If you hear something you like on Spark, in many cases, you can hear more at this site. Whenever possible, we post full, uncut interviews to the blog and enhanced podcast. At last count, there were about 16 hours of raw tape posted. Part of the reason we do this is because Spark is so short (27 minutes weekly), and we have so many great guests with so many interesting things to say. Most guests give their permission, so why not post the full interviews?
Along the same lines, I was happy to learn that the makers of Steal This Film II have started Steal This Footage, an archive of full interviews from the documentary (including previous Spark guests Howard Rheingold and Rick Prelinger):
This archive is intended to fulfill three objectives. We want to allow those interviewed the time to elaborate their perspectives in more detail, and to return the segments we selected to the context from which they emanated. We hope that these materials can be useful to those in search of greater detail.
Finally, in the spirit of cooperation and sharing, and by agreement with our interviewees, we are making this footage available to others who want to make films on this subject, and who may not have the resources to travel to and meet these exceptional individuals.
Holmes at the Miro blog says these filmmakers are "pushing forward on [a] frontier that will be … hugely important to documentary film."
What do you think? What other types of media could benefit by posting extended, in-depth content online?
I was thinking that it’s a shame that you don’t offer the extended interviews an automatically accessible form.
I listen to Spark exclusively in podcast form via iTunes and one of the things I love about other podcasts is their non-standard length, hosts are free to fully explore a topic without being constrained by time limits.
With that in mind, it would be nice to get an extended version of Spark via iTunes with the full interviews in place of the shorter ones. What do you think?
That’s an interesting idea, Eric. We do have a podcast version that includes the uncut interviews, but not one that has longer form interviews integrated into the show as a whole.
It comes down to resources, because you’re right, it would be a nice thing to be able to offer our podcast listeners. It’s an example of what you can do once the ‘scarcity’ factor of needing broadcast air time is eliminated.
cheers, ny
I like the current format. The show is both an audio blog and a radio show, and I like to know what the "general public" is hearing. It might be because on of my previous jobs was as a system administrator for a media monitoring service.
I find I read mainstream media most often to know what the mainstream is reading, not for actually learning something new that I didn't already read/hear elsewhere.
With Spark I get both in a great package!
The only thing I would ever want to add is to see more of the process. I sometimes head over to <a href="http://twitlive.tv/” target=”_blank”>http://twitlive.tv/to watch/listen to Leo recording one of their shows. Sometimes I show up at the beginning of the taping and at the end to hear the before-and-after conversation that doesn't make it into the show.
I kind of like what Eric is saying. My only complaint about Spark is that it is too short and not frequent enough (but I understand the reasons for this).
The enhanced feed helps, but often I find that I either listen to the interview in advance of the podcast (and then the podcast itself feels a little repetitive because I have already heard much of the content), or I listen to the interview after the podcast (but I already have the gist of the interview).
The best of both worlds (in my opinion, at least) would be one spark feed with the condensed interviews (as it is now), and the enhanced feed would be just like the normal version, except the interviews can be full-length. Of course, you could throw in any other little extras that may have been left on the cutting room floor, so to speak.
All great food for thought, thanks. We have thought about the idea of recording video of more of the interviews.
As you can no doubt tell, the show isn’t live, but there are usually fun aspects of the recording process that end up on the cutting room floor.
I like to use spoken word tracks within my musical compositions. I would like to find more spoken word tracks about topics of open source, creative commons, sharing economy, compassion, animal adoption, poetry and other topics of interest to me. All kinds of content benefit listener, creator, and remixer through this kind of sharing.