This document provides a summary of B Herbie Nelson's final evaluation for their music podcast project. The project involved creating a 15-minute podcast interviewing a friend about their favorite songs from different decades. Some key points: - The project allowed Herbie to pursue a passion for music and turned out well despite challenges with equipment quality and time management. - Researching other podcasts helped develop the idea and structure. The podcast focused clearly on discussing music through decades. - While enjoying the creative process, Herbie felt some writing aspects like long PowerPoints became tedious. Audio recordings helped with presentation. - Overall the project was deemed a success for achieving its goal simply and engaging the target audience of music

1. Final Evaluation
B Herbie Nelson

2. Project Overview

3. What was the theme of your project and
what attracted you to it?
• The theme of my project was music through the decades, where my
guest told me his favourite songs from the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s and
2000’s. The thing that attracted me to this theme was just because I
enjoy music so much and I thought how can I turn that love of
something into an enjoyable project so that is how I came to create
this podcast. I would say it helped that I took a passion of mine and
used it when creating my final piece.

4. What research did you undertake and how
did it help develop your project?
• The research that I undertook to help get a better understanding
before creating this project was first looking at other podcasts to see
how they were structured and laid out. At first, I wasn’t 100% sure
about what theme to do so I looked at a variety of different topics
people had covered on their podcasts for example the podcast I listen
to the most is the Joe Rogan experience and each guest he has on is a
specialist in a certain subject so I thought all those people have a
passion in those subjects which made me think what passion do I
have that I can turn into an interesting podcast, then from there I
came up with the idea of doing music and music through the
decades.

5. How did you develop and improve your ideas
throughout the project?
• Throughout the project my ideas changed and developed quite a bit.
At the start of the research, I was struggling to find a topic that
people would find interesting to listen to, so I looked into many of the
top podcasts in the world to see what they were about and the
majority of them just brought in a guest to discuss their life or if they
had a specific job, they talked about that. From that I thought to
myself I should do something I am interested in as that would make
the podcast more interesting and a lot more enjoyable to make. So
overall my ideas did develop and improve over the course of creating
the final project.

6. What was the outcome of the project/task?
• The outcome of the project was that I created a music themed
podcast that discussed my guests' favourite songs from each decade,
starting with the 60s and working the way right up to the 2000’s. my
guest Sam Topping has a passion for writing in depth reviews on
songs he comes across and he discussed these reviews in the podcast
and you will be able to hear them as you listen.

7. Personal Response

8. How did you feel about the project before
you started?
• My first thoughts about the project before I started was that I
preferred the FMP over any other projects as we are given the choice
to create whatever we want, and I personally prefer that to being set
a specific task and working around that idea. I think allowing me to
create anything I want opens my more creative side as I am able to
use my own ideas and use the many skills, I have acquired over the
two years of the course to create a project I am very much happy
with.

9. What do you think about your project development and
how did it help you to refine your idea?
• My opinions on my project development throughout the weeks is
that it went very well. Once I was set on the theme of my podcast I
worked from there, this included looking at similar things that had
been created before and looking at podcasts/ interviews that were
still being created following this theme. The absolute radio show was
a big part in my development of this idea simply because they have a
game they play where they ask the guest who is appearing on the
radio to name their favourite songs from each decade. It is normally
musicians that appear on it and they explain there reasonings behind
the answers they have given. Looking at these things helped refine my
idea as I got a clearer understanding of how it should be structured.

10. Did you collaborate on your project or engage
contributors, etc?
• For my project I had my good friend Sam Topping join me for the
podcast, he has a passion for listening to music and writing reviews
on them in his spare time, so it somehow worked out perfect as that
is the ideal guest for this topic. If the podcast was allowed to be a lot
longer then I would have definitely given some of my favourite songs
of the decades but as it was only fifteen minutes we only had time for
just one of our opinions.

11. How did you feel when the project was
completed and why?
• When the project was completed, I wouldn’t say I was relieved
because I enjoyed recording and editing the final piece however it
does feel good to get something done that, I am proud of and
thoroughly enjoyed making. The reason I feel this way is because i can
only say I enjoyed this project over any of the others and the
enjoyment just made it a lot better to work on.

12. Evaluating the project

13. What were the good points about the project/task and what did you
learn from them? [try and think of at least 3, more if possible]
• A good point about this project is that I was able to create anything I wanted, and
from this point I learnt that when I am given a task where I can choose to create
anything I feel it brings out the more creative side of me which definitely helps
the outcome of projects as they are more to my liking.
• Another good point about this project is following from the point above, the idea
that I could take something I have a massive passion for and turn it into a college
project that was enjoyable and fun to create. I learnt from this that when you
take something you have a massive interest in it really helps when being creative.
• A final good point about this project was just how enjoyable it was to make. I had
never created anything like a podcast in the past so the whole experience of
being able to discuss music with a good friend of mine and have a laugh recording
it and then it turned out to be something io am very pleased with was just a
really good thing in my opinion

14. What challenges did you face and how did you
respond to them? Try and think of at least 3...
• A challenge I faced during this project would have to be knowing that my podcast would not be
up to the standards of the professional ones you see on apps like Spotify and apple music. The
equipment they use is far greater and far more expensive than the gear I used to record my
podcast. This was a sort of challenge because In my mind I thought that it would end up sounding
a lot like the ones you hear on the big apps but in the end, it didn’t turn out exactly like that.
• Another challenge I faced during the project was time management. Over the two years I have
been on this course I have always struggled with staying on track with the weeks and getting
things uploaded on the deadlines, I said that I want that to improve at the start of the year but I
never fully managed to achieve this goal. I would say I responded to this by making sure I didn’t
get fully behind and making sure if I was a week behind then id get it uploaded as soon as I could
id say within a week is the time frame I did it in.
• A final challenge that I came across when making this project was probably the amount of typing
and writing that was involved. Normally when making these projects I have no issue with creating
things like PowerPoints which include typing up massive paragraphs explaining what I had done
but for some reason this time I didn’t really enjoy the writing aspect, however I did use voice
recordings for the presentation diary as I found that a lot easier.

15. What were the negative points about the
experience, and what could you have done to
improve them?
• A negative point about the experience was the number of
PowerPoints there was to complete. Personally massive amounts of
writing just gets boring after a while so that is why it would have to
be down as a negative point. I could have improved this by potentially
adding more voice overs instead of writing large paragraphs.
• Another negative point that I came across during this experience was
trying to get my podcast out there. I knew from the start of this
project that my podcast wasn’t going to be up to the standards of
people who are number 1 all over the world, so it was sort of like it
was only going to be heard by a few people because I didn’t really
want to show it to loads of people due to the quality not being like
the ones people have listened to.

16. How would you rate the final piece? [think along the lines of
poor, satisfactory, good or excellent...justify your rating]
• For the final piece I would have to rate it a good. The reason for my
rating is because this was one of the most enjoyable projects that I
have made over the two years of the course and this enjoyment is the
reason I am rating my final piece a good. Aswell as the enjoyment, the
creation of a podcast was so simply made and yet the outcome was
so good listening wise. It goes to show sometimes the project doesn’t
have to be that stressful just create something you are happy with,
and the end goal will hopefully turnout good.

17. What is your opinion of your final piece? What
elements do you think are successful and why?
• My opinion on the final piece I created is that I am very happy with it.
The elements that I think are successful is just the simplicity of it, I am
not saying it was a one day kind of job but it didn’t require huge
amounts of editing and I think the way it turned out is the style I
wanted originally. At the start of the project I wanted to create a
piece that means something to me and something that people will
enjoy listening to and overall I think that is exactly what I have done.

18. How did your design appeal to your target
audience?
• The design I would say appealed to the target audience pretty well,
the reason for this is because it was made for people who are
interested and enjoy music and enjoy hearing people talk about
different songs from different years and that is the main topic in my
podcast. So overall there was no message being portrayed throughout
the podcast but as I have said people may take the things we say as
potential messages.

19. Analysis
In this section, you will focus on the details of the project and make
sense of what happened in the project. You should demonstrate how
your decisions informed the project development and the success of the
outcome.

20. In what ways was the overall project a
success?
• Personally, I think there a many ways the podcast was an overall
success. One of the ways I think it was a success was because It
focused on the exact topic I set out to do at the start, I think if we had
discussed other things that weren’t related to the theme then it
wouldn’t have been as good as what it is now. Another way I think it
was successful was because of the simplicity of how it is structured.
The start of the podcast we introduce who we are and what we are
going to be talking about then after that brief introduction it goes
straight into the songs of the different decades, there is no wasting
time in the podcast we just knuckle down and get straight into it.

21. What elements did not go well and why?
• Straight away an element I would say that did not go well was the
time limit that I was giving, I'm not saying it didn’t last long enough
but if anything I thought that a podcast should definitely be a lot
longer than fifteen minutes. Another thing that did not go well was
the fact that I recorded it a bit later then i had planned, this was due
to my guest not being free on the days we had discussed about. The
reason this didn’t help the project was because it meant I was a
weeks behind on things like editing so that was a reason as to why
that did not go well.

22. How did your skills develop during the portfolio? [remember,
skills aren't just technical, remember things like organisation,
time management, communication, etc as well]
• During the portfolio, my skills were somewhat all over the place. The
biggest thing I have always struggled with is time management and
this time I said I would try and make sure I am kept up with all the
weeks and making sure I am on top with all the work but again I
managed to fall behind only by a week, but it still meant I was behind
in terms of time. Another skill I would say i developed was the
communication, this project I was working with another person so
trying to find the time where we could both record was a little bit
tricky but with good communication we managed to find the right
days where we weren’t busy and began filming from those days.

23. What meaning and messages did you want to
convey and were you successful?
• For my podcast there was never any intentional meanings and
messages I wanted to convey so in that sense there wasn’t any
success, however we do discuss the meanings of songs so I suppose
you can take what you can from the reviews that were given about
the music and turn it into whatever you feel comfortable with.

24. What would you do differently in the future
and why?
• In the future the thing I would want to do differently is potentially
record the podcast with a camera to make it look a lot more
appealing and visually appealing than just listening to it and looking at
a blank screen. Another thing I would do differently in the future is
making sure me and my guest agree a set time and date when we are
both available so that I can stay on track with the weeks and not fall
behind in terms of work.

25. What knowledge have you gained that would help you in the
future to improve your project? Also, what knowledge from
academic literature and professionals has helped and why?
• Throughout the creation of this project I have gained a lot of
knowledge stretching from music to how podcasts are created and
laid out. This knowledge would help to improve a project in the future
as I have seen how professional podcasts work behind the scenes so
now I know what sort of equipment they use to record such a high
quality sounding podcast and from that I can follow the same setup to
potentially create a similar sounding piece. Over the course of the
research sectioned I learnt a lot about peoples music choices for
example Paul Weller on absolute radio discussing his favourite songs
of each decade and explaining why he enjoys them so much

26. Action Plan
This section will identify what you would do differently in the future and
identify ways you could develop.

27. If you were making a similar project in the
future, what would you do differently?
• If I were to make a similar project in the future I would say I wouldn’t
really do anything to different as I am very happy with what I
produced for this final piece. Although in different slides I have
mentioned that I would like to have recorded it with a camera and
make it seem like we had a studio and a nice background so that it
would be good to watch aswell as listen to. Also, I mentioned I
would’ve liked it to have been a bit longer as I felt like I didn’t really
get much of a chance to state my opinions on the songs and my
favourite ones of each decade as we only had fifteen minutes.

28. How could you develop your skills for future projects? Please
identify the appropriate resources and courses. For example,
webpages, tutorials, books, short courses and qualifications.
• For future projects I could develop my skills by looking at more themes for
podcasts and doing something that is a bit different than what I usually do. The
skill id like to develop a lot more would be editing a longer podcast and adding in
things like sound affects and using cameras to record it aswell. I have the right
skills to do this I would say after the two years I have been on the course so that
is something I think could develop my skills.
• BBC. (2021). Podcasting: What do I need to know?. [Online]. BBC. Available at: https://www.bbc.com/academy-
guides/podcasting-what-do-i-need-to-know/ [Accessed 24 May 2023].
• Daniel Larson. (2020). Podcasting Made Simple: The Step by Step Guide on How to Start a Successful Podc.
England: Independently published. p.all.

29. What personal attributes could you develop to
ensure you are working at a professional level?
• There are many personal attributes I could develop to ensure I am working
at a professional level. The biggest attribute I would have to develop if I
were to go and work at a professional level would have to be improving
time management, I have mentioned this in many slides before but this is
the biggest thing as if I were to work at a professional level I would need to
hand things in on time and on the deadline when it is set otherwise I
wouldn’t end up working at the professional level if I wasn’t able to hand
pieces of work in on time. That would have to be the biggest personal
attribute I would need to work on. Another attribute I would develop
would have to be knowing what level of creativity I can work at, this mean
sort of understanding what I am actually capable of in terms of making
projects.