The Process | Classic Camera Revival

This year marked a major milestone for my podcast, the Classic Camera Revival. And while I call it ‘my’ podcast, unlike other content I’ve posted in this series of entries, CCR is far more a community effort. I wanted it to be not on my shoulders only but rather based around a team of dedicated people who can take on every duty along the way. It’s only fair that the final entry in the series is centred around creating the podcast. Since we started in 2015, a lot has changed in almost every aspect, from how and when we record to the production and even the episode notes. We survived the pandemic and quickly shifted to our show’s format. We went from a single episode a month to a pair of episodes. The episode styles and types, and even who the show’s hosts are. As I mentioned, CCR was always designed to be a living thing, rather than centred around a single person. In fact, I’m the only original host left from the original team, and I don’t appear on every episode. When I started thinking about putting a different medium out there in 2014, I started putting plans together for a series of camera reviews, CCR or Classic Camera Review, which was supposed to be a YouTube series. But a video series would require much more preparation, but you could get a podcast going quickly. The name “Classic Camera Revival” came from my good friend James McFarlane when he saw the CCR and suggested Revival from the band. Now appearing on a few episodes of the Film Photography Podcast (Project), I reached out to members of the Toronto Film Shooters Meetup, and John Meadows came on board. Another couple, and in January 2015, the first episode aired.

From the start, CCR’s focus has been on camera gear, specifically film camera gear and using a round-table style of episode. Everyone brings something to the table on a singular topic. Our usual topics included cameras, lenses, and film stocks. We did dig into a bit more with chemistry and darkroom work later on. We had a handful of interviews in our back catalogue. Still, they really got into the regular rotation during the pandemic. One thing to note is that these interviews episodes are that the earlier ones were often unnumbered outside the main content, which is why the number of episodes and episode numbers are out of sync. We are a closed-source podcast where people are invited into the show rather than allowing anyone to join in every episode. If you’ve never heard the term ‘closed source,’ I recently realised this because our good friends at Camerosity are an ‘open source’ show where the community are the hosts along with a core team on almost every episode. Now, that doesn’t mean we don’t listen to the community. We’ve had a few episodes where the topic has come from a listener, the most recent being our episode on Nikon lenses. The final type of episode is the mystery camera challenge; these are fun and allow the hosts to talk off the cuff about a camera they probably haven’t used in the past. The idea is that everyone brings a camera, and then we draw names from a hat, and that person uses the camera. Over the several iterations we’ve used, we’ve switched things up. I have an idea for a new version of the episode, so that should be fun. However, it is an in-person episode type, so we do have to get the whole team in the same space.

When it comes to production, we are far from being a professional podcast. While several folks have assumed we’re attached to a larger media organisation, that is far from true. We have no fancy studio with good acoustics or even a set that is worthy of including video. In person, we’re recording in a dining room, kitchen or living room. We’ve even recorded in a church basement, classroom and a darkroom. However, we use decent equipment, proper microphones, audio interfaces, and computers. Until recently, we’ve had a USB interface into a computer and directly recorded onto Audacity, but now, a Zoom PodTrack P4 has reduced the equipment footprint and allows for recording almost anywhere without any complications. For remote recording, we use Zoom to record the audio in the cloud. As for everyone, we all record using different microphones, built-in headsets, and proper units. Often, some of our guests have better microphones than we do, and that’s okay because it all comes out in the wash.

When it comes to post-production, we take a light hand on editing. And we do have founding-host John Meadows to thank for the show’s overall feel. After a bit of work on levels, cutting out dead air, and adding musical pieces and intros, you have an episode. John acted from the beginning until his departure as our chief engineer in recording and editing. He had run several successful podcasts in the past (and even attended special camps for podcasters). He brought all those skills and knowledge to CCR from the start. When he decided to step away, he passed on all his knowledge and details to everyone. That means that every team member can record and produce an episode. We generally use Audacity for our production. While we can do a good job with our remote recording, editing in-person episodes is far easier. It is easier to control audio levels when everyone has a similar microphone, and the P4 has discrete audio files for each channel. We use only the stock tools with Audacity, and no special plugins or custom features exist. The current piece uses a custom music track written and performed by John and the audio overlay by Bill Smith. Then, the Outro music is one of many pieces by Mike Gutterman from the Negative Positives podcast. The episode notes have changed the most, from being relatively short to going heavily detailed and back to being short around 2020. I wanted the notes to be a quick summary of the episode and interviews, including links to the guest’s online presence.

I am impressed with how far CCR has come since we started ten years ago; we also hit our 200th episode in May. And while there are older podcasts and other podcasts that have achieved these milestones, it is nice to be a part of that club. While long-form podcasts don’t share the same dominance as they did when we first started, there is still a good listener base. On average, we have 1,000+ downloads an episode. And I’m happy with those numbers since we’re not in this game for the money. Our team is also a good group of giant nerds, we all help each other, and goodness knows, we’ve engaged in a bit of horsetrading of films, cameras, and lenses between the members. CCR has also become a part of a network of similarly themed podcasts; some are still on the air, others have reduced their episode releases, and others have simply stopped or have gone on a break. But we all still talk, share, and help each other. We have had interesting moments, from cleaning up a PR disaster from former hosts to our infamous original Zoom lens episode. If you’re new to CCR, I suggest starting with Season 6. The one thing I hope to do next year is have more studio sessions now that I have the P4 good for longer recording sessions and also improving the production work once I get a bit more in the way of editing software. For now, CCR will keep on plugging along; when will the show end? That’s a good question, but certainly not shortly. The only constant is the change, so I can’t predict when the show will end, but I promise it won’t be abrupt or mid-season. If anything, the show will reduce the number of episodes before it ends. But for now, we’re still going strong!

Previous Entries in the Series
If you’re new to the blog and have not yet read through the other entries in the series, you can find them here.
Writing Camera Reviews
Writing Film Reviews
Writing Lens Reviews
Writing Developer Reviews
Creating YouTube Videos