“When I saw the podcast on the menu on Netflix, I knew it was over.” Veteran podcaster and comedian Marc Maron said this during a live taping with kara swisher Monday night, part of Tribeca Festival: Opening Day of the Podcast Stage.
Maron reflects the mood surrounding the industry’s undeniable pivot to video, which has left many creators wondering what a podcast even is. Is now and. At the same time, they’re asking how to keep up with rapid change — especially for “craft audio” creators, as creator and Audio Flux co-founder John DeLore refers to them. For these artists, sound is the main issue, not just delivery service.
As Alice Florence Orr recently reported, the Tribeca festival (now in its 25th year) is committing to audio-first and audio-only work for its podcast program, moderated by Davey Gardner, starting in 2022. While industry-wide change is real, Tribeca’s offering seems to suggest there may be more than one path forward for the industry.
Marc Maron (Co/Tribeca)
The majority of audio events at this year’s festival took place at Spring Studios, a multi-use event venue in the heart of Tribeca. It wasn’t until I crossed that threshold that I remembered I’d been there many years earlier as a catered waiter, ferrying hors d’oeuvres to a disinterested crowd of corporate types. Ahh, the life of a freelancer. However, this time, I didn’t need to take the service elevator to enter the massive six-floor building, and I walked among a crowd of creators and audio enthusiasts chatting about the possibilities of sound.
I was able to attend three days of programming last week. From my seat in Spring Studios, I’m happy to report that we are by no means – at least from an audio standpoint – Mess.
The official selections were divided into two programs: Timbre and Tone. He disseminated fiction, investigative journalism, and intimate non-fiction. Specifically, there will be no chat shows to be found. The pieces I commissioned were created with the utmost care, tireless research, and obvious passion.
Here’s a sampling of some of the excellent acts I heard that stood out. develop survival As director and host Amelia Chiarenza says, it is “a new story of death” and was born out of “deep despair” after losing both parents and a best friend in a sixteen-month period. Created by Theo Balcom (Producer) the Daily), the two collaborated on the project to delve not just into darkness, but the entire spectrum of grief. dolos project Marcus and Megan Bagala (whose production company is named FinalFinalMixv2) is a post-apocalyptic science-fiction space thriller set in a small space station after planetary extinction, as well as in the characters’ dreams. Rebecca Auerbach, whose auto-fiction Personally: Discount Dave (and the solution)What begins as a lively party story but soon turns into a deep self-examination of addiction and recovery.
Good and bad, that was the show that attracted me the most Bone Valley: The Devil’s QuarryHosted by veteran investigative journalist Paul Solotaroff. Based on an article written by him rolling stone ‘The Devil You Know’ will be called in 2021,’ devil’s mine It is a passionate depth-based tale of murder, sexual torture of innocent teenagers, and police corruption in the small town of Putnam, New York.
I had several conversations with Solotaroff during the festival and I began to think of him as the Daniel Day-Lewis of True Crime. He became so engrossed in his work that after presenting the original copy rolling stone The piece was a nervous breakdown. It was only after hearing that suspected murderer Howard Gombert was to be released from prison that he felt inclined to revisit the case. Devil’s Mine. On his drive from Boston to Tribeca, passing through Putnam County, Solotaroff told me he could “still hear the screams” of the victims. he describes devil’s mine as a “ghost story”, but he hopes it will inspire action.
In an interview with Gilbert King he said, “We need your outrage to ensure that Howard Gombert never causes harm again.” I asked Solotaroff what “audience outrage” might look like in practice. He told me he wanted people to make their voices heard “in the flood of social media, emails, angry messages.” A political pressure campaign to force the corrupt police department to take action.
Extra good wishes for some other excellent work: the latest season of Scene on Radio: News with John Beaven and Chenjerai Kumanyika (essential listening for any news consumer); History of the United States in 100 Objects from the BBC and 99% Invisible (a careful and entertaining re-examination of the “oddities of history” through objects ranging from the mundane to the bizarre); A special live taping of death, sex and moneyWhich includes married couple Peter Dinklage and Erica Schmidt. Host Anna Sale does a great job of getting some really candid answers from her normally private guests.
While all sixteen selections at this year’s Tribeca were certainly audio-first, it’s worth noting that each selection event was a presentation of show trailers, followed by a fireside chat with the creators. And these trailers were not simple audiograms. To varying degrees, each was highly polished and included engaging animations, archival video and, in two cases, footage of the hosts in action. In other words, something you can find on a Netflix menu near you.
I personally have no problem with interview and chat podcasts flipping on their fancy lights and multi-cam setups, and streaming anywhere and calling themselves whatever they want. As an audio prime, I’ll continue to consume the old-fashioned way – at least for now.
As far as “craft audio” is concerned, John Delores put the words in my ear as soon as we left. death, sex and money At the end of my third day, it suggests a distinct future – one that manages to be both pristine and visionary (not to mention AI-proof).
Dellor told me: “My theory is that for the Craft Audio people, our version of ‘pivot to video’ is ‘pivot to stage’ – pivot to live show.”
Leaving Spring Studios for the last time I was reminded of my catering days that the building has an unusual design feature: there are no stairs – at least none available to the public – only a bank of small lifts. This generally wouldn’t be an issue, unless of course a few hundred people wanted to go together after a live taping.
After waiting (and missing) a few crowded elevators, I was mercifully rescued by a Tribeca staff member and escorted to the other end of the hallway with a half-dozen other lucky guests. Of course, there was another way.
Service lift.
