Welcome to my first podcast

Wednesday, 20 November 2019

I first started thinking about a podcast a couple of years ago when I saw that one of my Twitter followers was thinking about one also.  They went the YouTube route and that was what I intended to do. I have the equipment, and I know some about video editing, and I use Davinci Resolve, but as I was working on a test, I realised that it was going to be far too time-consuming, at least to get it to the level I would be happy with.

So, I had a quiet re-think.  Now, I am already an audiobook narrator, and in my many years in studios spent a fair amount of time working on radio programmes, both hitting the buttons and even producing.  And I did, many, many years ago, anchor a satirical financial podcast for someone else. Making the leap to doing my own podcast is really not very big.  So why has it taken me so long?

The change happened a couple of weeks ago when I realised I had a hole in my schedule. A script I was waiting for hadn't arrived and it was too wet outside. I went onto a domain search site and played with some ideas. To my surprise, a couple of my strong ideas were available as domains; Deep in the Dark forest and another one.

Of course, which do I choose? I know a handful of young, enthusiastic writers, so I asked them.  They all said Deep in the Dark forest. So, here we are.

Now for the huge mountain, and me standing at the bottom. I dug through some stories and found The Golden Bird by the Brothers Grimm.  Why that one? Simples; it was the first in the book, and I knew my time was limited. I started to record it and quickly realised that to suit gruff old Londoner me, I had to change a few things. I am keen to stick to the original translation as much as possible, but there was some tarting up I could do. A few odd London phrases to give it a little lift.

Then I thought about the story. It's a good little story, but in it, a princess gets kidnapped and dragged through the rest without having any say in the matter. So I changed that too. She gets a bit grumpy rather than crying all the time, and the prince can't just take her, she has to want to go. Now the story was sounding much better.

Next, I needed theme music. I am a composer and I simply could not live with paying someone else, so I dusted down the orchestra and got to work. I did three in the end and I have gone for the second.

Oh, bugger! Website...

Of course, I have to make it difficult. I won't use Wordpress because so many sites get hacked (millions of WP sites every year) so I went back to an old favourite, Processwire. But it is a couple of years since I have done a serious site and I have forgotten loads. Another mountain.

Then I need new social accounts, I need to research more stories, oh, and design a logo!

A week and a bit later, I am getting there, but it has been hard work.  I am nearly finished.  When this site goes up and you read this article, the first episode will be up on the podcast host and I will be working on the second.  From there? We shall see.

Oh, and one little thing. That script has turned up. I have a book to record...