FFA/FML Podcast

[FML|Mage]

Feel free to ignore any and all of this, but just jotting some ideas about how I would do it if I were going to be producing it.

Format:

I think it will help you tremendously to have a set format at least at the start.  Something like

Part 1 - News and Upcoming Events

Part 2 - Recapping FML games of the week

Part 3 - Recapping FFArena ladder movement

Part 4 - Q&A.  For this I would open up a thread for the week before as well as looking at Twitch chat.  However, I don't think relying solely on Twitch chat is a good idea especially at first as you may not have anyone chatting.

Part 5 - Signing off.  Think about what you want to say when you're signing off.  Stuff like where to find the podcast (YouTube/Twitch/Podcast form), what time you'll be on next week, promote anything you want to etc.

Recording & Streaming: 

I think you should look into 3 platforms for delivering it. 

1) Twitch livestream (with webcams).  I think this could be something cool that people can look forward to every week, and you should be able to gather a decent sized audience over time.

2) YouTube - Most people won't be able to watch live, YouTube is where you'll be able to gather most of the audience who is interested in watching a video.  Just recording and editing the Twitch stream a bit should be sufficient here.

3) MP3 Podcast - This is what the idea started as, and I think this is where you have the most room for growth.  Twitch and YouTube are pretty saturated and while it's an awesome idea, it's not unique.  However, to the best of my knowledge no one has started putting out podcasts that can just be casually listened to in an audio only format.  I might be wrong, however I would guess this will be the largest market for you guys.  I know for other podcasts audio has about 5-10x the downloads that a YouTube video has views.

Misc Thoughts:

It's going to be hard, but having a standardized time is crucial.  Humans are creatures of habit, and if they can come to rely on this coming out at x time every week (or two weeks) then they're more likely to continue watching/listening.  This goes across the board, for live streaming, uploading to YouTube, and releasing as a podcast.  Doesn't have to be the same time for all 3, but you should have a standardized time for each.

If you can pick just 1 medium to use I think audio only will be the most successful.

It may seem tempting to just wing it, but I think you'll have a lot more success at least planning out what you want to talk about.  Covering dead air is tough, and a skill you'll have to learn most likely.  Having fallback points to talk about will help immensely.

I don't know how much you two follow the competitive 1v1 scene, but there's room for growth to cover the entire WC3 scene if you guys are interested. 

For video I think having webcams is important, otherwise there's literally no video content just audio.  You could try splicing in replays, highlights etc but that's just going to create a ton of work for you.

Make sure you have good audio gear, and practice recording beforehand.  It's a pain in the ass to set everything up and have the quality sound okay (voices same level, no static, etc.)  Nothing is more frustrating than starting it and finding out midway through or at the end that the quality sucks and you'll have to re-do it.

Also, I hope I mentioned it before, but you guys are of course welcome to use FML's Twitch and YouTube channel to help with establishing a base if you'd like them.  We won't take offense if you'd rather start from scratch either though.

Let me know if I can be of any help.

[ZsSuperCumulo]

wow, those are splendid suggestions mage 

Mage Underwood for president 2016

[fetta_ook]

Me and janker sat down yesterday and started plotting an agenda and some content, as well as procured new, better mics so the sound quality will be as good as possible.

Hopefully we can create something during the week, so stay tuned!

[Wrecktify]

If they do stream it, it would be nice if someone could embed the twitch window in the news so it popped up for everyone when accessing the website.   Would be a lot of exposure.

[Pinballmap]

Im just curious, are you still planning this? I would be really happy to hear the first episode.

[junkerzam]

yup for sure we are. first episode will be released soon, then the plan is to do it regularly

[junkerzam]

okay guys, thanks alot for all the input. I think we ended up not listening to anything anyone said, especially Mage's advice to secure the quality as we had to record the podcast twice.

but! it's now available in the link below. please give us any feedback u can muster up, we had a lot of fun creating this so if there is any interest for more episodes we will be sure to keep them coming!

http://podcraft3.podbean.com/

[ZsSuperCumulo]

lol, love the militia icon as profile, and nice website design btw.

[ZsSuperCumulo]

ok so I just listened to the first 30 minutes and it got really boring by that time. I mean, talking about your nicknames and personal life is ok, but maybe for 2 minutes not 10 or so -.-. Then u guys moved to talk about the cup, from last year and this year, but after losing half my attention during the first 10 minutes the rest just didnt interest me at all  .
I think Doveki does a better job when it comes to podcasts, his analysis is more useful and even talks about what he was thinking during the game, maybe bring some of that for your next podcast instead of 30 minutes of irrelevant stuff. Not saying that the event of the cup was irrelevant, but I just didn't see the usefulness of talking about it without deep analysis of one particular game.
It's like seeing Kasparov or Carlsen talk about Sinquefield cup at how well it was organized or who won by how many points, that sort of information is meaningless, we all know what happened and how it went down, what we want is for you to break it down, one particular game, and explain possible variations during the three phases of the game.

[junkerzam]

thanks cumu, obviously we talked way too long about the two topics we got through (intro and cup) so thats smth to work on.

not sure I understand your comparison though, dovekies videos aren't really podcasts but rather video analysis? it will be wierd to go into deep details of a specific game without video footage since most of the listeners probably will not have seen the game/games we talk about. still, I get your point.

[Ugrilainen]

facepalm mode on : it was FML FFA Cup VI not IV

I know playFFA Cup IV and V never had the honor to be in the FML hall of fame but still...

edit : oh you say nice things about me afterwards so, eh, does not matters 4th or 6th who cares?!

[Wrecktify]

Neat, ill check this out when I get home!

[ZsSuperCumulo]

I think you are right Junkerzam, I'm so used to watching FML youtube channel and recently what Doveki uploaded that I thought it was going to be similar to those. My bad man.
Nevertheless, I think the podcasts should be shorter, like a 15 - 20 min max commentary of what's going on and what stood out during each round, stuff like, I mean very direct and straight forward, no sugar coding :/. Idk, maybe it's just me, but I like to hear only what's needed, the important stuff.

[junkerzam]

hehe no worries, we were bound to miss the mark on a lot of things in this first attempt. we cut out like 40 min of more content that was even more irrelevant than what we published, it was tougher than expected to keep it simple.

[Tleilaxu]

"You'll soon be as bald as Magadansky" lol