Blog Post One

For my Digital Entrepreneurship audio project, my initial idea is to create a piece of promotional audio in the form of a feature about the importance of dog rehoming centres. I would like to create a piece of audio that explains how volunteering, fostering, donations, and rehoming are all very important for animal welfare.

This topic is also very important to me as all the dogs I have ever had have been rehomed from centres, charities, and even people who can no longer take care of them. I have seen first hand the benefits and importance of rehoming, but I would like to create a piece for people who maybe don’t understand as much or for those interesting in rehoming over buying a dog. The charity/rehoming centre I have in mind is RATS animal rescue charity in the Bedford area because it’s where my family rehomed our newest dog from. Throughout this piece I would like to interview the people who work at the rehoming centre, volunteers, people who have fostered, and someone who either had rehomed, or is looking to rehome a dog.

RATS animal rescue charity so far doesn’t have any videos or audio on their website which means there is a place for my audio if they want to use it. So far the research I have done consists of gathering statistics based around animal welfare and dog rescue and rehoming.

I have contacted RATS rehoming centre to see if they would like to commission me to create audio for them for free so I just need to wait for a reply. Until then I will continue researching other rehoming centres if RATS decline my offer.

Blog Post Two

Last week RATS rehoming centre emailed me to say that they have decided to commission my audio piece which is great news. I am currently waiting for the chairman of RATS to contact me as he is keen to get involved with the audio.
I have decided to create five, four minute episodes each focusing on a different topic. The topics will be as follows: Volunteering, Fostering, Rehoming, Donations, and a bonus episode which will be a rehoming success story.
The next step is to start coming up with interview questions and writing my presenter scripts for each episode.

Last week in class I also wrote the pitch for my audio idea that I need to submit with my audio piece. In order to help me write this and come up with some inspiration for my audio piece I decided to listen to a few adverts and podcasts to give me an idea of how long I want the audio to be, what I want it to sound like etc,.

These are some of the audio pieces and videos I listened/watched to gain inspiration from:

• Pawprint Animal Rescue Podcast – Episode 27: Your animal rescue story
  https://soundcloud.com/thisispawprint/27-lauren-hauptman-ezra-your-animal-rescue-story
  This one is how I would like my bonus episode to sound. I really liked how they let the guest tell their story without interrupting them; however, they did ask a few questions throughout. This was quite literally a story being told, as the episode title would suggest, and I enjoyed it.
• Mentalhealth.org.uk Podcast: OCD Podcast
  https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/podcasts-and-videos/oh-im-so-ocd-challenging-myths-around-obsessive-compulsive-disorder
  Although this podcast doesn’t have any relevance in topic, I did like the interview treatment and the interviewer/interviewee relationship.
• Dogs Trust Video: Fostering Scheme
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5PzU4poTnk
  Whilst it’s not strictly audio, this video actually inspired me to create an episode surrounding fostering. I like the mixture of narration and interviews and this is how I would like to make my mini episodes. This videos is also both informative and promotional for Dogs Trust which is what I would like my audio mini-series to be for RATS rehoming centre.

Blog Post Three

Over the last two weeks I have been emailing the Chairman of RATS, Ivan, and the Secretary, Philippa. We have decided that it would be best to have a meeting prior to recording the audio to ensure we all know what will happen on the day, who I will be interviewing, and overall how they want it to sound. I am meeting with Ivan and Philippa on Sunday 12th November for the meeting, and then recording the audio the following weekend on Sunday 19th November. With that being said, I am aiming to record the audio for my ‘bonus episode’ where I will be interviewing someone about their rehoming success story this weekend. That way I will be able to edit that audio and hopefully have that episode finished for when I record the next lot of interviews.

Leading up to this meeting I have been looking for music beds for my episodes. So far I have found four music beds that I think will fit well with the audio pieces; however, I’d like to find at least eight pieces just in case. I have also started drafting a few questions for each topic; however, I haven’t got a definitive list yet as I will need to find out what RATS want to talk about in the audio this weekend. I will take the draft questions I have with me to show them to ensure I am on the right track and then add to them when I know what they want.

I have also started to think about what my narration will sound like for each episode and how I’m going to introduce each topic. This week I will start writing the narration for the ‘bonus episode’ and then after I’ve recorded the interview, edit it if I need to and then record the narration the next week.

Blog Post Four

In the last two weeks I have managed to record all of my audio, roughly edit two of the episodes, and write and records two narrations.

When I went to RATS Rehoming Centre on Sunday 12th November I was able to record 7 interviews for my audio episodes. I interviewed different people based on their expertise for each episode and managed to get around 30 mins of audio in total.

Since recording the audio just over a week ago, I have made a rough cut of my bonus episode regarding a success story, and a rough cut of the fostering episode. I have been writing the narrations as I’ve been editing to ensure the audio flows, and I need to finish recording the narrations before I can start making tweaks for the final episodes.

I still have 3 episodes left to edit, write narrations for, and make into a rough cut. I think I am on track with my progress as I still have just over 3 weeks before the deadline.

I am aiming to have at least 2 more episodes made into a rough cut by the end of the week, and then next week I can edit my final episode and have them all as ready rough cuts. This will then give me around 2 weeks to tweak them and ensure they are the best I can possibly make them for the deadline.

Blog Post Five

I have finished editing all five of episodes and made them in rough-cuts. I’ve spent the last two weeks coming into uni to edit my episodes, write the narrations, record them, and then put them into my episodes. At this point I just need to play Aasiya my rough-cuts so she can tell me where I need to improve.

This last week before deadline I need to focus on making any improvements to each episode and making sure they sound as best as they can. I also need to finish the written elements of this assignment and ensure they are ready to post by the time the audio is all finished.

I am aiming to have my audio completely finished and uploaded by this weekend as I like to have my assignments uploaded before the deadline. From then I can begin focusing on the essay and finding academic sources to use.

Blog Post Six

So I managed to have all my audio edited and finished by Friday, which gave me enough time to upload and start on the written element.

The main feedback I got was to make Episode 2: Volunteering not sound as dry, so I added some sound effects and mixed the music a bit more. I also made sure to put in Episode 1 where RATs rehoming centre is to avoid confusion for listeners. I have tried to build upon the feedback and make each episode sound as best as it can.

I also got someone else to listen to, as a fresh pair of ears, just to see if I’d missed anything, if the music was levels were a bit off and everything seemed to be fine. I mixed down my audio and began uploading it onto SoundCloud on Friday night. During this upload process I began doing the written elements which involved me pasting my pitch into a document, adding in a photo of permission to do the commission, and other things such as photos and a tweet. I found this part pretty straightforward, the only thing I struggled with for a bit was coming up with a cue and a back anno.

I submitted my audio onto the blog along with the written elements on Sunday and I was so pleased that the past 10 weeks of work was finished and ready for people to listen to.

This project was a challenge, but overall I did enjoy it as it gave me a chance to do something different to plain interviews.