This was the first time I set foot into a mobile podcasting studio, though thinking about it I never really knew that you could port a recording studio by just adding water. Worth P200,000, it is supposed to be your friendly portable podcasting box for recording anywhere, anytime.
I have several guests for this podcast, and we all fit inside the 4 x 4 box. One of my guests was Pocholo Gonzales of Creativoices and we talked about the voice acting industry, dubbing TV shows, the life of a voice actor and of course, podcasting.
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The show is done mostly in my local language of Filipino.
Gabe and JC on Rock Ed Radio prior to the podcast session in my car
And now for something light and happy! For my guests, I had good friends JC Medina and Gabe Mercado, who are the co-founders of Geek Chorus. Organizing “stupid events for smart people” Geek Chorus aims to bring geek culture into the mainstream in the Philippines.
This was also my chance to test out my theory on developing studio quality “mobile podcasting” which meant turning my cute Corolla into a (oven hot) recording studio. If you are really stripped of cash and need to record something, the car makes for a very good alternative recording studio. And you know what … it works!
[display_podcast] Download the MP3 file here. [28MB]
Conversation is in both English and in the local dialect, Filipino. Traces of geek speak are also in this podcast.
In my previous post, I was talking about how podcasters should be performance artists. I guess watching stand up comedy acts like Pablo Francisco can definitely be inspiring in creating livelier content.
I notice too that TWiT, one of the most popular podcasts on the iTunes Store (loosely referred to as the Billboards for Podcasts) have the guests do voice impersonations at times. I think this has more to do with how Leo Laporte can infect everyone else with his voice acting.
When I used to direct plays, a technique I made use of to “unleash the inner actor” would be to have the characters do a dramatic run through of the play with the lights closed or with something to cover their eyes, like a paper bag … or cucumber slices.
Statistically speaking, hiding behind a mask helps remove inhibition, allowing characters to play their role more effectively (Batman and other superheroes for instance hide behind a mask to transcend into another personality).
Try podcasting in the dark or with your eyes closed. It helps.
Several days ago I wrote an entry on why podcasting seems to be so much harder to do. The concession was that unlike blogging, the resources needed to podcast would entail much more equipment. Of course, you can achieve a semi-decent podcast using the built in microphone of your laptop or by purchasing a cheap mic from your friendly computer store for less than P200.00.
But then after some reflection, I realized that the real reason why it is much harder to podcast isn’t because people think it is hard to do. Let me repost that paragraph here:
People THINK that podcasting is very hard to do. When in fact all you need is a cheap ass microphone and a free recording software like Audacity. Once you start recording, all you need to do is be yourself — having a guest over would help but if you really are in the need for some divine inspiration, then San Miguel can always help. You can always find a free service to host your podcasts like Odeo, Twango, Gcast or Podomatic. Against all odds your first podcast may really suck – in terms of coherence or content. But a podcast series is always a work in progress. It may not be obvious to you, but check back on your old blog entries and see how far they have evolved since. The same thing works with podcasts. Just do it!
Unlike blogging, which is now considered to be a spectator sport, podcasting as well as videocasting are performance arts. Though blogging requires technical as well as creative skill, these are already learned in our schooling days such as being trained to construct a grammatically correct sentence and write a paragraph that makes sense.
In school however, we were never taught to do radio shows, or to train our voice to be more attuned for broadcasting. The little that we learn to hone these creative talents are learned in extra curricular activities which for the most part, were … extra and optional.
I admit. I’m a n00b at podcasting. If what I do create sounds okay, it’s because its so easy to edit audio using GarageBand. In fact, editing is the easy part. The hard part is the performance – the voice. The content. The pauses. It is so much harder to get listeners engaged. You have to be theatrical. You have to be musical. You have to be three dimensional. You aren’t talking. You’re performing.
I was able to finally talk to Wil Pascual, the creator of the Lagalag Project, which is an experiment of sorts that features Filipinos around the world and two traveling moleskines. We enjoyed a good 20 minutes talking about photography, moleskines and blogs.
This podcast was recorded using Gizmo and edited using GarageBand on a Macintosh. I need to make an erratum. Gizmo does not save files in MP3 format. It saves them onto WAV first which allows you more options in terms of manipulating the audio file.
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Wil and I were speaking in both English and Filipino. Would like to apologize for those who cannot understand some parts.
Show notes:
Gizmo Project is way cooler than Skype because it allows you to record conversations
