I’ve noticed more established and “fancier” video and podcast channels like Hank Green and the Atlantic’s “The Most Interesting Thing in AI” create multicam podcast videos, even when they are interviewing their guests over a videoconference. I started using Descript.com to edit podcasts and videos in August of 2024, but this evening was the first time I used Descript’s AMAZING “automatic multicam” feature. WOW am I impressed!
Check out EdTech Situation Room Episode 383: Pacing the AI Frontier, either here on Substack or on YouTube. 33 seconds into the video, you’ll see what I’m talking about… I feel so fancy now!
In the past, we just published the combined / streamed version of our EdTech Situation Room conversations using Streamyard (yes that’s my affiliate / referral link, so please use it!) which places us side-by-side. That works and looks fine, but for multiple months I’ve enabled the “record local video” option… but never used it.
Enter Descript.com (yep, another referral link!) and “automatic multicam…”
Our 59 minute episode’s EDITED version now features 54 SCENES, which smoothly transition to each other and include fullscreen, higher resolution videos of us as we rant and pontificate about the past week’s technology news and its connection to schools and classrooms.
This is the detailed AI prompt I asked Underlord to create after tonight’s successful, interative chat creation session. In addition to creating the multi-cam edited video with minimum scene durations of 4 seconds and maximum duration of 60 seconds, the prompt and final video also include “lower third” graphics with our names, locations, and primary websites. I’ve licensed that AI prompt CC-BY, so please copy, remix and reuse it with attribution!
I want to note this video and podcast post-production method is NOT free: I currently pay $35 a month for the “Creator” plan on Descript.com, and pay $45 per month for the “Monthly Core plan” on Streamyard. This is not cheap, but I think it’s SO worth it as a content creator, storychaser and podcaster.
Have you tried creating a multicam video podcast with or without an AI tool like Descript? I’d love to hear about your experiences. This is just another example of how AI tools can give us “media creation superpowers,” and more ways to “show what we know with media!”
AI Attribution: While I certainly used AI tools to create the video podcast I highlighted in this article, I did NOT use any AI tools to draft, edit or write this! Learn more about my AI experiments on ai.wesfryer.com.