Episode #10: "Things Are Looking Up!"

With the second episode of the new era of Radio Pixar released (pretty much) on time, and lots of exciting Pixar news to cover, things are indeed looking up! Once again, I was Acting Director and Host for Episode 10, and this time The Star Swordsman joined me in the hot seat as Co-Host. Thomas helped on the show, and Brad joined the team as our new Editor. Thanks to those who were involved in the show in whatever way, and a big thanks to all who gave feedback and constructive criticism after the last episode was released. Let us know what you think of Episode 10 by posting in this thread or emailing us: radiopixar [at] pixarplanet [dot] com. Enjoy! =)

Listen to it at iTunes, the Radio Pixar page, or podOmatic. Don’t forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes to be notified as soon as the next episode is released!

Personalities:
Rachel
Michael (The Star Swordsman)
Thomas (bawpcwpn)
Brad (Brad)

and Special Guests:
Hannahmation
thedriveintheatre
Hog-Hug

In this episode

• General Pixar News
• Round table discussion, Part two
• Pixarian birthdays and Pixar events
• Interview with Hog-Hug about her ‘Up Tour 2009’ project
• Pixar Planet member birthdays and events
• Song request
• Forum Talk
• Trivia
• We announce the winner of The Art of Pixar Short Films contest!
• And more!

More detailed shownotes for Episode 10 can be found here.

Thread of the Episode
Up Tempo by miafka

Fan Creation of the Episode
Wall-E: The Fan Game by Mygames19

Other Links

‘Up Tour 2009’ Project thread
Ain’t It Cool News - Up review
The Up Cluster Balloon Tour
Emery Ed Fund Screening of Up
The Art of Up and The Art of Pixar Short Films
FMX conference in Stuttgart, Germany
Pixar: 20 Years of Animation in Monterrey, Mexico
Upcoming Pixar on twitter
theowne’s “The Axiom” thread and YouTube performance

:smiley:

:smiley: Whoo~!

I’m excited to listen to this new episode!

Ooh-hoo-hoo-hoo! :smiley:
I’ll probably give it a listen tomorrow, seeing I’m rushing a long-procrastinated assignment due soon, but it’ll be my treat once I’m finished! :slight_smile:

Awesome, I got mentioned. And you pronounced my name right! :smiley:

Nice show. Surprisingly, I knew the trivia question the second it was asked. I have no idea how I remembered that.

I listened to it. It was very enjoyable. I liked and hated the sound of my voice, but if the other listeners like it, then I’ll continue to be consistant.

It was informative and entertaining. I really liked all of the segments. Great show.

Remember folks, you listener help make the show better. Post whatever you can to help us make Radio Pixar even better.

Brilliant! Well done guys for being so prompt with yet another brilliant episode! :smiley:

Firstly, Rachel, as host I think that you did really well this episode. You sound both relaxed and in control and your voice is perfect for this sort of thing, as you’re able to speak clearly and at a good pace. I enjoyed listening to you very much. And TSS, your introduction as co-host was brilliant and very, very funny. :laughing:

The spoiler warning was great to have, I’m sure a lot of people who like to leave everything to their first proper viewing in the cinema will appreciate that.

Your news segment was good, Thomas, and I especially like the bit where you read the review that said [spoil]"Pixar’s Up is one of the best movies ever[/spoil]. I just like the way you said that. :laughing: There was plenty of information in the News section, but not too much I don’t think. There did seemed to be some disturbance when you said your 'p’s, Thomas, but that’s only a minor thing.

Loved your trivia question, TSS! Definitely a tough one, really had to think about that one! I love your lovely, upbeat style of presenting- I can see how you’re someone that does drama and acting and that sort of thing. I’d say the difficulty of the trivia question was just right, and I’d rather it’d better be too difficult than too easy!

I’m pleased you talked about the release dates for Up thread, Rachel. It’s an important issue and I’m glad it was brought up. The conversation between you and TSS flowed well, and you both included points from both sides of the argument. The same applies to the discussion of the issue of sequels, which is also an interesting topic. Once again, good points were brought up and I found this to be a really interesting discussion. I would’ve liked there to have been someone on the completely opposite end of the spectrum, but I guess it wasn’t supposed to be a debate but more a reasoned discussion which still worked well.

As a whole, I really like the forum talk section because you manage to sum up what people’s opinions are in the threads and it gives the listener an idea of what goes on in the forums (especially good if they’re not a member yet).

The Pixar Planet news section was helpful and interesting, once again especially good for those listeners who aren’t members of the forums.

I enjoyed the roundtable discussion, though I do think it would be good for people to be quickly re-introduced for those of us who have a very bad memory. :laughing: I didn’t know much about the D23 magazine as I know how expensive it is to get over here, but I was interested in that discussion and the pros and cons of it because the price of it always seemed absurd to me.

I’m sort of fifty-fifty between whether I like the idea of the Pixar soundtrack section. On the one hand, it’s great for those such as myself who don’t have many of the Pixar soundtracks and therefore can’t listen to them on demand, and I like the fact that Radio Pixar takes requests. On the other hand, I do find myself skipping through sometimes just because the podcast is quite long as it is and so I just want to listen to the chat so I can get on with my homework and other things. But since the different sections of the podcast show up on iTunes, it’s easy to skip to the next bit if you want to. So, the verdict’s still out on this one. Nice choice by qxgnxamy nonetheless!

I really liked the interview between Rachel and Hog-Hug. Rachel, you asked all the right questions and Hog-Hug, you answered them with great enthusiasm. I’m sure the inclusion of this in this Radio Pixar episode will spark even more interest in your project!

Congratulations on winning the competition, [spoil]thedriveintheatre![/spoil] :smiley:

theowne, it was lovely to hear your rendition of ‘The Axiom’. The idea of fans playing Pixar music is a really cool one, and I hope to hear more of this sort of thing in the future.

All in all, a very good episode, and I think that there was a definite improvement on last week’s episode. It was more varied and it seemed more chatty and relaxed as a whole, which made it even more enjoyable. So, well done to everyone who participated and helped make this episode, especially Rachel and TSS, who were brilliant hosts! Definitely looking forward to the next episode now. :smiley:

I added a spoiler tag where you mentioned the winner of the contest. :wink: — Rachel. =)

I’ve made it through half of the episode; I have to go to geometry tutoring shortly, so I’ll listen to the rest later. I can give my feedback so far, if you like.

I enjoyed the roundtable disscussion on possible composers for Newt and The Bear and the Bow. Which got me to thinking, if you recall, I made a thread regarding new composers for Pixar films a while back ( pixarplanet.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=2110 ) , and I think we need to discuss this more thoroughly. Some of the composers mentioned in the thread were mentioned briefly, but there were many other good suggestions. Perhaps a talk about possible new composers in Pixar films in general would be a good idea - not just limited to Newt and The Bear and the Bow. As well, a talk about new directors would be good, which you can find more about in the thread I started on that topic of disscussion.

Again, I’ll listen to the rest soon, so I’ll be sure to give you my entire feedback.

Aww, to be honest… this is the first full episode of Radio Pixar I’ve listened to and I have to say, it was really sweet. I love that everyone here is so in love with Pixar and involved in supporting them. It was an honor to be a guest on the show, and thanks for all the info you guys are providing us fans! Great work!

A special congrats to Rachel who made a very good host, though everyone sounded great of course!

I’m looking forward to episode 11! :smiley:

Wonderful episode, everyone! I thoroughly enjoyed it; in fact, I liked it more than episode nine.

Rachel - You sounded much more relaxed this time around! You carried your voice well and just seemed to be having fun the whole time. Excellent work by way of flexing your Acting Director skills. :smiley:

The Star Swordsman - You’re hilarious, dude. You remind me of someone I’d meet at the Comic-Con or something. I think it’s your overall personality that does it. I love how you seem to aim to entertain and make the show all the more upbeat. Great work!

By the way, awesome trivia question. It was hard, dude, but that’s what I liked about it. More! :wink:

Thomas/bawpcwpn - Cool deliverance of the latest news, Thomas. My only qualm is that I thought you talked a bit fast during this segment. That’s just me, though. Other than that, nice work!

Brad - Smart editing work! I know I’m not part of the Radio Pixar crew, but welcome to the team!

thedriveintheatre and Hannahmation - Lovely input during the “Round Table Discussion” segment, guys. Both of you are great conversationalists and present your views and opinions exceptionally. Brilliant stuff!

Hog-Hug - Ha-ha. You have such a cute voice, but then you sound like a reporter at the same time! Nice work. :wink:

qxgnxamy - Such a touching song that you chose. I love it. Nice pick.

“You-Know-Who” - Congratulations on winning the contest! Enjoy the book!

theowne - Wow. Magnificent rendition of that particular track from WALL•E. It sounded like a Christmas song or something…

Overall, it was a lovely episode! I’m pretty much on-par with lizardgirl’s comments in that you guys did a fantastic job. Keep up the marvelous work! :smiley:

– Mitch

I listened to the episode while I was doing some post production on my stop motion short. Very well done everyone! Rachel and TSS, you both did a great job hosting/co-hosting the episode! You were both very natural.

Hog-Hug: I really liked the interview between you and Rachel. Full of good info about your project and you sounded really excited about it! Hope your project turns out to be a big success!

theowne: Great rendition of “The Axiom” !

Well, I must get back to working, but it was a joy listening to! :smiley:

HEy guys, thanks for all of your comments and reviews.

I’m having problems hearing Episode #10, and not sure if anyone can shed some light.

(1) I can’t do iTunes, don’t subscribe, don’t deal with them. Also, I don’t have any programs or devices that play m4a format (only mp3).
(2) I do have a m4a → mp3 converter program (m4a converter) that converts m4as to mp3s. This is how I successfully managed to listen to podcast #9. However it does not work right for some reason with #10. Even though the downloaded m4a file is around 50MB (and I downloaded and tried it twice to make sure it wasn’t a bad download) the converter stops converting at 18:26 into the show, and the outputted mp3 file is only 18:26 long. Not sure why.
(3) Trying to listen to it on Pixar Planet’s Radio Pixar page didn’t work either – and this was the strangest thing of all. When I went there and tried to listen to Ep #10, there’s nothing but silence, even though I see the status bar “moving” and such. Episode #9 is the same way: silence. However when I click on Episode #8 or Episode #7, I can hear those just fine on the Pixar Planet page – just not Episode #9 or #10.

Even more mysterious: on the Podomatic.com page, instead of clicking the DOWNLOAD link, if I press the ARROW icon (for PLAY) trying to hear the episode streaming from there, I hear just fine a short announcement asking people to please donate to keep the service going – but then when that’s done… nothing but silence instead of hearing the episode.

Any thought to releasing an mp3 version of Radio Pixar, since that’s such an accepted format that everyone worldwide can use?

And any thoughts as to what might be happening (why I can hear earlier episodes just fine on the Radio Pixar Page, but #9 and #10 are nothing but silence), and why my converter will only convert the first 18:26 of the show? (It’s full-funciton, not limited-function shareware).

I’d like to continue to listen to Radio Pixar (esp now that it’s coming out on a regular basis), but haven’t had any luck (and sorry, no, I’m not going to join or sign up with iTunes). What about an MP3 version available as well? Why can I hear earlier episodes like 7 and 8 just fine on the Radio Pixar Page, but nothing but silence for 9 and 10?

Thanks! Looking forward to hopefully hearing it :slight_smile:

Hey guys. I’ll get to replying to all of your comments later (thanks very much!). But if, like miafka, you are having trouble listening to the show via PodOmatic, or you don’t have iTunes or iTunes isn’t working (because we’ve seemed to have exceeded our limit, or something), here’s a temporary MP3 version of the show I’ve uploaded to MediaFire: link

It seems as if we’ve exceeded our bandwidth limit for podOmatic for this month. I’m still trying to investigate why, whether it’s because this show was incredibly popular, we need to upgrade our limit, or Episode 10 happened to be released towards the end of April so we have to wait till our bandwidth resets on the 1st May. That may be the same reason why it’s not working on iTunes (if you are indeed having that problem) because PodOmatic supplies the bandwidth to iTunes. The same thing about hearing silence for episode 9 and 10 happens with me, too. It could be because the other episodes were uploaded as MP3, and the last 2 as MPEG-4. So, sorry for anyone that was inconvenienced, but on the bright side it seems everyone else downloaded it ok. If it still doesn’t work, let me know and I’ll do all I can to help.

I want to lisson to the new podcast, but iTunes says the file is corrupted or not a supported file type. So I tried Pod-O-Matic, they say your bandwidth has expired until next month.

I guess I’ll wait until tomorrow to lisson. XD

EDIT: Just read RachelCake’s post, you are already aware of it.

Like I said, just wait until tomorrow XD

To the entire RP team:
Thanks for another informative and entertaining episode! :smiley:
I hope you’ll get that bandwith issue resolved soon.

And now I really need to check out that WALL-E fan game…

The podcast should be good to go now guys. There was technical issue with podOmatic and our account that has now been resolved.

Enjoy :slight_smile:

I downloaded the MP3 to avoid more problems, and it worked. :sunglasses:

You guys should have asked me about the fangame, XD
And thanks a lot for the Fan Feature of this episode. :slight_smile:
You can follow me 24/7 on my new Twitter page:

twitter.com/Mygames19
and the topic has already been linked to.

Anyhow, great job guys! It was fun to Liston to you guys have your discussions.

Back to my game now lol

Hey Radio Pixar listeners. Wow, so much feedback already for Episode 10. A BIG thanks to everyone who listened to the show and responded here. It’s only been out for 2 or so days and it’s already gotten quite a lot of listens (so many that we’ve gone past our bandwidth limit!). On the next show we’ll talk about how popular the show has been - it certainly surpassed my expectations! Which is probably a good thing, because had I know how many people were listening to it before I signed up, I may have had second thoughts. But still, it’s pretty amazing.

Compared to Episode 9, I think I improved about 50% with my delivery. The Star Swordsman is a very funny co-host and makes me feel relaxed, so that helps. ^^ I still have a bit of a way before I become as good as one of the previous Hosts of the show, Dash, and have already made notes for how I can improve for Episode 11 and onwards. Also, sorry for the technical difficulties. They must be awful for you guys to listen to, but we’re talking about ways to improve the professional aspect of the show. We’ve got the fandom aspect covered, all we need is the quality of the audio to be improved. Take note that when I say ‘week’ on air, what I really mean is ‘episode’. Heheh. I would like to do a weekly show, but it’s hard enough getting out a 3-weekly show as it is. :wink:

Also, don’t forget to tell us what you’d like to hear more of in the future, too, and which segments are your favourites. It seems of if the trivia segment is a hit every time, so that can definitely stay. :slight_smile:

The Star Swordsman - I really liked your voice and your delivery. It’s pretty apparent that you have had drama training, and you were really fun to co-host with… Hope we can make for a great hosting team in the future.

lizardgirl - Thanks for your thoughtful review of the show. :slight_smile: Well, you’re right. I wondered myself why listeners would want to listen to a track from a Pixar soundtrack, when they could just listen to it themselves. But I think the reason why people request songs is also because it’s like “Hey! They’re playing my song request and other people are listening to it!” Plus it gives a break from the talk. Thanks for your input, though. It’s fascinating to hear how while some people love a certain segment, others aren’t so much into it. Yeah, the little iTunes thingo up the top that tells you what segment you’re listening to is great.

Bill - Ok, sometime in the future we’ll be sure to discuss composer speculation in Forum Talk. Thanks for commenting!

Hog-Hug - Thanks for being such a cool guest and good luck with your project. =)

Mitch - Thank you very much for the detailed critique. It’s good that you enjoyed the show more than Episode 9, because that means there was improvement there. Don’t touch that dial, and I hope you like future episodes, too. =D

Much thanks, Hannahmation. Glad you liked Episode 10!

MyGames19 - Heheh. Well, we try to keep the Thread and Fan Creations of the Episode a secret because surprising people is fun. Keep on truckin’ with the development of the fan game.

totoro - Danke schoen! :mrgreen:

Once again, thanks for the feedback everyone! Whether you posted a short sentence or long review, or whether you wrote something here, sent an email or contacted me personally, it’s all very much appreciated. The Radio Pixar team is lucky to have such a supportive, close-knit community such as you guys. :smiley:

Okay. This time I’m gonna make sure I remember to listen to it!

Brilliant episode, guys. I can’t convey how much I enjoy the podcast. Rachel & TSS collaborate really well, and I hope I can hear the duo together well.

I hate to critique this episode, so I’ll just mention one thing: the Pixar news, although Thomas presenting skills are awesome, is still a bit… dry. There’s no talk. It’s just really an audio version of Upcoming Pixar, and while that’s not necessarily a bad thing, it’s just that the show’s become naturally a talk show, and talk shows require input & opinions throughout. Discussions of the news would be highly appreciated. That’s it from me - I’ll feel bad if I put more criticism in.