The Process
Researching
As it was difficult for us to get together, we mostly did our research remotely and came together to discuss them in the documents once everyone was ready and brimming with energy. Having assigned specific articles to each, the team met up to discuss our findings and to come up with interesting talking points! A whole 36 pages of discussion on Google Docs to boot! Each colour represented a different team member. As shown, many ideas circulated around as we tried to tie our research results and ideas together.
Scripting
After the research, came the scripting. Our team members worked hard at writing, incorporating research and news reportings that were relevant to each episode with much vigour! The script writers communicated with each other throughout, making the entire process seamlessly smooth.
Without any major hiccups, all four scripts were completed, reviewed, and edited in 3 weeks. In no time at all, it was time to record.
Recording
A picture of Team All Abroad, our hopes high and filled with nerves before we began recording our first episode.
Yee Ting, Soh Khim, and Abigail, had to slowly get into their roles as the host, Xiao Mei, and Rando respectively. To obtain better audio quality, Yee Ting and Abigail have resorted to recording voice memos on their phones, while Khim, one of the audio producers on this show, naturally owned a professional mic that helped capture the essence of Xiao Mei. Of course, back-ups were made via recording the session on Teams as well. One can never be too safe.
Furthermore, recording with the guests was a blast as well! We’ve interviewed our guests through Teams as it’s easily accessible. A special thanks once again to Ilham, Jomanda, Yee Yond, and Lin for their participation! Though, not everything ran smoothly for every interview…
After completing our recordings for our final episode, the joy on our faces as radiant as the morning sun.
Editing
After the recordings, it was time to assemble the pieces!
The editing process went quite smoothly, without any major complications. All editing was done by two of our lovely team members, Soh Khim and Jie Xin. The editing was divided into two segments, Soh Khim would be in charge of the main content while Jie Xin would work with the audio from the guest interviews. Huge kudos to our editors as they’ve worked hard to select and reassemble the recordings! Their talents in sound design have accurately captured the relaxed vibe we were going for throughout the podcast.
We also had a couple of re-recording for the main content due to audio damage and malfunction, but they were quickly remedied by our responsive team.
If you’re interested in knowing which editing software our team utilised, Jie Xin used Final Cut Pro and Audacity to work on the audio clips, while Soh Khim used Adobe Premiere Pro to edit the podcast as well as Adobe After Effect for each episode’s preview visuals.