Podcast format — two options

You asked for two hosts at a desk, turned towards each other, talking through a topic with the lesson written on the board behind them. Here is what we can build, what each version looks like, and what each costs. Both clips below are real renders of the actual script for “Fixing a bad ratio”.

Option A — turned towards each other

What you get

Hosts stay turned to each other, as in your design.
Real hand gestures while speaking.
Clean speech and mouth movement.
Board writing appears and changes with what is being said.

$2.31 per minute · about $2.70 an episode

The board is ours, not part of the photograph: it is written live, so it changes line by line and can hold any formula, table or diagram from the lesson.

Option B — facing the camera

What you get

Both hosts face the viewer, seated side by side at the same desk.
Natural head movement, blinking and expression; hands mostly rest on the desk.
They can be shown turned towards each other only in still shots between lines.
Same board, same room, same voices.

$0.99 per minute · about $1.45 an episode

Why they face the camera

At this price the system straightens every head to face the lens. We tested it twice — once with the hosts photographed strongly turned, once only slightly turned — and both came out facing the camera. It is a property of the tool, not of the photograph.

Open point

On this option one of the two hosts shows an occasional distortion around the mouth. The other host is clean, and so is the teacher in the finished lesson video over 96 seconds on the same setup, so this is specific to that one host’s photograph. We have a replacement photograph ready and a re-test is inexpensive.

What we tested, and what happened

Attempt	Result
Hosts photographed turned towards each other, standard rate	Turned to face the camera
Hosts photographed only slightly turned, standard rate	Turned to face the camera again
Same line at the higher rate	Pose kept, hands gesture, speech clean
Placing the hosts back into the studio, with the board written on	Seamless — desk, mugs and laptops line up

Not yet tested: the second host on the higher rate. Everything shown for Option A comes from one host’s clip; we would confirm the other before committing to a full episode.

What is already working, either way

The studio, the desk and the board, with the two hosts placed into it convincingly.
Board content written live and changing with the script — the same system as the published lesson videos.
Both voices, and the script for this episode.
Delivery on the web player used for the lessons, including iPhone.

To move ahead we need one decision: Option A for the conversation you designed, or Option B for the lower rate with the hosts addressing the viewer.