CHRISLEYDON.COM

People have often asked me “what makes a successful podcast?”. Why they’re asking me I have no idea. It could be to do with the little success that I’ve had with The Podzone, or even the soon-to-be hit The Glitch; either way it feels my ego and I’m often happy to answer the question.

I personally define a successful Podcast by the amount of listeners that it has. The next question, of course,  is how many listeners defines a successful podcast? I can answer that question incredibly easily. It only takes one listener to have a successful show. Not one hundred, not one thousand, just one; one listener who enjoys the show and keeps coming back for more.

A few of you may now think that I’m clinically insane and need to be sectioned under the Mental Health act, but let’s think about this. Why do we create content in the first place? Some do it for money, but the majority of us create content to be creative. We like to express ourselves and if other people enjoy it then that’s a bonus. This is why it only takes one listener or viewer to have a successful podcast. One person who enjoys your creativity is all we need to feel fantastic about what we do.

That’s the secret to making a successful podcast; what makes a good podcast is a completely different question altogether and one that will be answered in a future post.

Chris Leydon.

I love writing posts to my blog, I really do. Especially when I actually get a chance to sit down, lock myself away from the world and get on with it.

Over the past few months I’ve noticed that there are several breeds of blogger; those who blog about topics, those who blog for a living (and attempt to be journalists), and those who write about themselves. I seem to fall into the latter category, but then again what did you expect from a site called chrisleydon.com?

The last month has been very busy and productive for me. As you should be aware Keyone Productions has produced two videos for Bishops’ College in the past year; I received confirmation a few weeks ago that we’ve been commissioned to produce two/three further videos in the new academic year. This is fantastic news for a business as small as ours!

Whilst still on the topic of Keyone Productions, we’ve been approached by Mevio to continue to produce our video games show The Glitch. This time it would be in association with Mevio as part of their promotions campaign. If this goes ahead it would mean that Keyone Productions has two successful podcasts on the agreement, the other being The Podzone.

Moving onto the subject of Mevio and by UK default, BTPodShow, I’m pleased to announce that I’ve managed to gain an internship with them until September. I’m currently based in the UK, London, office for 30 hours a week. My roles involve, scouring the network for the best content we have, editing shows, monitoring stats, channel organising, spare hand and general bitch boy, or anything else they throw my way. I’m thoroughly enjoying it and will be rather sad when the time comes for me to leave. I’m proud and very glad that I’ve had the chance to be part of such a great team.

Chris Leydon.

I’m assuming that by now readers to my blog have realised that I take writing posts very casually and only do it ever so often; mainly when I have something to talk about. Nothing has changed, as one can clearly see.

Last time I updated, Keyone Productions had been commissioned to produce two short promotional films for Bishops’ College. The first of these promotional videos was shot last week; this was the Year 6 induction week project.

The aim for the Year 6 Induction video was to create a video that showcased some of the highlights of the week; this video was then going to be shown to the children’s parents and eventually end up on the school’s website as a promotional video. Originally there were going to be two videos, one which would have been shown to the parents and a more polished version for the website. Instead of making two mediocre videos, I concentrated all of my effort on producing one fantastic video; which turns out is what they really wanted all along.

I have more stuff to talk about this week, but let’s leak it out slowly but surely. In the meantime, I leave you with the Year 6 Induction video.

The song used is “Kill The Lights” by David Usher, which can be found on iTunes and on the PodSafe Music Network.

Chris Leydon.

It’s coming up to a month since I last wrote up a post and placed it here, but so much has happened in that time and I’m here to tell you about it now.

As you may recall from my previous post, myself and Keyone Productions, as a favour for my father, filmed a High School graduation video in Gloucester. The school was Bishops’ College and the shoot went fairly well, not the best work we’ve ever done, but it will suffice; because of the work that we did on the Graduation video, we’ve now been asked back and commissioned to shoot two promotional videos for the school. I suppose you could see the Graduation video as the trial period, the thirty days are over… do you want to purchase the full package?

The first video will be shot in the beginning of July and centres around a Year 6 induction course. It’s a three day shoot with, what should be, some very interesting material. The second video is due for production in the next academic year, starting in September, and shall be a promotional video focusing on a typical day for a class in the school. Basic stuff, but if done in the right way there should be a fantastic result.

Those are the two things that I shall talk about today, I shall save the other stories for another time.

Chris Leydon.

I’ve been quiet as of late, mainly because I’m doing very uninteresting things. I’m currently working on finishing off a Graduation video for my father, but that’s pretty much all of the possible excitement that I seem to have.

The previous statement, I suppose, could be called a lie because I’m also working on several other ideas and projects that I have. I say several, I actually mean three. One I’ve already discussed, but the other two not so much.

Keyone Productions is about to go under a rebrand; not an extreme one, we’re not doing a PodShow, but a reinvention. Before hand we’ve been all about having fun and making short lived projects. Whilst this is all well and good, it doesn’t pay the bills. As a business we’re starting to move towards short serial internet based content, in which advertising can be sold. We’re going to monetize off of the fantastic stuff that we create. I personally don’t believe in charging for internet content; one it’s not a profitable business venture and two, I personally don’t like paying for my entertainment.

With that in mind, myself and various others are finalising the details for two new Keyone ventures. Both of them will be online video shows, that will be offered through a podcasting medium. One will be made solely by Keyone Productions, whilst the other shall be a joint production with another creative digital media organisation. I can’t say more than that at this current moment in time, but all shall be revealed soon.

Chris Leydon.

So its been two weeks at least since I last made an appearance. Last time we had contact I was coming up with script ideas, wondering whether to sign the new BTPodShow contract and working on my final assignments.

Well I’m pleased to say that I did indeed sign that new BTPodShow contract, which means that The Podzone is guarenteed for at least another two years. I’ve also been working a bit more on script concepts and I’ve finished University for the year.

Finished, completely finished until September, you have no idea how good it feels to say that. Ahead of me I’ve got one long summer of work, making money and enjoying myself.

In the meantime however, I’ve discovered that my web design skills are so fantastic that the new Keyone Productions site, only works on about 90% of the worlds browsers. Yep, it doesn’t work with IE… oops. My day today will be spent correcting that mistake. I’ve started to learn CSS and I’m hoping to implement what I’ve learnt into the redesign.

Tomorrow, as a favour to my father, myself and Nick shall be headed to Bishops College (Gloucester) to film their Year 11 graduation. It should be fun as we’ll have a multicam set up and various other bits of over kill. We know that a job such as this doesn’t require all of the trims that we’re putting in to it; but I’ve got to do something to keep me amused until September.

Chris Leydon.

It’s over a year since I first signed my contract with BTPodShow / Mevio, consequently that first contract has terminated and there is a new one for me to sign. The question is then, why haven’t I picked up my pen, signed it and sent it off already? In all honesty I’m not too sure myself.

I really have enjoyed my first year working with BTPodShow to produce The Podzone, it was fun and I always had support for anything I did; however a year on I’m wondering if I want to sign the contract again. I can say that it’s not the EXACT same contact that I signed last year, it has updated T&Cs, but they aren’t the primary reason why I’m debating signing my life away.

The PodShow / Mevio contract in my eyes has always been a very sound and good contract to sign; it’s not that limiting and at the end of the day I can walk away still holding all of the rights to my programming. The agreement is all about the rights of transmission, I can’t think of the exact word right now (distribution).

Perhaps it’s time to move on. Mevio are having a change in direction, slightly and perhaps it is time for The Podzone to rest. I’m not at all too sure about all of this just yet. I need to talk to Nick Cooper but he’s not available for the next few days.

As you can tell this thing is really playing on my mind. Can I guarantee that The Podzone will still be here in 2 years time or even a years time? Probably not, and it would be wrong for me to do so; I want to move on, but on the other hand I still want to carry on with The Podzone and Mevio. It’s a tough call and one which I’m going to have to spend quite a bit of time thinking about.

Chris Leydon.

So the story that’s quite important for me today, as it affects me directly, is the news that PodShow (Podcasting pioneering company extraordinaire) is changing its name. What to? I hear you ask… MEVIO.

Yep, they’ve dropped the “Pod” from their name and the “Show” too, but that’s besides the point. There are rumours that MEVIO will be a video network, this has a slight truth to it. From what I can gather MEVIO will be more video orientated in nature but will still support and have audio shows.

This would be the point where I say that myself and The Podzone will still stick by MEVIO no matter what, and I’m sure I will, however I’ve just realised that my contract with PodShow UK expired 2 weeks ago. That’s a bit of a bummer, still here’s hoping that it gets renewed, I haven’t heard anything to say otherwise.

Chris Leydon.

Weekly posts it seems to be, at least that’s the feeling that I’m getting from the amount of posts on here.

Fairly busy week.My Internet & HTML Technology assignment deadline and exam were this week. the exam was incredibly easy, I scored 97% which let’s face it isn’t bad going really; the assignment as perhaps the trickier task of the two.

The assignment was to create a website based around the streaming technologies that the BBC use on their websites. I had to create the website from scratch using a WYSIWYG, if you know me, or have seen my work, you know that I’m fairly capable at this kind of thing. The hardest thing about this assignment was simply the content; the BBC don’t REALLY use that many different streaming technologies, at least not that many up to date ones. They still use Real Video and Windows Media for their news reports, as an example, instead of Flash.

In the end I used a theme that I created for v.4.0 of the Keyone Productions website and customised it to fit my needs. If you want to take a look at the finished site, head on over to www.chrisleydon.com/bbc - I’m quite happy with my work.

I have one more assignment and one more exam left before I finish Uni for the year, the exam is on the 28th of April and the assignment needs to be in by the 2nd of June. My final assignment is for Audio Processing; I have to create an original piece of music and then write a report on the process, pretty much the same thing as last time - apart from this time we’re using Reason instead of Cubase.

I’ve taken this weekend off from working; I know that this isn’t a good plan but I feel as though I deserve it. Next week I’ll be working on Reason and the technical report. If I have some spare time I might even pop around once again, write a post and give you an update.

Chris Leydon.

Well that was a fun weekend. I decided to take the weekend off and head back home; ’twas a nice and relaxing weekend, but not very productive. However, before I left for Worcester, I did launch the new Keyone site (v.4.1) I’ve had some good feedback from it, but make up your mind for yourself… www.keyoneproductions.co.uk

While the Keyone Productions site was down during the upgrade, I stuck up a test of the Keyone TV “Mogulus” channel. No idea if any of you have seen this service, but it is definitely worth a look at. Mogulus allows you to essentially create your own online streaming television channel, using content from YouTube or your own content which you upload. All, of course, for free - www.mogulus.com

This morning I received the marks and feedback for the Project Elements drama. In all they were very good; as a group we scored a 2-1 with a few pointers on how we could have improved the film. The plot was a little thin, but other than that it appeared to be alright.

No idea what’s wrong at the moment, but my typing and writing skills seem to be lacking today. As a result of this temporary lack of skills I shall bid you adieu.

Chris Leydon.