#35 Ed Tracy: A Prelude to Starting Pixel Live 26 and other things

Ed Tracy, BAFTA winner, Emmy nominee and self-declared forever 32, is back on Starting Pixel for a short teaser ahead of Starting Pixel Live on the 14th of October at Rich Mix in Shoreditch. We start with an argument for calling them visualised podcasts rather than video podcasts, because the moment a show forgets it's audio first, it risks turning into really bad TV. Then there's a bit of ribbing about awards, ageing and two rambly middle-aged men.Ed explains Studio One, the browser-based creative studio he's building. It chains together the image, video, editing, sound, music and script AIs he was juggling as a filmmaker, so a whole team can log into one project, iterate and leave notes. That leads into how much MCP servers and vibe coding have changed what one person can build. Highlights include a plug-in that turned out to be easy to make and a native VeePod drop-down menu that Claude wrote straight into an Unreal Engine project. We also ask whether anyone actually wants another dashboard, or just a pair of scissors that cuts.Then we get to virtual production. Ed's reasoning is simple: anything made with pure AI can be ripped off, so he wants to make work that's harder to copy. He walks through the workflow he's been testing with Ben Saffer, which involves shooting performers in a flatly lit grey box with physical set pieces and proper camera tracking, then sending that footage through Seedance. He also covers the support from CoStar and the tests at Royal Holloway. It's a taster of what he'll show in the room in London.Chapters0:00 Visualised podcasts, not video podcasts4:26 Ed returns, and how we met6:07 Starting Pixel Live and last year's talk7:49 What is Studio One?10:19 Why podcast editing got so hard11:16 MCP servers and vibe-coded plugins12:50 Claude builds a VeePod menu in Unreal Engine14:53 Dashboards vs a pair of scissors17:00 AI for virtual production18:53 Grey box, camera tracking and Seedance22:02 CoStar, Royal Holloway and the Live dateHosted by The Dean Street Podcast StudioBecome a member of Starting Pixel, receive our exclusive weekly e-bulletin, join our WhatsApp chatrooms, and receive early access to live show tickets. Head to startingpixel.com to sign up.✅ Subscribe: @StartingPixel🎙️ Podcast playlist: The Starting Pixel Podcast📱 Follow on socials: Instagram / TikTok / Bluesky @starting_pixel