Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Film Podcasts - Vol. 4: IFC News Podcast

by ERIK MCCLANAHAN

Matt Singer and Alison Wilmore make up the IFC News Podcast, part of the Independent Film Channel. The weekly show contains a nice mix of lists, reviews, news, reporting, interviews and retrospectives on the world of independent film. Incidentally, IFC Films had a great year in 2008, distributing some of the best of world cinema (Gomorrah, Hunger, 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days) and American films (Che parts 1 and 2, Paranoid Park). Wilmore is editor of the film section of IFC.com and the writer of IFC's film blog, Indie Eye. She studied English at Yale, interned at Wired and then worked at a literary magazine before come to IFC, where she’s been working for more than four years. Singer is the on-air host of IFC News on the Independent Film Channel. He studied film at Syracuse University as an undergraduate, then as a graduate student at New York University. He’s appeared recently on Filmspotting (a great film review podcast itself) and on the new “At the Movies.”

The Aspect Ratio: How did the idea for the show come along? What got you into podcasting?

Matt Singer: I don't really remember anything concrete about how we started the podcast. Alison and I are basically responsible for the majority of the content on our film news website, IFC.com/film, and we're always trying to think of new stuff for the site. We both enjoyed listening to podcasts and thought to start our own.

Alison Wilmore: Matt may not remember, but he pioneered the podcast idea — it's been interesting to see how it's evolved over the 2 years we've been doing it.

The Aspect Ratio: Why a film podcast?

MS: We work on a film website, so there was never any question what sort of podcast to do.

AW: And we're both big film nerds.

The Aspect Ratio: What is your goal or mission statement with the podcast?

MS: Our goal each week is to simply engage our listeners. We choose a different topic each week, and discuss it for about a half hour. Typically, our topic is in some way tied to a new release; for instance a past show "Physical Disability in Film," built off that week's release of "Quid Pro Quo," a film about a disabled NPR host who gets caught up in a mystery.

AW: I've always hoped we toe the line between intelligent analysis and off-the-cuff geeking out — we've often tried to delve into sometimes serious or esoteric film topics without alienating listeners, while other times we dwell on, say, the career of Uwe Boll.

The Aspect Ratio: Give me some insight in to the state of podcasting. Since it is such a young medium, where do you see it going? What can we expect of podcasting in the future?

MS: At first the podcasts I listened to where all done by amateur enthusiasts of the technology and of whatever topic they were interested in talking about. Now many more podcasts come from large companies, or television stations, or websites – including our own. It's a good way to reach and interact with your viewers, readers, listeners, etc. As for it becoming more than a free downloadable Internet radio show, I don't know that I would want it to become more than that. I love the format as it is, and as a podcast listener I really enjoy getting the content to listen to every week. Generally when people try to charge for their podcasts, I'm not terribly interested (I stopped listening to Ricky Gervais' when he began charging for it, for example).

AW: Agreed. And I like the democracy of the medium — for all the corporations that have been getting into the podcast game, it's still more than feasible for an amateur podcaster to have just as large, if not larger, a following.

The Aspect Ratio: What do you love about your podcast, and the act of podcasting itself?

MS: I very much enjoy talking to Alison about movies at any time and I think our podcast is at its best when we capture one of our conversations just as we would have one even if the microphones weren't on. I also enjoy when we get feedback from our listeners.

The Aspect Ratio: What do you hate (or what bothers you) about podcasts and podcasting?

MS: The only thing I hate about podcasting is our equipment's weight, which is about 20 pounds I'd guess, which makes bringing it along when Alison and I go to a film festival not particularly pleasant.

AW: I dislike when we inevitably end up blowing out our mixing board when we travel to another country. The first year we did that, it seemed excusable, but then we made the exact same mistake the second year. That time it was just stupidity.

The Aspect Ratio: Where do see your show going? How long do you think it will last?

MS: We've started to discuss bringing in more guests to the podcasts (something we've done once, successfully, but never really expanded in). Otherwise, I think we'll likely keep on as we're doing for the time being – at least until someone tells us to stop.

The Aspect Ratio: Any format changes to your shows that have been considered? How has the show developed since its inception?

MS: Well we didn't really know what we were doing at our inception; a fellow podcaster who I was friendly with pointed us in the direction of what equipment to buy and what programs to use. But in the beginning we literally just turned on the mics and spoke for a 20-minute chunk. As we've gotten more comfortable, we've incorporated editing, sound effects, and the overall package is a lot smoother. A couple months ago we also started reading listener feedback as well.

AW: Again, these were changes pioneered by Matt.

The Aspect Ratio: Do you think podcasts should follow a set of rules (length, structure, etc.)?

MS: The nice thing about podcasts is they needn't be any specific length or structure. On the other hand, I think because podcasts are a regular program (weekly, daily, etc.), audiences come to expect a certain thing every installment. So I think you should make your podcast whatever you want it to be – 10 minutes or a 100 minutes – but then you should stick with that.

AW: Yes, consistency is the key — the weekly update is something we're mostly stuck with since we started the podcast, as much as it's sometimes been a scheduling struggle.

The Aspect Ratio: What podcasts (filmic or not) do you listen to?

MS: My favorite – and also the one that helped us with our start – is Filmspotting, which, to me, is the definitive movie review podcast. My other favorite podcast right now is "The B.S. Report" from ESPN with Sports Guy Bill Simmons. I also listen to "The Treatment" with Elvis Mitchell and "Word Balloon with John Siuntres" which is about comic books.

AW: Lately I've been dabbling in some of the various language lesson podcasts out there, particularly ChinesePod and Let's Learn Hungarian. I'm hoping someday to have learned a uselessly small amount of most of the languages in the world.