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Podcast Lab

Podcast Lab 2024 - Online

Lab Overview & Structure

Discover the transformative power of audio storytelling with our immersive program designed to equip you with everything you need to create compelling podcasts.

Participants will get a dynamic blend of creative workshops, expert mentorship, strategic insights and guidance on story development and sound editing. Led by industry leaders, you’ll gain practical experience in recording and editing, honing your skills to produce distinctive podcasts that captivate audiences.

Beyond technical skills, you’ll explore the global podcasting ecosystem, gaining crucial knowledge on industry dynamics, effective pitching, strategic marketing, and optimal release strategies. Learn about funding models, audience engagement tactics, and measurement tools that define success in podcasting today.

Apply now to be part of this fantastic opportunity to learn, create, and thrive in the world of podcasts.

Dates: 24 – 31 August 2024
Hours: Daily session of 4 hours (4 to 8 PM Doha time)
Language: English
Lab Fee: 1,100 QAR
Level: Beginner to Intermediate
Group Size: 6 projects will be selected with a maximum of two attendees per project
Deadline: 3 August 2024

Lab Objectives

Participants will learn:

• Hear from podcast industry leaders and regional experts
• Learn about the general podcasting landscape as well as regional trends
• Understand the strengths and weaknesses of different platforms (Apple, YouTube, Spotify, Anghami, etc.)
• Learn to grow audience and the community of listeners
• Delve into scriptwriting, narrative mapping, storytelling techniques
• Explore sound editing and sound design best practices
• Formulate finetuned podcast pitches
• Delve into business models and monetisation strategies
• Develop their podcast branding, marketing and effective pitching

Eligibility

The workshop welcomes aspiring audio storytellers and producers aiming to break into the podcast industry. We seek six to eight participants, prioritizing applicants from Qatar, the MENA region (including the diaspora), and DFI grantees, with a special invitation to applicants from emerging countries.

No prior podcasting or audio editing experience is necessary, though participants should arrive with a clear podcast concept in mind. We embrace serialized and story-driven projects in fiction, nonfiction, or hybrid formats, whether short-form or long-form series.

Who Can Apply?

Early-stage participants should provide a proof of concept outlining their ideas. Participants in later stages can submit a pilot script, show trailer, or sample audio.

All participants will prepare a project presentation with essential show details, including potential hosts, guests, and topics. A template will be provided. Serial narrative projects should include a narrative arc or backstory.

Eligible projects include long-format and short-format series in any genre (fiction or nonfiction).

Submission Requirements

Submit a Project Dossier to provide reviewers with a complete picture of your audio project.

Include:

• Synopsis
• Creator’s note outlining intentions and goals
• Visual concept or pitch deck (if applicable)
• Script and treatment (if applicable)
• Preliminary topical research and potential interviewees or sources
• Biography of the creative team and key crew members
• Supplementary materials like an audio trailer (if applicable)
• Letter detailing your motivation, current project stage, and workshop questions
• Links to any previous work (if applicable)
• Copy of passport or government-issued ID

Send your submission in Word or PDF format to training@dohafilminstitute.com by 3 August. Don’t forget to include your full name, project title, email, and phone contact in all documents.

Course Overview

Day One: Introductions (Saturday 24 August)

• Introductions
  • Participants, DFI staff, and lab producers will gather to introduce themselves and their projects
  • Lab producer Alexandra Blair will run participants through an overview of the lab schedule
  • Presentation of the podcasting landscape in the MENA region + Q&A with audio producer Al Shaibani (Novel, previously at Kerning Cultures Network)
  • One on one meetings with Al Shaibani and Alexandra Blair to follow

Day Two: Defining Audience & Context (Sunday 25 August)

• The purpose and craft behind podcast focus statements
• Workshop with the producers of The Guardian’s Black Box series, Alex Atack and Joshua Kelly to talk about the storytelling techniques and building a narrative arc.
• One on one meetings with Alex Atack and Joshua Kelly to follow

Day Three: Sound designing & editing (Monday 26 August)

• Participants will learn how to create a workflow map to help guide their creation process
• Workshop on best practices of sound designing, sound editing and recording with audio engineer Monzer El Hachem
• One on one meetings with Monzer El Hachem to follow

Day Four: Business of Podcasting (Tuesday 27 August)

• Participants will learn how to create a concise thesis statement for their podcast to guide their work and pitch their show.
• Workshop from Ramsey Tesdell (CEO of Sowt) to learn about monetization and business in podcasting in the MENA region, followed by Q&A
• One on one meetings with Ramsey Tesdell to follow

BREAK: Wednesday 28 August + Thursday 29 August

Day Seven: Storytelling case study (Friday 30 August)

• Participants will learn how to define their audience and grow their listenership
• Workshop on leveraging your community to grow your show with Spotify’s Rhea Chedid
• One on one meetings with Rhea Chedid to follow

Day Eight: Talking About Your Show (Saturday 31 August)

• Participants will give a brief presentation pitching their show to the group with feedback
• Then, learn best practices for pitching your show to strategic partners, funders, and collaborators.
• One on one meetings with Alexandra Blair and Al Shaibani to talk about marketing and branding your show; and to establish next steps.

Lab Mentors

ALEXANDRA BLAIR
Project Manager at PRX
Lab Programme Producer

My work lives at the intersection of transformative problem solving, agile project management, and product methodologies. My goal: to empower all makers to nimbly address 21st century demands with confidence and empathy. I am a design thinking subject matter expert and highly experienced project manager with hundreds of hours of experience helping creatives across the world develop delightful solutions to their product and project needs. I have worked in media for nearly a decade and have partnered with PRX, The New School, The Gotham, DFI, and more. I am a proud first generation college graduate and received my BFA from Parsons School of Design with highest honors and a curricular focus on journalistic practices and memory in art and design. Find me riding through the desert in my Jeep with a backseat full of camping gear.

Al Shaibani
Podcast producer
Novel

Al is a producer for branded projects at Novel and an audio nerd with a deep passion for podcasting. As the founder and organiser of Hekayyatna, he is a driving force behind SWANA storytelling and community building. His extensive experience in audio production, film production and brand strategy fuels his mission to create compelling audio stories that resonate.

Al’s career includes numerous podcasts and Netflix productions, all aimed at crafting content that captivates and endures. Beyond this, Al enjoys cycling and an unhealthy amount of chocolate. Al is Iraqi by birth, Czech by blood, South African by adolescence, Canadian by education, and Londoner by work experience.

Guest Speakers

Alex Atack
Journalist / Audio Producer

Alex Atack is a journalist and audio producer based in the UK. Most recently, he made a narrative series about artificial intelligence for The Guardian called Black Box. He is also a producer at Today in Focus, The Guardian’s award-winning flagship podcast.

In the past, his work has aired on the likes of Radiolab, 99% Invisible, NPR, The World, Kitchen Sisters Present, and TED’s Far Flung. Alex was also a founding producer at Kerning Cultures, a narrative podcast that he helped grow from a small passion project to one of the most respected English-language podcasts in the Middle East, with hundreds of thousands of downloads and multiple awards and accolades.

Monzer El Hachem
Sound Engineer

Monzer El-Hachem is an accomplished freelance sound engineer with over ten years of experience in audio restoration, editing, and design. He previously worked as a Sound Designer at Kerning Cultures Network, assisting in the production of popular English- and Arabic-language podcasts and branded content. Prior to that, he was an Audio Archivist and Restoration Engineer at the Arab Music Archiving and Research Foundation (AMAR) where he digitized traditional Arabic-language recordings from the early 20th century. As a freelancer, Monzer has worked primarily on sound design for podcasts and audio restoration for films.

Joshua Kelly
Journalist / Audio Producer

Joshua Kelly is the Guardian’s executive producer for narrative audio. His recent work includes Black Box, a narrative series about AI, and audio investigations including The Division and Freshwater.

Previously, he helped launch, and then worked as a producer on Today in Focus, the Guardian’s flagship daily news podcast. His work there included an investigation into the mysterious death of thousands of crustaceans on the beaches of his home town in the north of England.

Joshua’s background before narrative podcasting was in live radio. He was a producer on the Today programme on BBC Radio 4, the UK’s most influential radio news show. He worked on major breaking news stories, as well as interviews with political leaders in the UK and around the world.

Basia Cummings

Basia Cummings is an editor and partner at Tortoise, an investigative newsroom based in London. She is the host of the weekly investigative show, the Slow Newscast, and editor of numerous award-winning investigations including Sweet Bobby, Hoaxed, Into the Dirt, Hidden Homicides (shortlisted for the 2022 Orwell Prize). She is the reporter of Pig Iron (2023), which won Best Documentary at the British Podcast Awards, and Left to Die (2021), which won a Foreign Press Award. Before joining Tortoise, Basia worked on the foreign desk at the Guardian and was news editor of HuffPost UK.

Ramsey Tesdell
CEO, Sowt Media

Ramsey G. Tesdell is the CEO and co-founder of Sowt.com, a leading digital audio media company producing high-quality and premium content focusing on Arabic-speaking audiences. He is also a founding partner of 7iber.com, a leading independent news magazine from Jordan.

Ramsey was selected as a fellow of the Ford Global Fellowship in 2021 and is an advisory board member to the Google/PRX Podcast Creators Program, and a judge for the Third Coast Audio Festival held in Chicago. Ramsey also spends time mentoring and working with new media startups and focuses specifically on media strategy and business development with ICFJ. Ramsey originally moved to Amman as a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar. He has a B.S. in rhetoric and communication and an M.S. in technical communication. He lives in Amman with his partner and two children.

SELECTED PARTICIPANTS 2024

• Miss. Communication – Alexandria Ward (South Africa)
• Dose of Dopmanie – Abbas Sabra (Lebanon)
• Farida Podcast: We Hear You – Sujoud Battiri and Nuha (Palestine)
• Close Your Eyes – Petra Serhal & Jana Wehbe (Lebanon)
• Untitled – Mohamed Shabrawi (Egypt)

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