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We are very happy to be working with you to record a piece for Talk Pieces. The single best way to get a sense of what we’re interested in is to listen to our first episode here or to read our publication Think Pieces, where you can find writings of about 1000-1500 words that we have carefully edited (that translates into a 10 minute piece as the one you are contributing).
We will be disseminating your research along with other important voices on the topics that we develop. Here you will find a few instructions as to how to record your piece, but do not hesitate to contact Catherine Stokes (c.stokes@ucl.ac.uk) or Albert Brenchat-Aguilar (a.brenchat@ucl.ac.uk) to assist you in the process.
Recording a piece
- Either speak closely (but not directly) to the phone or use a good quality headset.
- Please check for any background noise around you, including fridges, fans, alarms and other sounds you might normally screen out and consider turning them off for the duration of the recording. In this time of self-isolation, journalists at The Guardian record their podcasts under their duvets. You do not have to do this but a room with carpets, lots of clothes or other sound absorbing surfaces will help a lot.
- Do not worry if you make mistakes as you speak. Wait for two seconds and repeat your sentence. We will edit your piece.
- This podcast presents research-driven and ideas-led pieces but aims to be accessible to a broad and heterogeneous audience. People listen to these podcasts in all sorts of environments. Please think how you normally listen to podcasts and remember to speak clearly and calmly.
Iphone
- Download 'Voice Record Pro' from your App Store for free.
- Open the app.
- Press 'rec' and select record quality 'high'.
- Press 'Advanced' and, instead of 'mp3 (MPEG)' choose 'WAV (PCM)'
- To start recording, press 'rec' once more.
- To stop recording, press the 'stop' button.
- The application will now ask you to choose how to share your file with us. Please send the track to Albert Brenchat-Aguilar at a.brenchat@ucl.ac.uk
You can also follow the instructions of this video:
Android smartphone
- Download ASR Voice Recorder here. (If you have another recording app, feel free to use this but ASR is free, has very little advertising and the quality is all right.)
- Open the app.
- To start recording, press the red button.
- To stop recording and save the file, press the red button again.
- To access the list of recordings, press the icon with three dots and three lines on the top right-hand side.
- To share the audio recording with us, press the 'share' button on the top right-hand side and select an email app.
- Send the track to Albert Brenchat-Aguilar at a.brenchat@ucl.ac.uk
Macintosh laptop
- Open your 'voice memos' application. You will find this in your list of applications.
- To start recording, click the red button.
- To pause, click 'pause'. To continue, click 'resume'.
- To stop and save the recording, click 'done'.
- A new recording will be created in the left-hand side column. To save the file, drag the recording from the left-hand side column to your desktop or a folder.
- Now you have a file to share with us via email at a.brenchat@ucl.ac.uk
Windows laptop
- Open Microsoft Store. Search for Windows Voice Recorder, and click the top result. Click the ‘Get’ button.
- To start recording, Open Start. Search for Video Recorder, and click the top result to open the app. Click the ‘Record’ button.
- To pause recording, click the ‘Pause’ button to stop the recording without terminating the session.
- Click the ‘Stop’ button to terminate the voice recording session.
- The audio file will save automatically using an .m4a file format in the ‘Sound recordings’ folder in your ‘Documents’ folder. Now you have a file to share with us via email at a.brenchat@ucl.ac.uk.
Adding images
Feel free to send us any images that we can upload onto our website along with your recording, but please remember that some people might not be in front of a screen all of the time while they’re listening to you.
- Please make sure that you number the image or clearly state which image you are referring to.
- Describe the image in words, thereby letting the listener or viewer understand what you are seeing in the picture.
- We can only publish images if it is considered fair use, i.e. using them to support your argument and they are in the public domain or have a Creative Commons licence. In any case, we will need full captions and credits for them.
Recording a video piece
If you consider that this is essential, please feel free to video record your talk. Remember that it will take longer to edit than an audio recording and that people seem to be oversaturated with screen time at the moment. However, we encourage you to do this if your talk is very dynamic or you find it difficult to communicate otherwise.
- Open your 'camera' app.
- To start recording, select video, and press the red circle button.
- Send the track to Albert Brenchat-Aguilar at a.brenchat@ucl.ac.uk
- If the file is too large, you can use www.wetransfer.com
- If you would like to include images, please let us know where they should be inserted.
Background for your video
- The basic go-to background is a bookshelf (try to avoid plain or cluttered backgrounds).
- Raise your phone to head height and speak directly to the camera.
- Turn your phone on its side and record in landscape.
- Natural light in front of you is always best. Avoid lights on the background or below your face.
- Before you begin speaking, please hold up a white item to the camera (a clean A4 sheet of paper works well) this will help us in postproduction.
Recording a conversation
- You will be invited to a session in Microsoft Teams or Zencastr through your email address.
- This link will take you to a website where you can download the application or join through your browser.
- One you have joined the conversation we will deal with the rest.
Copyrights
Podcasts
Speakers remain the owners of the copyright in recordings. They consent to recordings being made available publicly by UCL under the CC-BY-ND (Creative Commons-Attribution-NoDerivatives 2.0 UK) licence. Where material is included in the recording which is the copyright of a third party or protected by any other intellectual property right, the speaker has obtained permission to include those materials in the lecture for educational purposes.
Written pieces
All content remains the property of Think Pieces’s authors, editors and image producers. In some cases, existing copyright holders have granted single use permission, and in other cases CC-BY-NC-ND permission. Please find at the bottom of each piece the type of licence granted. For more information, please contact the Institute of Advanced Studies at UCL.
