Author: nelsonedwards97

I’m a podcast guy. I don’t know if that’s a generally accepted category like “IPA guy” or “board game guy” but if it isn’t, it should be. I love podcasts. A big reason, I suspect for my love of podcasts is that I work by myself as a window cleaner. When I’m working, I usually have two options, music or podcasts. Over time, I’ve discovered that podcasts tend to make the work go by quicker, and so I’ve been a Podcast Guy for coming up on 5 years.

What I love about podcasts are that no two episodes are the same. When I listen to two comedians talk to each other about their lives, or their careers, or whatever weird yet funny thing they’ve started riffing on, I can’t help but imagine myself there with them. I think that’s a shared experience amongst most podcast listeners. The para-social relationship one develops with their favourite podcast, while weird, is great when it comes to taking one’s mind off of something else.

I also love history, and so I listen to a lot of history podcasts. Dan Carlin is to the history genre what Joe Rogan is to the comedy genre. And the conspiracy theory genre. And the move-to-Texas-and-start-parroting-far-right-propaganda genre. Listening to Dan Carlin is like being transported to a vantage point in the sky above the Battle of Thermopylae, or the conquering of Persia by Alexander the Great. I can almost see myself as the co-pilot in a B-52 flying over Munich in 1941 as Carlin weaves a magnificent rendition of the infinitely complex battlegrounds of the Second World War.

Podcasts are brilliant because they have no boundaries. One can say whatever they want about whatever they want. And in certain cases, when one says such controversial things that gets one kicked off major platforms (cough cough Tim Dillon cough cough), one can then upload on one’s own website, or on Patreon. There is a creator for every audience, and the number of creators grows every day.

Podcasts can launch and end careers, start trends, create millionaires, and shed light into dark corners of the world. The never ending combination of host and guest across 1000s of podcasts creates a space of media that is infinitely vast, with more content than any one individual could consume in their lifetime.

I like podcasts. So I made a podcast about it!

https://youtu.be/UB179e2VYWM

When I started making YouTube videos, I was almost convinced that I would just crack the code. Sure, there are plenty of creative people out there, but I’ll rise above! Anything worth doing is worth overdoing, so I’ll just outwork everyone. I’ll listen to every podcast about the art of the perfect YouTube video, and keep up to date on what’s happening with the algorithm. I’ll study the thumbnails of other YouTubers to see what gives their video each tiny competitive edge over the others. I’ll put in all the extra time in the evenings, say no to plans with friends, and work like my life depends on it, because I have a dream! I want to make money on YouTube. I don’t need a mansion in LA, or a Ferrari (I mean, if they were offered to me I’m not saying I’d say no), I just wanted to make money. Any money! And I still do! Which is why this is a strange place to find myself in.

Because I did all those things, and I didn’t get anywhere close to cracking the code. The safe in YouTube headquarters that contains all my riches remains sealed. I ended up experiencing what a lot of YouTubers have talked about. Something called burnout. But I’ve come to realise that it’s not necessarily a bad thing. What one could call burnout, another could call a forced shift in perspective. Why do I feel this way? If I really truly wanted this to happen, I would simply work through the creative block, through the late nights and early mornings, posting video after video even when I’m certain their performance won’t reach my expectations.

Something else I find funny when looking back is that I would spend 40 hours on a video, from recording footage to doing voice over, green screening memes, adding every little element I could think of to make my video as watchable as possible. Then my girlfriend would post a vlog of her taking the train, and she would thankfully not rub it in my face when her video outperformed mine.

The more I write and read this back, the more I worry that I’m coming across as bitter, which is not my intention. Simply put, this is an exercise in hindsight. And in engaging in this exercise, I find that the burnout I experienced, the uncertainty I went through after a year of grinding out videos in hopes that I’d catch the wave, was all a part of setting me on the path that I am on now.

The whole time I was making videos, I was always most interested in the storytelling aspect. Some people like cinematography, some people like editing, I love telling stories. The realization that I need to prioritize story telling over anything else when I make content is what is now pushing me forward while I embark on a new project: making short form content about history and interesting events!

While it’s a completely different way of telling stories than anything I’m used to, I look forward to every step of the process.

One of my favourite topics (and the reason I’m taking this class) is Digital Storytelling. I love YouTube videos, podcasts, blogs, TikTok videos, you name it. Each platform has its own style, and each creator has their own voice.

After years of consuming content, and spending the past year and change actively learning about what it takes to create a compelling piece of content, I’ve compiled what are in my opinion the 4 most important individual tips for creating any content online. Whether it’s video, audio or print, the infographic below will help in putting together a compelling story.

Hopefully you find my tips helpful. Thanks for reading!

For my Live-Tweet story, I decided to write about a fictional debate between two “friends”. The debate consists of one friend, Danny, arguing with another friend, Brett, on a classic dudes-hanging-out topic: who would win in a fight between a grizzly bear and a silverback gorilla? I felt it was a compelling enough story to warrant sharing on Twitter, and provided me with the ability to draw in the reader and keep them hooked until the end.

I started with what I thought was an appropriate Twitter story introduction, and made sure to continue introducing new elements to the conversation to avoid the story becoming stale. I wanted to provide any potential readers with an easy-to-quantify conclusion. As in, you can debate the topic of animal in 1v1 combat, and you can live tweet about that debate. But how do you give the reader a satisfying end to that 10 tweet journey? I decided to dedicate two tweets at the end to listing the categories that were touched on throughout my story. Bite Strength? Gorilla wins that one. Armour? Grizzly has thicker skin so he’ll take that. The final tally was 6 to 5 in favour of the Grizzly, and with that, my story came to a conclusive end.

Taking cues from the required reading, The Non-Writers’ Guide To Writing Better Social Media Copy, I figured that writing in as natural a speaking voice as possible made for an easy to read story. No need to add big words or over format. A twitter story is not judged on its punctuation, but on its story. Another cue I took from the aforementioned article, was to add visual elements. Admittedly, these were lacking a little, but I added emojis where I thought appropriate, to break up the sheer wall of text that is 10+ tweets.

Take a look if you like! And thanks for reading.

Interesting convo happening within my friend group at the moment. Danny is currently arguing with Brett over what would win in a fight, grizzly bear vs silverback gorilla. Surprisingly heated conversation. Will update. #EXSM3989

— Nelson Edwards (@edwards_ne9120) July 17, 2023

When I first saw the marketing material for Denis Villeneuve’s highly anticipated sequel to one of the most influential films of all time, I was very excited. I’d never seen the original Blade Runner, but was well aware of the influence it had had on the sci-fi genre. Having seen Arrival and Sicario, which were both directed by Villeneuve and had blown me away, I had a feeling that this fresh new take on the Blade Runner universe would scratch that sci-fi itch that I always seem to have.

From the opening shot of Blade Runner 2049, I was completely captivated. The colour palette, the vehicles, the buildings, the dialogue, the score. There were numerous moments throughout the film where I found myself thinking, “this is my favourite movie ever.” Ryan Gosling’s Officer K picks up right where Harrison Ford’s Rick Deckard left off. The journey one takes throughout the film is