Category: Uncategorised

Documentary Audio – Session One

by learningmediawheeler, posted in Audio Production, Uncategorised

During today’s session we began to discuss the different ways a documentary could be constructed, whether it be: hopeful, fearful, informal, biased, un-biased etc.

Our project will be a solo documentary about a topic which encapsulates the themes of hope and fear. At this point in time I have decided that I would like to explore the possibility of producing a political documentary. My decision stems from the big political divide between the right and the left especially in American politics. Both sides fear the influence that the other has on the nation and hold hope that they will change their opinions. There is a common consensus that the vocal minority of each sides represents the thoughts and ideologies of everyone within that community, “if you’re not with me, you’re against me” is a common train of thought especially in younger activists.

My podcast will be based around the question “Do you know your enemy?”. The piece will inform the listener of misconceptions about each party. Potential negatives in creating a political piece include the likelihood that it will be biased due to my own political beliefs. Being biased in itself isn’t inherently negative, the negative arises from my earlier statement that “if you’re not with me, you’re against me”, this carries the potential that potential listeners that are not politically aligned with me may feel alienated or do not believe that they should listen to it.

Podcasts that influenced my own work

by learningmediawheeler, posted in Uncategorised

Before beginning the gruelling process of producing and scripting my own podcast, I felt it was important to understand two things: How co-hosts should behave around one-another, and how to introduce content relevant to the subject we were discussing.

In order to develop a script that seemed natural and provided a relaxing format for the hosts, I consulted The Rooster Teeth Podcast. This podcast airs weekly on Mondays at 11PM GMT and is primarily focused around film/gaming however they also dabble in other topics such as politics and recent events. The reason I chose this podcast is because I am a regular subscriber to it so was familiar with the hosts dialect, beyond this I believed listening to a podcast I enjoyed was wise when developing a script with a similar structure. I spent an afternoon repeatedly playing one episode entitled “We’re Not Excited About Star Wars – #519” as a secondary piece of media while simultaneously writing the script for my piece.

In order to learn how to introduce content relevant to the subject being discussed in my own podcast was Scuba Obsessed. The podcast discusses all things related to scuba diving including descriptions of peoples’ dives as well as new technology appearing on the market. This was very useful when developing my script as our interviews were provided questions based around the same topics discussed in the podcast. The episode I listened to was entitled “Billion Dollar Dive Shop – 371” and aired on the 5th of July 2018.

Making use of both of these podcasts, I was able to develop a script that flowed well and was relevant to the topic of our research. The combination of a podcast focused on scuba diving and one that was completely different allowed me to experience two separate structures and combine them into one that I believe suited the nature of our show.

Link to The Rooster Teeth Podcast: https://roosterteeth.com/episode/rooster-teeth-podcast-2018-rooster-teeth-podcast-519

Link to Scuba Obsessed: https://www.scubaobsessed.com/scuba-backlog-5-billion-dollar-dive-shop-371/

Bill Burr – Serial Killer Documentary

by learningmediawheeler, posted in Uncategorised

Being that Bill Burr is a popular stand up comedian, it should come as no surprise that his commentary on this documentary was extremely entertaining, his constant use of swears made it feel less like I was listening to a paid presenter and more like I was having a conversation with my friend about what we watched that week. The contrast between the two styles is furthered as you hear clips from the documentary after Bill speaks about them. The beauty of this is that there is little structure apart from it being told like a story, by having little to no structure is emphasises the relationship between the listener and the presenter and makes it feel less formal, this can be seen around the 11 minute mark when Bill says “Oh wait, I forgot the best part” and backtracks to talk about something that happened earlier in the documentary. There is no background music which keeps the listener immersed and creates a feeling as though you are having a phone call with the presenter.

Bill knows that his primary audience enjoys his comedy so to ensure that the topic does not get too dark when talking about this serial killer, he makes jokes about the absurdity that killers would hang out and eat lunch together. He breaks the tension regularly by saying “Tell me this doesn’t sound like a fucking movie” and “I almost don’t even believe it”.

despite its short length, this audio commentary kept me entertained throughout and made me want to watch the original documentary in order to learn more about the event. It also made me want to watch more of Bill Burr as his friendly tone and sense of humour created a bond between him and me, the listener. I have since recommended this video to some of my friends .