Prone as we are to hours of screen time watching our favourite shows on streaming services, one thing is for sure, we are attuned to the craftmanship involved to create these. There are lessons to be learnt from this area of media which broaches from design thinking to give shape to stories.
For some it could have been to pad their bathroom window with a sound absorbing old blanket, whilst others took to using a closet full of clothes as makeshift studio. These DIY methods became common place for the novice podcaster, who scoured the net for 'How to' videos to get handle on the best possible audio product without the benefit of a high end recording studio. This is when strict lockdowns due to COVID-19 were rampant two years ago. Out of the innate human capacity to create during this time of inactivity, many of us plunged down rabbit holes to learn about free editing software in order to give this experience of lo-fi audio storytelling a booster jab.
Given the reality that podcasting is a long game, meaning it necessitates many tries, joins and breaks and a fair bit of tinkering for a beginner to eventually find her voice and some decent traction; many threw in the towel mid-stream when faced with the idea of such commitment. For those that have stayed the course, the realisation is that the slew of failures – bad audio, over performance or the inability to crack editing – have been an important part of the experience. The journey that involves trials programs the creator to start learning how to better prepare and essentially apply design thinking in their process, whether they are aware of it or not.
Design thinking is a method that involves producing an early, inexpensive, and scaled down version of the product in order to reveal any problems with the current or future design. This offers designers the opportunity to bring their ideas to life, test the practicality of the current design, and to potentially investigate how a sample of users think and feel about a product.
For the audio story teller, a well crafted shape of the story is not only an area where design thinking should occur consciously, but also the trump card for a win in the face of an ultra low budget.
A narrative arc : 'Getting into shape'
The scripting process in order to shape the structure of an episode is largely a function of determining what the story needs rather than its forecast. This awareness engenders the idea of working backwards rather than assuming that the job is done after jotting down a few talking points as would be the case in many interview styled formats in the market.
The difference between holding the attention of a listener, who more than likely consumes torrents of highly produced story lines on streaming platforms, and paddling a monologue or dead panned interview without any form of layering, is a killer.
Tips to get ahead
Record the interview and then script afterwards : it is useful to view an interview as just raw material to dissect and later reconfigure. This requires a listen of the raw material and then applying an editorial process of punctuating memorable moments with added scripted lines/linkage, sound effects as the piece requires.
The first three episodes experiment : creators can easily hop from one genre to another – interview, documentary or experimental styled – during the safety period of the first three episodes. These initial efforts, akin to design thinking, are put in place to test what works for a podcast and most of all enable the discovery of 'voice' or a comfortable style. Determining the shape of a season and these episodes through scripting is at its most ambitious here.
The three act structure is a limitation : nimble as podcasting is, the idea of creating a structure that's foregrounded according to a crude beginning, middle and end limits the creative process. The world of audio has the capacity to carry endless joins and breaks that wouldn't typically resonate in visual media. The story's shape is able to peak , flat line and slump at any given time to give momentum. Most of all, not all stories should resolve neatly. It's all about what the story needs.
And of course....
Here are some faves we've enjoyed listening to recently. We didn't only enjoy these podcasts for their experimental yet accessible nature, but also how dope their narrative structures are.
Made you listen : Three picks
1) Short Cuts on BBC Sounds. Episode : 'Past Tense'
A daughter’s decades-long search for her father who went missing as a political prisoner in South Africa. The episode Features Nombulelo Booi and Madeleine Fullard, with translation by Thenjiwe Kona. Produced by Catherine Boulle and Bongani Kona.
This piece is part of a larger, ongoing documentary project by Catherine and Bongani titled Time, Paper, Bone about the work of the Missing Persons Task Team, and the exhumation of James Booi’s remains. The project won the 2021 Whickers Radio and Audio Funding Award
2) The Zig Zag Project
Manoush Zamorodi experiments with six steps (and episodes) to map out a path that aligns your personal values with your professional ambitions.
3) S**t Hole Country
This personal journal follows a Ghanaian American woman who goes by the pseudonym Afia Kaakyire as she navigates a huge life choice during a recent trip to visit her parents in Ghana: Should she stay in America or build a new life in a homeland she isn’t entirely familiar with?