Alas, Iâm afraid I donât have an episode for you. But! I do have a show! Itâs an almost entirely new show team, as although I love this team with everything I have they are all final year students, and a show would be too much.
@ethicstownpod is quite different to a modern adaptation of a gothic novel, but a lot of the good things I wanted to put into Jekyll and Hyde youâll also find in Ethics Town! Weâre still on spoilers lockdown right now, but here are just a few things you might like about this new show if you were interested in a Jekyll and Hyde adaptation:
Ghost stories! I promise youâll hear some good ghost stories.
Horror! Despite our current vibrant trans pride profile picture it is a horror podcast.
A soft boy with nice hair wondering about morality. I love a soft boy with nice hair who wonders about morality!
So much queer content! There are three characters in particular whose orientation and experiences Iâve put so much attention and love into. Iâve never had the chance to write about being aroace in such great depth before, and whilst you wonât get to hear a lot from this character for a while Iâm so excited about them.
Subhi! The most wonderful human person who was going to play Lanyon is now in this show!
Our lovely Dr Jekyll, Mick, is composing us some music!
Philosophy! In fact, now thereâs even more philosophy!
But there are also lots of lovely new things! New cast, who mean the whole entire world to me. New sound designer who isnât me, thank goodness! New scale! Ethics Town is a network show! And, of course, new premise: Tired and wired Ethics local January Johnson makes a series of emergency broadcasts concerning the behaviour of his townâs new mayor.
If it appeals, check us out! @ethicstownpodÂ
I still feel bad that this show never got made, it was and is a lot of fun, but I have no regrets. I got to meet and work with some wonderful people, and I learned so much, enough to make a proper, budgeted, open-auditioned, honest-to-goodness show less than a year later. I love Jekyll and Hyde, but I love this too, and I hope some of you will!
Our campaign is live, from now until December 1st at 5pm! We have a lovely team of hardworking people and it would be oh so nice to get to make this show and pay them! Please do check it out!
ID: A red background with black swirling border. At the centre of the image is the Ethics Town logo and the text 'crowdfunder now live.' ED.
Alas, Iâm afraid I donât have an episode for you. But! I do have a show! Itâs an almost entirely new show team, as although I love this team with everything I have they are all final year students, and a show would be too much.
@ethicstownpod is quite different to a modern adaptation of a gothic novel, but a lot of the good things I wanted to put into Jekyll and Hyde youâll also find in Ethics Town! Weâre still on spoilers lockdown right now, but here are just a few things you might like about this new show if you were interested in a Jekyll and Hyde adaptation:
Ghost stories! I promise youâll hear some good ghost stories.
Horror! Despite our current vibrant trans pride profile picture it is a horror podcast.
A soft boy with nice hair wondering about morality. I love a soft boy with nice hair who wonders about morality!
So much queer content! There are three characters in particular whose orientation and experiences Iâve put so much attention and love into. Iâve never had the chance to write about being aroace in such great depth before, and whilst you wonât get to hear a lot from this character for a while Iâm so excited about them.
Subhi! The most wonderful human person who was going to play Lanyon is now in this show!
Our lovely Dr Jekyll, Mick, is composing us some music!
Philosophy! In fact, now thereâs even more philosophy!
But there are also lots of lovely new things! New cast, who mean the whole entire world to me. New sound designer who isnât me, thank goodness! New scale! Ethics Town is a network show! And, of course, new premise: Tired and wired Ethics local January Johnson makes a series of emergency broadcasts concerning the behaviour of his townâs new mayor.
If it appeals, check us out! @ethicstownpodÂ
I still feel bad that this show never got made, it was and is a lot of fun, but I have no regrets. I got to meet and work with some wonderful people, and I learned so much, enough to make a proper, budgeted, open-auditioned, honest-to-goodness show less than a year later. I love Jekyll and Hyde, but I love this too, and I hope some of you will!
Alas, Iâm afraid I donât have an episode for you. But! I do have a show! Itâs an almost entirely new show team, as although I love this team with everything I have they are all final year students, and a show would be too much.
@ethicstownpod is quite different to a modern adaptation of a gothic novel, but a lot of the good things I wanted to put into Jekyll and Hyde youâll also find in Ethics Town! Weâre still on spoilers lockdown right now, but here are just a few things you might like about this new show if you were interested in a Jekyll and Hyde adaptation:
Ghost stories! I promise youâll hear some good ghost stories.
Horror! Despite our current vibrant trans pride profile picture it is a horror podcast.
A soft boy with nice hair wondering about morality. I love a soft boy with nice hair who wonders about morality!
So much queer content! There are three characters in particular whose orientation and experiences Iâve put so much attention and love into. Iâve never had the chance to write about being aroace in such great depth before, and whilst you wonât get to hear a lot from this character for a while Iâm so excited about them.
Subhi! The most wonderful human person who was going to play Lanyon is now in this show!
Our lovely Dr Jekyll, Mick, is composing us some music!
Philosophy! In fact, now thereâs even more philosophy!
But there are also lots of lovely new things! New cast, who mean the whole entire world to me. New sound designer who isnât me, thank goodness! New scale! Ethics Town is a network show! And, of course, new premise: Tired and wired Ethics local January Johnson makes a series of emergency broadcasts concerning the behaviour of his townâs new mayor.
If it appeals, check us out! @ethicstownpodÂ
I still feel bad that this show never got made, it was and is a lot of fun, but I have no regrets. I got to meet and work with some wonderful people, and I learned so much, enough to make a proper, budgeted, open-auditioned, honest-to-goodness show less than a year later. I love Jekyll and Hyde, but I love this too, and I hope some of you will!
Alas, Iâm afraid I donât have an episode for you. But! I do have a show! Itâs an almost entirely new show team, as although I love this team with everything I have they are all final year students, and a show would be too much.
@ethicstownpod is quite different to a modern adaptation of a gothic novel, but a lot of the good things I wanted to put into Jekyll and Hyde youâll also find in Ethics Town! Weâre still on spoilers lockdown right now, but here are just a few things you might like about this new show if you were interested in a Jekyll and Hyde adaptation:
Ghost stories! I promise youâll hear some good ghost stories.
Horror! Despite our current vibrant trans pride profile picture it is a horror podcast.
A soft boy with nice hair wondering about morality. I love a soft boy with nice hair who wonders about morality!
So much queer content! There are three characters in particular whose orientation and experiences Iâve put so much attention and love into. Iâve never had the chance to write about being aroace in such great depth before, and whilst you wonât get to hear a lot from this character for a while Iâm so excited about them.
Subhi! The most wonderful human person who was going to play Lanyon is now in this show!
Our lovely Dr Jekyll, Mick, is composing us some music!
Philosophy! In fact, now thereâs even more philosophy!
But there are also lots of lovely new things! New cast, who mean the whole entire world to me. New sound designer who isnât me, thank goodness! New scale! Ethics Town is a network show! And, of course, new premise: Tired and wired Ethics local January Johnson makes a series of emergency broadcasts concerning the behaviour of his townâs new mayor.
If it appeals, check us out! @ethicstownpodÂ
I still feel bad that this show never got made, it was and is a lot of fun, but I have no regrets. I got to meet and work with some wonderful people, and I learned so much, enough to make a proper, budgeted, open-auditioned, honest-to-goodness show less than a year later. I love Jekyll and Hyde, but I love this too, and I hope some of you will!
The idea is wonderful and the enthusiasm everyone had for this project is lovely, but it's a response to how much you care about what you've done and the excitement you all had, if it's too much work to do/you're not having fun anymore then I'm glad you're all taking care of yourselves instead of pushing too hard, if you do release an episode or any other kind of content I'm sure we'd all be glad of it but it's more important that you're all doing okay, thank you for all the work you've done on this so far and I hope you all do well and stay safe
Thank you oh so kindly for your lovely words, I may just go and have another little cry now! You are incredibly gracious, and this means the world to me â„
Hey everyone! I come to you not with the fun news of a holiday special, but instead with the unfortunate news that I have to put an indefinite stop to this project.
Due to me working full time night shifts over the summer I didnât get as far editing the scripts as I would have liked, and it was incredibly difficult to get people together for recording when I wasnât around to supervise anything. Right now every member of the team is a full time university student, most of us in final year, and piling 10+ hours of recording on people on top of that feels incredibly unfair. Iâm sure you all know how insanely difficult it is to organise anything whilst in education - you can barely get 10 people to read the same text, never mind be free for the same video call! I hate dragging projects out, it takes all the fun out of them, and I donât want people to still be working on something in a year that I promised would be finished in a few months.
I really appreciate all the enthusiasm youâve all had for this show, and it genuinely hurts me to tell you it wonât be happening any time soon. Weâre going to be recording and editing the first episode (with the intention of using it in a different project later on) and even though itâs nothing compared to a 10 episode show I would love to upload it here for anyone whoâd like to to listen to it.
All the scripts are complete and in some stage of editing, so the chances of this project happening one day are quite likely. However I picked a very inopportune time - during university, in the middle of a pandemic, while Iâm also working two jobs - and I canât bring myself to put this much work on other people.
Iâm going to leave this blog up, both so that I can share the episode we produce, and so that if any of you (or tumblr!) are still around in however many years it takes me to find the time to make this project happen properly I can let you know.
I am so, so sorry to do this after you all dedicated so much enthusiasm to my little idea. And I also want to say a huge thank you to my team, who Iâve already asked too much of and refuse to ask any more. This mistake is entirely my own, and they have done everything right. Thank you again, and I really hope to see some of you again when I have the proper time to pour into this project.
Looking for some spooky Halloween content? Well, look no further! This year we turn the clocks back on October 31st, granting us one extra hour of Halloween. Hmm⊠wonder what weâll do with isâŠ
Image 1:
A darkened photo of dense woods. In the centre of the image is a greyscale version of the St Kilda logo, a dagger with the words âThe Secret of St Kilda laid over it. Beneath that text reads âWitching Hourâ in white, with a crescent moon beneath the ârâ.
Image 2:
A darkened photo of dense woods. In the centre of the image text reads, separated by small crescent moons âPseudoPod, CreepyPod, The Magnus Archives, Neighbourly, Nightlight, The Secret of St Kilda, The Storage Papers, Unwellâ. Beneath that text reads âWitching Hourâ in white, with a crescent moon beneath the ârâ, followed by âMidnight, Halloween 2021âČ and finally â#witchinghour2021âČ. End.
Because we finally shared some! Tune in to this episode of Snyderâs Return for an interview with our very own Naomi Clarke and Michael Ireland talking all things St Kilda!
Warning: listening to this interview may make you even more excited for the show premiering!
Hello hello! I cannot believe we managed gather new followers whilst I ruthlessly abandoned this blog: welcome! This is totally still happening!
Basically all that went wrong is I worked full time night shifts over summer, which really didnât lend itself to editing scripts and managing a production, and then our entire team started uni! Aah! You all know that feeling of impending doom!
In light of this, all thatâs changing is that Iâve pushed the release of the show back, both to ease up everyoneâs scheduleâs and also to make sure itâs actually edited properly! So weâre now hoping to release in early 2022 (and also hopefully actually maintain promo until then!)
So thanks for sticking around, and time to get the ball rolling I guess!
Long time, no update, huh? Sorry about that! The whole team has just been absolutely swept off their feet by real life responsibilities this August, and I thought it was best to just pause recording for a month than turn this into something stressful.
But Iâm back to editing and in a few weeks weâll (hopefully) be recording! Thanks for sticking around, and hopefully Iâll have a lot more posts to share soon! (I know so much about Oscar Wilde now, guys. Just. So. Much.)
Hey there! My group of friends have been hardcore considering turning a passion project of ours into a real podcast, and I was wondering if you had any advice for newbies putting together a show. Weâre a small, young team, but we have a lot of passion for our concept and some writing/sound experience under our belts. Do you have any tips regarding finding actors, the process of plotting, sensitivity readers, or anything else youâve had experience with in your projects? Thanks for reading!
Ok, finally ready with this! Thank you so much for the question, I will try to share my ~wisdom~ in the following post, but feel free to ask any further questions!
How to start a podcast: 1. when youâre new and/or 2. when you have money!
1. Itâs easier than you think! My first advice is to just go for it! Even if it doesnât quite go as planned youâll have fun, and itâll give you great experience for whatever you want to work on next!
Casting:
Iâm going to assume this is an unpaid project (hence the former part of this advice being for free podcasting!) but if thatâs not the case please skip to section two!
When I canât offer any form of payment for a project I like to use friends as a cast. Not because my friends deserve any less payment! But because I can pay them in free chips and credentials for their portfolios, and it makes me feel slightly less bad!
Ways to go about deciding which friends to cast: I was lucky enough to do a lot of theatre work in my first year of uni, so I already knew a lot of people who were interested in both acting and production work. Youâll probably come across several actors who think voice acting is beneath them, but who wants to be friends with those people? What Iâm trying to say is: if you have friends who are interested in theatre theyâll probably be interested in this! Especially given the past year.
I also poached people from my DnD group, because I could already gauge their acting specialities from that, and I knew what kinds of things they were interested in based on which DnD campaigns they enjoyed best.
If you know anyone who is interested in public speaking, whatever you all those reading awards where you read aloud dramatically, or something like radio and TV presenting then theyâll probably also be interested and do a great job! The great thing about podcasts is that all you really need is someone with a good voice - theyâre free to do whatever they like with the rest of their face as long as theyâre reading the lines!
You can, of course, also put out a casting call. Itâs very important that you make it clear that it would be unpaid work. Even if you plan to set up a kofi, patreon, or kickstarter (info in the money section!), if you donât have the money to begin with you shouldnât promise it to people.
There are up and downsides to both. Casting people you know means youâre more likely to be comfortable working with them, thereâs less pressure to offer payment, and your cast are more likely to have free time specifically for this project. However, you wonât have the draw of casting known industry voices, and (like I found!) your cast may not have any social media engagement whatsoever!
If you put out a casting call youâre more likely to get a pool of diverse voices, it will likely be people invested (even if not plugged in) to the industry, and you can request that they have their own equipment! However, you then have to work with people you donât know, a level of professionalism that isnât usually present on first time projects may be expected, and unpaid casting calls are not wildly well received.
Personally, for your first show, Iâd try to use as many friends, or even friends-of-friends as possible. That being said, if you want advice on putting together an audition pack let me know!
Plotting:
It depends on what kind of show youâre aiming to write, but in general plotting a podcast is kind of like plotting a TV show. First of all you should plot out whatâs going to happen in a season. Then plot out whatâs going to happen in each episode. Ideally each episode will have its own arc, but things donât always work out like that.
I like to plan things out in a fair amount of detail beforehand (this is especially helpful if youâre writing collaboratively.) Start with whatâs going to happen in each episode. Once I know that, I then like to write how it starts and finishes, then the content in bullet points. If you ever canât think of anything then donât worry! A lot of things really come together when youâre actually writing.
The most important thing is to not worry at all about the first draft. Just get it down, editing is much easier and more fun once you have something to work with!
There are definitely much more qualified people than me out there giving advice about writing and plotting though; even if itâs directed at prose and script writers itâs still more than applicable!
Sensitivity readers:
If you have the option of sensitivity readers theyâre always a great idea! But asking someone to read your work (usually for free) is both time consuming and potentially risky if you donât know and trust them.
Tumblr, the writeblr community specifically, is a good place to find a sensitivity reader. A lot of people want the practise and are willing to do it for free if you put a call out.
One of the best ways to get feedback on your work is to cast/find people who are appropriate for the roles and then ask for feedback. Obviously they donât have to, but youâll find that usually they want to. You can aid in this by giving them some way to give feedback anonymously - maybe a google form - as no matter how chill and friendly you are as the prod team you will always be seen as In Charge.
If you donât feel right asking someone, especially from a marginalised group, to read and comment on your work for free, you can always just ask general questions in forums or on social media. This isnât as reliable, as people can lie online, but if you find the right communities and explain you just want to portray characters as accurately as possible there will always be people willing to offer some help. Reddit, for all its flaws, builds great communities, though remember to check the rules to make sure people outside of whatever group theyâre aiming to support are allowed to post.
Of course, the first step to writing anything outside of your own experience is a tonne of research. The sensitivity reader should be picking up on small things, not telling you the basics of their experiences. And everyoneâs experiences are different, which makes this even tougher! You can get things so spot on for a handful of people whilst inadvertently offending others. Be prepared to be adaptable and take on criticism, but also remember that you donât have to bend to everyoneâs whim; one person saying âbut this wasnât my experience!!â doesnât mean youâve done a bad job.
Equipment:
I know you didnât ask, but this was what I found scariest when I was Brand New.
If you have the money and youâre very serious about this I havenât encountered a single person who wouldnât recommend a Blue Yeti mic. However when youâre just starting out, and especially if youâre not planning to have all of your cast together record together/separately but with the same mic, blowing over $100 on a mic is huge, scary, and not always feasible.
I have three small desk mics that I loan out to my cast when needed. They cost ~ÂŁ30 ($40) from (ew, I know) Amazon. You donât need a mic for each cast member - you donât even need a mic for the max number of character speaking in a scene at once. You could probably do it all with one mic, but the time that would take and the affect it would have on scenes may be worth the extra cost! These obviously donât produce the crisp quality a professional recording mic would, but they have a pop filter and a windscreen and seem to do a good job at reducing background static.
Further noise reduction: Mr Alexander Jalexander Newall, when starting his podcast empire half a decade ago, got it in one: blanket forts.
If you can build a little fabric den for your cast to record in: perfect! If not, tell them just to stick a duvet over their head. This increases the risk of moving duvet sounds, but reduces everything else! And if they shift under the blanket you can always ask them to get comfortable then read the lines again.
And, info courtesy of the McElroys: you can also record in a wardrobe or a room with plenty of bookshelves if you donât want to build the worldâs most banginâ blanket fort.
The most important advice you will ever receive:
Donât be scared to ask for help! Join Facebook groups and ask questions! Join discord servers! Message people on Twitter and ask for advice (certain ppl are much more amenable to this than others, but this is pretty clear from their Vibe)! Heck, you can message me on Twitter (or here. Or send another anon. And if I donât know the answer Iâll ask someone who does!) Everyone just wants to help everyone else, and if they donât theyâre probably not the kind of people you want to associate with. Good luck! And let me know once you socials are up, so I can follow and get excited!
Now, onto 2. Money stuff!
A lot of the info stays the same, but money kind of raises the stakes. Once moneyâs involved, especially once money and people you donât know so well are involved, suddenly you have to operate like a business.
Casting:
If youâre planning to pay actors proper wages from the get-go you probably want to put out a casting call. Paid work will attract professionals, and professionals will not only do a great job, but will also help you gain an audience (and have their own equipment!)
You get to decide what the hourly rate is, but usually, depending on where youâre from, there is an average hourly rate voice actors get paid, and if youâre nowhere close to that people will be put off.
You should also make clear what the hourly rate includes: whether it is just recorded audio hours, or includes table reads and directorial time. A lot of people just have every actor record their lines separately, sometimes without direction, then edit them all together. This certainly saves on cost, and makes for a quick turnaround, but itâs no fun, and sometimes makes the show kind of soulless.
Kickstarters:
You can run a kickstarter on an unpaid project, in the hopes of eventually paying the cast and maybe funding future seasons. But Iâm going to assume this is advice for âI can pay the cast, but what is a kickstarter for?â
Well, thatâs up to you! It can be for equipment, for better editing, for podcast music, for podcast art, for a pay rise for the team, for bonus content. Depending on how many stretch goals you have, it can be for all of these things!
In short: backers give money, and get things in return, for example $5 might get you a pin badge, while $100 might get you a signed poster. When the kickstarter reaches a certain goal, maybe $5,000, then the team may then have enough money to produce a holiday special, for example. At $10,000 everyone on the team may get a 10% pay rise.
This is a great way to get people invested in the show, and a great way to make money! But if you want a really great kickstarter youâll probably want to hire someone with experience in this area.
Contracts:
Money means contracts! Usually two will suffice, they just need edited for each individual team member:
An NDA, to prevent people from discussing the show in any inappropriate situations.
And a literal workplace contract.
Youâll be able to search how to draft these online, but itâs useful to have the help of a lawyer. There are people who do this specifically for podcasts whoâll be able to help you out, but again: you have to pay them!
Equipment:
As I said, actors will probably have their own equipment, but if you want them all recording together: you can rent a studio! Theyâll already have all the equipment for you, which is The Dream!
Or you can convert a room into your own studio! Get some soundproof panelling on the walls and invest in a good mixer. Iâm afraid I donât have much advice on this, as I cannot afford anything close to a good mixer! But there are plenty of articles online with helpful information.
I wouldnât recommend making a paid podcast as your first project, as itâs a lot of pressure, and would almost definitely mean bringing new people onto even the production side of things. Thereâs always the option to work on another project first, something smaller-scale, to work out any roadblocks you may run into during the paid show. But Iâm not telling anyone what to do: if youâre ready, go for it!
Anyway, this was very long and quite rambly, and is probably filled with things you don't actually need to know! But I hope at least some of it was useful! Please feel free to ask any other questions - now or in future, PM or anon - and again: best of luck! I'm so excited for you!
