After the Sewol Podcast

Just over a month ago, I was introduced to Neil P. George and Matthew Root by one of the people that run the Face Book group for ‘South Korea’ (https://www.facebook.com/groups/we.love.south.korea/). Her name was Sabrina Constance Hill. She had seen my posts before regarding the podcast and asked me if I had heard of the documentary film ‘After the Sewol’. At the time, it was a film that I was unaware of. Sabrina told me that she had done some work with the film makers of ‘After the Sewol’ and wanted to introduce me to them about possibly being on the podcast. The next thing I knew, we are all in a group chat together and I got to learn a little bit more about the film and Neil and Matthew.
I would like to say thank you to Sabrina for this introduction. It is a small world really, as it turned out both Sabrina and I graduated from the same university.

After the introductions and chatting with Neil and Matthew, I looked into their documentary film some more. I watched a trailer for the film (After the Sewol Official Trailer – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QlEZKI–pI&t=2s) and was very impressed with it. The trailer looked like an actual documentary film that you would see in the theater. For whatever reason at the time, I was kind of expecting something a lot more amateur. The trailer made me interested in the subject matter, wanting to know more, and it was a film I definitely wanted to see. I was intrigued! Not many film trailers do that to me. I looked some more into the film ‘After the Sewol’ and listened to some other interviews Matthew and Neil had done, most recently on BBC and a couple others. At that moment, I realized I would love to help these guys out and started thinking of ways on how I could do so.
Getting them on the podcast was the first step. We had to arrange a time and also I wanted to make it as easy for everyone as I could. Matthew, Neil, and myself, all live in different cities here in South Korea, so I figured the easiest way would be doing the podcast via Skype. We all agreed and set the date to do the podcast.
The next thing I wanted to do was advertise their movie and let people know about the documentary film ‘After the Sewol’. A week after setting the date for the podcast, I began posting about the film on my Face Book pages and other social media. Next, I had Adam, Phil, and myself, do a trailer reaction for the film to add to our youTube Channel. Trailer reviews for Korean related films have always done well for me on youTube and get a few views, so I figured this would be a good way of getting the information about ‘After the Sewol’ out there some more. Here is the trailer reaction for the film.

It was almost time to record the podcast. We got a few questions from listeners for Matthew and Neil after advertising that they were going to be on. Things were looking good, but then I remembered some of the technical difficulties I had with doing a Skype interview in the past. I was concerned with things not working out and the audio recording of them on Skype sounding poor or not recording at all. I mentioned my concern to both Neil and Matt, and Neil suggested that they could record both audio and video separately on their ends. I was surprised by this and totally forgot that I was dealing with film makers that had a lot of equipment of their own and that this was a possibility. I thought this was great and that it could be used as a backup if anything went wrong. My concerns for the podcast were now gone.

The day of the podcast came around, sound seemed good and we connected to both Neil and Matt without issues. Everything was a go and we began recording the episode for the podcast. I had not seen the movie or looked too much into it, as I don’t like knowing much about guests that we have on the podcast. I prefer to know as little as possible as I like to learn more as the interview goes and come up with questions on the fly. The podcast went great. Both Neil and Matt were great to interview, were interesting and I learned a lot about them and their films. Neil, Matt, Adam, and Phil continued to chat for almost another hour on Skype after the podcast while I was cleaning up. They were fun to talk to and really nice guys. It all seemed to go great!
Eventually I got home and had to start the task of putting the podcast episode together. I moved the audio to my main computer and started to listen. I was shocked to hear that I had recorded everything from myself, Adam, and Phil from in the studio; however, none of the audio from Neil and Matt had recorded. I began to panic a bit but then remembered that both Neil and Matt had recorded their audio on their end. I quickly sent them a message and they sent me the audio files from their own recordings. Thanks again Neil for the idea! Everything worked out great.

The podcast got put together and had it up and ready to go within a day. I think it came out great and again, it was both interesting and fun to do. It’s another example of why I wanted to start doing the podcast. I got to talk to people from different walks of life, doing different things, living and working here in South Korea. I was most impressed with Neil and Matt, not from their impressive film ‘After the Sewol’ and what a great job they did with making the film, but more with the passion both of them had for the topic of safety in Korea and their passion for the project they have taken on. Both of them have been working on this for almost three years now, and they still have the passion to continue and are now making a second movie, and have plans on doing a third. I love seeing expats living here in Korea that have a goal and continue with it, even if that goal does not have an end in sight. I appreciate what they are doing and for educating myself on the subject matter of safety here, and reminding myself to never give up. I wish them all the success in getting their messages out there, making a difference, and will continue to help them along the way.

It was another great experience and a podcast for me to always remember. Thank you again to Neil P. George, Matthew Rood (Film makers behind ‘After the Sewol’). Thank you again to Sabrina Constance Hill for introducing us on Face Book. And of course, thanks always to both Adam and Phil for doing the podcast with me.

There are some video clips in the video above. You can listen to the entire episode right here:

More on this podcast episode here ->   http://podcast.changwoner.com/episodes/episode-58-after-the-sewol/

You can find out more about the documentary film ‘After the Sewol’ with these links:
Website ->  http://www.afterthesewol.com/
Face Book Page ->  https://www.facebook.com/afterthesewol/
Email ->  sewoldocumentary@gmail.com
Help out the second film here ->   https://www.tumblbug.com/ats2017
youTube Channel ->  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCc_bBK9y_uDtPmJjPLND5LQ
Contact Matthew Root ->  https://www.facebook.com/matt.root.9
Contact Neil George ->  https://www.facebook.com/neilpgeorge78
South Korea Group Face Book Page -> https://www.facebook.com/groups/we.love.south.korea/
Contact Sabrina Constance Hill -> https://www.facebook.com/SabrinaConstanceHill