Podcast Evaluation
For my podcast, I decided to use a bizarre and unusual theme; the selected theme being stamp collecting. However I wanted it to have a comedic bend; initially I had anticipated doing the initial interview more humorous than i ended up doing so, however it did not seem appropriate to do so as the interviewee was anticipating a series interview. As such, the resultant interview was in my and other people's opinions dreadfully drab. Due to this, I decided it was necessary to edit it in a comedic way. I took inspiration from Youtube Poops (YTPs) and used hard obvious cuts and make the lines more comedic. Some well known examples which inspired me would include the many different Michael Rosen YTPs and which initially gave me the idea. Another influence on me during the project was the sheer nature of people on the internet. People rather self obsessed with social media accounts such as Youtube whom continually try to get others to like and subscribe to their various channels and efforts influenced my project, in particular the final touches to it such as my branding of the podcast recording on Youtube (with my fictional character's written description including numerous pleas to like, subscribe and listen to his next production, as well as poor grammar which can be frequently seen on social media. As well as this, the thumbnail image seen on the YouTube video for the podcast is a very ammeter collage of stamps gathered from the internet, an unflattering image of me (who plays the character) and the podcasts title "Stamp Collecting with graham Bramley" sloppily written in a bright blue across the cover. This is mostly to showcase what an ammeter and hopeless endeavor Graham is on in-universe; it shows he a lame individual as well as being inherently funny in real life.
Overall I was not expecting the podcast to be a very big success to begin with; however after I developed the YTP elements into it I began to become more hopeful. Once I found the suitable music for the production I was finally content with the podcast as it was a perfect fit. The music is a rather old fashioned tune, and I inverted it to add a more distorted sound which I feel better suits the manical, insane feel of the podcast. People who I have shown the podcast have also found it amusing; it has not failed to garner a laugh.
In terms of podcast voices, I would say that they are very effective. My portrayal of the interviewer Graham Bramley went down well with listeners, especially during the intro where the character is at his most "inverted" and socially awkward. Also as well as this, my interviewee's voice I feel works very effectively with the podcast, although the initial unedited interview with him was extremely drab in both my own and other people's opinions, the edited edition I feel works a lot better, with the contrast between our voices working nicely. Two of my favorite phrases the interviewee utters is "and that does not include gardening" and "unless you are a plant collector" due to the very seemingly enthusiastic delivery of these lines. Due to this I have repeated these lines throughout the podcast, often editing the latter phrase to simply "unless you are a plant" to add to the nonsensical madness that embodies the podcast.
The show contains no silent parts at all, with some sort of sound being heard throughout the entire podcast. In addition to the music which is played continually throughout the episode, there is often very little pause between the talking, with the longest example of this being pauses Graham Bramley takes in between words during the introduction. I edited out many of the pauses in speech that the interviewee had made; I found that this in addition to making the podcast feel less drab was also more time efficient, with me being able to use more of the interview due to this.
In regards of the topic of the podcast (stamp collecting), I deliberately chose what many interpret as an utterly dull and boring topic, for comedic purposes. I felt that my fictional character Graham Bramley would fit such a drab topic and in turn based some of Graham's characteristics on what I felt would best suit a topic such as this. The original unaltered interview was a purely serious and factual affair and was interpreted by many as completely boring and not at all entertaining. In spite of this, the edited version has received much higher praise, with some of listeners going so far as to burst out in laughter whilst listening to it; I myself have also been prone to some miniature giggling fits during the production of the podcast.
The series would feature a different topic in each different installment if it was to become a regular feature; Bramley states at the beginning he is unsure whether more episodes will be made and that if one is it will be entitled "Coin Collecting with Graham Bramley", continuing the trend of having dull collecting topics covered on the podcast.
Overall I would say I have learned about how to make crisp edits and the very varied structure that podcasts can take. A major lesson learned from this production is that the unconventional and at times intentionally ammeter finish that many Youtube Poops take can be successfully replicated into audio form, and works well for the podcast format in general. With this taken into account, the main lesson which I have learned from this project is that I can incorporate my own ridiculous and daft humor into a podcast and pull off a decent project, and also that i can get away with putting my daftness into a college project successfully in future. In spite of this, there are skills that I need to improve upon. My understanding of many Adobe Premiere functions is still comparatively limited to the rest of the class and as such, this is something that I definitely need to work on. It has been pointed out that I need to adjust some audio levels on the podcast, however I argue that the uneven audio levels only add to the "so bad it's funny" vibe that I intended my podcast to take. Nonetheless with this taken into account I will indeed apply more thought into audio levels in future projects, especially concerning serious projects which are not of the same comedic nature such as this one, where I can get away with some more deliberately ammeter production values.
In conclusion, I would definitely say that this podcast has been a success; it showcases my bizarre and unique humor in a way many others would have struggled to put into a merely audio form, and if nothing else I have managed to create a highly amusing and memorable production.
