Phew! What a week!

As you may have noticed in the last post, we launched our podcast this week. I’ll be honest that our first test run for The Rose could have gone better. Mark and I had a good rapport and had a lively, analytical discussion. We had some audio problems. My opinion is that they don’t affect the show, but they required a lot of editing and probably still a little more. We have decided for now not to release that episode, although we might reconsider in the future. It might make for a good bonus episode.

When we put our recording hats on this past Sunday, we had learned some from our mistakes with The Rose. Speaking for myself, I was a little nervous, and that probably showed in the early going. After a few minutes I got into it, and I think that on my next go around, I’ll get more comfortable. I thought our discussion about Broadcast News and the media went well. Of course when I listened back while editing, I heard all my stumbles, stutters and audible pauses. From what I understand, we always hear those. We are our worst critics. The audio sounded good and we sent it out to the world.

When I listened again, despite those early jitters, I felt better about it. Overall I think it was a solid debut.

The question was how would other people respond. So far we’ve had a number of comments, and they range from light to enthusiastic praise. That was extremely pleasing. Some of the best comments came from today’s First Time Watchers cast. Mark does a monthly stint there doing a Criterion 101 segment. They spent their first segment talking about our show. Tim was very kind. He said that it usually takes 40 shows to find your “voice,” but that we were way ahead of the ballgame the first time out. Some of that can be attributed to Mark’s experience. I’ll take some of the credit as a fast learner at editing and using clips. For anyone reading, I cannot recommend First Time Watchers enough. They are fun, energetic, and have a unique slant on a film podcast. Who knows? One day I might make an appearance.

There were some criticisms, and I actually cherished those over most. They mostly came from other podcasters, but many of them said the same thing. One was that it was clear that I was nervous at first. Guilty. I probably won’t be next time. The other was that the theme music was annoying and went on too long. That’s my fault. I should have mentioned that we are going to use the theme of the film we’re covering for every episode. We will shorten it some, but we feel that it gives the episode a unique flavor. For example, when we do Mulholland Drive, we might start with the “Silencio” sequence. The score is amazing and we might let that go longer than usual. Why? Because it’s cool. For next week’s cast, My Life is a Dog, we’ll just give a little taste because the music is a bit of a downer.

We also have a special guest for the next episode. I’ll leave that as a surprise.

Another surprise was that people listened. That says something given that it took a few days for us to get on iTunes. We are there now. Please subscribe and if you like the show, leave us a review. I know some stats from other shows, and while I’m not going to reveal ours in this blog post, our number pleasantly surprised me. As we go on, we should grow, so this is a good foundation to build on.

We have some good stuff coming out soon. As I mentioned, this week we will cover My Life as a Dog with a special guest. The week after will be our first Criterion Close-Up and we promise a Criterion geek-fest. We’ll cover the new releases some, and then we’re going deep into the label. I’ll save the details for when it comes out. After that is Day for Night. Also on the schedule is Hiroshima Mon Amour, Moonrise Kingdom, House, The Brood, 12 Angry Men, The Music Room and a few others that we haven’t scheduled or ready to mention yet.

I should also mention that we have a big announcement next week. Watch this space.

So yeah, it has been an exciting week. Thank you for everyone that has supported us so far. We’re in for a thrill ride and we’re glad to have you on board.

P.S. I got these. Did I mention I like Criterions?