JacksonEippertHawkenProjects2023

 Oh, how time flies. It feels like just yesterday I was still in the early stages of planning the project, and now it's all over. I was originally inspired to create this project mostly by my partner in this project, Luke. He pitched the idea of making an anthology podcast along the lines of some podcasts we'd both listened to and discussed extensively, and I thought it sounded like a lot of fun, so of course I said yes. I've always had the vague notion that making a podcast would be a fun endeavor, and I figured this would be by far my best chance to give it a go. Overall, I would say that the project went quite well. While our initial goals for the podcast were quite ambitious, I am really really happy with our output over these few weeks. I am particularly happy with how the podcast sounds. I really didn't expect us to be able to make a podcast that actually sounds decent and, not to self aggrandize, but I think the audio really sounds decently professional. In gener...

 As the project's end now draws near, I think it might be a good time to do some reflecting on what's occurred so far. Of course, I will still have my final reflections in one final blog post, but right now just a couple days before presentations seems to provide a good vantage point from which to tackle a few reflection questions. 1. What has surprised you the most so far? The biggest surprise, and indeed one of the biggest learning experiences, happened before the project even started, and that was trying to predict how many episodes of a podcast two people can realistically create in three weeks. We ended up settling on five, which has proven to be a relatively realistic, if slightly ambitious, goal, but a little known fact is that our initial plan was to create ten  episodes during the project. An absolutely preposterous notion in retrospect. The lesson is pretty clear: be realistic in plans.  Recording Setup 2. Describe something new that you learned. How d...

 As I am writing this entry, we have essentially one more work day of the project, and then the presentations. This blog post will serve to detail our last few days of work, while the next will focus on doing some reflecting as we head into the end of the project. Let's hop to it. Wednesday Wednesday saw the continuation of our typical formula that has worked so well for us: scheduled recording sessions throughout the day with various tasks and activities interspersed. Wednesday was focused mostly on production of episodes 3 and 4, with nearly all of the episode 3 lines being recorded this day.  Thursday Thursday was much the same as Wednesday, with the exception that we had a check in with out mentor in the morning to make sure everything was still on track heading into the end of the project. We also asked a few questions about the best strategies to edit in the most efficient way, as well as scheduling another follow up for the next Tuesday.  Workin' on the podcast Fri...

 It's Tuesday, May 23rd, meaning that, by now, we're a bit more than halfway through the project. We continue to be really quite busy, so let's jump right into talking about what we've been working on! Friday Friday was another big editing day. We finished up most of the editing work for episodes 1 and 2, particularly the main things like cutting up dialogue and arranging it in the proper places. We also rerecorded a line for episode 2 that needed some tweaking. Not a super busy day in terms of events, but plenty of work done.  Monday Monday was quite the smattering of work. The morning was more editing and writing work, continuing work on episodes 1 and 2 in post production and episodes 3 and 4 in writing. We also had a meeting with our mentor and proctor to discuss progress on the project so far and our next steps, which was a really great way to start the week to orient ourselves towards the rest of time. In the afternoon, we had some more recording both for some rer...

 Today is Friday, May 19th, making it the 8th day of our Hawken project. Time for another recap of what we've been working on! Wednesday Wednesday was mostly dedicated to being a big recording day. We had three people record, which rounded out all of the voices for episodes one and two. Recording went as usual, which is to say rather smoothly. We continue to use the same setup, recording in the closet by the library. Overall, recording has definitely gotten better throughout the project, with more understanding of what it actually means for a recording to be good. One really big lesson we learned, especially after we started editing, is that "marks" between takes are really useful. A mark is just when someone makes a loud sound, for us usually a clap, so that it makes a peak on the waveform that is really easy to identify while editing. That's something we'll certainly apply to the later recording sessions to make sure we have that for all of our audio. Other than...

 Hello again! Welcome back. Today is Tuesday, May 16th, making it the 5th day of our Hawken Project. It's been a busy couple of days. This week marked the beginning of recording lines for the podcast.  Monday Monday was quite the busy one. The first order of business was meeting with our mentor, Jim Harold, to discuss the project and first steps of production. This meeting was unbelievably useful, as Mr. Harold is very knowledgeable on the fine details of podcast production and gave a lot of valuable advice and feedback for us before we began recording. After that, we of course, began recording! Our first recording session was for a character in episode two that I voiced. This gave us a good opportunity to figure out our recording setup before bringing other people in to record their lines. In addition to this first recording, we recorded lines for two of the characters in episode one, voiced by fellow classmates. Also on Monday, besides all these recording sessions, we spent ...

 Hello there! As I right this, it is about 3 pm on the Friday the 12th, making it the third day of our project, and boy has a lot happened. Let's jump right in: For the first few days, Luke and I have been working out of the green rooms, focusing on writing scripts for episodes 1 and 2. We have decided to split up the work by episode, with Luke writing episode 1, me writing episode 2, and both of us editing and providing feedback on both. We also are working together on all of the outlines for all of the episodes so we both have input on what's actually happening in the podcast. On day one, we worked through the outlines for episodes 1 and 2, building detailed descriptions of what would happen in each story, what order things would happen in, and what characters would be involved. In the afternoon, I had to go off to take the AP bio test while Luke began drafting episode 1. Luke while I was in the AP test On day two, it was more writing. We spent the morning outlining episodes ...

  Hello. Thanks for stopping by my blog. My name’s Jackson, and the following blog is a record of my work on my 2023 Hawken project. The project I am working on is writing and producing a fictional sci-fi horror anthology series with one of my classmates, Luke Sweeney. We’re aiming to create 5 episodes that are each about 15 to 30 minutes in length.   The podcast will be an anthology, meaning that while all of the stories will take place in the same universe and are somewhat interconnected, each of the stories has its own plot with its own characters. The production goal of the project is to create 5 podcast episodes, but the real goal is to answer an essential question: what does it take to write and produce a podcast? I’ve been an avid podcast listener for quite some time, and more recently have greatly enjoyed listening to fiction podcasts with their own worlds and stories. For quite some time, I’ve wanted to try my hand at creating a podcast, and a Hawken project is the pe...