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Oh, hey, look!
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It's a microphone back in my face again.
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And for you, it's the sound of Evo coming into your ears.
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Hello!
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No, it is not yet time for season four of Podcast Pontifications to begin.
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Very close, like really soon it's coming out.
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Like on July, the 12th of 2021.
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That's right!
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I'll be back on July 12th, 2021 with season four of Podcast Pontifications.
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Prior to that, however, I want you to listen to this.
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This is a guest episode of Podcast Pontifications done by Mr.
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York Campbell.
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He's got some things to say, some lessons you can learn from audio drama.
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So give York a listen.
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Hear the three tips he has to say.
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And I'll be back very soon, again, on July 12th, 2021 with brand new episodes
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of Podcast Pontifications Season Four.
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Cheers!
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How Audio Drama Techniques Can Improve Your Podcast
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Hello, and welcome to another Podcast Pontifications with me, York
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Campbell, filling in for Evo Terra.
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I feel that audio dramas - they're like the Rodney Dangerfield of
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podcasting, meaning they get no respect.
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[joke drum sound] I am a podcast writer and also a producer.
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I produce two audio dramas.
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One is called Poetic Earthlings and the other Most Precious Commodity.
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I feel, though, that a lot of podcasters, they don't really
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think too much about audio dramas.
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Whenever you think of podcasting, what first comes to mind?
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Politics, maybe current events, sports, technology, those types of things.
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But you know what?
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Audio dramas, they've been around a very long time.
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It predates even TV.
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You remember those old shows?
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I mean, there's Dragnet, there's Superman.
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They gathered around the radio.
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I'm sure you've seen those pictures before of the old-fashioned huge radio
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and the family is just gathered around it, listening to their favorite shows.
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That's the power of audio dramas.
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Even if you do not write or produce audio dramas, there's
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a lot to be learned from them.
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I'm going to give you three different things.
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The first one is attention to detail.
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Audio dramas, they are obsessed when it comes to detail.
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The sound quality has to be just right.
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The sound effects, the sound bed, and all of the technical
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things are always on point.
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It's never by chance.
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Whenever they produce their show, if there is one word or if there's
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one phrase that's a little bit, not the greatest, they edit it out.
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Too often you hear shows where the announcer sneezes or coughs.
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[coughing sound] A lot of times I hear a show and the cell
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phone rings in the studio.
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[phone ringing sound] Rather than editing out the cell phone or the sneezes,
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the coughs, they just leave it in.
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[sneeze sound] Sounds kind of sloppy, right?
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Doesn't it sound sloppy to you if you hear a host and he's
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just coughing and hacking away?
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Can he at least just take the time and just edit it out?
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Or when you hear a podcaster that's kind of rambling on and on and hopefully
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I'm not one of those podcasters.
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Couldn't she just take the time and just edit out all the rambling?
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Well, that's what the audio drama podcasters - they're
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really good about that.
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They're good at the attention to detail.
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I think that could help us out as well.
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Also, there's direction and focus.
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This is step number two if you're following along.
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Direction and focus is a big thing.
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I can't stand podcasters that get on the microphone and they have
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no idea the direction of the show.
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I don't want to call anyone out, but I was listening to this
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one podcast and I recorded a little bit of a snippet for you.
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I'm just going to play it so that you can see what I'm getting at.
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So here we go.
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[show clip starts] Yo uhh, yo well, welcome to the show.
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Big Jim
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- Yo yo yo!
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He's over there.
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Tiny Jim.
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Yo, Tiny Jim!
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Yeah, man.
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Yeah, whatever.
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[cackle laugh]
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So, we got a show that we're gonna like drop on you today and
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- Yeah, that's right, man.
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Ha!
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We got a show!
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I-Idon't know.
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Like where do you want to take the show?
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Like so many different directions, you know?
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Oh, for real?
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Yeah.
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Uhhh Do you think they'd be interested in that?
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Like, like what about that thing that you and I did last, last weekend?
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Yeah.
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Remember the thing?
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Ha, oh man.
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We can't drop them on that, man.
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I don't know, man.
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Well, yo, i-i-it's up to you.
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Like, okay.
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We got like, like all different topics, right?
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Oh yeah.
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Okay.
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We got so many things.
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But what about the theater thing?
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You know, man?
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Oh, all right.
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Okay.
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So, okay.
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Like what about if we started with a lightning round?
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Do you got that?
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Do you got that cued up, man?
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Do you got that lightning round?
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Hold up.
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Hold up.
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Hold up.
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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Okay.
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Okay.
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Come on.
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Where's that button?
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Where's that button?
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Ahhh.
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Nahhh.
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It's not working.
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Yeah okay, whatever.
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So, okay.
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I guess
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- You know, ahh - man, we could
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We could talk about my, I guess my, my new car that we got - [show clip fades out]
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As you could see, this show lacks direction and focus.
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They have all the energy.
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I like their spunk.
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I like their enthusiasm.
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But when you listen to this show, you have no idea what they're
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going to be talking about.
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Are they going to be talking about a movie that somebody saw?
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I think he said that he went to the theater.
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Are they going to be talking about a new car?
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What is the purpose of the show?
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There's this other show that I used to listen to and the tagline
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is "They talk about everything."
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You can't just talk about everything.
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That's way too vague.
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So the audio dramas, they don't do that.
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They always have a focus.
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Number three on our list is unfolding a story.
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Audio dramas are great for that.
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I mean, it's built right into it.
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It's an audio drama.
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You're listening to a story.
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And the story has intrigue, passion.
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It's like a striptease.
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[catcall whistle sound] It's like an onion, peeling layer after
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layer until you get to the nucleus.
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There's a lot to be learned from listening to a good story.
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In fact, if you want to be a very good podcaster, doesn't matter the
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genre that you're in, listen to an audio trauma, a very good one.
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See how they bring you in with a good story.
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They don't reveal everything upfront, but they lay breadcrumbs for you to follow.
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When you get there, when you get to the end it's always satisfying.
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So that's about it.
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What we need to do is we need to pay attention to detail, direction and
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focus, and also unfolding a story.
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If you want to check out my stories, I produce two shows, Poetic Earthlings,
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and also Most Precious Commodity.
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You can go to my website poeticearthlings.com.
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Evo will be back in July, 2021 with yet another Podcast Pontifications.
