Jasmine Lewers
Why did you choose Blatherskite as your creative project this semester?
I’m a drama student and this project let me explore a wide range of creative avenues. Also, I chose Blatherskite because I wanted to experience being involved in a continuous project where the outcome isn’t just one performance. It has truly opened my eyes to the way this style of creative practice is managed and produced.
What’s it like being on the marketing team? What does that involve?
It’s been incredible. I’ve learnt lots of social media marketing techniques and how to evolve with continuously changing trends.
We started with a clean slate because this semester, Blatherskite officially became its own entity rather than an extension of ScratchThat. Blatherskite has never had its own research and marketing teams before, so we had to create most of the work processes ourselves. It was great to have so much freedom.
We had regular meetings throughout the semester to discuss which events we should attend, as well as the type of content that we wanted to create, and what was statistically working well and what wasn’t.
Can you give me an outline of the work that goes into producing each podcast?
Each podcast has their own working process. For example, the hosts and guest host of the “We Have Thoughts” podcast will attend the show they are reviewing, then discuss what they want to say on the podcast with the writers. This will ultimately form the basis of the script.
Regardless of the process used to reach this point, the recording sessions usually take a few hours with time allowed for possible retakes. In rare cases, more time is required if the audio is corrupted or certain rerecordings need to be done. It is then sent to our audio production team to put all the pieces together. From there, our marketing team member, Jacob, releases them onto the streaming platforms!
Tell me more about each of the podcasts and the team behind them.
The amazing thing about each podcast is that they are so completely different.
“In Tune with Miss Q” has quite a few musical numbers for those who like to jam out to different songs while going on a dramatic adventure. Behind this podcast, there’s the writers and performers, Abbey, Tayla, Ella C, and Kaity. Mak is the musical director, along with being a writer and performer. Ella U is a director and writer, and Sophie is their producer.
For “Auditory Nerves”, the writers—Matisse, Bjorn, Jackson, and Annabel—have created an unnerving series of interrelated horror stories. Charlie is the director, Tuesday is the producer, and Breeh is the editor. The performers, Rachael, Jade, and Maddelyn bring the characters to life with featured voices including Annabel and Bjorn. My voice even features in the third episode so stay tuned!
“We Have Thoughts” is a much smaller group and offers a more casual-style podcast. The hosts, Harmony and Leilani, review and offer their thoughts on local Brisbane theatre, with each episode having a guest host as well. Jodi (writer), Gabriel, (director) and Emma (producer) have all played a crucial role in creating this upbeat and insightful podcast.
What have you enjoyed most about being on the Blatherskite project?
I’ve really enjoyed learning about how podcasts are made and then being able to show this process on social media. It has been amazing to witness everyone’s creativity, and to see each person working on something completely new to them, either behind the scenes or as part of the actual podcasts themselves.
It also gives me an enormous sense of satisfaction to see how far we’ve all come from the very early stages where we were literally just getting to know each other and brainstorming ideas, through to preparing ourselves for the handover at the end of semester.
What challenges have you faced? Has everything gone to plan?
It was hard starting something almost from scratch and working with groups of people that I hadn’t worked with before. There was a fair bit of negotiation and compromise.
The greatest challenge that I faced was communication. With such a large number of people involved in the project, this was to be expected. Overall, though, everyone took responsibility for their own work processes and any issues that were raised were resolved.
Do you have a favourite podcast outside of Blatherskite?
I do! I don’t always have the time or opportunity to listen to many podcasts, but my favourite one would have to be Murder, Mystery & Makeup by Bailey Sarian. I am a huge horror buff and love everything true crime so it’s no wonder I’ve been working closely with “Auditory Nerves”!
Blatherskite is a podcast series run by final-year QUT students. Currently, the team are working on three new podcasts: a horror anthology called “Auditory Nerves”, a musical comedy called “In Tune with Miss Q”, and a series of theatre reviews called “We have Thoughts”.
Lucy Wilding is a third-year drama student and a member of the Blatherskite marketing team.
Interviewer: Jasmine Lewers is an emerging writer in Brisbane who studies creative writing at QUT. She is passionate about gender theory, domestic noir, and the violin. She is currently working on a murder mystery novel that combines all three.
Editors: Suzy Darlington