“Street Game” Production Notes

Bill Cammack — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 15:13:09 +0000

Street Game Production Notes

I just completed a 5-part audio project entitled “Street Game”. The episodes are embedded here, in chronological order. Playing Episode 01 will play all five in order:

Frank, one of my top commenters on my DatingGenius dating blog was the inspiration for this particular project. I rarely find comments amusing, funny or progressive compared to what I personally know about “the game” (getting girls, whatever), but I found myself consistently laughing, learning and THINKING after I would read Frank’s comments on my blog posts. I was reminded of back in the day when my friends and I would spend hour upon hour kickin’ it about what we learned in the trenches with chicks, coming up with new techniques and throwing out techniques that TOTALLY didn’t produce for us! :D I wanted to bring the flavor of that to the net, and I got way more than I expected.

Part of the point of DatingGenius is to let women in on things that guys MIGHT be thinking about them so they have a better idea of what might have just happened to them in their relationships. I already know all this stuff, so there’s no benefit to *me* in telling YOU about it. If I just wanted to have fun conversations like I used to back in the day, I wouldn’t have bothered suggesting doing a podcast to Frank. I would have just talked, and none of youse would have ever heard any of this stuff. We’ve BARELY scratched the surface of topics to discuss, yet we’ve produced 68 minutes of content if you listen to Episodes 01 – 05 back to back.

I’m *VERY* happy with this project so far, and I never cease to get laughs from listening to the episodes, even though a) I was involved in the actual conversation and b) I was the one who had to edit them, so I’ve heard this material at least five times each. One of the things about editing is that the more you listen to something, the more you become immune to the events & punchlines. For some reason, that didn’t happen to me with this project. :D

Technical Issues

“Street Game” was recorded using Skype and a cell phone. I was on skype, using a microphone and Frank was on his phone. Being on the phone instead of sitting in front of a microphone caused two problems (which was my fault, because I was in such a rush to do this project that I selected this format).

#1, Recording this way meant that we had to rely upon the reception of the phone to provide a clear signal. Many times, a clear signal wasn’t present, and some of Frank’s comments were inaudible and I couldn’t retrieve them through editing.

#2, Not sitting in front of a mic meant that Frank’s volume levels were inconsistent, even if the signal itself was good. That was easily dealt with by normalizing the audio, but it’s not the optimum condition under which to record a podcast.

I would still record podcasts using this technique, however I’m aware now of the extra time that it adds between recording and posting the audio to the net. I’d rather avoid that extra time, but it’s completely manageable, and I’m 98% satisfied with the quality of the audio from Frank’s side.

From my side, I should have run my mic through my noise gate before recording it, but I didn’t have time to patch the gate in before recording. This was a project that I had discussed with Frank ahead of time, but the urge to make it happen appeared, I contacted him and ~ an hour later, we were starting the recording. That’s why I say I “didn’t” have time.

Since I didn’t use the noise gate, I had to use a software gate after the fact and also monitor the stream for areas where the gate didn’t catch random sounds/breaths/etc. Had I gated it properly from the giddyap, I could have skipped the noise reduction process as well as the normalization process. The gate would have handled the noise reduction and the compressor/limiter would have handled the volume peaks (making sure there wasn’t so much difference between the loudest and softest audio on my track).

Content

Content-wise, I didn’t take very much out of this conversation. Most of my edits were taking out extraneous noises and shortening distances between where one of us would finish a point and the other realized the point was made. The goal of this project was to give the listener a fly-on-the-wall perspective on a conversation between a couple of guys that felt they both had something to bring to the table as far as the dating scene.

The reason I felt this was unique was that most people don’t know what the hell they’re talking about and have ZERO real-life experience to back up their ideas. My experiences and Frank’s are in the same arena but from slightly different perspectives. I consider myself to be from the trenches, but I could tell from his comments on my blog that Frank was way further in the trenches towards the enemy lines… if not BEHIND ENEMY LINES, IN *THEIR* TRENCHES!!! hahaha :D I felt like I could learn things from listening to what he had to say, myself, and not only wasn’t I disappointed, as you can tell from the “tapes”, I had a mind-expanding experience, listening to what Frank was telling me.

This was not a “show”. This is why I didn’t bother to make intros or outtros or talk about websites or subscriptions or sponsors. I wanted to get the material out there for discussion/feedback and then decide which direction I wanted to go with audio. Also, the “Art” of the project includes what I chose to leave in the production, which is mostly everything. I took out some sections where I was trying to figure out what I was trying to say and going “um, well, you see, it’s like, well, what I mean is…”, but other than that, the conversation is mainly completely intact.

If you have feedback, positive or negative, please leave it in the comments below, as it will help me figure out what I want to do going forward in this medium. If you have specific comments about individual episodes, each one has its own entry @ billcammack.com/category/datinggenius/streetgame/, so feel free to click on the link and leave a comment there so we can have relevant discussions to each particular section.

Miscellaneous

One of the things I found about recording audio vs typing text is that without being able to see what you wrote, you can’t be sure of how much of your point you’ve expressed. This entire conversation was freestyle. Frank and I went from topic to topic, and for the most part, we were on exactly the same page. I realized, while editing “Episode 05: Who Should Pay For The Date?” that I made an error in expressing a point and Frank and I actually discussed two different topics simultaneously. :)

At 12:23, I talk about putting a gal in cab home after an evening together. What I failed to say was that I was talking about sending her home AFTER having a good time with her AFTER going to dinner. Since I didn’t say that, Frank rightfully felt like I was talking about the gal leaving directly from dinner. Interestingly enough, the same principles apply in both situations, but there’s an entirely different dynamic with a gal that’s interested in you and is at least emotionally intimate with you and at most physically intimate with you, and a gal that just showed up to get a free dinner and get tipsy off your dime.

I didn’t really understand some of his statements until my third or fourth time through the episode, where I realized he was talking about her leaving right after dinner. I left the conversation in, because it still works and it’s still relevant along the lines of that overall situation.

Also, any of y’all ladies that would like me to take you out to Wendy’s, let me know, so I can practice my menu lines! ;)

~Bill

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Bill Cammack » Audio

Street Game 07: Ladies: Meeting Men Without Looking Easy

Listen / Download => Audio Version (.mp3) [12:18]

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“Street Game” Production Notes

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