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1. A1.1 Explore and develop investigation skills for informing ideas
A1.2 Explore and develop problem solving skills
PODCAST PROJECT PLAN AND RESEARCH
Ahead of embarking on the SMILE Campaign, plan and research your Podcast in detail as
part of your Pre-Production for your episode. Use the questions below as prompts and
upload to Blogger.
Describe your podcast:
The podcast I had produced with my classmate Jennifer was to educate and entertain
whoever listened to it and the purpose of it was to share our views on the impact social
media has on mental health and society in general. We kept a casual tone throughout the
entire thing seeing as the audience was mainly people our age and if you bombard a
teenager with information on a serious topic with a serious tone they will most likely not
listen to what you’re saying. We hoped that sharing out views would shed some light on
the rising issue which is the impact that social media is having on children of the next
generation. The structure of our podcast was that it started with an intro delivered by me
and then throughout the podcast we didn’t exactly have a middle, we just shared our
views on the topic as a whole and then we had given an outro where we introduced a
potential future topic, which was the issue of drugs and abuse on society and how it has
been a consistent issue for decades.
The purpose of my future podcast that I plan to do will most likely be a podcast on my
own which focuses on one of my interests (most likely reading/books or some sort of
media that I am fond of) seeing as this is something I can talk about in detail without
getting sick of it, which will give me enough content to fill up a podcast episode. What I
hope to achieve from this podcast episode would be to entertain those listening to
potentially persuade them to buy the books that I talk about, which I guess could be
considered promotion. The structure of the podcast would be that I would give an
introduction to the podcast and then I would introduce the topic as a whole. During the
middle of the podcast I would talk about sub-topics which would be my opinion on
different books that I am fond of or that I do not like. Then as an ending seeing as this is a
podcast on its own and not part of a series I would thank the viewer for listening to what I
said and encourage them to share their own literature related opinions.
Having produced a pilot episode of a Podcast, what did you learn from this experience?
What do you think you did well throughout the pilot, and what needs to improve ahead of
the Smile Campaign episode?
What I learned from the pilot episode of the podcast was a variety of things. The first
thing I learned was how to use a microphone and how if not used correctly the audio
could be unusable. I learned that the setting of where you record is important seeing as
there was a large amount of echo in the background of our recording which had to be
corrected in the post production stage. I learned how to use new software (Garageband
and logic pro.) and I feel I have started well however these skills will need to be improved
on and defined a large amount over the year. There were a large amount of technical

2. A1.1 Explore and develop investigation skills for informing ideas
A1.2 Explore and develop problem solving skills
issues due to the fact it was our first time experiencing this kind of thing so in the future I
feel I need to be more careful when it comes to recording, especially with the volume as
this was a large issue for me.
Having completed your target audience research, who is your target audience, and how
do you hope to meet their needs through your podcast?
The target audience that we have been given is supposed to be “our own community”
and our aim is to motivate members of our community to smile, reduce their stress and
improve their mental health. Personally, in my own work I will make it so that my work is
aimed to those within the age range of around 12–18-year old’s, as I feel I will work well if
I focus on making a piece of work for mind if I make something that would appeal to my
own age range seeing as mental health is a large issue around me. I feel this age range is a
good target audience seeing as this age range includes everyone from teenagers who are
starting secondary school all the way up to those who will be finishing their second year
of college who could possibly be moving on to university. Focusing on improving the
mental health of students is an important issue to me as it is a large issue in schools all
over the country due to the stress school puts on its students. I feel that a podcast is a
good idea for the target audience seeing as I have a fairly young audience who are in a
new age of media, which means that people are no longer interested in reading large
pieces of information on a page and instead are fond of listening to information like on
podcasts and eBooks.
Demographics:
Age range – Between the ages of 12-18
Gender- No preference for gender however the majority of my audience is women so
despite the fact there is no gender preference it will most likely be viewed most by
women.
No preference for education or work seeing as its for the general community.
Psychographics:
-Doesn’t enjoy reading articles
-Enjoys spending time with friends
-Uneducated on mental health and willing to learn more
-Values friendships and their community
-Young audience
-No chunks of information to bore the audience
-Keeps attention better than that of a print advertisement
-Podcast appeals to the older side of my target audience whereas the tv advert appeals to
a younger audience.
What constraints do you anticipate throughout the project, and how do you hope to
overcome these?

3. A1.1 Explore and develop investigation skills for informing ideas
A1.2 Explore and develop problem solving skills
The constraints I image I will face throughout this project will be things such as time
constraints, technical constraints, etc. Time constraints would be one of the largest issues
I will face during this project seeing as I will have a limited time in the studio where I will
need to get all of the recording done for my podcast and then the time constraint will
continue further in the post production stage seeing as I will have a limited time to finish
my editing before submitting it for approval, where I will still possibly need time to touch
up the editing with the lecturers’ notes. Technical constraints are another issue I will have
to deal with as the resources I would be using may end up malfunctioning or something
like that, or I could have issues with software that may lead to a delay in the
production/editing of my podcast. If I end up working with someone else another issue, I
could end up facing is the reliability of the person. If the person I work with is unreliable.
then I could end up racing another time constraint as I wouldn’t be able to do a group
project on my own.
What materials/resources are required for the project and why?
-Condenser microphone – Condenser microphones are more sensitive than dynamic
microphones and are therefore better for recording audio/vocals which means that they
are the more appropriate mic to use out of the two choices. We used a handheld
microphone which made the audio a lower quality due to the fact that we are
inexperienced with that kind of equipment. However, we will most likely use a Rode NT1A
microphone to record future podcast episodes. It is a large diaphragm condenser
microphone with a cardioid polar pattern. This means that the microphone would be
most sensitive from the front and less sensitive fromthe back and aides. It works well to
isolate the mic from ambient sound and it is great when you need to highlight one sound
source such as a vocal. You could also place two cardioid mics on either side of yourself so
you would have a right and left recording of your audio. The microphone we will end up
using will have a cradle mount which will stop unwanted vibrations interfering with the
recording. It will also have a pop shield which will be used to stop plosives (‘p’ sounds)
coming through when speaking. The microphone will most likely be held on a microphone
stand so that we can position the mic where we want it when recording. However, the
cradle mount could be used in place of this.
-Sound Card- We will be plugging the mics we use into either an audio interface or a stage
box within the recording studio. We use an audio interface to covert
microphone/instrument signals into a format that your computer/recording software can
understand and it gives us the ability to record from more than one source at once (for
example, recording two different vocals or instruments.) An audio interface is essentially
an external sound card. It is better to use a better-quality audio interface as the entry
level ones provide basic features such as less inputs and the ability to only support one
pair of headphones/monitors. The more expensive ones will have more useful features
such as multiple inputs, higher quality electrons and onboard DSP. These will provide
better features and better quality than those of built-in soundcards via the
computers/headphones.

4. A1.1 Explore and develop investigation skills for informing ideas
A1.2 Explore and develop problem solving skills
-Logic Pro – We would most likely be using logic Pro seeing as it is an industry standard
Digital Audio Workstation and it allows us to record the audio and edit the audio we
record. There are many different DAL’s out there however Logic Pro focuses on being
beginner friendly, there is a quick help button and once you press it and however over
things it will give a description of what you’re looking at. And if this isn’t enough you
could then press the command button which gives a more in-depth description. Another
reason to use logic is because in comparison to other software out there, logic is a cheap
option which still has the same features you would find on other DALs. Finally, when it
comes to recording instruments, logic is great as it offers an AI called drummer who aids
you when editing audio. (Along with having many instruments available to you.)
-Extra stuff you will need- Different cable types such as XLR’s which are used to connect a
microphone to an audio interface. You may also use headphones to monitor the
recording which is helpful as it helps with your microphone technique. This is because you
are able to hear what is being recorded and therefore you know if you sound too
distant/if your audio is muffled (meaning you’re too close to the mic.) This technique
essentially means that you are in complete control over you’re sound which will lead to
less issues in the post production stage.
-Music- Personally I don’t think I want to use a large portion of music in my podcast
however I may include a small bit of music for my introduction/outro seeing as this will
reduce the awkward feeling of just jumping right into talking. Seeing as I will possibly be
using music, I decided to look for some good places to find royalty free music and if I were
to use music, I would choose something from a website like Pixabay or Epidemic Sound
seeing as they provide free royalty free music. If I were to go about using
copyrighted/published music in my podcast I know that I would need to secure the rights
from the artist to use the copyrighted media, as copyright protects an artist from others
using their work without permission. However, to avoid this I could buy the rights to the
music I plan on using or just write and compose some music to use myself.
Please provide three examples of your research into other existing podcasts similar to
your own, and your analysis of these examples?
The misfits podcast by the Misfits (Its available on Spotify, Apple podcasts, YouTube,
TuneIn, and Chartable.)
Structure: Intro-Middle/Story/Outro
Genre: Comedy
Episode One (The Poland Story) Review: The podcast starts with an intro, the middle is
pretty much just the entire Poland story, and it ends with one of the members of the
misfits giving us an outro to the podcast, therefore meaning the podcast follows the usual
structure (start, middle, end.) It is also a storytelling podcast that falls under the comedy
genre, made for a slightly more mature audience. The first episode begins with an intro to
the podcast with someone called “swaggersouls” introducing the group of boys, two of
which are their bosses Samand Ryan. The episode focuses on a story they call “The
Poland Story’. The podcast also has some friends included which are there to ask the
questions which we could potentially be asking. They start off the story in Rotterdam

5. A1.1 Explore and develop investigation skills for informing ideas
A1.2 Explore and develop problem solving skills
taking edibles before they travel to Berlin which starts our first story of the podcast. Ryan
and the others get on the train, after checking and being told they were on the correct
train, it turns out two hours or so later they were on the wrong train and they needed to
head the entire way back which he doesn’t tell the others until they have gotten off the
train. Whilst trying to find a way to get back to where they had begun, they ended up
deciding to get a taxi with all seven of them in all the way to Berlin, as the prices for the
trip and the new train tickets weren’t that different. A few stories are after this and they
all include trips around usually including alcohol or drugs. However, I’ll move onto the
main story of the podcast. The boys end up finding themselves going to a “sketchy”
looking strip club and they end up drinking shots and smoking along with already having
taken drugs. A few of them go off and end up starting to get lap dances seeing as they
were already there and they found it fun. However, Swagger (who introduced the
podcast) realizes that they were getting scammed by the people running it as they kept
increasing the price of how much it was to keep the dances going whilst also attempting
to manipulate the boys into buying more alcohol and helping them out financially, also
using the fact they were drunk against them to make them pay more, causing Swagger to
start a scene of sorts, yelling that they needed to leave as they were being scammed. This
then causes most of them to leave the club and head back towards the hotel they were
staying at. The next day the group wakes up in their hotel room realizing they all had lost
thousands of dollars at this club, they also ended up missing a trip to Auschwitz and their
plane to Spain. This is then followed up by a misfits' member called Fitz doing the outro
for the podcast, telling the audience not to do drugs and not to go to strip clubs after the
drug filled story they had told. They then end it with an ‘I’ll see you in the next podcast”
and all of the members saying goodbye to the listener. Honestly, I really enjoy this
podcast and I feel that is because the people who made this podcast have a teenage
audience so they format the podcast in a way that appeals to people my age and this is
fluent throughout most of the Misfit podcasts. They have humor that is immature and
appeals to a younger audience which is also what makes me think that I would go back
and listen to this podcast often.
Let's talk about Mental Health by Jeremy Goodwin (Found on Spotify and other small
podcast sites.)
Episode 8: Let's talk about … Stress
Structure: Intro-Information/Middle-Outro
Genre: Mental Health and Advice
The podcast opens with an introduction to the episode and a small jingle, then also giving
us an intro to the podcast and what the podcast is. He starts the informational part of the
podcast by giving us an introduction to what stress is and then goes on to say that when
stress gets too much in our lives it causes us issues but also that we need stress to
motivate us. He generalises the issue of stress, saying we all have it in our lives then goes
on to give examples of when stress can motivate us like how athletes and musicians use it
to their advantage as it gives them an adrenaline rush then goes on to give us a quote

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that his boss gave him which he looks back to when he feels overly stressed. “(If you don’t
feel nervous when you get up to present or train, you're probably not passionate about
doing a good job anymore and you may as well pack its in.”) He continues onto when
stress gets out of control and lasts for days, it can cause damage to your health in the
long-term and could lead to the need to go to the doctor or even death if it's so severe.
He seems to be doing this to try and make such a large issue such as stress into a less
severe issue to some people by talking to his audience about how its normal and although
it's hard, if the stress is continuous then help is something you should ask for. He goes on
throughout the podcast talking out how stress can lead to mental health disorders and
continues to talk through ways to avoid or deal with stress early or even before it forms. I
think that out of all of the podcasts I have covered that this would be the one that I would
take the most inspiration from not only because of the topic but also because I like the
way that he formatted the podcast, its enjoyable to listen to and he keeps a constant
theme throughout all of his podcasts.
Off Menu By James Acaster and Ed Gamble (I found it on Spotify)
Episode 4: Nish Kumar (Christmas Special)
Structure: Start/Intro-Middle-Outro
Genre: Comedy
This podcast begins with a sponsor from Hilton Hotels. Following this there is another
sponsor from The Guardian. A jingle then begins to introduce the podcast, followed by Ed
and James introducing the podcast as it being the Christmas Special. This is then followed
by the introduction of Nish Kumar, a friend of the two hosts. This podcast seems purely
comedic from the beginning, as they also introduce the challenge that if unsuspecting
guest Nish Kumar says he wants gold in his meals for Christmas he will be kicked off the
podcast. Throughout this they include small parts that are Christmas themed, and they
share jokes continuously with their guest, also focusing on food throughout their podcast
seeing as it's based on Christmas and a large part of that holiday is focused on food. They
end the podcast with an outro, promoting their guests tour that starts after new year (at
the time) and Ed Gambles tour that he would be going on as well at a similar time. They
give us another jingle to slowly ease us out of the podcast and that’s the end of this
episode. TO be honest I myself wouldn’t take anything from this podcast because I had
trouble paying attention to this podcast due to the way they had formatted the podcast
itself. The podcast didn’t feel very fluent when I was listening to it however this may be
because of the episode I had chosen with it being a holiday themed podcast and all. I also
feel that I did not enjoy this podcast as it felt as though I wasn’t part of the target
audience for this podcast (which I will need to take into account when creating my own
podcast.) as the humor didn’t fit into my own and I felt as though I was out of place when
listening to it.

7. A1.1 Explore and develop investigation skills for informing ideas
A1.2 Explore and develop problem solving skills