Episode #10: "Things Are Looking Up!"

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.

Great Episode! :smiley: Even tough I just joined Pixar Planet, I’ve been listening to the podcast for 2 years now! I’m so glad you guys brought it back! Anyways, I loved all the new segments, especially the song request, I’m way too lazy (and broke) to buy all my favorite Pixar songs! Are you guys going to do more contests/ I love winning things and I missed the last one :frowning: (by the way congrats to [spoil]thedriveintheater[/spoil]!) I just adore your voice Rachel! It has such a smooth tone to it. It’s wonderful! :smiley: keep UP the great work :laughing: I can’t wait until episode 11!

I added a spoiler warning where you mentioned the contest winner’s username. :wink: — Rachel. =)

I gave it a listen on Thursday night, but I was really tied up with appointments and friend outings on the weekends (which explained my short absence for the last three days). But I’ve finally knuckled down now and gave it a second listening while writing this review simultaneously.

Introduction - Nice opening, instead of last episode’s music, Rachel says ‘hello’ and the music slowly seeps in… 3 weeks an episode sounds realistic. Welcome TSS as host, and Brad as editor!

News - Since I’d rather follow the disclaimer, I didn’t listen to the news since I don’t want to be ‘spoiled’ beforehand.

Quiz - That was difficult, and I watched TS on Free to Air last year! Guess I should pay more attention!

Forum Talk -
Up release dates: I’m a bit miffed about the staggered release dates too. Actually, Singapore gets Up a week after the U.S. on June 4th (I checked IMDB and some of the Singaporean cineplexes). But one week later is at least reasonable, and not the months of difference less fortunate countries get.

Sequels: Well, I love the Cars sequel as it is, but I have to agree with you guys that the Incredibles deserve a second installment more! They could develop it into a Superman/Batman franchise! (And if they did that, I would trust them to do it well) Oh, and Dreamworks is selling out with their ‘sequel factories’.

Pixar Planet News -
Pixar Twitter: Wow, you don’t know TSS? :open_mouth: “Get with the program”, laugh out loud! :wink: But I’m a Twitter skeptic too. Nevertheless, should be interesting to see up-to-the-minute updates for the Pixarians. “I’m pitching an awesome animatic for Bear & The Bow right now!” :smiley:

Rachel new moderator: Congrats again!

NYT mention: Although that was the most ignorant financial article I’ve read, it’s great that we got a mention! Congrats PP!

Thread of the episode: [spoil]Yes, miafka gave a great insight into the musical process. Good pick![/spoil]

Fan creation of the episode: [spoil]Good on ya, mygames19! I’ll download a demo soon.[/spoil]

Pixar Planet birthdays: Happy B-Day y’all! “Best Pixar forum on the Internet.” I like that.

Roundtable discussion: Here I go… oh man, I keep trippin’ over my words. Thing about me is I speak before I think (in the sense I start talking before I compose my sentences properly). :blush:
Harry Gregson Williams is pretty good…
John Williams is classic.
How I say D23: “Dee twenty twee.” :laughing:
As for D23, I stand by my opinion that they should give an online preview. :wink:
Great discussion all round, people! I’ve never had a more matured conversation among like-minded Pixar fans before, not even in real-life!

Song request: Yup, that’s a very poignant number, one of the sadder Pixar songs alongside Our Town and I Will Fly No More. Good choice, qxgnxamy!

Chelsea/Hog-Hug’s Up Tour 2009 Project: Your voice sounds so happy and high, like a chipmunk or a hamster! (My weird comparison is meant as a compliment! :smiley:) Very noble idea, I like it! And it’s great that RP is giving publicity for this great project!

Pixarian Birthdays and Upcoming Events: Nice presentation and vocal delivery. Well, we know all the events are leading up to the big kahuna: the release of Up!

Art of Pixar Short Films Contest: [spoil]Oh my gosh! Seriously? No way!
Yaaahooo! This is the best day of my liiife…! I’ve never participated in and won a competition, much less one online! Oh my…
“…one of the friendliest members on the Pixar Planet forum.” Daaaw, really? I’m deeply touched.
I’m so excited! Thank you contest organisers! And Chronicle Books. I’ll send a message now. Oh, and was that Tin Toy played as the background music?[/spoil]

“The Axiom” performed by “theowne”: That’s some incredible piano-playing! I don’t think I could play a song straight without at least one mistake, so kudos! And that song is one of the most beautiful from the Wall-E soundtrack! Excellent capper to the show!

Conclusion: Great answer to Rachel’s question, TSS! What song was trailing off after TSS’ “Peace Out”?

This episode is more well-coordinated and more tightly edited. Rachel sound more confident in her presentation and of course TSS is a natural (I’m serious, his voice sounds so radio-genic!)

I have a suggestion: If there’s time, could two song requests be done in the same show? One during intermission, and the other as the ‘capper’ like theowne’s “The Axiom?” If not, what do you think if the one song request was moved to the end of the show? I don’t know, does that sound okay, or do people prefer to listen to it in the middle? Just a suggestion! :smiley:

Lookin’ forward to the next episode! :smiley:

I sound radio-genic huh TDIT? I do listen to the radio alot, so maybe that explains it. Thanks alot, and thanks for the review. [spoil]Congrats on your winnings.[/spoil]

Phileas - Much thanks for the feedback, Phileas. We’re still working out the format of the show, so trying out different ways of presenting segments. I didn’t think you’d want to hear more of our (read: my) opinion on Pixar, which is why the news is just the facts, but if you insist… :wink: We are surely will take the news suggestion on board. Thanks again!

woody - Thanks for your comments, woody. 2 years as a listener of Radio Pixar? That’s really cool to have such a dedicated fan of the show. We may have more contests in the future. We were lucky enough to have the one for Episode 10 sponsored by Chronicle Books, so we’ll just have to see. Oh, thanks for the compliment on my voice - you’re making me blush. :slight_smile:

thedriveintheatre - [spoil]Congratulations on winning the contest. You certainly deserved to win, so fate certainly had a hand in that one.[/spoil] Yay! Someone noticed the theme from Tin Toy. What I meant to say was that Singapore gets Up the next week after the US gets it, but I think I worded it wrong. Two song requests? We’ll see what we can do, and if we have time. Song requests help to break up the show, so you get a bit of music in the middle of the show, but we could always consider having it at the end if that’s what people want, to send out the show in style. The track played in the Outro was from Finding Nemo called “Fronds Like These”. Thanks for your comments! :slight_smile:

I think the song request placement was perfect.

Just sayin’. :wink:

Had a chance to listen to RP#10 this weekend, and just wanted to say brilliant job! (And wow, thanks for highlighting the Up Tempo thread) :slight_smile: I think rachealcakes did a great job, as did everyone. It was well produced.

I’d like to suggest that future episodes also be released in MP3 as well (it seems it wasn’t just me having problems with the new format), as it shouldn’t be too much extra work to do so, and MP3 is still the completely universal format that everyone can use (no matter what I did, I couldn’t play RP#10 except in the MP3 version).

Song request: good choice. For me, that was the surpreme moment of Toy Story 2, and what really put heart into the movie. As with others, I too am concerned about Pixar spending energy on sequels instead of thinking up new ideas and worlds, but I have to admit, I felt Toy Story 2 was as good (if not better) than the original. Only time will tell if all sequels will equal TS2.

theowne’s “Axiom”: Nice! Glad it was included.

Just curious… how did you arrange the forum talk? Was it skype?

miafka: Yes, we did use skype to record the forum talk

Hey! It’s Rachel, not Racheal. You should know that by now. ;-p :wink:

Thanks for your comments, miafka. And you’re welcome. Up Tempo is one of my favourite threads, and one of the reasons that makes this forum so special, because you signed up as a member to share your recording experiences. Yep, Thomas is getting onto releasing the show as MP3 format, or at least making it available as an alternative download for future episodes.

Technically, the forum talk, and, in fact, all of the discussions where at least 2 people were involved were done using Skype, with Call Graph used to record. Wonderful invention. I can’t imagine how we’d cheaply (because you can’t get cheaper than free!) have international conversations without Skype.

Thanks very much for taking the time to listen to it and give feedback. =)

I think it’s awesome the response to this podcast was so overwhelming, we actually managed to bring the server down! :smiley: Let’s do that again for the next ep, people! :smiley:

Thanks for the song name, Rachel!

Thanks for sharing with us the behind-the-scenes for Up’s music, miafka! You [spoil]certainly deserved thread of the month.[/spoil]

[spoil]With regards to the Art of Pixar Short Films book prize, I’ve e-mailed radiopixar @pixarplanet.com using my e-mail address thedriveintheatre89 @yahoo.com (I left a space so the link doesn’t show up above the spoiler tags), but have yet to receive a reply. Can anyone who has access to the account please acknowledge you’ve received my mail? :question: If not, I’ll send it out again. :slight_smile:[/spoil]

Hehe. Well, we’ve upgraded our bandwidth limit from 15GB to 100GB per month, so if we did manage to “bring the servers down” again that would be awesome. :smiley:

Enjoy the book, Andre! Thanks so much for your support. =)

You’re welcome Rachel, and uh… thanks! :smiley: I’m a Pixar fan, tuning in’s the least I could do.

I just want to say that when I first envisioned Radio Pixar, I never expected it to come as far as it has. The people involved, the organization of the show and the level of audience participation (even the awesome AAC encoding with chapters!) has truly come together and made Radio Pixar even better than I wanted it to be from day one. I want to thank rachelcakes1985, bawpcwapn, The Star Swordsman and all the others involved in ressurecting the show for their time effort and dedication to fullfilling the Radio Pixar dream. As a former podcaster I know that, podcasting is a continuously involved process, especially for a show like Radio Pixar so I wish the best of luck to our new hosts and I feel that from this point on the only direction our favorite podcast can go is, well, “Up”. (I had to do it…)

Keep up the wonderful work!
-AJ

Thank you for the kind words AJD08, they are very much appreciated.

I’d just like to point out that although the entire podcast is a massive show of team effort, it really wouldn’t be possible with out rachelcakes1985 and all the time she devoted into organising it all together. Thanks Rachel :slight_smile:

AJ, we thank you for your encouragement and appreciative words. None of this wouldn’t be possible without your help in starting up RP. We still miss ya.

Rachel has got to get the biggest thanks out of all of the RP staff. SHe is a director, editor, host and much more. Thanks a lot fo your contributions Rachel.

AJD08 - Nice to hear from you again! The Radio Pixar crew has been doing a fantastic job, haven’t they? You must be very proud. :slight_smile:

You’re most welcome! I look forward to the next episode. :wink:


I never really envisioned myself that Pixar Planet would grow to this extent. To be honest, it almost seems reminiscent of Pixar Animation Studios’ climb to admiration. I seriously wonder if this site will eventually become an affiliate of such a coveted company in the future…

– Mitch

Pixar Planet love-fest! :slight_smile:

Thanks a lot you guys. Working on each episode does take a lot of time and preparation, but with support from both the listeners as well as the rest of the Radio Pixar crew, it makes it worth it, and that encouragement that I’m on the right track spurs me to keep going and improving. Thanks again. <img src=“{SMILIES_PATH}/love2.gif” alt=“:loves:” title="In

Love" />

AJD08, thanks dude. I don’t believe we’ve ever spoken to each other before, since I became a member when you weren’t as active, but to get feedback from someone, much less the Director of the past era of Radio Pixar, really means a lot. I model the episodes on the past episodes, and in some ways, those episodes are far superior than ours (not that it’s a competition). But it’s that combination of merging what worked well in the past, with new ideas from the now is what will make Radio Pixar worth listening to. The Radio Pixar 2.0 team will try our best, and so will I.

Well, finally - over a span of 4 days - I have finished listening to the episode!

Very nicely done. :smiley:

Introduction: Welcome Brad! Congrats on being the new editor!

Trivia Question: Oh my gosh. This one is hard. It challenged me. :confused: My guess was a Monster Truck Rally

Pixar Planet News: Woot~ Facebook. Twitter is… bleh? :smiley:
Congrats on getting mentioned in New York Times, and yay for good reviews for UP!

I didn’t listen to the Round Table on the last episode so I kinda zoned out on this D:

Song Request: I caught myself singing along

Chelsea/Hog-Hug: Sign me up! Sounds like a great idea.

Birthdays: Happy Birthday! And congrats to [spoil]thedriveintheater[/spoil] for winning the book!

Trivia Answer: What? [spoil]Tri-County Bowling[/spoil] sounds like Monster Truck Rally :laughing:

Axiom by theowne: :open_mouth: Oh. Mai. Gosh. Sounded Amazing! It’s just such a beautiful song. longs for her Wall-E CD

Outro: Rachel, you sound soooo much more relaxed in this episode. =) Good job TSS and Thomas too.

I’m looking forward to the next episode!