MAP 10 brings ghost podcasts to life

Photo by Victoria Hu

Students edited audio of ghost stories with sound effects.

From focusing on daily news to acting as reporters from the 20th century, Media Arts Program students in the past have produced podcasts on a variety of topics. However, for this year’s twist, MAP 10 students explored the supernatural world by recording podcasts based on ghost stories.

This two-and-a-half-week project, which took place during October’s Halloween season, was a collaboration between English and Media Arts classes. The assignment entailed MAP 10 students sourcing and interviewing someone who believed they had a paranormal experience. They then spliced together a podcast using Adobe Premiere Pro, adding background music, sound effects and voice-overs to create a final product of 3 to 7 minutes. 

English teacher Marcos Cortez oversaw the English aspect of the podcast project and taught students script writing, plot pyramids and how to craft engaging narrative story arcs from raw interviews. 

Inspired by the online podcast “Spooked” by Snap Judgment, as well as positive experiences teaching this project to students at Los Gatos High, Cortez collaborated with Media Arts teacher Alex Hemmerich to implement and expand the project here. Hemmerich taught the technical component of the project, including audio blending, volume control, music and sound effects. 

Cortez said the skills students gain from editing audio by piecing together interviews and smoothing out transitions directly improves their writing abilities. 

“When students edit audio or film, it demands that they look very critically at the words they’re using, and at what point they’re ending one sentence and beginning another,” Cortez said.  “I have found that this translates really well to writing.”

While students gained proficiency working with editing software, they also developed interpersonal skills by collaborating, planning and delegating roles, Hemmerich said. He enjoyed watching students “build this atmosphere, this vibe around ghost stories, by combining components in a very thoughtful, intentional manner.”

For sophomore Adeena Kadire, creating a ghost podcast was challenging yet rewarding. Her group’s first hurdle was finding someone with a supernatural story to tell. They called churches, but never received responses back. 

However, by simply asking the people around her, Kadire discovered that her mother had a ghost story about seeing an apparition from a haunted tree in China. Although she felt glad to find a story for her project, she was shocked to hear about the paranormal affecting her own family.

Her group also faced additional difficulties while editing their audio, due to her mom’s multilingual interviews.

“Because my mom’s first three languages aren’t English, we had to cut out certain words in other languages,” Kadire said. “We also had to cut out filler words, such as ‘likes’ and ‘ums,’ and switch the order of words around.”

Despite the difficulties with audio editing, Kadire learned to stay calm under stressful circumstances. She said she enjoyed working with her group mates and “loved the project so much more than anything else done so far this year.”

Cortez ranks the ghost podcast project among his favorites.

“I enjoy ghost stories,” he said. “And I see the value in students going out and finding really good stories to tell.”