Our second episode already (minus the trailer), published and a start to a well-rounded podcast. This unique experience would never be taught just a decade ago and now we are making a carefully planned and produced an episode for the world to see. Complimenting the grade 10 curriculum, we had to incorporate our topic, mine being hard work/motivation, and the driving question – how might we use stories to understand the causes and consequences of WWII?

Concise, flow, knowledgeable and good audio quality. These 4 things were the primary things I aimed to make very good. A combination of all these things brought my podcast to a new level and was the main reason why I had to re-record everything to make the episode sound a whole lot better.

(Click Here to access the podcast)

Looking at my previous episodes, they are embarrassingly bad compared to my most recent one, in my opinion. Despite being 3 minutes long it was a thousand times more engaging to listen to. All the little improvements and my carefully planned script added up to be a really good episode. It isn’t perfect, (which I will agree more looking back in a few months when we will have completed more episodes) but the story pairing with the seamless topic transitions made a massive difference in the result. The unique, sad tone to the episode was brought to life with the piano I played on my midi keyboard which made parts more moving and added emphasis to others. 

Using the app called “Otter” again to translate my interview audio to text helped immensely and was the only reason I was able to carefully pick the interview clips from my 50 minutes of conversation. As the interviewee did most of the talking throughout the story, this tip was especially mandatory.

Editing like usual took forever. Having 2 days, with lots of extracurricular activities, to complete my podcast, I spent 90% of that time editing and mixing. Spending probably plus 5 hours total on the interview, it was the main point that I wanted to focus on and have a continuous story that flows from one point to the next. I extended out the dramatic parts like the bomb being dropped on his ship and shortened the subsequent ideas to make it interesting. The very little things like “uhhs”, “um” and long pauses were removed, to make it shorter and engaging but was costly, taking hours to complete. Staying up till 2:30 and 3:30 in back-to-back nights was the hardest part of the whole creation and hopefully, I don’t have to something like that again.

After handing in my first draft, I didn’t even need feedback to know I had to re-record my script. I decided to use Audacity, a free, open-source audio software, to have the ability to add plug-ins and use my mic to its full use. In my previous post, I talk about the plug-ins I used and how they came together to make the episode sound of much higher quality. There were issues along the way but with any new technology, that is bound to happen.

 

Incorporating the Motivation factor into this story was a little challenging when my interviewee didn’t go to war but is telling the story of someone else. Having questions directed to answer I was hoping to get and carefully planning follow up questions, I was able to get the most information possible. However, the information given in the interview was not that much and I had to add my reasoning to make it have more of a connection. In the end, the point I made was clear and paired with the story nicely to have a seamless fit. Being indistinguishable from the main idea and story, it didn’t protrude or stick out in any way.

That being said the most important part in the podcast, apart from the story, was the cause and consequences of WWII and the merchant navy, relating to the driving question. The importance was not only way easier to include, having many parts in the interview where she talked about it but I found many sources on the effects the Maltese Convoy had on the war.

Following this, I want to further improve on integrating my music into my podcast without being as noticeable and reliant while still only coming in at important parts. When looking at other high-quality videos and podcasts, the music is underlying and eventuates the topic but doesn’t get intrusive and repetitive. (Much like many things, the music is planned where to be and what to do with it (ie. fade, clip, cut, hit hot). A great example of this is the music in Minecraft which is iconic, where everyone knows it but is random enough to still be moving and improve the experience). I want to try a variety of tracks that all sound similar but will either be in a different chord for different tones or have a different melody. (Parts of the music I used created)

Despite not knowing anything about the upcoming episodes, I am eager to test and improve my new skills on the new editions of our podcasts. Every new episode teaches me a valuable lesson to build on and by the end of this year the 1st and final podcast will not be recognizable to each other

As the project progressed my understanding and level of ability to connect myself to text and the world improved substantially. Bringing my topic into the episode provided a challenge to accurately convey the message while still being true to the story. This used connections from all three of the competency; personal, creative and critical.

When doing my preliminary research, I had around 15 sources as I had many possible stories that didn’t end up turning out. Narrowing them down to only the Maltese Convoy sources, I had 6 reliable sources that I was able to gain information from and add to my script. Showing that my sources were reliable, I used MLA citations for every piece of media I used for my podcasts.

I share how the Maltese Convoy had a profound consequence on the allied war efforts.  To show the vast importance, I highlighted the interview parts where she talked about the consequences of the Maltese Convoy on the African campaign, controlling parts of the Mediterranean and intercepting the German Military.
I talked to people around the world, contacting 4 different people in three different countries around the world. The first person that I tried to contact lived in Mexico and lived through the Spanish Civil war but it didn’t end up working.