Silver Arts Award Leadership

Silver Arts Award Leadership

For the Silver Arts Award Leadership I have been asked to produce something as a group and will each have a role to perform with our own skills and techniques for that role. 

What is your Project about?

My project is about a piece of sound design/audio that I will be doing in a group of 3 including me. The project is a podcast about a spin off on Cowboy's vs aliens, and has been called Cowboy's vs Cats - with Owen Colby and Sarah Lemmon.

Action Plan

Owen - Will be directing us on what we will have to do, at different stages and our roles.

Sarah - Will be making the script for people to read on the podcast. 

Me - I will be editing the podcast and adding sound effects. 

This is the evidence of the action planning and pre-production to do before actually making the project.

Minutes of the Meeting for the Arts Leadership project Jan 12 2015

Those present: 

Owen Colby, Sarah Lemmon and myself

Agenda: 

The purpose of this group discussion is to follow the action plan and get technical with the equipment needed to make the project.

Aims of the project: 

to research other podcasts and other researches as well as practicing with the microphones.

Planning and resources needed: 

What we will need is access to Google to research podcasts as well as how to work Adobe Audition as well as what the special effects do.

Contributions required for each member

Owen: To practice with the microphones and make sure everyone is doing what they should be doing. 

Sarah: Research other types of podcasts and what they entail

Liam: To research how to use Adobe Audition and what makes a good podcast.

Key Stages of the project will be:

Making sure that we get all the pre-production done as well as booking out the equipment for the day we need to use it. As well as finding a room that is suitable to record and work in, that will be quiet with no disturbances.

On the day of production, get prepared for the day, testing the microphone to see if it works and getting things ready in the room that we are recording in.

After recording making sure we get it onto the computer ASAP so that if the microphone dies we won't lose all of the files and recordings we have.

When we edit, make sure we do a good job. Then get it sent off for the tutor/teacher to see what he makes of it, as well as seeing if it needs tweaking before we properly finish.

Review of my leadership project so far:

The planning of the project so far has been going really well. We have all put some great ideas towards the table for this project, with researching other podcasts that we have seen and listened to so that we could plan out what would be said on the Podcast. I have been helping others in my group with what they needed to do, like Owen had to work the microphones, and as we had never used them before, needed help with simple things like switching it on and off, pausing and playing, clicking record. Things like that, then we could actually practice using the mics and see how they would play out on the screen. 

Also we are doing really well with getting things in on time, doing everything with effort and perseverance making sure that everything is done properly and not rushing work. So far we are working really well as a group. 

What skills I need to be improved?

Good time management skills

So I'll need to make sure that I am keeping up with everyone else in the group, especially if I miss a lesson, and making sure all stages of this project are completed on time.

Working as A Team

This means making sure everyone gets on okay, and being able to communicate with others to see who needs to catch up and finish they're work on time, helping one another with bits and bobs, and help each-other finish for the deadlines. 

My leadership skills for the project:

Communication skills

Communication skills within the group, this means that when we get decided on the planning and what roles we will be taking, we will have to make a point towards one another and make sure everyone knows what they're doing and what they need help on or making sure we hit the deadlines.

Working as a Team

When working together in this group, we will have to be able to get on with one another and be able to come to a decision, making ideas and passing them around to one another - and at the end of planning making sure we all have an idea of what we are doing. 

Time Management

How we were set for time, was each time we either planned out what we were going to do, the production of the podcast and finally the editing of the podcast. So we had a sort of agreement of a sort as to each session we had for the Arts award, we had to finish something at a set time. 

My own responsibility for the project is by being in charge of the editing and special effects/sound effect usage. This will mean deciding on what bits of the podcast we should cut down and what effects and sounds I should add to the podcast, as well as some input from Owen on what theme song should be used. 
This means that I will have to get to grips with editing a podcast in Adobe Audition and inserting different sounds, and the time frame that we would have to do each section of the audio. 

I will need to follow the instructions given to me by the Director (Owen) - which wont be difficult as me and Owen have a great friendship. We will have to make sure we work as a team and that everyone knows what needs to be done. As well as letting people know what they need to catch up on and if so help them if they miss a day. A thing I need to work on is that I need to get more organized and make sure that all my planning and pre-production is in order before we begin the production of the podcast. The easiest part for me will be the communication in the group as we get on really well and the finding good sound effects. The hardest part will be the recording of the podcast as, I've always found that challenging.

Review of my leadership project so far:

During this time I have developed my communication and team working skills more so, as we followed each others instructions on what we were upto. I also finally got the chance to work with recording other voice clips to practice editing and inserting effects. Unfortunately I don't have the files to show this, but hopefully with the finishing of this project people will be able to see how well I have done. I have taken an interest into editing more so than before, because I love the technical side of playing around with different settings and seeing how it would pan out afterwards. This should help me in the future ahead. I had learnt how to get things much quicker and how things would work out as I researched how to use Audition and what other features it has hidden away. I also made sure everything was okay with what they had to do. 

Research on other Podcasts

Above is a podcast from a artist called Monstercat who records his music as he makes it. His genre is mainly Electronic. 

Stages of the Making of the Podcast

Here I am importing the files to create the video, this all the effects and the recordings we had done. 

Here I am inserting each of the recordings with each-other. These were recordings we did in a separate room from everyone else, as the recording studio already had people in. 

This is the finished product, with all the edits done to it and sound effects added. Effects that were in the podcast were things like a ice blast sound effect, the 'dun-dun-dun' sound effect and the tune of Nyan Cat.

When I had finished it I had listened to it, proof reading it so to speak making sure everything was alright. When listening to it, I was proud of what I had produced and so did the others in my team.

Review of my leadership skills so far:

I have been helping Sarah and Owen work the microphones so that I could edit, as they didnt know if the recordings had saved. As I was editing the podcast because I came into a problem with the recordings as the sound that I had downloaded wouldn't slot into Audition, so instead of asking the teacher I took it into my own initiative to either finding another track or finding out how to convert the file so that it would be able to go into the recording as I edited.

So that you can listen to it here is the podcast below, seen as Podomatic isn't working 

https://soundcloud.com/liam-mathias-jamison/cowboys-mixdown