Blog #1 – 10/10/2017
Today’s meeting with Aasiya has helped me develop my ideas a bit more and help me pick which one I will prefer to do.
I had three ideas I was interested in. The difficulty was picking which one to develop for the project:
| Idea | Company for Commission | Development |
| The process of clearing out the home of a person who has passed | Cruse Bereavement Care | A journey of how the charity help people in situations where a family member is sorting out the belongings of someone who has died. Following a real life story of someone sorting through someones belongings. Story led, montage of interviews. |
| Riding for the disabled | RDA (Riding for the Disabled Association) | Going to one stables where riding for the disabled is offered. Interview some of the clients and the staff that work at the stables and members of staff for the RDA. Presenter led. |
| ‘Getting to know you’ for new bands | The Guardian? They do a ‘new band of the week’ article.
Soundcheque? |
Interviewing and getting to know new up and coming bands, based on a podcast series. |
I am more drawn to the new band podcast idea, because it’s easier to get in contact with people and it is a more fun piece for me to create. I was asking some people their opinion on my ideas and people mostly said the new bands idea was easier to create and would be a fun piece and can actually be developed in to a podcast series if I wanted to. The other ideas weren’t completed frowned upon, however it would be difficult to find people who would be willing to talk about personal and emotional matters, and it would also be difficult to interview people who could possibly have speech impairments and would be at an age where they would need parental permission to be involved with the piece of audio – this would be time consuming and I have a limited time to create this piece of audio.
References
- http://www.soundcheque.com/
- http://www.rda.org.uk/
- https://www.cruse.org.uk/
Blog #2 – 24/10/2017
I did slightly change my idea over the past two weeks. I stuck with the band idea, however, I changed the company who I want to commission my idea. There is a record shop in Kingston called Banquet Records and they hold various shows for customers in venues around Kingston. I thought it would be a good idea to offer them the chance to have a podcast that involves interviewing the bands and artists that perform through Banquet Records and then people can listen to them after going to a concert, or listen if they couldn’t go to a concert. Banquet Records don’t do any podcasts so I thought this would be a good idea to ‘fill a gap’ in their business. I firstly sent an email because they have previously been good at replying in a short space of time, however, have not yet had a response. I called up their shop in Kingston and the member of staff advised me to email again as the manager could just be really busy. Since then I have sent another email and if I do not get a response by Friday, I will work on finding another commission (I do have other companies in mind for commission).
For the rest of the week, I will be rewriting my pitch (as I previously wrote one for a different idea) and getting a commission.
Blog #3 – 07/10/2017
The past two weeks have been quite stressful. I have been going through with the Heathrow Special Needs Centre idea and called them last week to see if they had received my email. The lady on the phone said they had and passed it on to the secretary, who was unfortunately on holiday so took a while to get back to me. During this time I carried on planning out the idea and coming up with a backup idea in case HSNC did not want me to commission my idea. Eventually, I had a call from him this week and he was keen on my idea. I sent him my pitch and details of the project and what I wanted to do to make the piece of audio for HSNC, and this has been passed on to the management team and potential interviewees. The secretary said there are many people who would be interested in being interviewed and suggested if I want clients to be involved in my piece of audio that I make sure I have parent/ carer permission in order to interview them if they are young.
I have created a parent/ carer form in case I will need their permission to interview people who are younger. Now that I have had a reply from HSNC, I am excited to start recording. My plan is to go to the centre and interview staff, volunteers and clients. In preparation for this, I have written out a list of potential questions and mentioned in my pitch that I can send the questions in advance for those that want to be interviewed. As part of the audio, I have also said in my pitch I would like to go around the centre and record people and myself taking part in the activities (horse riding, gardening, and animal care).
Meanwhile, I still have a backup idea in case this idea falls through, which will not be as exciting as this idea, but it is always good to have a backup.
My meeting with Aasiya last week was very helpful and it gave me some useful ideas, as there is not long to go until the deadline. I am now feeling more confident about this project and I look forward to producing it.
Blog #4 – 21/11/2017
On Thursday, I am going to the Heathrow Special Needs Centre to record the interviews. For definite, I have 5 interviewees. I’m hoping I will be able to speak to some of the disabled people there, but I have been told they may feel uncomfortable talking to a microphone. I have written some questions in case I can speak to them.
I am going there tomorrow to meet some of the interviewees beforehand and will be sending questions tomorrow to the interviewees to make sure they are OK to answer them.