PROJECT BRIEF IV – ‘THE LAYMAN SHOW’ BY C. BRADY, H. HOÀNG & N. HOWARD

Description –

 

The Layman Show‘ is a talk show style podcast about sports from the point of view of a layman as opposed to a fan. In this clip the host, Nolan and regular guest expert, Callum discuss recent news in the world of sport. Notably, they cover and discuss the addition of technology to the game of soccer in the form of video referees, clubs and their engagement with social media and touch on how sports use all forms of media, though particularly video games in recent years to attract and retain an interest in their product.

 

Partway through, Nolan introduces the show’s upcoming interviewee, San – retired esports professional player who is better known by his alias, ‘stickman’. Considering this particular episode’s theme of media and technology in sports an esports narrative fits right in. San is coming onto the show in order to promote his upcoming documentary, ‘Redemption‘. The two throw to an extended trailer for the piece while they prepare to get San on the line.

 

Credits: Callum Brady, Hai ‘San’ Hoàng & Nolan Howard.

Reflection –

 

This was perhaps the best group I have ever worked with in the context of university. Immediately the foundation for teamwork and collaboration was laid down early and it never stagnated. Each of our meetings were regularly scheduled and documented. This lead to each of us remaining accountable for each of our autonomous tasks which were decided on and checked during our twice-weekly meetings; outside of the classroom, we were also incredibly diligent in our communication. This is the basis I want to establish with any group work moving forward. Establishing these expectations, communication channels and introducing a level of consistency was a boon for our team.

 

During our foundation, we had established our personal goals which guided our group decisions which came into play whenever we disagreed on any creative decisions. Particularly in the early days, everyone was open to suggestions and actively contributed to the discussion. It was here that we established the atmosphere the group would carry – we were friendly co-workers, the tone was light and we were not opposed to joking around or meeting between classes but we focused on the work at hand.

 

Another strength of ours was that we were never precious about the work, our ideas, or egos. Upon conceiving our initial concept for the piece, we overemphasised a focus on the business and marketing aspect of modern sports and teams. Realising this due to feedback when we were about to shift into production, as many other groups were, was definitely a setback. Especially since a lot of our research pertained to the original topic. That being said, we were agile and adapted the resources into what turned into our final submission.

 

Problematic elements were something we discussed partway through figuring out what sort of genre or format we were going to undertake to get our information across. We felt that given our information-dense topic we would want a majority of it to be communicated in a sports broadcast talk show, which as implied would deliver a great deal of exposition through speech. So, a general lack of sonic depth in the piece could be argued; though we attempted to mitigate that through the development of our esports trailer.

 

I think a key factor that affected our options for texture was the idea that nothing moves in the piece. It is implied that Nolan and Callum are in a studio setting, and in the trailer, I do not make a point of marking any scene changes outside of glossing over the plane flying overhead and symbolic shifts, like the section where my character is getting overwhelmed by social media. Perhaps I should have pushed harder for an on the field interview with a soccer player/expert responding to one of the discussion topics – with the texture coming from players running drills or playing a game in the background or having them be recorded over the phone.

 

I was nervous going when we were set to get feedback from Jon Tjhia on our rough cut – worried about the lack of creative use of sound and texture despite having sectioned out a part to explore that side of sound design. But after his comments as to how we should lean into the nuances of that genre, I felt more justified in our decision. Through his feedback, we introduced specific microphone techniques, effects, and compression to our mix.

 

Because of the format, however, we were constantly fighting with time constraints. Which was difficult to navigate due to all the information we wanted to convey. The research we conducted was sectioned into three distinct groups; traditional sports and its use of media/technology, esports and grassroots engagement which touched on fringe sports/competitions. Our goal was to tackle the question, are media formats changing the way audiences engage with sport?

 

It starts in a fairly matter of fact style with the news and discussion segment. Exploring the new and controversial issue of using video refereeing, then moving onto fan engagement for teams online through social media and then the FIFA video gaming franchise acting as a reminder and bridge for casual fans to engage in the sport.

 

I was the advocate for covering esports from the beginning, it helps that I have been tracking the scene consistently since 2012. But the reason for it was from the standpoint that it is an emerging media industry that is exclusively built off the current state of media and technology. Developed as spectator-friendly games from the beginning these games initially must carve out enough player interest to even begin the competition component of their business strategy. Now, modern gaming sees fan engagement as a varied set of activities rather than just playing the game. Streaming is a norm, consuming fan content was made its own ecosystem, then there is social media, memes and crowdfunding to skim the top of the list.

 

Overall, I was very pleased with how we tackled this Project Brief. We packed a lot of research topics off the prompt of ‘attention ecologies of media’ in a package that made sense. The choice to use spot sounds as samples never broke the listeners’ suspension of disbelief, and I believe we packed enough textures in our voice over, spots and music particularly in the trailer in order to fulfil the brief’s intentions.

Hai 'San' Hoàng

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