Listen Up Local Athens has a two-fold purpose. First, to provide The University of Georgia with easily produced content to air on WNEG (it’s newly purchased television station). Second, it gives local Athens bands another outlet where they might receive some well deserved exposure. The average person living in Athens usually can only name five to ten bands, with more than 400 bands in Athens artists are in desperate need of more publicity.

The speed, simplicity, and multi-channel distribution of Listen Up Local are the most attractive aspects of the project.

Speed. The goal of Listen Up Local is to produce two minute episodes in roughly two hours. We were able to achieve this goal by utilizing Mac’s imovie program. This particular program allows novice producers to upload video content and easily edit the content to create quality episodes. All Macs are equipped with imovie, so there were not any additional costs. In fact, individuals who own Mac computers may edit the movie in the comfort of their own home. Speed was also achieved by using the Nokia N95 cell phone. The lack of bulky equipment sped up the filming process.

Simplicity. Simplicity was achieved in a number of ways. First, we used the video capability of the Nokia N95 cell phone to record half of our episodes. Any cell phone user can easily learn how to operate the N95. Plus, the N95 easily fit in the purse or pocket of the person filming. Second, we developed four basic templates for our episodes which are easily reproduced. Although each series is unique – the central goal of every series is to share the music of each band.

The first storyboard consisted of the “Pop Up Video”. Each episode starts with two to three pictures of the band/artist. Simultaneously the name of the band appears at the bottom of the screen. The rest of the two minute episodes consists of clips from a particular performance while various interesting facts “pop up” on the bottom of the screen. The purpose of this episode is to give viewers a taste of an actual performance without paying any costs. Also, it gives people who are already fans additional insight into their favorite bands.

The second storyboard is the “Q and A” episode. In this series we invite artists to play in the New Media Institute recording room. The episode begins with 20 seconds of the artist performing in the studio. Then the episode takes one of two routes. The artist can either introduce the song they are about to play and share with viewers what kinds of songs they like to write and why or the artist then proceed to play a song or the artist may choose to talk the rest of the episode and share information about themselves and their music. We feel our goal of giving insight into the artist is achieved with either route so we allow the artist to pick the direction of the episode.

The third storyboard is the “Hanging With” episode. This series is our most unscripted series because it involves spending time with artists while they simply hang out with each other. The purpose of this episode is to show a different side of the bands. It begins by introducing the band with two to three pictures. The rest of the episode shows an average day in the life of the artist with audio of the artist’s music overlayed on top of the video.

The final story is the “Weekly Preview” episode. These episodes give the most exposure to the most amount of bands in under two minutes. The episode pans out similar to news broadcast. A single host reads the upcoming performances for that week. It is not possible to tell viewers about every performance in Athens that week, but we make a conscious effort to tell the audience about a variety of bands at a variety of locations at varying costs. While the hosts reads the events for each day, an image of the location of the performance appears in the upper portion of the screen. This provides publicity for the location. We feel this aspect of the show has potential for advertising revenue. Eventually we hope to charge venues to have their location displayed on each episode.

Multi Channel. All episodes created by Listen Up Local have been formatted for television, iphones, and computers. Also, the audio from the “Weekly Preview” can be heard on any ipod. The multi channel nature of the project is the most exciting aspect because it allows any user any where to get our content. On a bus? Watch our episodes on your smartphone. At work? Watch our episodes on your computer. At home? Watch our episodes on WNEG. Listen Up Local has the capability to infiltrate every aspect of media. The episodes are short enough to maintain the attention of viewers while simultaneously giving them new information and entertainment.

Click here to download our project pdf