This podcast project challenges us to create a single video for three audiences: our peers in Japanese class, our senseis and native Japanese speakers. Our peers have well defined limitations in Japanese vocabulary but are looking for the sophistication of a college-level dialogue in terms of content. The senseis in our department while understanding our language level, want to push us to explore vocabulary, sentence structure and colloquial mannerisms that go beyond the classroom, textbook and test material. The native Japanese audience is looking for a down-to-earth portrayal of Japanese culture-inspired videos that simultaneously contain elements of the American university experience that they at once find refreshingly dissimilar from their own, and with which they can relate. Beyond the script of the podcast, we need to find a way to create scenes using a soundtrack, body language, visual cues, costumes, tone of voice, subtitles and facial expressions to convey a plot, a culture and a message.
In finding ways to address all three of our audiences, we need to be scrupulous about over lapping modes of communication. To capture their attention, the different ways of communication will be overlapping: dialogue will reference an event while a visual object or cue appears on the screen and subtitles will aid those who can read quickly. Using three communication types at the same time like this will help us to reach out to all our audiences without slowing down the pace of the podcast, which would detract from it's entertainment allure.
The plot needs to be carefully planned out as well: scenes need to be recognizable to both American students and Japanese students, meanwhile retaining the essence of a particular locale as our classmates would likely expect references to our particular setting in the Upper West Side of New York city. Furthermore, we need to find ways to logically connect the events in the plot that is culturally understandable to both Japanese and American culture. From experience, I know that foreign films addressed to one particular audience sometimes are hard to figure out because my own cultural logic differs from the producers'. Our group will be sensitive to the way popular movies in Japan and the US are presented so as to combine their methods.
The message that we have carefully chosen is able to be conveyed to all three audiences because it speaks to an experience that is similar to all students and teachers who are familiar with the most fundamental classroom experience. The message is that while all students and teachers strive to be the most that they can be with testing, participating and teaching, "don't let perfection be the enemy of excellence". Moreover, Japanese students while able to apply this principle to themselves as individuals looking to do well in school, will have glimpse into an American University setting. This is working on the assumption that students in one place are naturally curious about the lives of students in other classrooms, cultures and countries. The message is addresses our audiences' shared common knowledge, while addressing their curiosities: our peers want to know more about Japanese horror films and like to see their familiar space used in a new way, our senseis can enjoy a story about a teacher while exploring the cultural combinations and our native Japanese viewers will understand the structure of Japanese horror while entertained by an American rendition of this culture.
From our Japanese class blogs, I can already see the different communication styles that each individual chooses. There are some blogs that communicate mainly in pictures, videos and cartoons with some commentary but the pictures are mostly self-explanatory. Other blogs are mostly long paragraphs with a supplementary illustration. These blogs though they may a colorful background, are filled with text, usually opinions on various items of interest. The style of writing is another point of contrast. There are a few students who have chosen a slightly more academic style of writing: long sentences, paragraph structure and big words. Others are more stream of consciousness littered with exclamation points, parenthetical sidenotes and journal-like documentation of personal excitement. These are all successful modes of communication, given that they match with the intent of the author. Communication is all of what is mentioned above and much more.
