Hello, everyone! Shane here!

I know it’s been quite a while since our last episode, but with the combination of life hitting Ken and I relatively hard, the holidays, AND Steven Universe going on a long hiatus, we haven’t been able to produce episodes for the past few months. On top of that, producing episodes is a bit more difficult now that Ken and I no longer live in the same building. We weren’t sure if we were going to continue making episodes after the movie ended, since we didn’t know what the Crewniverse had planned. Now that several episodes of Future has been released, though… we’re debating getting back into weekly updates.

Now, I know I’ve said this before, but editing a 1-2 hour long podcast weekly is NOT a small feat, especially for a group of two people. Allow me to give a very brief explanation behind what goes behind making just one of these GemTalk episodes:

1) We watch the episode once for enjoyment, at this point we aren’t thinking about the show as theorists/podcasters, but rather as fans. We don’t put on our super-fanboy glasses until step 2. (15 min.)

2) We separately watch the episode critically. After we let the episode roll around in our heads for about a day, we sit down with the episode and watch it with an intense level of scrutiny, jotting down nearly everything that happens in the episode worth mentioning. This can take anywhere from half an hour to an hour, depending on how lore-heavy the episode is. (30-60 min.)

3) We research anything that could possibly be a clue, hint, reference, etc. This involves a great deal of internet sleuthing to uncover things we might not have known, such as references to places, events, subjects, or pretty much anything that we need more data on to make an informed commentary. This is one of my favorite parts, as I’ve learned a great deal about a broad list of subjects from doing research for a podcast about a cartoon. However, this is also one of the longest portions of the process. We do our absolute best to provide ONLY information that has been provided by several sources or thoroughly verified, while simultaneously keeping the show as fair and honest as possible. While we obviously have a lot of fun with what we do, we strive to maintain a level of honesty, kindness, and integrity in everything we produce. (60-120 min.)

4) The theory crafting section comes next, where Ken and I sit down and discuss how the recent information we’ve received could be connected to past events. Sometimes we go back and watch old episodes, or review old theories, or even plan out extensive hypothetical situations to see how well they hold up to scrutiny. Sometimes we let our minds go wild and come up with some pretty crazy theories, but we do our best to focus most often on where we think the show “will” go. Since most of this section is open conversation, plotting, reviewing, and theorizing, it happens sporadically over the next day or so. (120 min. - 180 min.)

5) Planning out the show comes next. It might be somewhat surprising to hear this, but our shows do have a fairly loose script. We’ve tried going nearly completely off the cuff before, and it just ends up as a rambling mess. To do this, we sit down with our separate set of notes, compare what we both feel is important to discuss, and determine the order in which we should talk about each topic. This is done to ensure that the flow of our conversation feels natural while running parallel to what is happening in the show. This also usually serves as a “mock run” of the episode, giving us the opportunity to practice how we’ll approach each topic and loosen up the ol’ lips. For me, it also means I’m chugging the last of my coffee before we go on! (60 min.)

6) Recording! This step doesn’t require a great deal of explaining, aside from some small “behind the scenes” facts you might not know. For example, there are several moments where one of us will trip over our lines and “bluh bluh flibberty gibberty” for a few seconds, which obviously gets cut. Also, one of us will occasionally say something very wrong (intentionally or otherwise), which leads to a fit of laughter, which also must be cut. Very rarely we’ll think of something right in the middle of an episode and literally stop what we’re doing to do research just to make sure we’re right. Either way, this usually ends up with nearly twice as much content as actually gets posted. (120 min.)

7) EDITING. The bane of my existence. The curse that accompanies my love of podcasting. This is where I make a massive cup of coffee, burn a pumpkin spice candle, get super comfy in my blanket, and sit at my computer for half a day. The process starts with taking a raw 2+ hour clip, canceling out the noise, adjusting the volume levels, editing out any unexpected background noise, cutting out any mistakes, ensuring that the audio around the cut sounds natural, fixing mic peaks (usually from laughing), removing “filler words” (Hmm, Ummm, Uhh, etc.), adding the intro and outro music, saving, and exporting. This whole process is pretty much the rest of my day once I get home from my day job. (240-360 min.)

8) Posting and advertising is the final step. We’ve pretty much gotten this down to a science at this point, so it takes a lot less time and effort than it used to. We upload the episode to Soundcloud, which beams it out to other podcasting websites, and then post it out on our social media pages. We also try (sometimes better than others) to create other fan content to keep our social media pages as more than just another reservoir of episodes. (30 min.)

If you add all of that up, it comes out to around 13-14 hours of work a week to generate a 1-2 hour podcast. That means GemTalk is practically a part-time job for each of us, on top of our full-time jobs. However, SU has been a wonderful part of my life that has allowed me to create something with my best friend. The time I spend working on the show is a labor of love, and just hearing that people enjoy listening to us ramble about the show for hours at a time means the world to me. Making GemTalk also provided Ken and I with the opportunity to reach out to the community during conventions and provide help in areas like writing, critical thinking, and (perhaps unexpectedly) cooking. It’s been a wonderful ride so far, and we wanted to reach out to everyone and let them know that it’s not over just yet.

As stated when I began this (now much longer than anticipated) post, we’re currently holding discussions as to whether or not we should continue making episodes about Steven Universe Future. We’re not opposed to it, so it’s likely we will. Regardless of what we decide, however, please be aware that there will be something to look forward to! We can’t promise exactly when, but it’s likely to be within the next few weeks. I’ll do my best until then to try to keep everyone posted.

As always, love ya’ll and thanks for reading/listening!

- Shane <3