YouTube Updates and the Arbatel Project

I am trying to address the accountability issue two different ways. First, I have a very eager guest co-host for the Arbatel series. We are recording in person and working through the book together at the same time. He comes over to my office to record, and is helping me stay on track with recording new material.

The other technique that I am using to address this problem is by making biweekly YouTube video updates to share where I am in the process, show off some behind-the-scenes things, and give general Arnemancy updates.

I wanted these videos to be easier to craft than my last foray into video editing, so I set out to learn DaVinci Resolve. This has been quite a journey! I have been learning about things like shot editing and color management and all kinds of junk that I don’t really think I’ll ever become good at. However, once upon a time, I thought I would be bad at audio editing, and after eight-ish years of practice, I’ve become pretty okay at that.

A highly produced podcast is a lot of work. There is research involved, there are multiple people to interview, there is the editing, the production, the music, the episode artwork, etc. Finding specific snippets of interviews is a lot of work. Figuring out how to get those snippets to work into a narrated script is a lot of work. Hell, writing a script is a ton of work.

To cut all of this down to a manageable amount of work, I am trying several things. First, I am not going to be interviewing a dozen experts. I will just have one co-host. Second, I am going to cut down on how much scripting I need to do by dividing up some of the work with my co-host. Most of the episodes will have a very conversational feel to them, with just scripted introductions and conclusions.

One thing that I really loved about the Agrippa series was crafting cool introduction soundscapes to go along with friends performing the parts of various historical and fictional characters. I got Andrew B. Watt to play Pliny the Elder, Tres Henry to play a very upset Doctor Faustus, and I got Charlie Claire Burgess to play Victor Frankenstein! It was great. I am going to keep that up with the new series, because even though it is a lot of work, it is so fun, and I love the flavor it adds to the episodes.

Another thing that I will keep doing, or perhaps a new thing I will do, is record a new song to use as background music for each episode. My goal is to have a sort of “soundtrack” album to release when the Arbatel series is finished. I enjoy how ridiculous it is to have a soundtrack for a podcast. I hope you will enjoy its ridiculousness, too.