POdcast

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For my podcast project, I actually encountered many difficulties along the way which proved to make the completion harder than I anticipated. The first problem was really the lack of a coherent idea. I had several ideas that I wanted to use but after trying each I sort of felt that none of them were working out as I would have liked. I decided to cut my losses and only have myself speaking in my podcast, which was the last thing I had wanted. For my previous ideas I had sort of similar ideas of being a fan so I kept that in and decided to build my podcast around the theme of obsession and being a fan. I rewatched the Ira Glass videos at this time to to sort of see how I might go about doing the writing. I was not sure really how to write the essay to be honest because I know my own tendency to sound stiff and freeze when I go off a scrip. I made an outline more than an essay which kept the structure and narrative of the essay as well as detailing the important points but leaving me enough freedom that I could talk freely and thus more naturally. When deciding what anecdotes to include and how to structure the project, I chose to go for a chronological approach—sorting starting in my childhood and establishing sort the foundation of my obsessive qualities and then tracing that through my life. I even had a section about how I had been influenced by my mother's own obsessive tendencies. I realized I needed a point, something to make it all meaningful so I decided to make the point about how everyone is and can be a fan and how obsession can be a positive thing. Armed with a theme and stories I went into the recording phase,which turned out to be arduous, because, as I suspected, as soon as I saw the mic I kept freezing. However even if I stuttered for a few seconds or lost my train of thought I just let the recording go on because I knew that I could edit out the bad parts. This was actually very helpful in making me more comfortable so that I could talk when I was ready rather than scrambling to fill in the silence. As for music or sound effects I was not sure how to use them without being cheesy or taking away from the tralking so I decided to use only a couple music clips and have them far apart in the clip. As I started editing, that was when I really started feeling the time constraint. I had listened to an episode of This American Life right before I started so that I might get a feel for the editing and pacing. That whole episode had been dedicated to one story and that was 51 minutes long versus 5 minutes. I really did not want the pacing of my podcast to be affected by my length of time so I decided to make it simple. I cut a lot of good stuff but I realized that I had to keep it to only a couple of points in order to keep it balanced and unrushed. I had a little difficulty with editing because I was pressed for time and there are parts where I feel the transitions could be smoother, however, all in all I think it is an interesting piece that appeals to a wide audience and has a more universal message.