The Process of Creating The Film Café
What is The Film Café?
The Film Café is a podcast centered around movies, new and old. Each episode features me as the host, interviewing a guest about one or two movies over a cup of coffee. The podcast format is designed to have listeners pick and choose which episodes they want to listen to based on which movies are discussed. Nothing builds from the previous episodes, each one stands alone. I designed it this way so that listeners can decide what experience they want to have. If they want to connect with me and my guest based on a movie they’ve already seen (my preference), they can. If a listener just wants to learn more about movies, I welcome that as well.
Production Process
I wanted my podcast to center around something I’m passionate about that a niche group of people would find interesting. Movies have the ability to bring people together, and I wanted to build a small community of film lovers with my podcast. By doing that, I interview fellow film fanatics about movies we both love, or have recently watched.
The first thing I do with my guests is ask them which new movie they’d like to talk about. For the old movie we discuss, I use an algorithm that randomly selects a film that has one an Academy Award in previous years. If my guest hasn’t seen it, they either watch it, or I pick another random film, with more constraints to movies they have seen.
Ideally, I would like to set up my interviews in person, but due to COVID-19, I thought it best to chat with my guests remotely.
I recorded my intro music using GarageBand with help from a musician friend, and I did all of my audio editing there as well. I designed the cover art in Adobe Illustrator. It’s designed to look like an old brick wall, with warm colors to create a cozy feeling, as if you’re sitting outside a café with a friend, coffee in hand.
Testing
I used Microsoft Teams to record my interviews. I did a few recording tests to see if the audio quality was sufficient. While I wanted a better quality, I had limited alternative recording resources. I switched to different headphones and the audio quality improved marginally.
Iterations & Improvements
The first episode I recorded, I ran into some issues with background noise. My guest looked up information on the movie we were discussing and I could hear her typing in the background. The next episode I recorded, I asked my guest to make sure he had all of the research and data he needed to do the interview before we started so that could be avoided.
Editing both episodes took much more time than I anticipated, and while I wanted casual and friendly conversations, I learned that I needed a more scripted outline to each episode so I didn’t get off-track and have more to edit out. In future episodes, I would reach out to my listeners for movies they want me to talk about. I’d also like to include a movie trivia segment as an icebreaker for episodes that potentially feature more than one guest.
Conclusion
For my first experience with creating a podcast, I think the process was very fulfilling. I enjoyed creating the cover art, researching movies, and taking a deep dive into a topic I care about and getting to share that love with other people. I respect the craft of podcasting and have a greater appreciation for it now, since I got a taste of how much work goes into producing quality work.
The Film Café is published through Anchor.
Erin Hancock is a student in the Digital Media program at Utah Valley University, Orem Utah, studying Web & App Development. The following article relates to in to a podcast project in the DGM 2260 Course and representative of the skills learned.
