For this exercise, I drafted a sample excerpt for a podcast stemming from the Substack blog my partner, Sarah, and I are putting together. The podcast and blog, called Split/Screen, revolves around discussion of media, usually video games and film, within the context of friendship and cooperative play. For this sample episode, I imagined a discussion of psychic detective-fiction focusing on discussion of Alan Wake II and Longlegs. The podcast opens with some lighthearted banter between my co-host and I. Soon after, theme music plays, consisting of film-sync beeps, the sound of a projector, a vibraphone jingle, and some glitchy 8-bit percussion. Being a podcast about both games and film, there are sound effects pointing to both throughout the theme music. The vibraphone jingle, composed and recorded by my friend and collaborator Michael Mortilla, creates a classy through-line to unite the sound effects. The theme music fades out, giving way to some introductory discourse on the scope of the imagined podcast and the topic of the episode.
Image Credits:
Mountain Lake in Camera Lens (Unsplash) by Paul Skorupskas, downloaded from Wikimedia Commons, is licensed in the public domain under CC0 1.0
Amazon Echo Dot (RS03QR) – Motherboard by Raimond Spekking, downloaded from Wikimedia Commons, is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0
Image Edited in Pixlr Editor (cropping, rotating, adding shapes, adding text)
Sound Credits:
Old Main St. by Michael Mortilla is used with permission from the artist
Film Projector Eumig 614 d by Franq, downloaded from Freesound, is licensed under CC BY 4.0
Beep 1000 hz, length of 1 frame to 24-frame/sec code (Film) by Oneiroid State, downloaded from Freesound, is licensed under CC0 1.0
Glitchy Percussion Loop by LeSystemPerv, downloaded from Freesound, is licensed under CC0 1.0
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Wonderful work Craig (and Sarah)!
I truly enjoyed listening to your audio and pairing it with the title cover you created. Every component of your audio felt intentional and perfectly aligned with the podcast’s focus. The audio quality was exceptional, making it sound like a professionally published podcast. It felt like I was listening to two people sharing their opinions in front of a standard dynamic microphone, which is ideal in this context. I also loved your title cover. The photo evokes a sense of diving deep into behind-the-scenes media and technology. I have no recommendations or edits, as you did a fantastic job with the seamless audio transitions. The voices were clear, and the tone was vibrant and lighthearted. Good job! I hope your podcast comes to fruition because I will surely be one of the listeners.
Hi Craig! Wonderful job! I love this theme, it is very unique and seems to match your personality. I enjoyed that you had a co-host as well, the banter added a bit more fun into the audio. I did notice that the first bit that your partner said appeared to lack fluidity which distracted me a touch, consider re-recording that portion to maintain clarity. The audio was clear and did not appear to be muffled at any point. I loved the sound effects and how they tied into the theme of the podcast. The image you created is on theme and I like how it plays off of the title. Overall the script seemed natural and entertaining, nice work!
Hello Craig! This was a wonderfully produced and polished podcast intro. I love that you had another person as a co-host, as it feels more like a conversation among friends than one person talking about their favorite topic. The audio was clear and had such fun sound effects. The image you selected subtly nods to the podcast’s deep dives into various media. Overall, this seems like a fun podcast filled with banter and laughter. Excellent work!