Podcast!

10/27/2023 

    The class has moved on to yet another topic, this project is all about sound. My class was tasked to team up into groups and make our own original podcast! Once again I partnered with Hannah and Paris and we already had many ideas to play with. We ultimately went with a paranormal ghost stories podcast since we all enjoy that content. We were very much inspired by BuzzFeed Unsolved and wanted to capture the same kind of banter between two hosts where one is a skeptic and the other is a believer in the paranormal. My favorite part of the process was writing the script and building on the characters we created. I think our group overall thrives with the comedy genre and I am excited to try out the genre in other forms of media. We also learned about some conventions of podcasts such as adverts embedded into the podcast and sound devices such as stings. We tried to include these techniques to mimic a professional podcast as much as possible. Learning how to work Adobe Audition was a bit of a learning curve but after a couple YouTube tutorials, I got the hang of it. I really liked how you could lay everything out and layer different audio together, it made the whole process easier. I would like to say for our first time recording and editing, we did pretty well but there will always be room for improvement. Muffling unwanted noise without muffling the main audio is something I would like to improve on before our big mid-term project. If you want to read an in-depth take on the process of making the podcast here is a link to my reflection on the assignment Podcast Reflection. Also, I attached a video of the podcast, feel free to take a listen, I hope you enjoy it!

Activity 2.3 Case Study

 10/03/2023

    Another day in class, another assignment. Today I finished a case study on camera shots and how they affect the meaning, tone, and atmosphere of a scene. Mr. Z told us to pick a movie or TV show so I of course picked the show that is my latest obsession, "Good Omens." If you have not watched it I highly recommend it but I did pick the last episode of season 1 to analyze so if you have not seen it I will be covering some details that might spoil the show so fair warning. We only had to do the opening of the episode and I picked the last episode of season one since the main character, Crowley, is seen in this show's version of Hell facing trial. For some context, Crowley is a demon who has been working with an angel, Aziraphale, to stop the end of the world. The other demons in Hell found out and put him on trial for treason. With this case study, we had to list out the shots used and I did have some trouble putting a label on some shots since some were almost combinations of different types of shots. With some help from Mr. Z however, I think I was able to label them fairly well, and with more practice at differentiating the shots, I am sure I will improve. We also went over in class specifically how angles play into meaning and characterization. This is used heavily in "Good Omens" where people who have high status are usually shot using low-angle shots to show power and those who are at their mercy are shown in high-angle shots to show how they are in a lesser position of power. So far I really enjoy these case studies where I get to pick a show or movie and get the chance to take a deeper look into them; it further deepens my appreciation for the work. Anyway, here is a link to my case study (Activity 2.3 Develop a Case Study.docx) if you would like to see what I thought of the camera techniques used!