Despite having no children to listen with, I’ve recently stormed through the catalogue of creation stories pulled together on In The Beginning. The show is made with children in mind (and with children in the cast!) and children will enjoy the playful way of connecting to other cultures through the sound design, acting and storytelling. But Producers Lucia Scazzocchio and Hawa Khan have created a show that is also perfect for adults wanting a light-hearted snippet of global culture in their podcast playlists.

I sent some questions over to Lucia to find out more about how the team pulled this show together…

What were the origins of this podcast – take us back to the Beginning of the show!

In the Beginning… Hawa Khan my co-writer/producer and I created a new family audio tour for the Tower of London where historical events are experienced through the eyes of two child ghosts. We had so much fun writing and producing together that we decided we would like to something else. Hawa is a natural storyteller and we are quite passionate about traditional stories and myths. We both come from quite mixed backgrounds and realised that many of these stories aren’t that well known in the UK. We wanted to tell these stories in a way that fully represented multi-cultural Britain in voices and styles of speech familiar to young audiences.

We pitched the idea to all the children’s networks we could think of, but kept hitting a wall. We then applied for an Audio Content Fund and partnered in Fun Kids who backed the idea from the start. We applied three times before the project was finally funded.

Did you take inspiration from any podcasts in particular before you started?

Not directly, I listen to many, many different podcasts and I did immerse myself in audio drama, especially the more immersive productions from QCode or Gimlet. There are some children’s podcasts that possibly inspired on a subliminal level, like Wow in The World, Radio Lab for kids and I was an avid listener of audio books when I was child. I bought by niece a Yoto player and rediscovered many of the stories I had listened to on cassette.

Co-producer and voice actor, Hawa Khan

The show was originally a radio show and made into a podcast – can you give us a little insight to how it worked between yourself as Producers/Writers and then the actors/the Fun Kids radio station.

The radio show and the podcast are the same format. I would say the big difference when producing for a radio station is that everything has to fit exactly into the time allocated, which isn’t the case for podcasts!

The process was: Hawa and I first selected, then researched the stories, gathering as much information as we could about the people and places these stories come from.

Many of these stories are from ancient indigenous cultures and have been passed down over generations and some are still very much part of religious and cultural life. We wanted to make sure we properly acknowledged the people who these stories belong to and spent a lot of time researching the names, places and religious aspects.

Leona Fensome did a brilliant job helping us contact academics and indigenous elders to make sure we used the correct language and terms.
The next stage was writing the scripts. Hawa and I co-wrote each script by trying to embody the characters, Hawa is a brilliant voice artist so she developed the characters as we went along, deciding what accents, intonation and personality each character would have. We had decided from the outset that the voice of each character would be decided by their personality rather than from where the story is from. This means a Chinese dragon has a West Indian accent, or the Taino Sun is based on an Indian Raj. Hawa then worked with the children and adult actors to develop their characters and give them voice. The children played themselves, but the adult actors are all experienced in channelling diverse accents and characters so they really brought that into the studio when we recorded. We had already worked with some of the children and actors on the Tower of London project so this was helpful.

Once everything was recorded I worked on the pacing and sound design. Fun Kids helped us hone the original application and concept but they didn’t intervene during production. They trusted us to produce these stories in our own way. The final addition to this series becoming a podcast, was the creation of the artwork by Delphine – each episode has its own image which is gorgeous.

One of the things I really liked in the series was the children’s voices in the show. How important was it for you to have that?

Children love listening to other children and the children’s voices provide a narrative thread through the series. The children in the series are being told the stories and ask the kinds of questions that children listening might also ask. There is also a little life lesson in each episode that connects to the children’s interaction at the beginning of each episode.

As Producers, how did you find doing that aspect? (Never work with children or animals comes to mind!)

Hawa Kahn is a creative school facilitator so she is very used to working with children and firing their imaginations. The children in the series aren’t professional actors and the script was written around them – they are two sets of siblings. Time and patience is the key, with plenty of breaks. These children were superb to work with and incredibly literate. The youngest were 5 when we recorded and they were all just amazing.

Have you seen a difference in the reaction from listeners since it became a podcast?

Fun Kids has a very specific audience – children! The difference now that the series is a podcast is that it can reach audiences beyond Fun Kids and I think adults will enjoy listening just as much.

Do you have any advice for budding producers for Children’s audio?

Test your concepts and ideas with children first. They will tell you if it’s good and engaging. We got the children involved to read through the scripts, they were quite vocal if they thought something didn’t make sense or wasn’t funny.

Do you have a creation story you haven’t told yet but would love to?

There are so many! I think we will have to do another series. For example closer to home is the ancient story of Queen Albina and her sisters who was exiled from Syria to an uninhabited island which is now Britain.

Lastly, is there anything we didn’t ask that you’d like to add?

It was important for us to have a space to share more detail about the creation stories so In The Beginning.. now has a bespoke website inthebeginning.world where you can learn about the different myths, where they are from and more about the people they belong to. We have also transformed the artwork into a colouring book and postcards.

And finally I would say have a listen, you will hear stories from all over the world, told in a very unexpected and humorous way by an incredibly diverse and talented cast.

Listen to In The Beginning on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and other popular podcast apps >>

The post Lucia Scazzocchio: Producing stories for children with In The Beginning appeared first on POD BIBLE.

Who are you and what’s your elevator pitch for your podcast?

My name is Cole Moreton, I’m a writer and broadcaster for national and international titles and a former Interviewer of the Year at the Press Awards.

Can We Talk? is a series of intimate, crafted short stories about real encounters I’ve had with remarkable people – the famous, the infamous and those caught up in extraordinary times – and what we might learn from them about how to live. I’m exploring the human craving for connection: with each other, with ourselves, with nature and with the divine, if we believe in that.

I live by the sea in the south of England but travel the world when I can. I’m a person of open, questioning faith, born into a Christian culture but very much aware of the wisdom to be found in other traditions, paths and faiths. I’m trying to listen.

Like Desmond Tutu, the hero of the struggle against apartheid, who mistakenly thought I was trying to kill him (you can hear how that turned out in his episode) I believe in a version of “ubuntu”: that we function best as humans when we recognise we are all connected, we listen to each other and we learn together.

I also just hope you’ll agree that are some really good stories!

We’ve had a great response. For example, Anita Anand, a terrific broadcaster and best-selling author, says: “A brilliant, sensitive storyteller, Cole produces perfectly formed mini epics that are both thought-provoking and hugely entertaining.”

What was the first podcast you ever listened to?

Probably either Fortunately… with Fi Glover and Jane Garvey (I’m thrilled that Fi, who gets about five million listeners, has also said publicly that she loves Can We Talk?) or the hilarious musical riot that is The Horne Section Podcast.

You’re officially an award-winning interviewer – why did you want to veer away from interviews in your podcast? Well, it was a privilege to be recognised for my work, but I felt there was much more to say. These are fresh stories that look again at certain encounters, consider them in depth, think of the context and what it was like in the room and what can be learned from those people. But they’re also crafted short stories that should be compelling, moving, inspiring and take you somewhere in their own right. These are the kinds of things I have always wanted to write, in the way I’ve always wanted to write them.

Which podcasts do you take inspiration from?

One I do love, because of the first person intimacy and pacing, which I try to emulate, is Coastal Stories by Charlie Connelly. Fascinating tales from around the coast of Britain, told to the sound of waves. Then there is anything by David Sedaris, a master storyteller. I like to think I’ve learned things from him.

What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learnt so far as a podcaster?

Slow down. Talk to one person. This is intimate, it’s talking in someone’s ear. Let the story breath. Write and rewrite and craft and cut and polish but then let it sound spontaneous. And get a great producer, if you can. Emily Jeffery is mine, and with engineer Andy Partington I’m proud to say we’ve created something that is of the highest audio quality, good enough for the BBC or any broadcaster (I do a bit of work writing and presenting for Radio 4, sometimes).

Which episode would you say is the perfect introduction to your podcast?

Depends what you’re looking for. If you want to know what it’s like to (mistakenly) think you’re on a date with a Hollywood superstar, go for ‘Scarlett Johansson’. For a genuine global icon, consider The Queen. To understand that we are all the same and all equally worth of respect and having our stories heard, listen to the story on ‘Zahra’, who came across the Channel on an overloaded rubber boat one Christmas Day. And if you’re looking for a jaw dropping, heart breaking story about David Bowie that you’ve never heard before, have a listen to ‘Susan Sarandon’.

Where can the Pod Bible readers find out more about you?

Well, it’s very kind of you to ask. My website is colemoreton.com or you can find me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram as @colemoreton, because that’s my name. I’d love to hear from you, so do please get in touch.

Listen to Cole Moreton’s Can We Talk? now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and popular podcast apps.

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The post Can We Talk? Short stories about real encounters with remarkable people appeared first on POD BIBLE.

Arguably, there was no creative medium that was curtailed so much by Covid as much as theatre was. It’s not that surprising that theatre-makers pivoted to podcasts so successfully. Indeed, all three podcasts that placed in the Best Fiction category at the British Podcast Awards were created by (or in collaboration with) theatre makers. The winning show, Sound Worlds, uses the episode format to share a variety of standalone stories in all their forms – from the ones we tell our children the ones we tell ourselves.

Conceived and directed by Patrick Eakin Young, Sound Worlds was supported by Arts Council funding, which allowed Patrick to enlist collaborators from the world of theatre, literature and music. The result is a mixture of texts, music and sound design that Patrick aptly describes as ‘sonic theatre’.  As well as the creative aspect (the show also placed Silver in the Creativity Award category) I love the peak behind the curtain we get from Patrick at the end of episodes where he explains his inspiration. But I of course wanted to know more, and managed to catch up with Patrick via email to learn about the show…

Congratulations on the BPA win! How do you feel?

Thanks very much. I feel great! It was very unexpected, but very welcome! When you are making things that you think are good, it feels really nice to have that thought confirmed by others. Like: oh! Other people think this is good too! Amazing!

What was the first podcast you ever listened to?

I’m old school (like, actually old, ha ha!) so my first podcast was This American Life. The OG podcast as it were. I was living in New York in 2006 and my roommate was really into it and so I started to listen. This American Life became a bit of a victim of its own success, and the format started to grow a little tired (not to mention every podcast after was trying to emulate it), but some of those early episodes were such amazing storytelling, and really affecting.

Why did you decide to start podcasting in the first place?

I was a theatre director making music and sound-based theatre before the pandemic. But I was growing a bit unhappy with the space of theatre, or where I sat in it. The pandemic stopped all that anyways, and I thought: I’ll take this opportunity to try making sound-only work—ie. podcasts—which I always wanted to try but never had the time or space to do. Our first season was kind of a knee-jerk reaction, like “what can we do quickly?” The second season was about discovering the form, as in “what is possible and what do we think is good?” Our third season is going to be about going deeper!

Which podcasts do you take inspiration from?

I don’t hear a lot of podcasts like ours. But the podcast I admire the most (and which I hope we approach even in a small way) is Have You Heard George’s Podcast? By George the Poet. It is, hands down, the best podcast and everyone should listen to it, even if you don’t like podcasts. There are also some other great podcasts out there that are pushing the envelope in terms of storytelling which I like. Two of my favourites are Love and Radio by Nick van der Kolk , which is mostly interviews, but really beautifully done in the way they reveal information to the listener, and The Memory Palace by Nate DiMeo, which are creative essays about obscure American history, just beautiful writing and storytelling.

Who’s your dream guest for the podcast?

We don’t have ‘guests’ per se. Each episode is a collaboration with a musician and a writer. I’d love to make episodes with top-level musicians like James Blake, Solange, Perfume Genius, Flying Lotus, Anohni… I mean my list goes on and on!

What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learnt so far as a podcaster?

Always use a pop-shield! Seriously, I’ve learnt a lot about storytelling. When you remove the visual, you really concentrate on the essentials of story and narrative, and that has taught me a lot.

Which episode would you say is the perfect introduction to your podcast?

I love all our episodes, but I think ‘Town Is By The Sea‘, is a really good example of what our show is about. The mixture of story, sound design, and music by Anna Rheingans is kind of what I hope we can achieve more often than not. Also, I love our series of Raymond Carver short story adaptations What We Talk About When We Talk About Love, especially the episode entitled ‘Gazebo’.

Where can the Pod Bible readers find out more about you?

You can check out our website www.soundworlds.org and sign up for our newsletter there for updates on the podcast. Also we’re on Instagram and Twitter @_soundworlds.

Listen to Sound Worlds now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and other popular podcast apps.

The post Indy podcasts making waves at the BPAs: Sound Worlds appeared first on POD BIBLE.

Who are you and what’s your podcast about?

We are Shouting Is Funny, an independent audio production company based in London, UK. The company consists of Christian Powlesland, Harvey Badger and Angus Maxwell – three friends who joined forces when we met on the Actor-Musicianship BA course at Rose Bruford College. We make the musical fantasy adventure series The Chronicles of Wild Hollow – a mix of epic set-piece drama, oddball comedy, cinematic orchestral score, original songs… and a significant amount of talking animals.

Our show takes place in the fantasy world of Wild Hollow, and we put out our episodes in trilogy form. We have two major releases so far. Firstly, we have ’The Boursin Trilogy’, following mouse/bounty hunter Fandango Boursin on various high-octane jobs, whilst unknowingly being drawn deeper and deeper into a conspiracy that spans across all of Wild Hollow… And then there’s ’The Gray Trilogy’, where we follow fox/smuggler Artemis Gray on a piratey voyage in search of an ancient nautical treasure, in the hope of discovering her mysterious truth…

A third trilogy is currently in development, and well as a series of Wild Hollow Shorts that give more insight into the lives of our weird and wacky secondary characters!

What was the first podcast you ever listened to?

Angus’s first foray into podcasts was If I Were You, hosted by Jake Hurwitz and Amir Blumenfeld. Their satirical, comedic approach to discussing anything and everything really spoke to his sense of humour.

Harvey’s first pod was Song Exploder, hosted by Hrishikesh Hirway. Harvey is a singer-songwriter in his own right, and took an immediate interest in the dissection and analysis of some of the world’s greatest songs.

And Christian began his podcasting journey with My Dad Wrote a Porno, hosted by Jamie Morton, Alice Levine and James Cooper. The closest to a ‘fiction podcast’ of the three, Christian immediately connected with the possibilities of comedic storytelling via audio.

So it’s not really surprising that now we’ve come to making our own show, it heavily leans into satire, comedy, storytelling and music. Wild Hollow takes elements of all three of these shows, for sure.

Why did you decide to start podcasting in the first place?

Well, back in our days of training at Bruford, we stumbled across the format of audio fiction fairly early on. Christian had a microphone and a bit of a home studio set up, and we all shared a similar sense of humour and an urge to create original content in some form or other. So we combined the two and found ourselves recording (admittedly pretty terrible) improvised tales into a mic in Christian’s dorm room and sticking them on YouTube.

During our training, we had a module focused on radio, which is where we really started to understand more about the medium and where we could take our work. The marvellous Jeremy Mortimer gave us some invaluable preliminary tools, alongside our ’throw enough stuff at a wall and see what sticks’ origins.

And then came the Rona. We were set to graduate from our course in Summer 2020, and Covid demolished any chance of a smooth transition into the creative industry. BUT, without it, we don’t think Shouting Is Funny would have materialised. Or at least, not at the rate it has done. We were all desperate for some kind of creative output during lockdowns, and so we decided to attempt a from-isolation approach to making an audio fiction show. And that show evolved into The Chronicles of Wild Hollow.

Which podcasts do you take inspiration from?

Admittedly, we weren’t hugely clued up on the fiction podcast scene when we began. We were more inspired by audiobooks and dramas we’d grown up with. However, when we decided we wanted to make a comedy audio drama, we very quickly discovered the excellent Wooden Overcoats. When we started going down the fantasy route, Angus started to draw some parallels from Not Another D&D Podcast. And we are all musicians, and wanted to infuse music and song into our show – The Fall of the House of Sunshine presented itself in a glorious google search. We like to think of Wild Hollow as a unique entity, but there are definitely inspirations from a variety of sources.

Who’s your dream guest for the podcast?

So obviously being a scripted, fictional podcast, we don’t have the opportunity to invite guests onto the show in the traditional sense. But there are some voices that we would love to feature in our show. Bob Mortimer is a man who we all just crease up listening to – he’s a comedy legend and we’d write pretty much whatever character he wanted if he was to get on board. If anyone knows Bob, we’re up for a chat.

And recently we were lucky enough to attend the BBC Audio Drama Awards 2022, where we discovered the wonderful Bridget Christie. She was awarded Best Scripted Comedy (Longform) for her show Mortal, and her acceptance speech alone made us want to get her on the show.

What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learnt so far as a podcaster?

Don’t rush. And maybe, given the fact we’ve released 7 episodes in 18 months, we could do with not taking our own advice. But realistically, we wouldn’t have been able to put out the episodes to a standard we were truly proud of unless we took the necessary time. Wild Hollow is scripted, and heavily sound-designed, featuring a full cast of wonderful actors and original songs and score left right and centre. Plus, a plethora of original artwork to accompany our characters, scene locations and episode cover arts. The amount of work that goes into this show is mammoth, and giving ourselves the time to achieve it all is necessary. We started with grand plans for new episodes every few months, but making the decision to pace ourselves (and not gauge our successes vs other shows in the community) was formative in our creative process. It’ll be ready when it’s ready!

Also, give your characters funny names. Funny names are great.

Which episode would you say is the perfect introduction to your podcast?

’The Gray Trilogy – Episode One: A Smuggler’s Honour’. That’s the first of our three new releases, it introduces brand new characters, locations and it’s a great place for new listeners to jump in and get a taste of what we do. There’s definitely links to The Boursin Trilogy that a new listener would miss, so if you’re a completionist, maybe you’d want to start with Fandango’s trilogy opener ‘Fandango Boursin and the Lilypad Lounge’. But ‘A Smuggler’s Honour’ would be our recommendation – immerse yourself in Artemis’s journey, then pop back and see what Fandango gets up to. And then, if you’re feeling festive, we have a Christmassy adventure featuring our mousey bounty hunter as well – our very first release back in 2020.

Where can the Pod Bible readers find out more about you?

Where CAN’T they. You can find the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify Podcasts, Audible, or wherever you get your podcasts. We’re active on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter @shoutingisfunny. We have a company website at www.shoutingisfunny.com, where you’ll find insights into our current and future projects. You can directly support our ongoing work via our Patreon at www.patreon.com/shoutingisfunny. And, if you’re part of the r/audiodrama or r/podcasts subreddits, you can find us squirrelling away on there as well.

Listen to Chronicles of Wild Hollow on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and other popular podcast apps.

The post The Chronicles of Wild Hollow: Adventure, comedy and talking (and singing) animals appeared first on POD BIBLE.

City of Ghosts is a supernatural audio drama that does just that. Set in 1990s NYC, it’s a neo-noir about corruption, murder, and the things that haunt us, and one of the elements that stands out (beyond the quality of the story and the audio) is their beautiful cover art by artist Emilee Graverson. As well as captivating cover art, each episode has its own image, characters are visualised and the scene is set through bonus artwork on their website.

I caught up with Emilee, alongside producer Ryan Patch, and writer Carina Green, to talk about the hidden value of podcast artwork.

Episode 3: The sisters. The artwork draws on 1990s New York.

Why did you decide it was important to illustrate each episode differently?

Ryan: To be honest, for me it was mostly a marketing decision. The internet and social media, where we knew many listeners would be discovering us, is such a visual medium – even text articles need images. Because we’re a podcast, we don’t have a lot of great visual collateral already – and especially because we recorded in quarantine, we didn’t even have great stills of actors in the studio (they were all zoom frame grabs) and we knew we needed something visual. Having Emilee create more content was a perfect solution to help us with this, and we were blessed with having someone like Emilee who was a font of inspiration and great perspectives who could develop new ways to visualize the themes in each episode.

Emilee Graverson: As a listener, I think it’s really fun to have something visually to look at each new episode. Because of that, I was excited the team wanted to do a new artwork for each episode. It also meant that I got to listen to the entirety of the show, and really immerse myself in the whole plot before working on even the main hero artwork.

Carina Green: Echoing what Ryan said, I think it was a good way to help each episode stand out and provide it with a visual for potential listeners, since social media marketing depends highly on visuals. Emilee did a fantastic job capturing the essence of each episode in a single piece of art.

The 90s aesthetic and technology was a big influence on the artwork.

Emilee, why were you drawn to this project?

EG: I was immediately drawn to the era it took place in. I thought it would be super fun to play around with and draw from technology from the late 90s, and I also love drawing spooky environments and atmospheres. It was a match made in heaven!

Is this first time you’ve done artwork for a podcast? How does it differ to other artwork you’ve done?

EG: It’s my first time doing the main artwork for a podcast! Although I’ve worked with my friends at Lunatics Radio Hour Podcast for many years many doing illustrations and merch. I think podcast art is interesting because it’s kind of a secondary medium, after the more important audio medium. It’s like a fun treat to be able to visualize and see elements of the story as you hear them. Its almost like illustrating for a children’s book or comic, because you have a set script or plot and you get to then riff off of it in your own style.

Mr Orange character card. Each character in the drama was given an illustration.

Ryan and Carina, you both have a strong background in drama/film/theatre before starting a podcast. Do you think that influenced your want for very distinctive visuals?

RP: I wouldn’t actually say that it affected my desire for visuals, but I will say that it certainly helped me listen to my gut more when Emilee came to us with stuff that’s really visually arresting. The show art, for example, is brilliant, and it was one of the first concepts that Emilee brought to us (see concept sketch here). It was weird. But it had something about it that made me stop and say “wow, I don’t know why but this is really impactful.” This wasn’t necessarily the design that made the most SENSE for the show, but it was by far the most ARRESTING design, and years of working in film I think has taught me to listen to my gut in situations like this.

CG: I echo Ryan that I don’t think it really influenced my desire for visuals, but I do think it helped form my idea of the kind of art I really envisioned for the podcast. Part of writing is to paint pictures with words, even for film and theater since you always start with just the words in your script. But for podcasts, especially, you are trying to help someone visualize a world. So as I was writing, I was paying a lot of attention to what kind of atmosphere we wanted to evoke with the show. And I think that’s part of why I felt that Emilee’s art could line up so well for it.

What were your influences for the artwork?

RP: First and foremost, the haunted nature of New York City, of course! I was really excited when we interviewed Emilee to do the art to learn that she lived in the city for several years – this was important for me. The character cards (in this folder) – which I’m really proud of – were influenced by tarot cards, so the Rider-Waite aesthetic I would say figures heavily into what I was hoping to achieve. Also, the bold, solid colors of screenprinting were a bit reference point. However, we hired Emilee for her style, as opposed to having her try to emulate someone else, so I’d say that Emilee is our largest influence!

EG: Style-wise, my illustration work is heavily influenced by screen printing, which is an art form that I love doing! I find that the graphic, limited color palette style of my digital work always stems from my work in that medium! For CoG specifically, though, I was super influenced by my memories of living in NYC, riding the train late at night, and the liminal spaces haunting the city. As Ryan said, tarot snuck in as an influence, which ended up being cool because I have experience illustrating my own tarot deck.

CG: I really love the tarot influence that we all landed on because I think it brings forward the more supernatural aspect of the show. For me, personally, other inspirations and influences came from the NYC I was picturing as I was writing the show, which similar to Emliee was influenced by my time in the city and all the ways it can feel strange and haunted at certain times of night or in certain places. I wanted our art to capture that same feeling of a world that is recognizable as our own, but has a darker, more stylized feel to it and I think Emilee did an amazing job at capturing that.

Were there any images that you wish you were able to use but just couldn’t find a place for?

RP: Yes, there is. This one. Its just so evocative. Since we used this vibe for the cover art and having a large title was very important to us, we lost the opportunity to use the phone in this setup – but I love it so much. It says so much about the character and the era.

Are there any other podcasts whose artwork you really admire?

RP: I love Wolverine, both The Long Night and Lost Trail – how they give you the setting of the show, but keep the characters in silhouette. The redacted visuals of the Homecoming art is simple and effective. Even something as simple as LORE, where its only the handwritten title are great, because simply the typography tells you what you need to know. Cover art is so small, you really need to have it read very simply upfront. What I love about ours is that I think it reads very simply upfront, but has layers as you start at it for longer.

EG: I always think of the original Welcome To Nightvale artwork. I love a limited color palette (as you can see from CoG) and I think it was so cool how the aesthetic from that really led the rest of the show’s aesthetic and color and vibes. It was also the first time I’d seen something illustrative for podcast artwork.

CG: I really love the artwork of The Black Tapes, which I think is simple but incredibly evocative with its muted colors except for the red of the protagonist’s jacket. Similarly, the artwork of Old Gods of Appalachia is really arresting and has many layers to it the longer you look at it.

Where can readers find more of your work?/Where can readers find out more about you all?

RP: People can read more about me at ryanpatch.me, or follow me at @ryanpatch in IG and @d_ryan_patch on twitter. Don’t forget to follow @cityofghostspod on twitter and @cityofghostspodcast on IG as well!

EG: I am on Instagram @emileehere and my original tarot deck that I illustrated can be found at: personalspacepress.com, along with more of my artwork.

CB: I’m working at having more of an internet presence but folks are welcome to follow me on twitter @cagreenwrites. I’m also writing an online novel for Tapas Media, Return of the Keeper, which will be launching on the 21st of March, so you’ll be able to find me on their website, tapas.io, as well.

Listen to City of Ghosts on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and other podcast players.

The post Discussing the value of podcast art with City of Ghosts appeared first on POD BIBLE.

Let’s kick things off – how did your podcast come about?

I started Rusty Quill, the production company that makes The Magnus Archives, in 2015 — but Magnus didn’t really begin until 2016, by which time I was already running our first podcast (Rusty Quill Gaming).

With one show up and running, I was looking to find some creative allies to work with on a new show, while simultaneously working on a number of freelance gigs in addition to full-time night work. So, as you can expect, it was tricky to find the time.

At the night job I met Jonathan Sims, the writer and lead performer of Magnus. We spent a few unprofessionally long coffee breaks discussing fiction, and he eventually invited me to attend a gig he was running that year at the Edinburgh Festival.

I was already going to work on other projects, so while I was there I decided to take him up on his invite. That’s how I found myself watching a bunch of elaborately clad space-pirates singing about drunken sailors and dying mega-cities. The group was called The Mechanisms and it was a Sci-Fi Musical Cabaret led by Jonny that was exactly as elaborate as you’re imagining.

I hadn’t seen anything like it, and the nuances of the storytelling really piqued my interest — so I made a point of contacting Jonny to discuss whether we could collaborate on something. We met in a quiet coffee shop basement off The Royal Mile, and that was when he first pitched me The Magnus Archives.

The original pitch was significantly different from the finished project we now know and fear. For one thing, it was first conceived as a pure anthology of original Creepypasta written and narrated by Jonny. I pushed for a broader overarching narrative with an ensemble cast that would run throughout the podcast, connecting all the stories, and that was when Jonny suggested The Fears as a concept (I can’t say any more on them without spoilers).

We talked for way longer than either of us had planned, and by the end of that first meeting we already had the shape of the show. Looking back, that’s pretty much the ideal pitch scenario, isn’t it?

What do you love about making a podcast?

The fact that the sky’s the limit. Anyone can make anything of any scale.

Right now, podcasting is at that interesting pivot point between the passion projects of pure innovation that characterises a new artistic medium, and accelerating external interest from major players — which means there are lots of resources flying around for weird and wonderful projects that could never be realised at any other time.

Speaking to audio fiction specifically, you can make an enormous epic from the ground up with a relatively modest budget compared to Film or TV, meaning there’s space for smaller independent organisations such as ours. That in turn means there’s more competition, so projects don’t end up as homogenised as in other media. Projects get to be weirder. In a good way.

Of course, I wouldn’t go so far as to say there’s no price of entry. It still requires technical expertise, equipment and hard work, but the barrier on the first two is dropping ever lower, as new technology allows people to use their phones as a one-stop-shop for near-professional-grade audio recording, editing and distribution. So, if you’re an over ambitious creative like me, there isn’t really a better medium to get stuck into and let your imagination run wild.

What’s the process for creating an audio drama podcast? How do you write and plan an episode?

First we’ll have an initial story workshop where the showrunner, lead writer and the rest of the writing team will hash out the main story points for the season: what happens, when, and why. All these juicy story secrets are then added to a ‘series. Once this overarching structure is in place the writers go away and each write a few episodes with the lead writer overseeing things and ensuring everything holds together.

While all that is going on, the showrunner (the creative lead on the project) will be consulting with the writers and the producers to build the direction and style of the show. That again is added to the series bible, along with work from our sensitivity team and marketing, so everyone’s on the same page.

The showrunner will then work with the producer on a casting call, which is where we allocate performers for roles. As you’d expect, this has been particularly difficult during a pandemic because we don’t just need to make sure everyone’s a good actor and available for recordings — we also need to provide every single performer with their own remote recording kit and schedule video calls so they can perform scenes together. It’s been a huge logistical challenge which has taken massive amounts of coordination, and I’m immensely proud of our team for doing such a good job.

Once all that’s done, and everyone is equipped and scheduled, and you have your finished scripts and Series Bible, you can finally start recording.

Once it’s recorded, what’s the process for getting it out to your listeners?

First we back up all of our recordings to an encrypted, remote computer server, because there’s nothing as frustrating as losing original recordings.

Once that’s done, our vocal editor goes through the raw audio and cuts it into shape according to the notes provided by the showrunner, before the vocal cuts are passed to a soundscape editor who adds all of the background ambience and sound effects — passing traffic; opening drawers; massive, fire-breathing dragons. It then passes to the music editor who, depending on the project, will either compose original music to accompany the episode or insert pre-made tracks from an original collection we keep for each series.

The last stage of the editing process is through an audio master, who assembles the project and makes sure all the different elements are working together as intended, under the direction of the showrunner.

After that we do a final set of checks for sensitivity then pass it to distribution, who make sure it’s made available on everybody’s podcatcher of choice.

How do you connect with and engage with your listeners?

We use a broad range of ways to engage, and it’s always evolving. When we first set up Rusty Quill in 2015, I personally set up the most retro forum you could possibly imagine — but we moved on from that pretty quickly.

Now we maintain the standard social medias you’d expect, like Twitter (@TheRustyQuill) and Facebook, which people use to contact us. We also maintain an official Discord server with more than 11,000 members, which allows fans a space to discuss our content with the creators and each other in more depth. Beyond that, our fandom has been terrifyingly organised in setting up Reddit communities such as R/TheMagnusArchives and R/RustyQuill.

We also stream video content via Twitch (twitch.tv/rusty_quill), which often features performers and employees from the company, and that allows fans to directly engage via live chat.

Weirdly enough, I think one of the biggest forms of engagement we see from fans is thanks to our licensing. We use a type of Creative Commons licence that allows people to generate fan-made content and, although that stuff can’t be sold or anything, it’s allowed a massive community of fan artists to grow in spaces such as Tumblr — which happened entirely organically.

What’s one hot tip for the budding podcaster out there?

There’s no “secret sauce.” Sorry that’s a bit blunt — I should probably explain.

I often encounter people looking to start podcasting, who feel that they can’t succeed without some secret industry knowledge — some technical wizardry or business flair that will guarantee a hit — but truthfully there isn’t one. As I said before, podcasting is a younger creative medium that is still defining itself, and that means diligent work is still the magic ingredient. All the tips and tricks in the world won’t make up for focused creativity, professionalism and perseverance.

That said, I would say most people underestimate the conception part of the process. If you get that aspect right, instead of just diving in with no real plan, you’ll have a much easier project. You want to take some time before you start creating your masterpiece and really try to pick out the core reasons you want to make it. What is it you’re trying to achieve? Who does it serve? What does success look like? What does failure look like?

Ideally, you’ll want a clear answer to all these questions before you even start work. If you do, you can use that knowledge to guide you to a finished product you can be happy with. Trust me, it’s much easier to make a decision on some complicated production problem if you already have that roadmap to refer to, especially if you’re aiming high.

The Magnus Archives is a weekly horror fiction podcast examining what lurks in the archives of the Magnus Institute, an organisation dedicated to researching the esoteric and the weird. Join Jonathan Sims as he explores the archive, but be warned, as he looks into its depths something starts to look back… The final episode of the story was released on March 25th 2021, but you can tune in for behind-the-scenes chats. Listen now >>

The post Talking podcasts with Alexander J. Newall and Acast appeared first on POD BIBLE.

While Reni’s recommendation was for Blacticulate’s eponymous podcast, it was Stories That Stick that caught our attention. We at Pod Bible love a programme that offers something new not only in topic but in production. We were immediately drawn to the structure of founder Ade’s show, which invites guests to tell their own story and share stories that have impacted them. 

Each episode begins at the end. The guest is first asked to speak about death, which may seem an odd place to start but perfectly establishes a person’s thought process for how they live their life. If we know how someone imagines, copes with, or theorizes death, we better understand the parameters they exist within today. From there, our host asks that his interviewee breaks their life into decade-long chapters, beginning with their first ten years.

Not only does this make for an easily digestible podcast, but it creates a shared nostalgia when paired with story recommendations from the episode’s guest, spotlighting a different book in each “chapter” of their own story. It’s hard not to fall into one’s own reminiscences during the first chapter, often peppered by beloved children’s books or familiar stories from religious texts.

When exploring shows that are new to us as listeners, creating a structure that we can easily latch on to helps to ease us into unfamiliar territories. Structures based in Q&A sessions, particularly those that remain consistent from episode to episode, create an excitement as we begin to imagine our own answers and build a sense of familiarity and camaraderie with the guests – their answers ebbing and flowing with our own.

An excellent podcast structure is reliant on its host. A quality host creates consistency for their listeners, while still remaining flexible for their guest. Ade’s soft-spoken guidance feels gentle, steering the conversation expertly without editorializing someone else’s experience. In episode 15, with Christina Moore of Don’t Skip Media, his guest off-handedly mentions the experience of growing up as the child of immigrant parents. Ade thoughtfully encourages her to explore that experience, and she opens up beautifully, allowing the listener a much deeper insight regarding her childhood. The deft way with which he supports her examination of what, moments earlier, seemed like an off-handed reference to something many listeners may not have experience with shows us how seriously Ade takes his work. It is always easy to allow a guest to move beyond something – especially something they have a shared understanding of, or something the guest may have explained in a pre-interview – but it does not serve the audience to allow those moments to pass us by.

We suggest you also don’t let Stories That Stick to pass you by, either. You can explore the podcast’s page on the Blacticulate website, on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.

The post REVIEW // Blacticulate – Stories That Stick appeared first on POD BIBLE.