Video podcast production

The Human Show: a pop-up podcast set in a working office

The Human Show is a long-form science podcast about the future of humanity, with physicists, an astronomer, brain scientists, a mathematician and an economist. Video Department (VIDEO DEPT.) designed the set, lit it, recorded the sound, directed and filmed the episodes on several cameras, and edited them. The budget was small and the recordings took place in the client's own office, so the set went up before every recording and came down after it.

Video Department · Selected work

Three cameras on one conversation: the wide, the host and the guest. A silent clip from a February 2022 episode.

Client: The Human Show, a science podcast on YouTube
Service: Video podcast production
Made by: VIDEO DEPT.: set design, lighting, sound, directing, filming and editing
Episodes: 13, published January 2021 to June 2022, each one to two hours long
Audience: About 2.6 million views on YouTube; the most-watched episode passed 1 million (October 2026)

A small budget and a room people work in

There was no studio and the budget was small. The episodes were recorded in the client's office, a room people worked in every day, and not much in it could be changed.

So VIDEO DEPT. made the studio something that could come and go. Before each recording the team set up the lights, cameras and microphones, and after it everything was broken down so people could work there the next day. The next time, it all went back up looking the same.

What VIDEO DEPT. did

Designed the set. Planned what each camera sees: the table, the chairs, the microphones and the brick wall behind the guests, with the same look from one episode to the next.
Lit it for video. Soft light on the faces and colored light on the walls behind them, which turned an ordinary office into the show's purple look.
Recorded the sound. A microphone on an arm for each person and headphones for the host and the guest.
Directed and filmed. A wide of the table and a close-up of each person, so a long conversation can cut from face to face without a jump.
Edited every episode. Cut each one- to two-hour conversation from the cameras, with on-screen graphics where a guest explains something visual.

The wide camera: the host and the guest at a long table under purple light, with microphones on arms — The wide

The host's close-up: a man in a red shirt and headphones listening at the table — The host

The guest's close-up: a physicist in headphones explaining something with both hands raised — The guest

Same set, every episode

Thirteen episodes over a year and a half, each on a set that had been packed away and put back up. The guests changed; the look stayed.

A guest in a dark shirt explaining at the table, January 2021 — January 2021

A guest in a suit and red tie speaking at the table, April 2021 — April 2021

An older guest in a jacket smiling at the table, May 2021 — May 2021

A guest in a checked shirt speaking into the microphone, June 2022 — June 2022

Recording in an office with no spare room? VIDEO DEPT. can set up a podcast set on each recording day and pack it away after, as on The Human Show, or build a permanent studio if you have the space. Every setup is quoted per project. See podcast studio setup.

Planning a video podcast?

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