SerenityMovie.net

[Companion Kate]

I'm starting to put together the ingredients for a dedicated weekly Firefly podcast. That is, for a podcast exclusively devoted to Firefly.

The idea occurred to me basically because I ran out of things to listen to. I subscribe to pretty much every sci-fi podcast out there, and listen to them on my way to and from work. But, even if I supplement my sci-fi diet with the odd science program, I still find that there's not enough material there to fill a whole week. My playlist frequent ends before my bus ride. I'm sure there must be other people out there in similar circumstances who would download any podcast which claims to have something to do with science fiction. If there existed a weekly Firefly podcast, such people would inevitably wind up getting it. That means more exposure, more people hearing about Firefly, more of a push for the movie. As "guerilla marketing" goes, it strikes me that this has to be a good one. So I started to think about how it might be made to happen.

I've acquired the domain name "serenityfirefly.com" primarily for this purpose, and I do have the technical expertise to set up a website with a podcast feed on that domain. I also have a fair amount of experience in both writing and mixing. But there's plenty that I'm not good at, and for which I'm hoping other people would like to come on board. For one thing, I'm not that confident in speaking into a microphone - which is a subtle way of saying: This Show Needs a Presenter. (Preferably two). Someone, that is, who isn't me. The ideal situation would be two people who could be in the same place at the same time and who could get some interaction going between them. All you need is a microphone and a PC - I can mix it all together, add sound-effects and music, and basically turn it into a presentable show. I can also write material for the show. News obviously won't be a problem, because we can just read it from this forum. (Remember, the aim would not be to rival anything, just to "spread the word" in a different way, to reach people who won't necessarily have encountered the websites).

What's more, with an audio format, and given that Joss and the Firefly cast and production crew (and Universal) are keen to promote the movie through the fanbase, building up a "buzz" in advance of the movie, it's a good bet that there will be plenty of Firefly-related people willing to be interviewed on such a show. And podcast interviews can even be done by phone, so it's easy.

So now, fellow Flans and Browncoats, I need some feedback. Do you think this is a good idea? If so (or even if not), please reply and say so, adding any thoughts, comments or other input you can think of.

And finally of course, this show would need a name. I thought of "FireflyPod", "The Signal" and "The Cortex", but I'm not that struck on "FireflyPod" to be honest, and the other two seem too obscure. So, in case this is to be a go, suggestions please for a name for the show. When we have enough suggestions, we'll vote to choose the best one.

If you want to volunteer to help, there are plenty of things you can volunteer for. (For example, if you have a good or unusual voice, you could be the person who says "You're listening to FireflyPod" (or whatever we end up calling it). Or you could chase up people to interview. Whatever.

So in summary, reply to

• tell us what you think
  
• volunteer to help
  
• suggest a name for the show
  

CAN'T STOP THE SIGNAL...

[Cynewulf the Saxon]

That's not a bad idea. I'm not much of a podnik, so I don't know how much I can help. As for names, I'm sure the denizen of the forum can supply quite a few that would give ample material to pick from. Here are a couple of mine:

"The Firefly Companion"
"News from the 'Verse"
"Serenity Shindig"

I actually have a pretty decent speaking voice. I was a substitude DJ at the local radio station, and I've been in a number of theatrical productions, but my time will be rather restricted, as I'm currently in a production of Gypsy which will be going up in early July. I'm still trying to get my head around a Scottish accent for one of the parts.

I'm curious what the others think.
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[CTParker333]

I think this would be a great idea, especially if you can get the other scifi podcasts to mention it. It sounds like the folks over at DragonPage.com are big fans, maybe than they can give suggestions on getting started. I wish I could help, but this is a bit out of my league (I just a simple scientist after all).

I'm not too crazy about FireflyPod, either. The others are good, but I think only fans of the show would get the references to the Signal or the Cortex. Of course, I don't have any better names at the moment so for now I like The Signal.

Good luck, this could be a great marketing tool for the inevitable sequels in the future.

[Companion Kate]

I tend to agree. From a certain perspective, "The Signal" is a really cool name. After all, you can't stop The Signal. but, cool though it may be, it may not be quite what is needed.

My feeling is that the name of the show should be (at least a little bit) descriptive of the content, so that when non-fans encounter the title, they'll think "Ooh - a podcast about Firefly". ("Podcast Who" achieves this for Dr Who. It may be a boring title, but it does the job). Even better would be a name that simultaneously (a) suggests "this is a podcast which is something to do with science fiction", and (b) contains a cool Firefly reference which possibly only flans would recognise. The problem with "The Signal" is that it achieves (b) but not (a)

Anyway, please keep those suggestions rolling in, and if anyone would like to be a presenter, writer, or whatever, just chime in.

[gobluegirl]

tell us what you think:
Great idea! Sounds really interesting and fun!

volunteer to help:
I'd love to do some writing. Though I've never written for radio, I've done a ton of other forms. Would be fun to stretch myself.

suggest a name for the show:
Why not go with the url that you've already acquired, "SerenityFirefly," as the name of the show? It's boring, but gets the job done.
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Tales From The 'Verse Podcast - Stories You Won't Hear on the Cortex.

www.talesfromtheverse.com

[Companion Kate]

It's good to see an overall positive response here. You never know - this might actually happen! But if it is to happen, this is what we will need. If we can't get this together between us then all discussion about the title is moot:

REGULAR PRESENTERS: preferably at least two, and preferably one male and one female. Presenter #1 will introduce the show, and various segments of the show. Presenter #2 will read news items. Both presenters will also read emails from listeners. (Our presenters must be available for every show. It's advantageous to have some "spare" presenters so that the regulars can take a break, or even leave).

ONE-LINER VOICES: We also want people with interesting voices to do various one-liners we can use in intros, links and so on. Ideally, we would want (at least) one deep male voice, and one soft female voice. (These will be one-off jobs. Once done, we can re-use the clips over and over again).

ONE-OFF PRESENTERS: Each show will review something, or discuss some aspect of Firefly in a unique or unusual way. We'll need people to do this.

WRITERS: Not all presenters would be comfortable writing their own material, and conversely, not all writers would be comfortable putting their own voice on air. (If you can do both, and would like to present your own stuff, great!). But more likely, we will need writers to provide material for the one-off presenters.

HUSSLERS: These are people who persuade other people to do things. For example, you might be on the phone to Nathan's agent saying "give us an interview with Nathan". You might be hassling authors for permission to put out their stuff. Etc, etc.

FIELD AGENTS: If you're going to con, a Serenity screening, or any other Firefly related event, why not interview a few people about Firefly while you're there?

Volunteers so far...

I'm volunteering to be producer, writer, technician, and sound engineer.

[Companion Kate]

Great news. At least, I think it's great news. I spent the weekend rearranging my bedroom to facilitate a small recording studio. (Fortunately I have a very tolerant husband). I have some reasonably decent equipment (or at least, equipment that would have been considered decent five years ago) including an eight-track mixing/recording desk, MIDI keyboard/synth, various effect boxes and so on, and it's all plumbed into my computer, on which I have installed some pretty cool audio editing software. And, I've been putting together some audio clips for a podcast, and planning out a show. I have also coaxed a friend who's good at voices into doing some of those one-off voices we'll need.

What does this mean?

It means we are ready to go. Here's the plan. I intend to create a "pilot" podcast, a 45-minute show, which, with the help of this forum, which could be ready within two weeks. This I will make available on the website at SerenityFirefly.com (which doesn't exist yet, but I do have the domain name and hosting, so it will exist by the time we need it). The "pilot" will be available initially just as a single downloadable MP3 file, and then while people such as your good selves are digesting that I'll start putting all the RSS stuff in place to create a podcast feed.

This podcast needs you.

More than anything, we need voices. We need people who are prepared to record their voices. You could be reading pre-written material (...we have two writers thus far, myself and gobluegirl), or you could be ad-libbing and adding stuff of your own. Whatever. If you fancy being a presenter, now is the time to sign up.

Why would you want to do this?

Podcasting is a phenomenon. We are going to reach new people. Lots of them. Anyone who's into science fiction and listening to podcasts will go straight for the programs "Slice of Sci-Fi", "Sci-Fi Talk", and so on - but they will quickly run of programs out because there's only a handful of sci-fi shows out there right now. "Slice of Sci-Fi" reaches hundreds of thousands of people across the globe, and its presenters are huge Firefly fans. I have no doubt that they will like our show and plug it - whereupon we would start to pick up an audience of our own. That equates to thousands of potential new Firefly converts, more DVD sales, and more buzz for the movie. ...And all we need is your voice. We need presenters. I'm really hoping someone will volunteer for this - it's the big (in fact, critical) missing ingredient. All you need is a microphone, a computer, and a lack of embarassment about recording your voice.

Finally - yes, it's time to choose a name for the show. I'm leaning toward "Serenity Firefly", as per gobluegirl's suggestion, because it says what it is, and it exactly matches the domain name. Anyway, I'll put up a poll over at the "General Discussions" section, so you can vote for one. (I won't necessarily go with the vote, but I do need the feedback).

[catskilleagle]

Please contact and tell me how I can help.

I have limited technical expertise, but am a published sci-fi and hardboiled author and experienced public speaker.

Jason
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"live with joy, fury and the expectation of victory"
steven bauchman translating sun tzu

[jeremy]

Count me in (in a big way). I love this idea. Actually, I'm a bit dismayed I didn't think of it first, especially considering I really like both Firefly and podcasting. Strange how the brain sometimes fails to add 2 + 2.

I'm very technical, so I can help on the production end (audio and html), and on content acquisition. And maybe a little writing. I may be able to find some space on my server for the podcast files themselves. (Our ISP is very powerful).
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[Companion Kate]

Wow, the big guns are in now! Okay, for Catskilleagle and Jeremy and anyone else who wants to get involved, just sign up to the newly created Yahoo! group SerenityFirefly - which I created just for this purpose. I have to approve new memberships, but don't worry if that doesn't happen immediately - it's probably just that I'm on a different timezone from you.

Catskilleagle, we most definitely need the skills of a writer and experienced public speaker. For this first episode, it seems that experienced public speaker will be the most crucial role, as most of the material is accounted for. But for subsequent shows, we will want writers!

Jeremy, you're most welcome. How do you ever find the time? Content acquisition will be crucial for subsequent episodes. We're going to want to interview people, for example, which means finding people to interview, getting their permission, and so on. Server space is obviously a useful offer - I do have server space myself, but I have no idea what kind of bandwidth we're going to end up needing, so thanks. And we'll need a web page (which will eventually sit at serenityfirefly.com). I've thought a little about that, but so far done nothing webby.

So yes. Welcome everybody. We can discuss specific details on the Yahoo! group, so do sign up to that. Great to have you on board.

[Companion Kate]

Countdown to show #1.

This is a reasonable timetable based on the kind of show I want to put together (i.e. one that sounds like it was done professionally). We could get a show out sooner by being less professional. Some podcasts do consist solely of one person just talking about their interests. We could get that something like that together in less than an hour! But that's not what I want this to be. We're organising a real show, with structure and format. We need good material, music, sound effects, and so on. The first show will take longer to put together than the second (but we might want a rest after the first). Anyway, here's a (very) rough breakdown of the timescale as I see it:

Today is Tuesday June 7th.

• From now until Friday 10th (inclusive) - planning who's doing what, getting set up,
  getting hold of equipment, etc., putting sound clips together, etc.
  
• Saturday 11th and Sunday 12th - those who are doing writing need to get our stuff written
  
• Monday 13th to Friday 17th - discussion amongst ourselves of what we've got so far and
  what's missing. Final written material will be passed to those doing the reading.
  
• Saturday 18th and Sunday 19th - those who are doing recording need to get that recording done
  
• Monday 20th - I put it all together
  
• Launch date for the MP3 version: Tuesday June 21st
  
• Launch date for the RSS feed: as soon as possible after that
  
• Rest of week - publicity. We need to tell all the podcast directories and sci-fi shows that we exist.
  

Meanwhile, of course, we start thinking about show #2...

Don't forget to join that Yahoo! group if you want to help

[Rukh]

i'd love to help in some way. I'm relatively new to the forum, but i've been a big fan of firefly (and impatiently waiting for Serenity since the first rumors started hitting the net)

I'm big into writing, mostly comedy, and movie reviews, and junk like that. And i used to run a weekly 2 hour shoutcast, so i'm perfectly confortable talking to a mic...preferably when i know what i am gonna be saying, but winging it is always fun too . although that doesn't really mean my voice is made for radio i guess.

hell, even if it's just some bandwidth and webspace for archived shows or something i'm sure I could figure something out.

and in case there is a need for an ocational ranting lunatic portion to the show, i LIVE for ranting about stuff i'm passionate about just thought i'd drop that in there

[Dane]

[Companion Kate]

Absolutely sure. It's doing what you described because that's what I set it up to do! (So I'm actually doing UIP a favor).

I figured - it's parked, so why not point it somewhere useful, in case anyone tries it. I figured that getting the trailer would be better than getting an error message.

Rest assured, I'll point it to my own webspace once there's actually something there to look at.

[Dane]

Heh, how nice of you
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Screw that. Just nuke the site from orbit.

[lhoward]

I've been interested in a Firefly podcast and just learned of your efforts. I don't have any skills with audio production, but am pretty technical/geeky and would be glad to help out. I have a voice that I'm not afraid to use (though I don't think its anythign special). I would be glad to record some audio bits for the podcast.

L

[indigocliche]

hmm.... to embarass myself here, what exactly is a podcast? i think i've gathered it to be an online radio show, basically? a new hour put out every week? anyways...

i'd love to help, but i'm not sure how i could. i don't have a mic, and have never listened to a podcast so its probably not a good idea to have me on writing.

beyond that, i can make graphics/banners for websites pretty well, but i'm sure somebody around here is probably better than me. but if you want my services, you can have them.

but i know i can email my friends about it and blackmail them into listening if necessary. (anything for firefly )
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cheers

[lhoward]

A podcast is a method of distributing (free) audio content (usually in mp3 format) automaitcally via subscription (using RSS feeds). The inspiration was to get content onto Apple iPods (hence the name), but will work listening on your PC, or another mp3 player (but may not be as well integrated as it would be with an iPod). Here are some links that explain better than I do, have podcast clients (to automatically download new episodes, etc...)

http://www.podcast.net/
http://www.podcastalley.com/
http://www.ipodder.org/

L

[catskilleagle]

hey there. still interested in helping but having trouble locating the SerenityFirefly yahoo group. my searches all turn up for naught. is there something obvious and stupid that i'm doing?

jason
_________________
"live with joy, fury and the expectation of victory"
steven bauchman translating sun tzu

[Rukh]

the url for the yahoo group is http://groups.yahoo.com/group/serenityfirefly/ then just join with your yahoo account (and maybe make a yahoo account first if you don't have one) and you'll be all set

[Companion Kate]

Just to let everyone know, we seem to be on schedule, and looking at a release date of June 21st.

[sunshine]

wow this is an awesome idea - I'd love to help but I have no useful expertise...therefore I'll just spread the word and look forward to June 21st!!

[Cynewulf the Saxon]

[Companion Kate]

Nah - It's definitely WHAT you know.

For example. Suppose there exists a Yahoo! group called Rumplestiltskin. Then its URL would be http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rumplestiltskin. The URL would take you directly to the group, regardless of whether or not you are a member, and regardless of whether or not the group was unlisted. And once there, there will always be a "Join This Group" button.

Of course, you do have to have a priori knowledge that the group exists, and know its correct name with no misspellings.

Why, does someone else want to come on board? You're quite welcome. We let anyone in (so long as they actually help rather than lurk).

The release date is still June 21st, by the way. You can't stop The Signal.

[Asty]

[sunshine]

I've just heard some of the first one and I'm impressed. I would LOVE to help but I'm technalogically useless. If at a later date I sorted myself out could I join in? Apparently I have quite a good voice, and I'm sure my odd blend of accents would add a bit of variety!!

[Companion Kate]

Absolutely anyone can join in, providing they're willing to spend the time and do the work. We can always use more people. We have a Yahoo! group (serenityfirefly) where the actual work gets done, and all you have to do is request to join it.

We look forward to hearing from you.