Project Reels — Journal

8 min readDec 8, 2022

Project Pitch

Project Reels is a podcast who’s main purpose is to teach people about project media do’s and don’ts by use of the foundation of Digital Media Story-telling. Using film and television to convey my ideas and knowledge about Digital media storytelling, and twisting that information into terms and guidelines for prospective project makers to learn from and use is the main purpose of Project Reels. I find project trailers and presentation to be vital to a product’s success in many scenarios, but through my experience, project media isn’t really talked enough about to help someone learn how to properly use it to their advantage. In addition to the podcast itself, I also have a webpage to house the information about the podcast, and where to listen to it.

My application of an emerging technology is not only the podcast itself, but also the knowledge of digital media storytelling being used to convey ideas and helpful information about the types of project media that we will all use for our capstone. I hope to help people understand how important their project trailers/presentations are to their project as a whole by discussing ideas based around POV, Soundtrack, Pacing, Main Point, etc, in film and television. It’s just as important to you as it is for these successful films and shows, and it’s a big reason why they became so successful in the first place.

Listeners will have access to six episodes based around the eight main Points of digital media storytelling. These points are Outline, Main Point, POV, Dramatic Question, Emotional Content, Gift of your Voice, Soundtrack, Pacing, and the Overall purpose of the story. They will also get valuable examples of these ideas being used in popular films and shows that they may have watched in order to get a proper understanding of the point, and relate it to something they love. Listeners will also have access to a website that houses the podcast in its entirety, with links to each episode on whatever platform they use to listen.

Why Project Reels?

Many students have to complete some sort of project in order to graduate, and in my case, I have to complete a capstone project. This is why I’ve created Project Reels. The only issue is that most of the things we learn have to do with the project itself. For example, the features, the UX, and all around the way it looks and performs, but we don’t learn much about the media that we have to make for our project. I wanted to make Project Reels so that people can learn how to make the best project media they can in order to help their product stand out and wow their audience.

What Does it Include?

Project Reels is a podcast at heart, but also features a webpage where you can find the links to whichever streaming platform you prefer to listen on. As of now, the main platforms that Project Reels is available on are Spotify and Apple Podcasts, but also available on a few others.

Impact

The main area of people that I hope this podcast impacts the most are students. I want to help them feel confident in their project media whenever they are ready to present their ideas. Students are the future, and if I can help them become more confident in their work, I feel that I’ve done a great thing.

Technology

For creating the podcast itself, I used my personal setup. This “setup” just consists of a microphone, a laptop, an iPad, and a desk. I used Adobe Audition as my audio editor, and used Buzzsprout as my podcasting host.

For the website, I used a bootstrap template and filled in the blanks with my podcast information. I added links, logos, and information in order to make the webpage feel like my own. To house the podcast, I made the website of course, but also I used Buzzsprout to get my podcast listed on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, and various other platforms, so that anyone can listen to it.

Lessons Learned

I learned more than I can ever put into words from these past few semesters. I never thought making something like this could have so much work in it. I knew it would be challenging, but there are so many pieces of one giant puzzle that you have to do before you even start working on the actual project. Throughout these semesters, I’ve made my Alpha, Beta, and my 1.0 versions of Project Reels.

For my project, I wanted everything to be very simple on the webpage since my project is 80% composed of the podcast. I didn’t have to do too much with the website since its only house links and information, but even so, I was able to make decisions that changed drastically throughout the process. One huge decision that changed the course of my project is that I had to let go of my original ideas for my website. My original Design System is almost the complete opposite of what my website actually consists of now. That one change is only one of many changes that I’ve made to my project. While making something like this, you start to become a perfectionist and will likely throw out multiple ideas that you thought were great at first, but then you make it better.

I tried so hard to find a podcast that did something similar to mine, but was only left with failure. Nobody does it like Project Reels does it. Since the podcast dives into Digital Media Storytelling and uses film/TV examples to tie it in with project media, it makes it a relatively niche podcast. The closest podcasts I could find that were sort of related were film reviews and project management, but nothing that combined the two.

User Testing Findings

My user testing was conducted quite differently than it was with some other projects in my cohort. Since my project is mainly audio based, my website isn’t the focus. For the first section of my testing, I had six fairly simple tasks for my testers to attempt on the webpage, and they passed with a 100% success rate as expected.

“Great, and simple website. Easy to navigate.” — Test Taker

The second section of my testing was to play a short segment of the actual podcast audio, and provide my test takers with Product Reaction Cards (PRCs) in order to gauge how they felt while listening. The most chosen work was Entertaining.

“It seems like I can learn a lot with this podcast.” — Test Taker

From my user testing results, I found that I was heading in a great direction for my project. I decided to put a lot more work into my audio, and try to make the podcast as polished as possible. I also kept my website up to date with my episodes, and continued to do what I had been doing.

Capstone Journey Overview

When I first started EM, I wanted to make a movie watchlist that would allow its users to add movies to a watchlist and check them off when they watched it. I wanted a feature that allowed you to copy and paste any already existing lists into the app, and it automatically add those to your list as well. Sounds easy right? Nope. I am not as familar with web and app design as I should be, so I changed my idea to Project Reels after reaching out to my professor for help. If I’ve learned only one thing this semester, it is to reach out for help from your professors. They are there to help you, and they will help you more than you can imagine. I was able to land on the idea of Project Reels because my idea that I had wasn’t the best, and we were able to come up with something that encapsulated what I wanted to do, and what was in line with the capstone requirements.

After I landed on the idea, I had to get the ball rolling because I was now behind. It was tough, and I got even furthur behind, but I was able to finally complete my Alpha demos. These were that good though. My website was horrendous, and I haven’t even gotten an episode up yet, but I still felt accomplished.

Then I started to work on my Beta after having a meeting with my professor. I decided to go with a bootstrap template to create my website, and was able to produce an episode of the podcast. After working through the four beta development stages, I was done with my Beta. Now I have a decent website, and one episode uploaded. All of the stress and hard work paid off.

Most recently, I have completed my 1.0, which consisted of polishing up the entire project until I couldn’t think of anything else to change. I now have a completed webpage, and three episodes published on multiple streaming platforms.

EM Overview

I begun my Emerging Media journey while in my undergrad career through the Double Dawgz Program. I was able to knock out some classes early on, and shorten my graduate school time by almost a year. The reason I wanted to start Emerging Media is because I have always been completely addicted to technology. I love to watch it change every year, and see what new things come out. I also love film and television, as my undergrad major was Entertainment and Media Studies. I felt that this program added to my interests, so I decided to go for it.

EM opened up so many more opportunities for me. I can say that I am familiar with web development, app development, digital media storytelling, UX, and so many other things along with what I learned as an undergraduate.

Advice to the Future of EM

The main thing that got me in the most stressful situation I’ve experienced in a long time in procrastinating. I know you’re told not to do it every semester, but I cannot stress how important it is to not do that. If you want to create something meaningful, and make it the best it can be, you have to dedicate the time to it. Its not like an essay where you can sit down for a day and still finish it. This is weeks of work. Procrastinating even for a week, can put you so behind.

Another thing I would recommend that I already mentioned is to reach out for help from your professors or advisors anytime. The amount of questions I’ve asked this semester is insane, but I always heard back, and it always helped me.

The main thing is to enjoy it. You’re going to learn so much during your two short years, so take it all in, and do your best.

Reflection to My Cohort

We have worked so hard over the past few semesters, and are finally getting close to the finish line. Its been a lot of hard work, but hasn’t it been worth it? I know some of us didn’t really get to know one another since we’re in EMO, but I’m glad we all got to go through the same experience because that alone is enough to at least relate to someone, and know that they’ve put their all into this. Good luck after we graduate, and I know that we’re all going places!

Project Media/Deliverables

There isn’t too much to show since the project is mainly audio, so make sure to listen to the trailer, or an episode if you want to learn more about Project Reels.

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