The prototyping stage of the DA was hard to get off the ground. After trying to adapt the podcast to make it more suitable to a wide range of audiences, the recording of our actual podcast was delayed, putting us in a bigger rush and just making the task generally harder. I do agree with the notion that “in many respects prototyping is a key element of the media making process, as all previous stages are validated by the encounter with reality generated in this stage.” as I feel this stage was ‘make or break’ for our podcast (thankfully resulting in the latter).
A Coffee With…
A YouTube audio-visual podcast which allows an insight into everyday people’s lives, all over a cup of coffee.
There’s also Instagram (@a.coffee.with) and Twitter (@ACoffeeWith1) accounts to support the DA, which we’ve tried to use to get feedback and engagement.
We originally tried 2 directions with our podcast – a serious one and a more relaxed and laid-back approach. After deliberations and feedback from friends, we decided the later was a better option for the type of podcast we originally intended on making and so that’s what we decided to go with.
Our first idea was a podcast where we debate current topics (e.g. politics, currents affairs etc.) called DEBATABLE. We made one rough draft for it to see if it was a good idea or not as we were told to think about changing our idea after our project pitch. We used this to help us get comfortable with the equipment and the process of making and publishing a podcast.
We then made a draft episode for what turned into A Coffee With… featuring just Adam and I so we could introduce the episode and get to know the hosts. This was shown to a few friends and colleagues to see what their thoughts were on it.
The positive response we received indicated that we had a podcast that was ready to be remade. This idea is that the interview runs for around the same time you’d catch up with a coffee for. We also plan on making the interviewees a point of interest for our listeners rather than just a side thought, so the viewers get a better look into the lives of these people. Check the first episode here.
We decided to explore a range of different platforms and see what ones would be suitable for our podcast. These were the options;
- Soundcloud
- Youtube
- iTunes
- Spotify
- Podbean
The idea to use YouTube was due to ease of use, familiarity, popularity and the fact that it’s free to upload content. We also had an idea to use video in our task as we constantly found ourselves going to our computers for info so we decided to look into screen recordings to help give viewers a clearer idea of what we’re talking about. The three best recorders we could find were:
https://screencast-o-matic.com/screen-recorder
https://www.bandicam.com/free-screen-recorder/
https://www.apowersoft.com/free-online-screen-recorder
Our prototyping stage didn’t involve much work as we had a solid foundation from the previous podcast but we did have to change a few things. We also encountered problems with the audio where it would only record to the right channel which took time to solve and then we had issues with audio disappearing.
.
How am I meant to fix this????
Luckily though we got past both those problems in time.
Another change we had to make along with the name was a new logo.
Our new and improved logo….
Although I like branching out to other social media platforms to try to engage with our audience, we’ve found it’s been hard to get any real, solid interaction. This may be because of our delays, which put us behind other DA’s and made it harder to break through.
I think this DA has taught us both a lot about the need to FEFO (Fail Early, Fail Often) as it may have helped make our project easier. I think the fact that we’ve been scared to gain feedback from complete strangers has also been a weak point, as it’s easy to get feedback from friends but we may not have gotten as good feedback.
What’s next?
We’ve recorded quite a bit of content and intended to continue releasing episodes weekly. We’re both excited to continue making our podcast but we’re still trying to work out how we can edit it better, to get a more professional feel to it.
Making
We originally started the podcast, after our pitch, as a podcast debating current issues but found problems with originality and getting ideas for guests.
Breaking
We knew after our project pitch that we needed to change the type of podcast we were making so we decided to take the elements we liked (the podcast, guests, short) and implemented new things we liked to it (laid-back feel, wide topic range).
Remaking
By the end of week 7, we had transitioned it into A Coffee With…, a podcast focused on the idea of getting to meet and interview someone similar to how you’d meet over a coffee, a casual chat with them learning new things. We like the idea because it allows us to get to a look into someone’s life without the traditional podcast questions.
BTS
Our Logic Pro X work station
Heres a few of our logos we tried out during the process.
Hamish Stephen 
Hi Hamish! First of all, I love the originality of your podcast idea, as I haven’t seen any being made as DA’s in my tutorial. This is a good thing because there is obviously a gap in the market where your podcast can meet audience needs/wants. Creating a successful podcast is a difficult thing, especially starting as new creators. However, there are two things that you can focus on to get ‘A Coffee With…’ up and running after a difficult prototyping stage. The first is focusing on consistency going in to the making stage. The nature of the podcast audience is that they love consistency, knowing that their routine won’t be broken by their favourite commuting podcast not uploading that day, or week. This source may be useful to you, as it emphasises consistency as being key to a successful podcast! (http://podcastengineers.com/blogs/consistency-key-your-podcast-show-success) I have struggled with consistency in my DA progress, but once you begin a work flow and audience feedback loop is up and running, it is easier to find yourself motivated for the next content upload. To do this, building an audience is the main focus. Collaborating with podcasts who create similar content or messages, utilising shoutouts or collaborations, is a really effective way to build an audience who is interested in listening to your podcast. On Twitter, I have implemented a follow for follow system that has been really successful in building followers, maybe you could attempt this with your twitter account. Can’t wait to see where this Podcast goes! Best of luck!
-Elise 🙂
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Love the podcast idea! I would very much enjoy listening to this type of podcast. Your aspects and structure are very similar to what I already enjoy and believe that it could be a very success model for you. I agree with using Youtube as a platform to upload content, as it is very easy to work and free to upload. In future, if you wish to upload your content to iTunes I suggest using BuzzSprout as a provider, I am already on this platform and find it easy to navigate.
https://www.buzzsprout.com
If you wish to persue in creating more podcasts I suggest getting equipment from Amazon.com.au
https://www.amazon.com.au/Abeststudio-Continuous-chromakey-Backdrops-Equipment/dp/B07B98PHF5/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1538111435&sr=8-10&keywords=lighting
I have found this equipment reliable, portable and easy to use.
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I like the idea of this podcast and good work on the new logo. I don’t listen to many podcasts but I would if I found more that focus on the lives of people such as this one. With getting feedback maybe asking questions at the end of the podcast could be a way to get people to respond back to you on your preferred social media platform or through email. If you say what way people should contact you at the end of the podcast maybe people will be more likely to interact with you. If you have tried this, get onto to promoting the podcast more on social media even using a Facebook account for it, updating listeners it could get you some feedback. Hopefully all that is helpful and keep up it up.
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