedule the interview to record it again.

27^th of February

I re-recorded the interview with Sam and it went so much better, so I had her find her favourite photos of her horse riding and got her to sign a consent form and it sent it all over the group work file.  Now all together we have 9 interviews.

1^st of March

We had our meeting Dylan and he was pleased with us as we were on track and everything was going well. The main things we needed to is get sound effects as me and James could not record our interviews in a location related to our topic. We need to get Craig to show us his music and get permission to use one of his tracks to put on the podcast. There was a couple of places that didn’t get back to us so we might have to rethink some people to interview but overall we are hitting our targets now we need to get on with our blog and paper work.

8^th of March 2017

This afternoon I interviewed my friend Tiana, I wanted to interview her as she was always doodling and showing me her art work. She’s a creative person so I wanted to chat to her about where she got the interest from was it through family or experiences. I wanted to see if she shared this interest with her younger siblings and got creative with them. She’s an open and funny person so the interview went smoothly which was good. She sent me over some of her special bits of art work she had done over the years, there was a wide range of pieces all with different feels and meanings.

13^th of March

We met in studio 1 today and listened to our past interviews then we all commentated on them and discussed them. What we liked about the interview and how we thought the people were talented and interesting. We didn’t have much of a script so it could have gone a lot better but it was our own opinion so we could give a good amount of feedback.

20^th of March

We went to Studio 1 again to record some more commentary for the podcast this time we came prepared and James had printed off some bullet point notes which came in handy as we had more of a flow this time.  I am finally getting my head around how to set up the mics and how to record Adam has shown us how to do this and now I would feel confident in setting this up by myself.

21^st of March

Today we got a lot of editing done and cut the larger interviews down to a smaller size. It was fun to learn how to properly edit Adam went through it with me and I got hang of it after a while. We also got some of our first podcast edited together I felt like I learned something new and achieved today. While I was editing Adam and James created some music for our podcasts, we seem to be working well together and are more than on track right now. Adam sent me a video of how to make a free website for our podcast to go alongside the blog, so over the Easter I will be able to look over it and see if I can create the website.

26^th of March

We were back in Studio 1 recording our commentary for our podcast, we learned from last week to come prepared with notes and bullet points so could breeze through with only a few mistakes. We seem to be enjoying that we did not decide to do a live show and keep it all pre-recorded as we could go back over something we didn’t like the sound of and improve it.

27^th of March

In Audio edit suit 1 we got to editing the second podcast which didn’t take too long, we added some of the music Adam created and it is all coming together nicely. Now all our editing work is mainly done I have gotten a lot more confident with editing I am glad that I took on this role even though I was not too confident about it in the beginning but now at least I have learned something new, which is a positive. We haven’t come across any problems everything is running smoothly so far, I think because we work so well together and because James is very organised it motivates us all to get it done.

29th of March

Our last meeting with Dylan before Easter went well we informed him of the work we had gotten done and he told us to get on with all the paperwork.

5^th of April

Press pack submitted!!! Now all left for us to do is to make sure our research is up to date and tweak the podcasts.  I feel confident that as a group we can get this done to a good quality as we work well as a team and help each other through the difficult parts of the project.

25^th of April 2017

The last final days of the project and most of the work is completed. I have been struggling to get my head around how to create this website, so Adam was able to step in and take over the first part then tomorrow we will all meet as group and I will touch up the final piece to make sure it is as good as we can get it then we can upload. I do not think I have been the best at the technical role as I have not properly done it before and I have not felt too confident I just hope Adam can look over it and make changes if needed. Later today I will be sending James my diary and my research work then I can start on my evaluation. Then everything will be completed.

As producer of the group, James’ “individual reflection” was also able to act as a group diary, as it clearly states what happened week by week, while also reflecting on what happened. It also references how we managed our time, shows how the idea developed and briefly discusses the social media strategy that we took with our project. In terms of the “individual reflection” part, it looks back at the creative process and examines what went well, what didn’t go as well, and how this was overcome.

Week beginning 16^th January

This was the first week back after the Christmas holidays, and this was treated as a refresher session in a sense. While we didn’t have any solid ideas to bring to the tutorial with Dylan, we discussed how we wanted to move away from the radio drama aspect, not because we didn’t enjoy it, but mainly because we wanted to explore more areas in what would be our final project before graduation.

Reflection

A good thing that came out of this meeting was some substantial advice from Dylan, who said we should listen to some American podcasts for inspiration, which could feature almost any topic. This was put forward from him because we mentioned that it may be a fun idea to do a piece on something such as an exploration into weird and unusual things that exist in today’s world. Nothing went wrong in this meeting, but we could have made it better by bringing in more ideas to work with.

Week beginning 23^rd January

Given that our proposal needed to be done by week 3, we would need to bring in a good, initial, idea into our next tutorial. While me and Jess liked the idea of doing something live, such as an exhibition which was considered in semester 1, Adam thought it would be good to focus on something that would look at how people teach themselves individual skills, such as singing or cooking, and then go onto inspire other people. We then realised we could include a live element in this too, where we could have a sort of workshop where these individuals are available to talk to general members of the public about their talent. This idea felt unique which meant we could meet learning outcome 3 – employ creative, original and innovative strategies in a media production project.

Reflection

While this was a positive part of our meeting, a negative point was that although our grade from semester 1 should have been available by now, the fact that it was being double marked meant that we would have to wait a while, meaning the reflection upon our feedback would be delayed. For the next meeting, we set ourselves the target of discussing our proposal with Dylan.

Week beginning 30^th January

For this next tutorial, we managed to get a proposal done, which looked at all the key elements of our upcoming projects, such as how it would sound, who would be contributing, the aims of the piece, and the target audience. This would mean that we could clearly meet learning outcome 4 – produce audience specific work appropriate to chosen forms of presentation.. We discussed this briefly with Dylan, and he said it may be an idea to have separate, shorter podcasts, with each one focusing on a specific individual skill area – such as literature or food.

Reflection

One good thing from this meeting was that we got our feedback for our semester 1 project, which meant that we could look at this feedback, and in turn that would help us produce a better product in this semester. Adam also found a poet to interview this week, and it went very smoothly, which was helped given that the interview took place at a poetry event, which would help give us some very useful background ambiance to use. For the next tutorial, we needed to ensure the blog was set up, more interviews were lined up, while Dylan would need to be emailed the proposal.

Week beginning 6^th February

All the previous objectives were met for this week, with the blog outline successfully created, while potential interviews with representatives from Lincoln City FC as well as Dylan’s wife were in the pipeline. One thing Dylan suggested was too look at the area of music, as there is plenty of this going on in Lincoln – so many people learn instruments in one way or another.

Reflection

Although these were very useful, we did encounter some issues – Adam was ill and unable to attend the tutorial, and Dylan also didn’t get enough time to read through our proposal. We could get around this however, by updating Adam with our tutorial notes over Facebook, so he knew what was going on, and Dylan used the meeting to give us some very useful pointers too. For the next tutorial, he wanted us to have a solid outline of each podcast, while we needed to have more interviews recorded. One thing that we could have done better was to have bought the poet interview in for Dylan to here, but due to Adam’s absence this was unable to happen.

Week beginning 13^th February

The first thing we did this week was to have a meeting to discuss the outline of our podcasts. We decided to have a creative podcast (focusing on music, poetry, writing etc) and a practical podcast (sport, cooking, family businesses), which would be 15 minutes long each. We then decided that we would need 5 contributors per piece, and started writing down potential people we could use. To start this off, we realised that we could record 4 interviews this week, as I knew 2 people who could contribute to the creative podcast, and there were also 2 lecturers who were available for interviews. On Wednesday, I recorded 2 interviews, one with a creative writer, one with someone who taught themselves English, whilst Jess and Adam recorded the other 2 – a bagpipe player, and a woman who spoke about her family traditions of cooking.  These interviews were done in a way that would allow us to meet learning outcome 2 – demonstrate advanced knowledge of technical processes and procedures using practical technology appropriate to their aims and intentions.

Reflection

These all went very well, and there was more than enough for us to work with, this was because we were all prepared with all the questions ready. One issue that we encountered was that we forgot to get one of the participants to sign a consent form, but that can be resolved by emailing her with one. Whilst we could get a recording of Cassandre playing the bagpipes, Alina speaking English (for the interview), Will to read out part of his book, we were unable to get any sounds of Su preparing some food. Perhaps we could have got the interview in her home, but later we could always record some kitchen sound effects to put in the background of the podcast. As well as this, Dylan gave us some good pointers in the tutorial, such as interviewing our families, and branching outside of Lincoln.

Week beginning 20^th February

This week Jess was absent, but me and Adam were still able to meet with Dylan to report our progress to him. At this stage, we alerted him that we had 5 interviews done, with plenty more in the pipeline, which we think was a very positive thing to bring up in the meeting. He also gave us a few more potential interview ideas, such as the idea of maybe looking at even more unique skills including a rally driver who he knew. We also were made aware of Craig Bratley, who helps with Media at the University, but is also a very keen DJ, so this was certainly a potential interview. Dylan also mentioned the idea of fishing, so I immediately contacted someone who I knew that was obsessed with fishing, and lined up an interview with him. Although none of us could get interviews back home, Jess and Adam did manage to record some questions with 2 individuals: Sam – a horse rider, and Graham – a singer-songwriter and guitar player, whilst we’d also be able to get home interviews over Easter.

Reflection

A good point from the Graham interview was the content that Adam managed to gather with it as well – singing 2 songs while playing the guitar, and one recording of a song without the lyrics which highlights how good he is at the guitar. As well as this he got 2 pictures of Graham with the guitar which would go well on the blog. My potential football interview was denied due to EFL regulations, which was a negative point of the week, and next time I should probably look at an alternative, but the fact that we recorded 2 more interviews to bring our total up to 7 meant that we were making progress, and could start to edit soon.

Week beginning 27^th February

With Jess back this week we were able to meet with Dylan as normal, and he said that with the horse interview we should look to get some horse sounds, to put in between the interview as it would work quite well to set the scene. This week I also managed to get a fishing interview too, and did it outside, while also asked him about fishing equipment, which he talked me through, so this worked especially well. Adam also recorded an interview with Craig, which was also successful, while Dylan gave us some pointers again, such as a potential interview with a local brewery.

Reflection

A good point from this week was obviously the fact we managed to bring our interview total up to 9, and we also have several weeks left so we are certainly managing are time very well. We also had the potential for many more interviews, such as looking into the fudge industry as well. One negative point was that we didn’t get any editing done this week, even though it was discussed that we could have done some, but we will get over this by having a massive editing session in the coming weeks. The lack of horse sound effects was also something that was disappointing, but me and Adam would be able to get these via our phone thanks to some contacts that we know.

Week beginning 6^th March

This week we set the task of starting to edit, and therefore booked out a 3-hour session on Thursday, which would follow on nicely from Dylan’s meeting. At this meeting, we discussed how well the Craig and Matt (fishing) interviews went, while Jess also made us aware that she would be recording a discussion a few hours later, with someone who loved to draw. Adam was also at this stage trying to secure interviews with a fudge company, as well as a local brewery, while Dylan told us to think about how our presenter-style speech would fit into the podcast. Therefore, we booked out a radio studio for next week so we could practice some potential discussion points that would be integrated into our final piece. The final thing from the meeting to note was that we kept up to date with our blog, which would be added to throughout the process.

Reflection

A good point from this week was the interview that Jess got with Tiana, and she also managed to get pictures of her drawings too which would be good for the blog. A negative point was perhaps the editing session on Thursday, where the aim was to cut down our interviews into shorter lengths, but we underestimated how tricky this would be, especially considering the quality of each interview. We would however get over this by booking much more editing time over the coming weeks, to allow us to start putting our final podcasts together.

Week beginning 13^th March

This week we wanted to record a draft version of the presenter speech, as well as editing down our 10 interviews so we could start to piece the final podcast together. On Monday, we recorded about an hour of audio, and then went away and scripted it so we could speak more smoothly, with pointers, later. In our meeting with Dylan on Wednesday, he mentioned that we should look at trying a different microphone set up in the future so our podcast sounded more professional. He also recommended that we set up a website, with features such as a Twitter account linked to it, so people all around the world could get involved with their talents. We also started on our press pack this week, so we would be able to submit some of our podcast for the degree show if we wanted. This meant we could meet learning outcome 7 – evaluate their work in terms of marketing and distribution, eg. The LSFM Degree Show.

Reflection

A good point from this week was that on Wednesday and Thursday, we had 3 hours combined in the edit suites, and managed to get all our interviews cut down to a maximum of 5 minutes, this meant that we were at a stage where we could think about putting a final podcast together. Thus, we booked out radio studio time for next week, as well as more edit suite time, where we would hope to finish the first podcast. A negative point was that Jess was absent from Wednesday’s meeting, as well as the two edit suite sessions as she was ill, but me and Adam overcame this by keeping Dylan up to date with our progress, and did a good job editing.

Week beginning 20^th March

On the Monday, we had 2 hours in the studio to record the final version for the presenter’s speech part of the podcast, whilst on Tuesday we had a 4-hour editing session in which we put our first podcast together. We also found a tutorial video that would allow Jess to build a simple but effective website, to help promote both our podcasts and any future work that we do related to it. I then booked out the exact same sessions for the following week, where we would focus on getting our second podcast done.

Reflection

A good point from this week was the recording session, where the use of notes helped it flow very well, allowing for a good structure within the final podcast. One issue was the noise of drums from another studio next door, but we discovered that this only put us off, rather than being heard in the recording. We also got our first podcast edited successfully, although a potential issue was the fact that it was an hour long, when we only intended it to be 15-20 minutes long. To get over this we alerted Dylan, and he said it would still be good if we listened to it in full and then cut out any unnecessary bits.

Week beginning 27^th March

This week was basically the same as the previous week, we had 2 hours to record our own speech, and then 4 hours to edit this all together on the Tuesday. The only thing we did different was fine tuning our final podcasts, this consisted of Adam making his own music that would be used at various points during the piece, while as lead editor, Jess ensured that any unnecessary dialogue was edited out. We met with Dylan as usual on Wednesday, and he was happy with our progress, and told me to keep on top of the blog and paperwork.

Reflection

A good point from this week was that we managed to get our 2 podcasts completed, although we did encounter some issues. On the Monday while recording, there was some noise coming from another room which could be heard when we listened back to it, but as this was an external factor it was beyond our control, and we edited the podcast to the best of our ability. Another minor issue was that our podcasts were still very long, but Adam said he would work hard to chop them down to shorter lengths.

Week beginning 4^th April

This week was much more relaxed, as both draft podcasts had been edited in the previous week. There were just a few odd jobs to complete, so as producer, I took the role of submitting the press pack, organising the blog with all the content, Jess helped me ensure the consent forms were all done, while Adam did a final edit of podcast 1, and managed to reduce the total time slightly, making it less than an hour long. The final podcasts were to be put together in a way that would coincide with learning outcome 1 – structure intellectually rigorous and coherent ideas to an advanced level in order to communicate ideas through the integration of form and content.

Reflection

The fact that with 3 weeks to go we felt relatively comfortable was the most positive thing to come out of this week. Our podcasts were very nearly there, and the paperwork and blog were under control. One thing that went wrong this week was that Dylan was ill so we couldn’t have a group meeting, but we got over this by doing more work in our spare time to contribute to the project.

Week beginning 11^th April

This was the first week of the Easter break, meaning we had no meeting with Dylan, and also had more time to focus on our individual pieces of work, such as dissertations. As a group however, we contacted each other over Facebook, and I reminded Jess and Adam of what needed to be done before the deadline, but we were all comfortable that it would be done without any issues.

Reflection

With now only 2 weeks remaining we felt we were in a very good place, which was down to the way that we balanced the work out between us. A negative point may be the fact that this was another week in which we didn’t get to see Dylan, but he had assured us before Easter that we were on track, so we didn’t think this was a major concern.

Week beginning 18^th April

This was the second week of the Easter break, and the last full week in which we had to do work, with the deadline being on the 27^th April. Jess and Adam spent this week building a simple website, which was able to integrate in social media. The website (https://passiton666.wordpress.com/), Twitter page (https://twitter.com/passitonpodcast) and Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/passitonpodcasts/) were used to help build a sense of community between us, the listeners, and the contributors. It would allow the contributors to interact with each other, and share their skills, which was the main idea of the live exhibition that was unfortunately unable to happen. This can also lead to more inspiration for the audience, while AJJ Productions will be able to update everyone on potential new content. As producer, I also spent this week finishing off the blog – this included things such as cues, compliance forms and the budget. This meant we could meet learning outcome 5 – apply professional practices in their production work in relation to professional contexts, codes, clearances, ownership, copyright and commissioning. Adam was also able to do a final edit on the 2^nd podcast, meaning that all our audio was complete. The one final thing we had to consider was the individual evaluations, which were due on the 4^th May, and this would allow us to meet learning outcome 6 – evaluate their work and apply critical and independent analysis to inform practical production.

Reflection

We managed our time well this week, as we felt by the end of it we had achieved everything that we needed to. The only thing left was the individual research and reflections that Adam and Jess had done, and although they hadn’t done it by this stage, they assured me that they were very much in the process of getting it done.