Context

Proposal

Candiate Name – Imad Daili

Candidate Number –

Pathway – Level 3 Sports Media

Project Title: Echoes of then

Rationale

I am passionate about this project because I am seriously interested in how media and culture from the past shapes and continues to influences the activites of today. Growing up surrounded by early 2000s content, mainly music, fashion and digitial trends. I have developed a strong awareness of how nostalgia shapes identiy and audience behaviour today. This project allows me to explore a connection in a creative way. To this project I bring relevant experience and skills through my work editing, The back in the dayzpodcast, with stevo the madman. My experience created my own audio documentary series, “The Playbook.” as well. This has developed my technical ability in audio editing in adobe audition, as well as understanding my ability with pacing, story telling and audience engagement. This project is highly relevant to my career asipirations as a sound designer. The ability to research, structure narratives and produce engaging audio is essential. This project will help me develop those skills at a higher level. Preparing me for the future academic and proffessional futures.

Project Concept

This project will contain a series of 2-3 audio documentaries, each of them around 8-10 mins in length exploring the theme of, “Nostalgia vs Today: How the past shapes the present.” Each episode will focus on a specific aspect of early 2000s culture, such as music, fashion or digital life, and identify how these elements continue to influence modern society. The documentaries will follow a clear and structured narrative, beginning with an engaging audio introduction, followed by an explorarion of the past, and concluding with an analisys of their cultural impact. This approach will allow for both informative and immersive story telling.

To support the development of this porject, I will take on broth primairy and secondary research. My primairy will include conduction inderviews with notable people, such as the executive producer of the back in the dayz podcast and potentiallt StevoTheMadman himself. Secondary research will involve analusing existing audio documentaries, articles and online soruces to ensure accurarcy and depth.

The target audience will be individuals aged 15-35, as they are most likley to engage with the theme of nostalgia and contemporary culture. The project will be produced using a macbook pro M2 and edited all using adobe audition, this will incorporate recorded interviews, narration, archival audio and sound effects. Key stages include, research, script writing, focus groups feedback, recording and editing. the aim is to create a high quality, engaging audio documenary series that demonstartes stroing storytelling, technical skill and audience awareness.

Evaluation

The way I will refelct and evaluate my work is by creating weekly logs detailing what I have done that week ending it off with 3 things that went well and 3 things that i could improve on. I will document my changes week by week explaining what has been improved and what could be improved. I will ensure that my project is targeted to the right audience it will be mentioned in the context and the rest of the log will constantly link back to the context detailing how I have reached my target audience effectivley.

Bibliography

Adobe create your own podcast.

British Library – National Life Stories.

National Life Stories – Oral History at a Distance.

Ofcom. 2025. Audio listening in the UK.

Spotify for Creators – Supercharge your podcast discovery on social media.

Ofcom – Top podcast listening trends from our research

Ofcom – Top trends from our latest look at the UK’s listening habits

Ofcom – Audio listening in the UK

Pitch Deck

Pitch Deck

BIF Document

Echoes of then is an idea to contextulize nostalgia and understand why it matters today, how it changes the virtual landscape, culture and so much more.

Echoes of then is an audio based documentary split into 3 parts looking at nostalgic figures of the past mainly focusing on my experience and my input on the “Back in the Dayz Podcast” with Stevo the Madman. It will look at 3 different parts being, “Why we miss the past?” “How it is being repackaged today,” and “Is it really helping culture or keeping it stuck.”

My project looks how nostalgia, memort and past media continue to influence today’s culture particulary through podcasting and controversial storytelling. The project is mainly derived from my experience with the Back in the Dayz podcast, which gives both a practical and authentic context. Simillar wark has been done through nostalgia lead podcasts which have had very positve impact on the people of today. Also documentary series have been made on the same topic. My project builds on the same style but applies it in my hown series and research focus.

However, to make the project work there could be a number of pratical problems, time is one of the key challenges as I have to research, plan, record and evaluate a 3 part audio series withi the deadline. I do need to also work around the availbility of contributers particularly anyone connected to Back in the Dayz, as interviews and recorded discussions depend on when people are free. Equipment is another factor, as I am mainly working wihtin the recording and editing sources that are availble to me.

The project will concentrate on audo story telling, podcast culture and reflections on past entertainment, lifestyle and shared experiences. This means the project will include interviews and scripted narration. But it will not attempt to cover every area of nostalgia in full detail. For example it will not become a general hostory project or a broad study of media forms, instead it will stay focused on the relationships between memory, cultural reflection and modern audio media.

My core target audience will be a younger age range of 16-25 years old with a secondary audience of 26-35 years old however it will be skewed to a younger audience, with a strong interest with, media, music, podcast culture and intergenerational conversations. This audience will likley be active in the digital world and aware of the culture around them. This is because as said prior this series is heavily linked to Back in The Dayz around, “How things used to be.”

The current assumption of the project is that I will have access to the audio equipment and editing software and the recording spaces neccacary. I am also assuming the contributers and the interviwees will be availble at a suitable time.

Sucess will be measured through the quality of the final peices and the evidence that they connect with the intended audience. on a production level too success would mean creating a well structured, orginised and good quality of sound. Success can also be measured in listens,m feedback and engagment. Further more through my own weekly logs I can also improve on whatever I write that I need to improve on.

The final deliverables of the project will be a 3 part audio documentary series, with each episode forming one part of the overall project. Alongside of the finished audio peices, I will also need to hand in the supportng production work including research, planning documents, scripts or structures, recorded interviews where relevant, weekly logs and final evaluation of the project. By the deadline I should have completed all 3 episodes all being supported by pre prodcutuon materials.