I’m going to try my best to approach making the show in a more playful way. A change in creative position or approach.
Full Show Notes: https://www.thejaymo.net/2023/10/08/301-2332-in-a-playful-way/
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In A Playful Way
One of the things I would like to do one day is make a full length narrative podcast or series. You know the type. The sort of show that opens with some nice arpeggio’s plinking underneath the host whilst they are speaking.
They won’t go on for too long. But the music is there to signal to the listener that this is the intro. The musical accompaniment underscores that the person speaking is friendly and approachable.
Usually they’ll go on to talk about what the show is about and what you have to look forward to in the rest of the episode. The arpeggios usually stop when the host finishes their spiel.
In this example the host uses the natural gap to deepen their connection with the listener. The lack of background music gives emphasis to the personal remark, or anecdote that’s going to come next. Maybe there’s a little sound effect thrown in to hold your attention too.
I’m a little nervous about scoring this show after I’ve recorded the voice over lines, as I have no idea how much effort it’s going to be.
Now that the host and listener are acquainted and have built some rapport with the help of the musical cues, we can move on. A show that’s being super obvious about its scoring will now use a cheap trick to influence people’s emotions. Reality TV does it a lot. Married at First Sight Australia is the worst offender.
So now we should have some kind of lush synth pad fade in. And there’ll be a little bit of silence from the host after it begins to let the new mood settle in. This gap is important as they are going to change the subject.
This host has turned his mind back to podcasting in recent weeks. Perhaps it’s the fresh start to season 10, or maybe just the sporadic posting and break at the end of season 9. But I realised that I’d like to focus more on the podcast. The audio I mean.
I’ll speak more about this in episode 250, but I’ve had several mental postures toward the show over the years. At first it was a project about creating something weekly, very fast with discipline. Then it became a container inside of which I was learning how to write. Then I stopped making the show in one hour as it was exhausting, and it then became a space where I could learn how to re-write and self edit. Then I started the video version.
A slight tonal progression now to hold the listeners attention, and indicate something is different.
Two things happened next. The show (in my mind) turned into a container to put ideas into weekly. The by-product of my idea were text, audio and video versions. It became an exercise in workflow.
Secondly I learnt to deal with video files and found a editing style that I liked. I’ve also learnt how to read from an autocue, and still hopefully sound natural. And I’ve tried very hard to not look and feel like a dork in front of a camera. I’ve made 100 video episodes since and comparing the first attempt to the most recent one I’m proud of how far I’ve come.
A show with scoring would fade the synth here marking a transition on to the what’s next section, how about some drums? ….. Nice, yeah, let’s continue
So for Season 10 and beyond, I’ve changed my mind about what all this – the show – is. At least in my mind anyway. I’m back making a podcast once again. The video and text are bonus outputs. I have no idea if anyone will actually notice a change in the show, but for me it feels like a change in creative position or approach. Or in the language of the body – a new poise.
There is so much I’d like to learn about making radio, so much I want to explore with audio.
At some point in the near future I’d like to blow open the walls of the five minute and one second long container. And make some proper radio, explore something bigger, different. Either on my own or with other people.
Anyways, the point is that I’m going to try my best to approach making the show in a playful way. The topics I write on and the things I’m writing about, the things I’m learning how to do, the things I’m trying not to do, I want all of it to feel like play. The main activity is now the making, the doing, the creating. It should all just be play.
(…)
Ah you see, The drums stopped as my point was finished.
Now we need to use some familiar music as an outro.
And I’ll sign off by saying that you can contribute to the creation of future doings from me, and by heading to thejaymo.net/support. As a token of appreciation, you’ll receive a zine in the mail four times a year.
Speak to you all next week.
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