The conversation you have with a friend after you walk out of a movie theater

Mike and I have been friends since college. One of our favorite activities to do has always been to watch movies, whether it’s a rental or in the theater, something amazing or a train wreck, we always have fun and a lot to talk about afterwards. When we decided to create our own podcast this seemed like the perfect territory fro us to get into for so many reasons. One of the biggest is that besides it giving us an excuse to watch even more movies and films, it was an area that we were both passionate about and I knew that was going to help us in the long run. I feel like that passion comes through in our episodes. The films that we take on for episodes of our show are ones that we feel are worthy of discussion. Our elevator pitch about our show is that “it’s the conversation you have with friends after walking out of the movie theater” so the movie dictates the tone of the conversation and how in depth we dig. If we watch an Oscar contender, we are getting deeper into film theory territory and if we watch a Summer blockbuster we are taking on the point of view of the audience and talking about which jokes landed and how many times we were actually surprised or delighted by what we saw. Our listeners are like us, they love movies of all types and can’t get enough of the conversation around things they enjoy!
 

I’ve been a podcast listener for years. I listened to Stuff You Should Know on an iPod mini! That’s going way back! Now I have a steady rotation of about 10 different shows that I listen to regularly and I will sprinkle in new ones all the time. The motivation to actually start our own podcast was one that took a lot longer to realize than I am proud to admit. Mike Colavita, my co-host, is a professional music critic and I work in television production. We both are in related fields but not really in the film industry at all. But because of our actual jobs we were able to appreciate some of the aspects of the movie industry that we could speak on a little better than the average film goer. And each of us have some contacts and friends in that world. So we take the approach of beings fans but also guys who know some people who know some people that have good stories. Once we were settled on our take on a comedy leaning film discussion and review show we dove in. We probably recorded about five test episodes before we put out our first episode. Even then we knew the format was not exactly perfect. It was a mental commitment that we had to make to just start. Our goals were to learn about the process of podcasting, meet similar-minded folks, and create interesting conversation about an area that we were passionate about. The show evolved along the way. Our show debuted in 2015 and we’ve had a shifts in structure of episodes along that time. The backbones has always been the same. Friends having fun talking about movies.
 

We are currently on a bi-weekly release schedule. The name of our podcast is a little tongue in cheek because at the beginning we knew it was going to be tough sledding to release our shows on a regular weekly basis. We both had full time jobs and were ambitious about our careers. My wife and I just had our first child. Time was not on our sides, and we had also landed on a format of watching a new movie and comparing it to an older movie that was somehow connected. That meant us watching two films, scheduling a 2-hour block for a recording session and a half a day to edit at least. Over the seasons, we have revised the format and focused more attention on preproduction which cuts down on our post-production time. I have a small video production business so I had a good amount of the technical knowledge that we needed when we were starting up in my back pocket. I also had almost of the equipment that we needed to start out. Over the years we experimented with different recording set ups. And of course the technology evolved a bit when zooms became a bigger part of all of our lives.
 

As of this interview, we haven’t had a sponsor to our show or run any sponsored segments in our episodes. We will run ads on some episodes. They are usually for other podcasts or for companies that reach out to us to promotion on a few episodes at a time. Our overhead is low on this podcast so we use that ad money to cover hosting and some movie tickets back in the day. We aren’t against a corporate sponsorship of some sort if the fit seemed right. It hasn’t come up organically as of yet. Who knows what the future holds. We think our listeners are fine with ad breaks. We’ve never heard otherwise. Our goal has always been to provide the best content that we can on an episode by episode basis. That idea has helped carry us from a few hundred downloads that first year into the tens of thousands of downloads per year that we get now. We would love to keep that number growing. It’s amazing that anyone listens and at but we sure are glad they do. This podcast has benefited us on a number of levels. The creative outlet is at the top of the list, but we’ve also made friendships through this process and even help others start their own shows.
 

We used different tools when we recorded most sessions in-person. These days we utilize google docs and google sheets to keep tabs on our watch lists of movies and prep future episodes. We use a google form for gathering guest information. The recording sessions are mostly over Zoom these days. Every once in awhile we will have a guest come on over Skype. There are a couple other recording platforms that I’ve been looking into that some folks have recommended but we haven’t made the jump yet. We record tracks using a combination of Audacity and Adobe Audition. A few episodes in the early days were done with GarageBand though. We've run through a few variations of microphones and headset combinations too. I’ve never been let down by Beats headphones or Sennheiser microphones. I think my years of video and tv production but I’m not beholden to certain gear. Chasing gear and the perfect setup can be fun but it can also be a distraction from the work and very costly. I’ve worked with guys that were major gear-heads and were constantly trying to keep up with the latest and greatest equipment on the market. I’ve also worked with some of the best cameramen in the world. You better believe that they could have really subpar gear in their hands and still shoot the hell out of their subjects. Technique is so much more important than gear. I’m looking quality gear that I can control and operate. If it works, it works. Durability goes a long way though.
 

We are in it for the love of the game. We are looking to make the content great and have the audience find us, help spread the word. Now I do not recommend this is the best technique for finding new listeners. Our show has grown in audience every year. Some of that has aligned with when we put a more direct focus on gaining engagement on social media as well. We try to engage on Twitter and Instagram but will say that a big chunk of our listeners are subscribers on iTunes. This is definitely an area that we want to improve on going forward.
 

I’d read a lot about podcasting before we committed to making a show. I’d even traveled halfway across the country to attend seminars at New Media Expo in Las Vegas before I ever began putting out episodes of a show. I would read the same advice time after time. Just start podcasting. It seems like nonsense advice at first, but it might really be the best advice out there. If you aren’t a celebrity, you might think that no one is really all that interested in you or your opinions. You might have doubts about anyone caring about your show at all. Well, it’s true that celebrities that start a podcast are bringing their fans in as an instant audience. But podcasts predate this trend. Podcasts can be whatever you want them to be... and you have an ingredient that no one else has...your individual voice. So you need to just start doing it. Jump in with both feet and start to swim. You will find your way. But you need to commit to make your idea into a reality. There are tons of great resources out there. Pat Flynn is amazing. Michael O’Neal is an outstanding resource. Subscribe to his Soloprenuer Hour podcast, he talks to experts and gives actionable advice. As you start your podcast, you have to think of yourself as a brand. Those two guys are both great. Daniel J Lewis is an encyclopedia of podcast knowledge, he has a wealth of knowledge to share and does it in a digestible way at the audacity to podcast. There have been many other resources that I’ve used over the years. The folks at Libsyn have been great resources as well. You’ll also need somebody that you trust to give you feedback early on. Preferably someone who can give constructive criticism without crushing your spirit. If you don’t have a person like that in your life currently, I volunteer my cohost, Mike.
 

We’ve got a few places on the internet where you can find us. The Now and Then Movie Podcast is on Apple Podcasts and Stitcher. We are on Instagram @now_then_podcast
On Twitter @NowAndThenPod You can also checkout our website at www.letsgosomewhere.network/now-and-then