Explore Explain - Season Two

About Explore Explain

“Explore Explain is a long-form data visualisation podcast and video series. Each episode is based on a conversation with visualisation designers to explore the design story behind a single visualisation, or series of related works. The conversations provide an opportunity to explain their design process and to share insight on the myriad little decisions that underpin the finished works. It also shines a light on the contextual circumstances that shaped their thinking.”

Testimonial

“My experience working with Beth on editing/producing video and audio content has been brilliant for two central reasons: the quality of the work she does and the way she goes about it. She has a wonderfully calm manner in how she takes instruction or receives guidance that is open to interpretation, but then supplements this with her creative initiative, frequently exceeding expectations. She approaches all tasks with diligence and attention to detail, delivering work efficiently and in a timely manner even if this necessitates her going above and beyond. I would happily recommend Beth to any potential collaborator or client.”

ANDY KIRK

FOUNDER, VISUALISING DATA LTD.

HOST, EXPLORE EXPLAIN - PODCAST AND VIDEO SERIES

Producing and Editing Season Two

I was lucky enough to be introduced to Andy Kirk via the wonderful world of Twitter and later went on to begin working on his data visualisation podcast and video series. The first season was produced by Matt Knott and I was lucky enough to take over for season two. For the majority of the project I used Adobe Premier Pro but I also used Final Cut Pro for some little bits I knew I could do easier in the software. This was my first big project that I was producing from start to finish. I often am brought into a task once videos are all complete and handed the footage and asked to produce them in a certain way. This was great as I got to work with Andy to redesign the videos and plan out the best ways to achieve quality audio and video footage.

Challenges

With every project there are always challenges. Luckily there were very few within Explore Explain but the ones I did face really helped develop my skills. Due to all the footage being recorded via Zoom it was expected that little wifi blips may occur, one episode sadly was extremely disrupted which lead to some extra editing challenges. Luckily the footage by the end looked fairly smooth and we’d managed to work around the wifi issues and to podcast listeners the disruptions would have been practically impossible to notice.

Wins

It provided such a sense of achievement once this season was complete. Having worked with Andy to come up with best options, edit each episode for video and podcast and see them published and peoples wonderful reaction was really great. Another win is how interesting I found all the guests and their projects. I knew absolutely nothing about data visualisation before working with Andy and now I feel lucky to have got all this inside knowledge about all these amazing projects. I really recommend having a watch (or a listen) wether you’re a data visualisation fan or not! I am also super grateful that I’m getting to work with Andy on season three coming soon in 2021!

Closing Thoughts

Overall I am super thankful for this opportunity and even more so that I get to continue with it next year. I love that all my clients are different but this was a real joy to be able to see a project through from start to finish. Please take a look at season one and two and feel free to follow Explore Explain on twitter to keep up to date and be the first to know about season three!