That nice radio interview? Upcycle it to video

Platforms for your audio, everywhere

I've had a little play with some new software. I took some audio from a radio show I did a few months ago, and added images and captions. Now I've got a nice video clip. 

The audio is excerpted from a lovely long interview I did with the great guitarist Gordon Giltrap, now based in the West Midlands. The full show is on Brum Radio's listen again page. 

Gordon tells a terrific story early in the interview; I found myself telling and re-telling it to friends. Gordon tells lots of stories, often in very compelling ways: take in a live show and you'll see what I mean. So I don't want to use too many of them up. But this was an lovely little tale, a nice candidate to embellish. I've put it up in this post, as a YouTube clip, after the jump.

Video kit

It's been a while since I played with video editing kit, but the new freebie online programmes you get these days do a good job in giving you the basics. I used Headliner; other apps are available. Top-notch pro stuff it ain't, of course, but that's not what I'm really looking for: for me it's about the story, no matter the medium. A touch of audio editing, some research, then some caption and picture tweakage... et voila. I did find myself wanting to tweak the audio some more, in mid-edit, but that's not possible. You need to get that done in advance.

Now, I can't claim to be breaking new ground. It's a bit of a first for me, yes, but the whole idea of re-using and repurposing existing content has been around for some time. It's one of the things that differentiates radio of the last century and the radio of today: a multiple format approach. These days, Radio is not, really not, about the DJ - unless you're a DJ, of course. It's about online presence, and what you say and do to reach audiences. That's not always good: some of our best ever communicators were and are DJs; but those innocent glory days have been forever changed by the web. I'm not a fan of short term social media stuff, nor of instant online celebrity; I hate all that stuff. But I am a fan of a good story, well told.

Multi-platform world

But we are where we are. Net-powered platforms are here, and self-respecting radio operators use them. If, as a radio bod, you've ever read the excellent media commentator James Cridland - and you should - you'll know how he favours versioning audio in different ways on multiple platforms. He's not the only one: all the big boys, the ones who can afford proper staffing levels, at least, have teams reworking content and reusing it in different ways. Radio 1 are compensating for their shrinking terrestrial listening numbers by generating a positive torrent of YouTube content for their youthful target audience. Other stations generate supplementary strands like Spotify Playlists, or spin out bits here and there on Facebook or Twitter. That said, both of those are getting decidedly less effective, I'm sad to say. But I still use both.

So... I've re-told Gordon's story in a slightly different way. I had fun doing it. If after watching the video, you head off to listen to the original programme, let me know. That's part of the thinking. I'll be delighted if you do. 

Links

Gordon Giltrap's website
Find Headliner video editing software - it's free
The full radio show with me and Gordon is here

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