Post by Zeli on Sept 29, 2008 11:46:53 GMT -5
What gets cut and why?
We have about 30 minutes for a show based on our podbean account and we usually record for about an hour. If you want to be on CoTCast, you must understand that things will be cut.
Generally tangents get cut unless they're entertaining or accidentally informative. Unfortunately because of time constraints, lots of good tangents get cut too.
Sometimes people will get cut for fairness. If some people are quiet, their few comments will almost always make it in so that they can be in the show. More talkative people may have more of their stuff cut even if it is all great content.
Sometimes we’ll stay on a topic for 20 minutes that we only had 5 minutes planned for and I’ll cut people off and let them know that we have to move on because I’m obviously going to already cut the hell out of it so there’s no point in adding more to it. In the future, we’ll probably have 1 topic per show and this will help us get into more detail on a topic. I think we've been cramming too much into a 30 minute show.
You'll probably notice that my "on the spot" segment was chopped to hell because I wanted to include other people's stuff on that episode. Usually I try and cut myself out rather than other people.
If someone is new on the podcast, I try and keep in more of their stuff. Sometimes that causes me to cut other stuff I'd like to keep.
If we have an intrusive ambiance noise and it gets explained in the show, we generally leave that in to explain to the audience what it is. Otherwise it can be distracting to the listener as we all pretend like it’s not really there. Most podcasting tips I’ve read say that explaining the noise allows the listener to accept the intrusion and get back to listening to the content. Ignoring it makes them focus on the possible source of the noise. The best thing to do is try to minimize these noises.
Also, I have to cut so that it still flows like a conversation, so some things are easier to lift out than others.
Anything that's been covered in a previous podcast is more likely to get cut.
I cut as much dead space as possible between comments. I cut as many "ums' and "ands" and "sos" as I can without making it sound too choppy.
Some stuff only fits because it's part of a long tangent so sometimes those are good but they get cut because we don't have time for the whole tangent and without it it doesn't make any sense.
And I do this all on 1 editing session. It typically takes me 2 to 3 hours to edit a podcast down to 30 minutes so that's my whole evening. I could do a better job with more time, but the whole point is to be fun and less work than a newsletter and believe it or not, I like to play WAR too. In trying to be fast, sometimes I do regret some of the choices I make.
I do keep all of them and I plan on doing a bloopers show soon when I get time.
I can tell you, none of the edits are personal. I really wish we could do 45 minutes. It would help alot but I'm not willing to upgrade the show just yet. Maybe if we hit 100 regular subscribers I'd be willing to do it. I hope I've never offended anyone with a cut. I've never cut anything because I thought it was stupid. I’m usually disappointed with how much stuff I have to cut. It's always been a time issue.
We have about 30 minutes for a show based on our podbean account and we usually record for about an hour. If you want to be on CoTCast, you must understand that things will be cut.
Generally tangents get cut unless they're entertaining or accidentally informative. Unfortunately because of time constraints, lots of good tangents get cut too.
Sometimes people will get cut for fairness. If some people are quiet, their few comments will almost always make it in so that they can be in the show. More talkative people may have more of their stuff cut even if it is all great content.
Sometimes we’ll stay on a topic for 20 minutes that we only had 5 minutes planned for and I’ll cut people off and let them know that we have to move on because I’m obviously going to already cut the hell out of it so there’s no point in adding more to it. In the future, we’ll probably have 1 topic per show and this will help us get into more detail on a topic. I think we've been cramming too much into a 30 minute show.
You'll probably notice that my "on the spot" segment was chopped to hell because I wanted to include other people's stuff on that episode. Usually I try and cut myself out rather than other people.
If someone is new on the podcast, I try and keep in more of their stuff. Sometimes that causes me to cut other stuff I'd like to keep.
If we have an intrusive ambiance noise and it gets explained in the show, we generally leave that in to explain to the audience what it is. Otherwise it can be distracting to the listener as we all pretend like it’s not really there. Most podcasting tips I’ve read say that explaining the noise allows the listener to accept the intrusion and get back to listening to the content. Ignoring it makes them focus on the possible source of the noise. The best thing to do is try to minimize these noises.
Also, I have to cut so that it still flows like a conversation, so some things are easier to lift out than others.
Anything that's been covered in a previous podcast is more likely to get cut.
I cut as much dead space as possible between comments. I cut as many "ums' and "ands" and "sos" as I can without making it sound too choppy.
Some stuff only fits because it's part of a long tangent so sometimes those are good but they get cut because we don't have time for the whole tangent and without it it doesn't make any sense.
And I do this all on 1 editing session. It typically takes me 2 to 3 hours to edit a podcast down to 30 minutes so that's my whole evening. I could do a better job with more time, but the whole point is to be fun and less work than a newsletter and believe it or not, I like to play WAR too. In trying to be fast, sometimes I do regret some of the choices I make.
I do keep all of them and I plan on doing a bloopers show soon when I get time.
I can tell you, none of the edits are personal. I really wish we could do 45 minutes. It would help alot but I'm not willing to upgrade the show just yet. Maybe if we hit 100 regular subscribers I'd be willing to do it. I hope I've never offended anyone with a cut. I've never cut anything because I thought it was stupid. I’m usually disappointed with how much stuff I have to cut. It's always been a time issue.