Since we met up at NAB in April, Kes Akalaonu and I have been working on developing a podcast, which was unleashed upon the world this weekend. The Track Matte Moment is a podcast filled with an honest conversation about making mistakes, straight from editors and visual effects artists.

You can find episode 1 in which editor Joel Yeaton talks to us about the trials of jumping into a new NLE and dealing with DSLR footage on our tumblr page. We’re still working out the kinks, so expect things to slowly improve in terms of quality and delivery methods.

What’s a Track Matte Moment? It’s that moment when you realize your workflow sucks. That instance when you look at your comp and realize you went about it all wrong. The epiphany when you realize you should have said something different in a production meeting. A Track Matte Moment is that moment of post-project regret when it hits you that you could have done something faster, better, more efficiently, or with less stress.

The name comes from a tweet from Kes a few months ago, where he realized he could have completely enhanced his project if he had just used a track matte from the beginning. I thought it was an awesome concept to apply to all aspects of post, and here we are.

A Track Matte Moment isn’t necessarily a failure – yours could come as you complete a successful project and take a step back, look at it, and think to yourself “It would have been better if I had done this.” It’s all about growth in your craft.As we develop our first Moments, we’re welcoming feedback to help develop this series into one you want to listen to! We want to keep them short, fun, and reflective. Our hope is to have a library where people of all experience levels can listen to editors talk openly about issues or mistakes, so that they may be educated and entertained.

And guests get the opportunity to use The Track Matte Moment as a confessional, to atone for their post sins.

I hope you’ll give us a listen, and perhaps volunteer to be a guest!