Advice on Podcast-Micaela

Some advice I would give on creating a podcast would be that to try and make it seem as live as possible. Do try and cut out the “ums and uhs”. Use as much extra sounds that fit into what you are trying to do as possible. You don’t want your podcast to be boring. Try and get your audience to smile at least once. Make sure the microphone isn’t too close to your mouth or it will be really scratchy. Don’t just put in sounds to fill up time, make sure it fits. Make your topic as interesting as you can.

Pulling Back the Curtain-Micaela

First off I just want to say what a great title for that podcast.

Secondly, when it comes to editing I feel as though I have had a lot of experience throught the courses I have taken here at MU to clearly understand digital editing for TV. But when it comes to the radio, I really never would of though NPR news was EDITED. That just blows my mind. It was cool to hear the orginial piece from Bob Garfield and then hear the edited one. I wonder if editing radio clips is harder than editing film clips? Personally, I think that it would be.

I find it amusing that David Carr said “If its not in a complete sentence, then we don’t use it”. That statement right there explains exactly how NPR news shows sound so perfect. I can’t believe that its not live when it seems like it. I think that it is a very interesting topic and I would actually be very interested in learning those programs on editing words, fixing lengths of sentences, and merely knowing how to actually put paragraphs together by EDITING.

Advice to Other Students!

My advice to other students about making a podcast are to make sure you begin with a track plan so you can lay your ideas out on paper first.  Next it is to make sure that you have decided to audience you want to target and the approach you are going to take for your podcast.  Then interview or record yourself a couple of times so you can decide which time your voice sounds the best in.  Have fun and keep it positive. 

Plans for my Podcast

For my podcast my plans were to interview Micaela about juggling being a student athlete and taking demanding college classes.  I think it’s important for other athletes to realize that it can be very difficult.  I chose this approach also because Micaela was my partner for this class and it was hard to find time outside of class to meet.  I am keeping my podcast upbeat and positive so I am going with a upbeat song that will just make you want to dance.  I am adding clapping and cheering in to introduce and welcome Micaela and to also end the podcast. 

Response to Analysis by Whitney

I really like the Kodak commercial that Tyler did his analysis on.  I agree with him in that the camera angles used help create a very personal view because of the sincerity of birthdays and wedding and other monumental people like Martin Luther King.  It helps keep the audience drawn in.  This was like my commercial of the SalesGenie.com because it wanted to draw the audience in so they understand the product.  I think it appeals to me more than my commercial because it has more sentimental meaning behind it.  I enjoy watching commercials and/ or shows that are able to connect to their audience in someway.  I think I could reproduce it in a different way.  I am not that advanced with these programs, but I definitely could have ideas if someone else could help me with putting my ideas into action. 

Commercial Analysis by Whitney

The commercial I chose was an add trying to promote SalesGenie.com.  The audience that it is targeting is people who are wanting to buy a car, so they are making sure that they get the best deal, and also car salesmen.  This add seems appealing to salesmen and also to the upper working class because they are selling nice, expensive cars, and the commercial makes reference to the salesman already selling 3 million for the quarter.  The commercial overall was about 29 sec. They faded in to the start the commercial and faded out to end the commercial.  No other transitions were really used.  They used a close up camera angle because they shot right in front of the actors and actresses faces.  There were probably about 5 different scenes and just jumped from shot to shot.  The background music was fast paced and used to help make the main car salesman seem ultra cool.  I think the creators of the commercial used the techniques they used to give the audience and in your face type of commercial.  Everything was fast paced.  I think the creators achieved their point however I wish they would have focused more on the product, Salesgenie.com, rather than the hot car salesman who gets all the ladies. 

Final Assignment–Rashida

Here is a link to my final assignment which also includes my reflective piece
LINK

Advice for podcast

I’ve never made a podcast before.  Since I don’t have garage band at home, I had do the entire project on campus. It felt a little strange talking into a mic while the room was filled with silent students studying. Some people gave me angry looks, but I kept working. It took me a while to record my 2min podcast. I had to keep re recording because I’d stutter or slur words. I kept trying to talk as slow as possible, but it came out sounding pretty speedy still. I wish that I had the program at home, I think it would have sounded much nicer.  I advise other aspiring podcasters to write a script before you start and to practice it a few times. It’s also important to use background music in a way that doesn’t detract from the message. I made a big mistake there. Also, be sure your soundeffects work. I tried to layer keyboard sounds with my podcast and failed miserably. A lot of people thought it sounded like crunching.  

Advice on Podcasts

Now knowing the success of my comical podcast, I recommend making something with a little humor. It’s more fun to make and it’s more fun for everyone else to hear. If you can, try and make the podcast in as little recordings as possible because it was a pain in the A** having to start and stop around 60-70 times just to make my podcast with the celebrity voices. Each question I asked was its own recording. Then I had to edit each recording to its own specific size, which wasn’t too bad but it was still draining time. Save early and save often. My podcast lost just about all my podcast eventually, not because I didn’t save. but because the program lost some of my sound files. So good luck and Godspeed.

Commercial Analysis by Adam

I viewed the NBC commercial about Bill the Promo Guy. It’s purpose was to be another promo about the new upcoming shows on NBC while trying to say they aren’t bad people for showing promos on youtube and on the air. The audience is the normal TV watchers and the youtube addicts. Its very comical and actually interesting to watch. The audience is probably any couples without children or the college audience; pretty much anyone who watches those shows or anything on NBC. The commercial was just over 2 minutes long. There were at least 5-6 scenes (I wasn’t actually counting but there was definitely more than just 1). The scenes tend to last about 10 seconds each except the intro, that was longer. The camera angles were straight ahead, right infront of the “characters” and they would talk to the camera and each other. Transitions were just cutting to the next scene, no real video transitions like fading. No sounds overlapped and other than the voices, I doubt there wasa any sound because it was a commercial to get people to watch the NBC shows. There were human characters, workers of NBC and its shows. They all work together to advertise the shows, I believe. The pace was very casual, like they were just having a normal conversation and talking about the complaints listeners/watchers had. NBC worked on making the commercial funny because audience likes to laugh. That’s also why they are promoting the shows My Name Is Earl and the Office more, they are both comedies. People love to watch comedies so thats what the creators went for in the commercial. Every part had a subtle joke in it. The commercial was successful in getting my attention but when it comes to me watching their shows, it had very little impact. They didn’t give me an incentive to watch the shows. They just stated that they wanted you to watch their shows.