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Metacinema movie lovers take to the recording booth

Brennen Kauffman and Emma Vogelmeier sit at the round table in Williams Hall's main recording room. They're here to record their weekly podcast: "Man with a Movie." This week, they're discussing "Monty Python and the Holy Grail."

They review the general outline for their discussion, and then Brennen gets ready to start the recording. He counts them in:

"Three...Two...One..."

Brennen and Emma started their podcast in the fall of 2017. Its tagline is "A show about movies about movies." They discuss movies that fall under the title of "metacinema," focusing on the development of the genre throughout past decades.

Originally, the two didn't know what the podcast was going to be about. They settled on metacinema after Brennen suggested the idea.

"We both had film knowledge," Emma said.

"I wanted to try to do a podcast before I left college," Brennen added."I enjoy listening to podcasts. I wanted to know what it's like on the other side."

Brennen enjoys making the podcast because it shows his commitment and creativity.

"And if we can introduce people to films, that's a bonus too," he said.

"It's really new to me, so it forces me to think about processing films in a new way," Emma said. "It's independent and I like that a lot."

They started recording episodes in November and put out their first episode, which discussed the film "Sherlock Jr.," at the beginning of February. Their most recent episode, released on February 23, examines "Sunset Boulevard."

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Brennen and Emma try to record an episode at least once a week.

Recording a podcast takes a lot of time and research. Before every recording, the two watch the chosen movie again, even if they've seen it a million times. They look up facts, trivia and articles about different aspects of the movie. The research ranges from casting to budget, history to modes of cinema.

The biggest struggle Brennen and Emma have is time. It's hard to find times that they can both record, which gets even more complicated when they bring a guest on the show. They also have to find time to watch the movie, do the research and listen to all of their recorded audio to edit it and add music.

Emma also struggles with with the actual recording of the show.

"I get really nervous," said Emma. "I have really bad anxiety. I get super, super nervous when we're talking, and sometimes, I blank."

Even though Brennen will be graduating in May, Emma is interested in continuing a podcast project.

"I like the process of doing a podcast," Emma said. "I think that it'd be interesting to try a different topic."

After about an hour, as their recording comes to a close, Brennen makes sure to mention the people who helped make their music and their logo and give a preview of the next episode. Then it's time to say farewell.

"Until [next week], thanks for listening, and goodbye," Brennen said.

grimmcl@miamioh.edu

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