HomeStation Presents: The Upload, Episode #22
by Jersquall, HSM Podcast Editor
There’s a certain art to podcasting, and it’s not easy to master.
Critically, you need to have a good blend of voices. Everyone has to clearly enunciate, and everyone has to sound different enough to be easily distinguishable. If all the hosts sound the same, it’s really hard to tell who’s saying what — and you’ll quickly lose interest and click over to Meekakitty’s channel. For those who remember some of the classic radiodramas from the ‘thirties through the ‘fifties, think about how distinctive those voices were. Basil Rathbone’s cool, collected monotone coupled with Nigel Bruce’s trademark bluster produced some of the finest Sherlock Holmes dramatisations ever recorded.
Of equal importance: personality. Not only does every podcaster need a catchy personality, but all those personalities need to have chemistry together. A podcast can’t sound like a bunch of kids goofing off, but it also can’t be the aural equivalent of the Charlie Rose Show. You need banter with direction, which is an elusive mix to pull off.
Which, of course, brings us to editing. There’s an old saying that films are made in the editing room, and there’s a certain truth to that. Editing is both subtle and overt: everything from proper intro and outro sequences or blatant music cues to the barely perceptible corrections in audio levels and dialogue splices.
When all of these element coalesce correctly, you have something that other people might actually want to listen to.
If you’ve followed HomeStation Magazine’s podcast series, The Upload, then you’ve seen its gradual evolution over the last year. What started as a somewhat rough and stilted podcast has evolved into a much more polished and entertaining commentary on all things Home. But we can’t stop there; if we stagnate, we die. All things must continue to grow and evolve.
Thus, to borrow from Obi-Wan, we now take our first step into a larger world.
Welcome to the first videocast of The Upload.
Is it rough? Sure. It’s our first go ’round with an HSM videocast, after all. Like the podcast itself, it will be refined and polished with time and practice. But this marks the moment when we take HomeStation to a new level, and it feels like a fitting coda to HomeStation’s stratospheric rise in 2011.
The topic for this episode: a look back at Home over the course of 2011, and all the new features that were introduced. Take a look, and see what you think.
HomeStation has some interesting tricks up its sleeve planned for 2012; if you thought its freshman year was something remarkable, wait until you see what’s unveiled over the next twelve months!
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
December 29th, 2011 by Jersquall | 4 comments
Jersquall is a retired Home Community Volunteer, co-founder of Club HOMEinformer, and podcast commentator for HomeStation Magazine. His views expressed in HSM are his own.
Very nice folks! The podcast was always enjoyable, but the video element makes it a tad more accessable. The audio could be a tad louder (running the audio through a compressor before adding it to the video would do the trick) and the segment could be a tad longer, but otherwise a bang up job, indeed!
And sign me up for a Martini of Death(tm)!
Great podcast as always guys, I like the video being added too, it allows people who may not be in Home yet see things on You Tube that might draw them in. Hope to see more of this in the near future!
Great pod/videocast guys! I’m a new user of home and it’s nice to know we have such people in the know to give us timely and useful news…
Aloha and welcome to Home, Angie Sue; thanks for listening to The Upload, and we hope HomeStation helps deepen your enjoyment of the Home experience.
We have a FAQ resource in our forum which you may find useful in helping to ascertain the lay of the land; let us know how your immersion into this digital culture goes!