Peas in a Podcast

Maker, It still exists!

Despite its habit of getting consumed by other large projects coughDIcough, we just recently finished another maker project. Even though it took a while, I have a shiny new podcast to show off so let’s get straight to it. From talk shows to true crime, podcasts come in all shapes and forms. No matter what you’re looking for, you can probably find a podcast about it. Interviews with famous figures? You got it; Sketch comedy? Right this way; An analysis of a TV series you’ve never heard of? Sure, why not! I could go on¹, but the point is there’s a thousand different flavours of podcast, so what would we be making?

Well, for this project we would be crafting a story about some experience we’d had, and producing a short podcast episode (or two). After a refresh on what makes a good story, and what we needed to create a successful episode we were set out to write a pitch for our story. This was a step I was stuck on for a while, as I had no clue what I could possibly talk about. At first I had no ideas but eventually I came up with one, and after that I came up with another, then a few more. Before I knew it, I had too many options. After some meditation on the potential plots of each episode, I ended up settling on my journey with TTRPGs.² I chose this because games like D&D have had a pretty large impact on my life, from interests and skills, to being how I met some of my closest friends, and it’s something that’s relevant to me today. Anyways, my main idea for the story was to first go through my history with D&D, and some of my challenges and struggles throughout the years. Then, after that I could talk about how I mitigated those challenges, where I am today, and what I might do next. It wasn’t the most detailed plan, but then again, I had under 10 minutes.

My first draft of a script was pretty shabby all things considered. The pacing was bad, and there were fairly important details missing, while points of far less importance took far more time. Unfortunately, it got buried in the whirlwind of DI³, and I ended up having to finish my writing far closer to the end of the project than I would have liked. This alone meant I would have to rush to get everything done in time, but that wasn’t even the end of it. I wasn’t able to record for a while after I wrote the script, because of crappy timing with my math final, and a band concert. I did finally get the recording done, and after that editing was relatively painless. I already had a clear idea of when and where I would need sound effects, so it was just a matter of getting the sound I needed.⁴

Once it was all edited, I just needed some cover art before it was ready for posting. I decided not to try and draw something, and instead I set up a scene and took a photo. With that done, the final piece of the puzzle snapped into place and I… had to wait 30 minutes for Spotify to upload my podcast. But after that, it was all done! Here, take a listen:

Listening to it again, there are things I would have changed. For one, despite everything I tried⁵, the recording is still a bit muddy. Additionally some of the speakers I’ve heard it through make the music overpower the dialogue a bit. Other than that, my main changes would just be doing a third or fourth revision of the script to get it flowing really well, maybe adding a bit more distinction between sections and explanation of the premise. Long story short I should’ve finished my script earlier, I suppose that’s a good lesson for next time.

Anyways, that’s all for this post. I’m Finn H, so long for now!