I think this helped make it sound more natural and conversational. The voiceover had already been split up into pieces with the Razor tool, so I put space in between the clips when a breath was needed. I added fade in/out here as well and adjusted the volume to be lower when I was speaking, then increase. For the revised outro, I decided to use a different, more upbeat clip of the song to end on a high-energy note. Turning my attention to the music, I clipped a longer chunk of the song to serve as the elongated intro, adjusted the volume to blend with the voiceover, and added fade in/out. I also adjusted the fade in/out and volume on the other sound effects (salt and pepper grinders, and the sniff + “mmm”), and gave them a more extended overlap more with the voiceover for a blended effect. I adjusted the volume on the Restaurant Ambience and customized the fade in/out out to be subtle against the voiceover. Back on, I found and downloaded the right Restaurant Ambience clip. I added to the original script and re-recorded myself on VoiceMemos introducing Christopher and that I was on location at BoTree Farm. I would like to have more of Christopher in the piece, but his other clips were either too windy or irrelevant to this specific topic. I set out to incorporate all of these recommendations into the final except the last one.
Music was needed for the intro and outro so I looked at different Creative Commons websites ( BandCamp, Musopen, and Free Music Archive) and found the right song that was approved for commercial use, In Tune by Kellee Maize. Then I searched sound effects on and downloaded these gems: A man sniffing and saying “Mmmm”, Grinding pepper, and Grinding salt. I re-recorded my introduction so that it transitioned into Christopher’s piece. Fortunately I did find one usable clip featuring BoTree co-owner Christopher Gow, which I imported into Audition. I have videos from my December trip to BoTree Farm in Kampot, Cambodia, but unfortunately it’s a very windy place and for most of the clips the audio wasn’t up to par. Other voices and sounds were needed to break up my monologue. I recorded myself reading the script in the most silent place I know of in noisy Bangkok (my bedroom) using iPhone VoiceMemos. Research and productionįirst I created an outline, then script, around the central question: What is the true purpose of salt and pepper? I supplemented my knowledge with information from BoTree’s website. I think listeners will find the answer surprising, as I did. So for this assignment I wanted to pique listeners’ interest by exploring why salt and pepper have been voted Most Popular for centuries. Granted, seasoning is not the world’s most exciting topic, and is admittedly niche. To apply my budding knowledge, I chose seasoning education as my topic for this course.
BoTree team members are passionate seasoning evangelists, sharing the gospel of what professional chefs know – that proper seasoning is vital to outstanding food – with food-lovers at large. I currently work as a communications contractor with BoTree Farm, a producer of Kampot Pepper and Fleur de Sel (an outrageously tasty sea salt).