Its been a while now since I have published any podcast or video productions at all, let alone related to our gaming activities, and the itch is starting to return. Our current Kingmaker campaign would be an option, but realistically it is just too short of a series to make it worth while.
Instead, my thought is to resume with what we are planning for as Season 3 – the start of the 2nd edition of Pathfinder and the recently announced Age of Ashes campaign. This would have several advantages – most notably a bit of timeliness in that the season will be starting immediately upon the release of the campaign and rules. In addition, that would give me several months to prepare and adjust, leveraging the lessons I have learned from prior efforts.
In particular, audio was always a challenge – especially with such a large player group. Camera angles are also problematic, since I only really have a single passable camera (and little time during the session to change the angle). Worse, as each of these items are ramped up, the editing of the overall production becomes that much more complex and time consuming.
For audio, lavaliere mics would be the best, but it is impractical to stock the dozen that would be required, and a means to collect all the data files. I do have one very good mic with the Zoom H1, and a basic mic built into the camera, but I would need to add at least a second quality mic for the far end of the table (perhaps another Zoom). Alternatively, I was considering perhaps suspending it from the ceiling centrally in the table, but I would have to test if that is workable.
For cameras, my only alternative option would be utilizing my cell phone camera. Its certainly good quality, and would even have a basic level mic, but I am not sure it would be able to hold enough storage for the duration of our 5 hour game sessions. Again, some further testing is required.
The final challenge, editing, is more problematic. As the complexity grows, so does the time needed to edit – time which is frequently in short supply. I have learned a lot in recent efforts, but it is still not a smooth and simple operation, typically taking 3 hours for each hour of footage. That will most certainly be the most challenging piece for my continued effort, I will need to ponder various options.
