Audio Documentary Project

Audio Documentary Project/Podcast
(much of this assignment was originally created by Nancy Burnett at SUNY Oneonta)

Project requirements:

The Pitch

Your first step is to create a proposal. Each assignment should benefit you. Choose a genre and the context for your podcast and ask yourself the following questions:

Who is your audience?
Who are you going to interview (if appropriate)?
Why is your audience interested?
What makes up your competition? Who produces shows like yours, radio and elsewhere?
What are their strengths and weaknesses, and how do you plan to improve on what they do?
How long should your podcast be?
How would your provide access to your podcast?
How would you solicit advertising for your podcast? How does it fit into a business plan?

Write a pitch (10-12 pt Times New Roman, 1000-2400 words) that answers these questions for your podcast. You must receive approval for your interviewee, if you have one. Once accepted, you may not change your subject without prior, written/emailed permission from your instructor. Your assignment must be delivered on time or it may not be accepted.

The Show

It may be on any subject, but please check with your instructor for clearance of your pitch before beginning in earnest.
Time limit: at least five minutes and not more than 20 minutes.
You may include all or some of the following: interviews, narration, natural sound, sound effects, and music.
Use Audacity or record in the Digital Media Lab.

The Commercial

Detailed guidelines for your commercial, which each student will create on their own, can be found here
You will need to integrate the commercials into your podcast.
Though in practice, your commercials should match your show's audience, it's okay in this case if they don't mix.
Resources:

Grading:

Deliverables -- Each should be emailed to your instructor

Your pitch.
Your podcast in mp3 format.
Your podcast's script.
Your commercial's script.

The first three can be emailed from a group leader, but everyone should email their individual commercial script to your instructor separately.

Points to be graded

Clear, engaging tone.
Quality editing.
Professional touches that signal the start and end of your podcast (music, clear title, clear introductions, etc).
Obvious mastery of the subject matter. (Do not offend your interview subject!*)
Adherence to the quantitative metrics of the assignment (fonts, bit rates, length, etc).
A sense of story (beginning and an end, some sense of movement) [SUNY]
Something that’s interesting to hear [SUNY]
Be ready to compare your finished product to the competition that you identified as part of your pitch document!

Timeline [SUNY]:

Week 1

Tues: Write out a list of story ideas, interviewees, questions for interviewees, ideas for music, natural sound, SFX.
Contact interviewees, set up interviews, sign out equipment, record interviews.

Thurs: Pitch due Thursday at midnight.
Complete interviews, select music and sound effects. Begin editing interviews.

Week 2

Tues: Edit interviews and write script.

Thurs: Record narration. Make the final selection of interview cuts, natural sound, and music in the order you want them.

Week 3

Tues: Complete final project

Thurs: Project due.

Burn an audio CD of your project. You can use iTunes to do this with a wav file or an mp3.

Resources:

Free sound effects
Royalty free music

Audacity for Windows as a zip file (useful for class workstations)
Audacity for Mac OS X