The Neon Hum Media Editors’ Bootcamp | Sony Music Entertainment

The Neon Hum Media Editors’ Bootcamp is for people who have historically been underrepresented as story editors: Black and Indigenous storytellers and other people of color, the LGTBQ+ community, Latinx folk and people with disabilities. 

The audio industry needs you. 

Applicants may be: talented audio producers with 2-5 years under their belt who want to help others shape limited run podcasts and podcast episodes, mid-career audio persons looking for the next big step or print editors who are making the big leap to audio and know structure and story.

Course Details 

Six participants will meet online for two classes a week. Sessions will occur on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 6-8:30pm ET over Zoom. The idea is to give people who have day jobs an opportunity to participate and the weekend to do homework.

Participants will need to have a computer and steady Wi-Fi. Participants need to commit to attending all sessions, barring emergencies, and to giving their all to homework. It might take only 6 hours but likely will take up to 10 hours each assignment. In other words, you can’t do it all in one look.

Catherine Saint Louis, Executive Editor at Neon Hum Media, and some of the industry’s most accomplished editors will be teaching the course!

Each week, participants will have editing homework between classes. In addition, each week, a different teacher will co-teach and give students feedback on their editing. Homework is assigned on Thursday night and due Monday night ahead of Tuesday’s class. No two story editors are the same, so you will learn different editor’s styles and best practices. The goal is to learn by doing and participants are expected to participate in class discussions and assignments.

Participants will get hands-on learning designed to prepare them to take on editing jobs. You will learn:

• How to edit actual scripts for structure and clarity
• How to give constructive feedback that will motivate writers
• How to make an outline for a limited-run podcast series
• How to run a table read and triage comments from multiple folks so that your writer doesn’t get overwhelmed
• What to listen for in a mix and what kind of notes to give at that stage of the process

At the end of Bootcamp, one Bootcamp graduate will be offered a freelance editing gig.

Several different times during the Bootcamp, there will be office hours for participants to sign up for one-on-one sessions with Catherine Saint Louis to talk about their professional goals.

Expectations

There is no tuition. Funding is made possible by Sony Music Group’s fund to support social justice and anti-racist initiatives and by Neon Hum Media. 

Anyone who makes it to the final round of the application process will need to submit a professional reference and sign a contract committing to attending all classes and completing all homework. Bootcamp is a great opportunity, and we want people who have the time and space to work hard to apply.

Why now? 

As the podcasting industry has grown, there is more and more of a need for editors who know how to improve stories, so they have unforgettable characters, streamlined plots, and surprising twists that keep people listening. 

The audio industry doesn’t have enough diversity, even more so when it comes to story editors. Neon Hum Media started this Bootcamp to get underrepresented folks into the room where it happens. Story editors not only decide what stories to pursue but how to tell them once they are greenlit. You can have a big impact. You can be a leader.

With the rise of narrative podcasts, editors are in demand. But there isn’t a path for people who want to become editors to get the skills they need to break into the industry. Our hope is that this Editors’ Bootcamp will help fix that.