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[Music]
hello and welcome to this special
behind-the-scenes look at the Magnus
archives
I’m your host an elite gamer and with me
I have it Sammy
Johnny I’m Laurie and I produce the
Magnus archives
Alex I play Martin and direct and help
on production
I’m Elizabeth Moffatt and I work on the
vocal cuts for Magnus does the hard work
[Laughter]
it’s great I love having a conversation
the other person just can’t interact at
all that doesn’t surprise me you’re a
writer of course you do well today we’re
going to look at what I think is safe to
say the most challenging episode of
season 4 episode 1 5/8 panopticon get
away from my secrets we’re not gonna be
telling any everything went fine stop
asking let’s delve a little bit deeper
into that shall we
who’s wrote some words I don’t know what
the big deal is cool let’s start with
you then Johnny on the writing side um
what were you hoping to achieve with
this episode the tooth aspects of it I
think were probably
revelation and resolution because we
knew what was going down in season 5 and
we knew that 159 was going to be the
emotional climax of one very important
storyline and 160 was going to be the
start of the final phase one five eight
was very much our last chance to get all
the other all the sort of the disparate
strands saying put every single
character in the entire series into a
single episode yeah it was our last
chance to take all those different
storylines and put them get all the
pieces in place for season five in some
cases tying them off nicely like with
Gertrude or with Peter in other cases
getting them in a position so that when
we go into season five we can do all
sorts of interesting things with them I
had a writing teacher once and called it
which is a thing from there as well I
readying positions so it’s like if
you’re gonna do a multi-season thing you
need to make sure that everyone is in
ready positions for next season yes
was getting everyone in ready positions
getting some of them dead dead is a
ready position ready for position for
other people to be sad so that leads me
on to the question at what point did you
realize that it was going to involve so
many characters I mean pretty much from
the off to be honest like when we were
sitting down and planning out season 4
we did mark 1 5 8 as the episode that
was going to cause us problems I think
some of the problems that ended up
causing us were not necessarily the
exact ones we’d anticipated some of them
were unpredictable yeah but we certainly
knew that we knew that it was going to
be a big complicated episode with a lot
of different scenes and a lot of
different characters and interactions to
it well it’s because as well thanks to
Laurie we have a big shiny like
spreadsheet which changes color and one
of the colors it can go is a nice big
bright red when there’s too many too
many people dispensed it’s all red yeah
there are all the colors they’ve never
come up no it’s different shades of red
I can’t take credit for that spreadsheet
that was yours wasn’t it it changed long
I built at the rudimentary little wagon
and then you turn into a Ford shock
horror Alex and spreadsheets spreadsheet
soft most but not all problems there is
the problem for too many spreadsheets in
my experience spreadsheets highlight the
problems on the writing side how long
did it take you to write mag 1 5 8 that
is a good question and kind of a
difficult one because the scenes got
written at different points both because
of recording considerations and because
of some of them were resolutions to
different storylines and so got written
sort of concurrent to those storylines
like I think the I think the Gertrude
Elias one was actually written a good
few months before a lot of the other
scenes and there was a lot of the Peter
Martin scenes is one five eight the one
where we had to do a last-minute rewrite
due to a recording breaking the had fail
I think yes yes I think it is yes he
rewrites a special and there was also
there was some rewriting when we
realized that Ben and Alistair won’t go
to be a record together yeah yeah that
was that led to quite a few quite
significant script revisions yeah we’re
gonna come to that question absolutely
writing writing dialogue that can be
recorded in isolation it can be done and
you can get good dialogue but it it’s
something you need to be aware of when
you’re writing the lines because you
don’t have you don’t have a lot of
overlap you don’t have a lot of like
direct back-and-forth
moving on to once you’ve finished the
script will move to script editing Alec
sir
when Johnny passed you the script what
was your first reaction he loved it that
is a very strong word loved it and it
was like Johnny you’ve done it again so
we have a couple of rules we should do
with maximum number of people and a
thing we accepted that this was gonna be
a big one I cried a little bit
we Roy when I saw how many scenes it was
because there’s one thing to bear in
mind on the production side which is
worth knowing which is this is gonna
sound really weird to bear with me more
scenes even if it’s with the same number
of people is worse than this than less
scenes with the same or even less people
and what it comes down to is if you have
multiple scenes you have to do the audio
equivalent of an establishing shot which
is where like people know from TV so
you’ve got like your big you start with
the exterior big spooky house exterior
cut to interior and I’ve assembled all
of the suspects here Bubba lights and
it’s establishing shot so the people
know what they’re looking at before it
starts you have to do that with audio as
well but what that means is if you’ve
got ten scenes you have to do
establishing shots and you have to make
sure that everything is distinct in pace
and in soundscape and in tempo and so on
so that when you are bouncing them
between those scenes people know where
they are that I wasn’t ready for I was
ready for there to be lots of people I
think at some point I must have flown
under my radar on Owen
where we we started the series with an
average of two and then we hit ten on
that one and that one caught me by
surprise we expect I was expecting like
maybe six you know I was like that’s
manageable tens a lot terms of loss like
that threw me we had close to 10 for the
unknowing that’s fair but I use a few
tricks and sheets in the amenities there
leads me into like how do you go about
breaking it up for recording something
that is as large as that that’s probably
worth handing over to you LOI and so far
as I think for15 a you broke it up more
than anyone just because you were
handling the logistics at that point
well I guess it’s breaking up by person
I mean ideally you want people to travel
in the minimum number of times and you
want everyone in the room at the same
time which can’t always happen as I
discovered on one five eight I mean I
don’t know that I did do much breaking
down because I
Alex and Joanie had produced this you
know a spreadsheet that I work from
essentially which is breaking down all
the scenes so I just saw right there are
ten scenes there are ten people some
people are in scenes with different
people so they need to be in the room at
the same time that’s a bit of a
nightmare
yeah I don’t know I think with this with
the spreadsheet for instance how it
works is you you take an episode and we
split it into scenes even if it’s not
like a clear transition between them and
so like Elizabeth you’ll you’ll do this
all the time where it’s like we’ll have
statement and then the post statement is
a separate see ya in inverted commas but
for that one we just record it together
there’s no reason to separate now where
is four one five eight and four anything
that’s got a huge number you end up
having to go scene by scene and you also
can go by version and scene so you can
have like scene one which has three
people in it now let’s say that those
three people can’t be in the same room
so you’ll have seen one and then you’ll
have version one which is with this
person version two which might be with
these two people and version 3 which is
this person so you can see one version
one two three then you have takes within
versions so you have seen one version to
take to scene
version three take two and then you can
find versions and you pick the best take
from each version you combine the
versions and then you have a scene and
then you can like the scenes in two
other scenes you have an episode sorry I
wasn’t listening could you say that
again the vocal clapperboard basically
honestly yeah and people laughed when
Lydia playing Melanie did the clap when
she was gonna do a recording and so on
that’s what we’d literally do like we
you literally do markers on tapes and so
on but I think Elizabeth would agree
that the process of combining all of
those is trivial no time investment
whatsoever and is is almost automated by
this point really well I mean for
episode 1 5 8 it ended up being 4 hours
and 8 minutes of recording recording
sessions so those were the same scene
but you had one like not Sasha I think
was yeah she was yeah and then obviously
we had been recorded in isolation and
all of those combined so it’s only and
it was like yeah 4 hours because I just
did a quick check and then of course
you’re like well for those 4 hours 8
minutes you’ve also got at least two
people in each scene in each record so
there’s probably like maybe it live in
12 hours worth of actual yeah yeah I did
prepare myself an hour episode in mind
as well just because from production
experience and other stuff this is gonna
sound peculiar like for anyone who’s
like doing this professionally they’re
gonna go that’s actually a decent like
ratio of raw to thingy but what it is is
the reason that we as a company function
is that we’ve paired processes down as
much as we can and we keep shaving and
trying to make it more efficient so
bizarrely for like let’s say for a radio
play or if you were doing TV for
instance that not maybe not live
broadcast but you know I’m talking about
like the ratio that’s not like if you’re
doing one to four I think and film yeah
consider pretty good yes
film film I think last time I checked a
ver ajiz at one to ten yeah once a four
is like yeah you’re doing a good job
you’re a good director if you’re
managing one to four this is
significantly higher than ours but it’s
also worth bearing in mind this is all
your only
we have like 140 episodes under the belt
in terms of infrastructure so yeah going
up to that that’s what a factor of maybe
factor of 10 higher than we would
normally have relative to the it’s hard
to say I mean I guess the average
episode where it was like just a Johnny
episode would be maybe 40 minutes worth
of recording yeah statements like the
statements you get maybe 10 minutes more
than you actually get because it’s
generally one storytelling take with
sections repeated if I’ve flogged up a
word or that sort of thing I think most
dialogue scenes we generally do maybe
have three four takes if we’re
struggling yes fair so yeah as a rule
Magnus is actually bizarrely
like surprisingly efficient the wastage
isn’t that high book and I mean
obviously that time includes you guys
chatting in the start
you never arrange multiple shows record
in the same day yes it seems better on
paper but it isn’t it just isn’t the
doorbell today doesn’t mean you get
quite happily nice little outtakes I
have like a small collection of just
doorbell noises you would be surprised
what I’ve stored like a folder like I
might litter for me I’m happy to let it
be known to the public there is a breath
library there’s been building we have a
breast library fer what’s happening well
this person’s in the scene but they’re
not speaking but we need them to feel in
the scene we’ll just use some of Johnny
breath seven genuinely we do have like
stock breath just built up organically
that’s fairly natural because room tone
is something that is very consistently
needed and used in audio and video
productions which is why it’s a benefit
so we actually record in our unusual
room which is normally when you’re
calling vocal work you don’t need this
extreme like in terms of soundproofing
and baffling and so on because you end
up in something called like a null space
or like a like dead space I’ll be honest
I haven’t been in that many recording
studios that have as many told iron
blips headed into the wall helps with
the resonance pain and if you’re a
resonance specifically sure but so if
you’re doing like corporate voiceovers
yeah you’ll be in an old room you know
like I come to Canada we’ve got bears
but like you put that in an old room but
when you’re recording my audio drama in
scenes it normally needs to sound like
it’s in a room shocker so as a result
you just use standard soundproofing
which is a little bit whereas we’ve
built this to be as dead as it can be
because we’re bouncing around between
locations and stuff but it doesn’t mean
that we had add artificial room tone
plus he used to have mic as a character
oh yes I see boys sandbags are a valid
strategy to deal with mic much like an
enormous flood a sandbag is a good way
to deal with that how do you apply a
sandbag to deal with mine hold it it
absorbs the chest resonance so yeah
there’s a reason that when we were
recording off single mic and stuff you
used to stand at the back of the single
file so that everywhere all the fleshy
meat sacks could absorb those you then
it was me was that this is like in the
early days where we had to do a finale
with multiple people like season 1 yeah
it was you than me then eve met Nobby it
was season 2 we were in the disco flat
right don’t be just before brutal found
them yes it sounds a brutal murder it
was the era of my mother to sit on a
chair in a corridor under so let’s let’s
run through the list then just I really
going completely off piste here but you
know it’s what I do
don’t worry and so we have set up one a
clothes of the earth a clothes horse
with some blankets on the sofa in the
flat that I was a lodger
asbestos flap and no no way pre asbestos
so this is close yet in James Russell
yes he let me start rusty cool gaming in
there and the first episodes of mags
were recorded there yes I’d forgotten
that
from there we migrated to in asbestos
which was so far yeah in a special which
was really weird because it was
literally one minutes walk away from
where I had been living a year before
but we thought we’d make wait I’m sorry
mister yeah then asbestos gate happened
where everything that I owned was
destroyed so after the chaos we bounced
to an old place called Twickenham I mean
now I can say I’m not by now talking
Road and which was sort of near but not
the same place so then we were recording
there where I literally bought furniture
specifically because it was more useful
to record with and that point that was
where we piled what five duvets on
Lottie that was where she could scream
at midnight that’s where we did
screaming until 4:00 a.m. and none of
the neighbors they heard they just
didn’t care then after that one we
leased London yep then after that one we
had to bounce - that’s disco corridor
yeah disco corridor cause Martin or head
of tech we had we found a corridor that
he had in his flat I was like yeah I can
make this work was nice a 13th floor and
so upon the 13th floor which is away
from tough traffic nice although wind
big problem Martin thought would be
hilarious if you replace the light bulb
where we were recording with a disco
light bulb so if you turn the light on
while you’re recording it was full like
that that’s like quiet it just sort of
slowly sadly rotated it was a good disco
ball lovely
then we migrated from disco corridor to
here it was a free studio here oh when
you just pinned a bunch of people the
bunch of sleeping bags to a wall my
father just took such a leap of faith he
turned up when he was it was still
sleeping by God it wasn’t even corridor
where like your mom was like I
understand what’s happening here that’s
fine this is a temporary we were as your
dad was like so this is your permanent
set I was like yeah
[Laughter]
let’s bring this back to Dayton specific
um Laurie when Alex told you what the
episode was going to require what were
your thoughts well I don’t remember Alex
telling me I just remember looking at
the spreadsheet and going oh oh oh oh
there are ten scenes and ten people who
all live scattered across the country
everyone’s in London it’s that episode
happens to have all of the most
far-flung people all in the same episode
yes a cambridge Ian’s down from Brighton
or that isn’t that big oh yeah we’ve got
that was I forget where but it was away
at that point in reading young mum oh
yeah no and you know what else but the
big thing for me so I had oh nice been
producing Magnus for I think three
months I cannot imagine how dreadful
that was usually made to cover the
previous producer because I will say
yeah that was a story Sylvester who did
a fantastic job and she basically left
to pursue other projects more power to
her and and it was hilarious because I
know for a fact that story was like
we’ve got this it’s all gonna be fine
and then I was like I’m gonna have to
move on which one it was like story said
that we have this little did I think I
should probably make sure that that is
passed to low really in some way so I
need to put this in the in the on set
the record straight story was wonderful
and all of the reasons for any
difficulty transfer wasn’t me this was
all me I don’t think it was there was a
bit of a gap between her leaving and me
starting as well I think yeah cuz that’s
that’s my choices yeah I have to produce
it for a while yeah and that’s one
problem stuff because you have so much
on right I remember there was a phone
call I don’t remember why I was in Seven
Dials at the time I was literally
sitting on the little in the roundabout
chatting and this was the conversation
where we were like okay well let’s we’ll
have to do a bunch of it like recording
separately like this is a this is a
yeah this was the conversation was that
okay well for this episode we’re
suspending our policy of always tried to
have people in the same room and you
know it was it was a lovely conversation
you’re like no I have had a little cry
the thing that really puts panic well
there were two things I put a big
spanner in the works that I did not
foresee was Edinburgh Fringe I looked at
this and we according to our another
spreadsheet we needed to have the
recording done by mid September and this
was July at the time so I was emailing
people hey can you come in we’ve got
some scenes here lovely and of course so
many of the guests were in Edinburgh so
that took all of August out says like
okay that’s fine we didn’t do this it’s
worth explaining so for us listen we
have cool there’s the formally
international Edinburgh Festival a whole
bunch festivals at the same time the
Enbridge International Festival is one
of them the fringe is a separate thing
there was the Film Festival at the top
at the same so there’s a massive massive
massive festival that happens I say one
it’s like eight of them but it uses up a
whole month but there’s a thing in the
UK which is that pretty much everyone in
the arts will be in there in some
capacity and as a side effect it means
that almost all things get made around
that month yeah it warps the production
me I wonder forever like the last couple
of years of the first couple years in
like ten years I haven’t been up there
doing with either mechanisms or some
other project I only stopped once em
basically once the company was running
out I miss it a bit you must enjoy your
money though because the problem about
the in rear fringe is who’ve it goes up
there regardless of mechanisms we did
alright actually we was well we were a
free show but we had we sold CDs
afterwards as like Oh a fiver
we’ll also get a CD so a lot of people
were like oh well it was for you to come
and so we’ll just buy a CD so we
actually did alright I don’t miss it I
would mostly be up in Edinburgh with Oh
caveat here it would be with like six
shows or something but it’s because I’d
be like I’d be crave director on one I’d
be Resident Director on another which is
where you just make sure that the show
doesn’t fall apart but you’re not you
didn’t build the thing I did pitch you
this I did pitch you Magnus at the end
of a friend oh yeah like I’m eventually
gonna have to go back but ya know I’m
not hugely keen if I’m honest I mean go
there doing something
and be aware that it’s not if you enjoy
really intense kind of going a little
unstable across the course of a month
because you’re exhausted and stressed
and really busy all the time
if you enjoy that sort of thing it’s
amazing if you don’t it’s just do a week
like I would say as a caveat it depends
whether it is a full professional
business thing for you or not
if it’s a full professional like this is
your livelihood you’ve got to do at
least three shows a day to even begin
looking at covering costs plus you then
want to have a side gig so for me it was
teching other shows and things like that
but it does mean you aren’t generally
working 12 to 13 hours a day like hard
work as well I was often I would hate to
do it in any sort of professional
capacity it’s you know like it was it
was great sort of the seven eight of us
crammed into a flat going yes literally
but like the self-contained project
where that’s your thing you do it any
leave I’ve done before while ago was
great when you it’s like this is me
doing my networking for an entire year
in a single month at the same times
doing all of this but certainly
background there’s a reason why the
entirety of all list is just dead it’s
just dead every year yeah and it’s very
hard to book people for August yeah so
the second thing that kind of spanner in
our works was someone very very
selfishly getting married at the end of
September yeah that of course takes the
studio out of play for weeks I mean no
but that would only
be the case if whoever was getting
married lived in the house with the
studio which would be madness by the way
because London real estate is is
fractionally like zero like rent is in
London so yeah maybe I was mistaken and
it was all necessary or if like half the
company weren’t going to said where’s
quite challenging to get everyone in the
same room and in fact we didn’t get
everyone in the same room and I we did
it was more of a tent but everyone so
how do you go about organizing a cost
recording of that scale cheese doodle
poles good start
yeah actually I looked back on my emails
before coming here just cuz I want you
to get some dates right and the very
first I very naively just sent out
emails and then about three or four
emails later
oh sweet so much oh please just put your
availability in because ah yeah I
remember getting that back and you and
Ben in particular Alex just looking at
nd like there is no day there is not a
single day I both of you combined were
like 50 options or something cuz one of
the benefits is having our own studio
comes a couple of advantages and one of
which is it makes the flexibility
plausible this the stuff that we make
would physically not be possible if we
didn’t do our own studio like
categorically is completely out the way
and we can utilize a commercial studio
on the basis that we record well no
because even things like if someone’s
like for a recording great you recording
shop which is fine when you don’t
release the thing until the entire
things recorded and you have a 16-month
production we know we don’t it’s we’re
making way too much content so that’s a
big thing so you have to have your own
but even then so that means that on a
doodle poll that was like 9:00 a.m. to
11:00 a.m. 11:00 a.m. until 2:00 v like
there were 10 options per day 40 days
and of course that makes it even worse
when you think about the fact that alex
has to be here for the recording to
happen because he runs the studio so if
you won’t be able to get he does not
understand compression and I many times
you drill it into him here’s the couple
look if you balance your eq’s you get a
dreamy he just steals the bag and runs
oh he’s a good cat and buffet he’s quite
good on narrative structure now been
taking me through some basic maybe six
scenes
find three we’re gonna get a co-writing
credit on season five their secret the
catalyst in mangas archives isn’t Casper
I think fans know that by now but still
there may be new new people new people
who are not actually that vocal he’s not
just sort of silently glides up and then
you’re like oh hello Casper and then
he’s like embrace me okay sure so aside
from the scheduling were there any other
kind of difficulties that you ran into
yeah honestly this was the first show of
this scale that I had produced because I
had come from gaming which because it
has been running for so long and is so
regular in its recording schedule it’s
actually yeah it’s not I mean you need a
producer but it’s not it doesn’t keep
changing exactly as you said it’s stable
it’s it’s built to be as boring to
produce as possible
yes I think coming in to Magnus and you
know I’d never produce something I mean
gaming is improv so I’d never had to
think about the fact that I’ve booked
this recording I have to tell Johnny to
write that script you know that was that
was a thing where I had oh no there has
been a okay Larry I’ve finished up this
script and it’s been like oh actually
that’s not the one we’re recording next
we need these two episodes it was a
steep learning curve okay it’s all right
to be honest I am I’ve said it before
I’m a bit of a deadline writer so I’m
quite happy being like okay two episodes
in in two days yeah sure that’s fine
leaves me the rest of the week to not do
anything why would you tell me that
because we’re putting this tomorrow I
mean if you do I’ll get it written I
won’t I mean I won’t
good in the recording because I believe
so how long did it actually take to
record all the different things though
oh I don’t think I’m going to answer
that I don’t know
so talking from raw audio which was four
hours and four hours eight minutes of
time demonstration like from foot like
from the the day the first thing with
recorded to the bed when was on the 6th
of September because there was so when
did the episode drop it was edited by
the 21st of September yeah one day late
most of the time so Mac 160 was 31st of
October well 30th because we have we
released a day early for the O’s so yes
a mid October with the episode drop and
we’ll talk about some of the other
problems on that side a bit in a bit I
mean I came here prepared to look at us
within the eye and say I’m so sorry I
couldn’t say from first scene of that
episode being recorded to last scene
more than a month oh definit maybe
pushing to yeah because I think I think
the Gertrude Elias scene was recorded
quite separately - but I don’t think
they were recorded together right uh no
ghostwritten Elias
because they were the hardest of this
episode yeah yeah they do
oh do they know that when I was trying
to match it like with other ones like
with you know the Martin Peter Elias I
had the overlap of the people being in
the room together who were in the room
together and then I could work with that
and that had that natural flow I was the
only one way it was completely yeah it
was two separate ones and I really found
it hard to find whether an overlap would
work or because when you’re editing it I
sort of visualize it right I’ve got
Rome and I might think about like are
they gonna pace you know I think of it
almost like television or film I stopped
the apothem teleporting across the room
in terms of timing Majan re blocking
that you’re doing that I found that
seeing the hardest by far that’s one
that I spent way more time on the nude
aspect compared to the other scenes and
especially I think that in Bert we got
trinkets sharp edge and the takes that
are head and it was written in the
script you know like Street and words
that cheese is shocked but she’s not
yeah but she didn’t give any bracelet
thorn like when you fall down the stairs
or something happens which is a bit of a
shock to your body you take very short
shallow breaths so I built in some of
that breath works but then afterwards
when I noticed that the scripted three
shots didn’t occur when I listened to
the episode I was like maybe that’s my
fault
maybe if like three shots two things
happen there one was that that is an
element but my your fault insofar as
like the timings for three didn’t work
like they just didn’t yeah the second
thing is because we were so up against
it I think mentally I made a mental note
of what I’ll do is I’ll do one shot and
then I’ll say I’ll have him say pity and
then just do two more shots after she’s
on the ground and then I can just dodge
the timing thing then didn’t that
concludes the explanation
I do remember listening to it back and
going timing the work I’ve been giving
this a lot of thought the work around I
had was you had to do the two shots
after the fact I mean I’d be fine yeah
post was a little bit stressful I mean
it was flawless okay so moving on to
some questions about the directing given
all the issues with the recordings being
so split up like that how smoothly would
you say that the actual recordings went
intense where’s Alex it’s a big
complicated question because the
variation is huge so once you realize
that a recording session is one Scene
one version so you can do multiple takes
in a single recording session but you
can only do one version per session you
can’t do
two versions in the same session
otherwise you just have them in the same
room at the same time so what that means
is like between recording sessions as
huge variation I would say that
generally speaking things were better
than they would have been if we’d have
done them earlier because a lot of
people got used to some of the shortcuts
and tricks that we use so for instance
early days doing any kind of combats so
like the Daisy Becerra and the running
and blah blah blah was rough people
didn’t know what worked people didn’t
really know what you were getting at I’m
gonna make a bit of an elaborate
comparison but bear with me on this
journey I’m not as pompous as this will
initially sound okay
any of you know about like the director
who worked on the Mad Max remakes I
believe so but I don’t know like the
fury road it’s not remakes it’s the same
guy who did the original so he’s done it
like there’s a one square that you can
basically all the action happens in yes
yeah yeah so I am NOT comparing myself
to that director let’s put that to bed I
am saying though is that he was well
known my own record especially for the
newer one as basically the cast didn’t
get what he was getting at and a couple
of them openly publicly confessed
afterwards they were like I was a bit of
an ass like did not get what you were
getting at I totally see it now it’s
fine
combat in the early days of Magnus was a
lot like that where people like don’t
really know what’s happening a lot is
that what you don’t know what you are
yeah yeah a lot of knocks you grab
yourself in shake and people look at me
like I’m insane I’m completely lost the
plot it’s like no trust trust me on this
but as time has gone on people have
learned these tricks and they’ve heard
the end result gone okay so that makes
you do this and that’s the fix that da
da da so that went a lot easier that
said there were a few issues which was
time compression was a huge problem
which is that a recording session can be
compressed to a point and then no more
and where it’s just the case of this was
probably the episode most where at the
end of a recording session I would just
contact Larry and go yeah Larry and we
were meant to do three scenes two
versions we have done two scenes two
versions and it’s not a case of okay can
we accelerate guys because if you
accelerate you’re ruining the Ted scenes
the scene is garbage the
take his garbage do it again so if you
go quick you’re doing more take so it
actually takes longer than if you just
cut off what that means is you would
book a recording for let’s get three
scenes done today and you will get one
scene done staying all we need an
emergency recording to pick you up and
then you do the emergency recording if
somebody comes up in you and you do one
scene not the other two so you need
another recording so this is the one
where within room everyone was very
professional things were fine I think
there was one bit towards the end where
I started to lose my temper a little bit
which was the recordings had broken it
was this the episode where allister’s I
forget that it might have been 1-5 I
think we had him in because we had him
we had him doing one five eight and
there was one where I didn’t lose my
temper of performers but I did lay down
the lure in a way I don’t normally know
it is all conversation that is not
recorded to stop now stop stop stop
talking no now if we don’t record this
within the next ten minutes the episode
will not drop shush stop I don’t
normally operate like that so that was a
bit of a weird one but for the rest
mostly people started to be aware that
we were up against it and with that
comes an element of people don’t mess
around and that’s not me sort of casting
aspersions it’s just that when you’re up
against that people tend to put the game
face on you know also to be honest Alex
you are a good director and you inspire
a certain degree of loyalty so most
people are willing to like really go to
bat to record an episode when they need
to it is better to be feared than loved
and to convince everyone to say that you
are loved on audio strong adjectives
here so actually on the directing side
as well did you learn anything from the
unknowing at the end of season 3 that
was useful
[Laughter]
I learned a lot in the Unknowing mainly
in what you can get away with none of
which was applicable which is why one
508 was a headache so for the unknowing
I knew straight out the gate hang on ah
number one I have creepy circus music in
the cab wasn’t originally creepy circus
music it was nice circus music that we
then made creepy fantastic but then with
the unknowing this is something that I
genuinely have had and you can
corroborate Johnny we have had sit-down
meeting so I’ve gone right it’s time to
learn what is easy to edit and what’s
hard to get wasn’t easy to recorded most
talking about season five with you know
a while back and I was like oh this is
gonna be really tough because there’s
like loads of loads of proper hell
scapes in this this is a transformed
world a lot of episodes are going to
have like strong unknowing vibes and
you’re like oh no that’s fine that’s
fine because one five eight the
difficulty was it was all in the real
world so everything had to sound real
and what Alex has drilled into me over
and over again mainly verbally sometimes
physically is that things that people
don’t know what they should sound like
because they are Otherworld
all right hell of a lot easier up -
soundscape the things that people like
people know what running through a
corridor in a basement should sound the
error margin is tiny people know what it
sounds like when a door gets kicked in
even if it’s not sure it’s that classic
thing that a punch and you’ve also got
to take into account that some things
you don’t need to sound realistic you
need to figure out what brand of
non-realistic people will correctly act
exactly
exactly it’s like no that might not be
how a tour actually sounds when it gets
kicked in but that is the knot but you
need to figure out which of the noises
that people will be like that’s what’s
happening gunshots are a good example
that the secret with with the secret
you’re doing a good gun shot and audio
is that you need to really really
compress the tail so that the initial
bang in a real gunshot a natural
waveform you just see a line it just
goes bang pops every mic and then
there’s no other sound so the way that
you do audio gunshots as an example is
they’re not real what you do is you
compress the heck out of it so you hear
lots of the tail but the initial bang is
quite quiet but that’s the exactly kind
of thing
so for the unknowing you just put a
bunch of creepy music underneath it’s
the only time we’ve done scene
transitions where the music swells and
comes down because it’s allowed because
the unknowns kind of theatrical also one
thing was it might have been you two
told me this but apparently when in
films they’re filming people like being
on fire like in an action movie or
something like that they never direct
them to act as if they’re being on fire
because it is categorically too
disturbing because they scream like this
so they what they tell them is imagine
you’ve got a swarm of bees on you gets
the level we’re like oh my gosh somebody
big on fire and be like oh they’re on
fire without being like what someone
with their arms down yeah yeah yeah
running on fire would be just horrifying
that makes sense yeah and actually I
don’t you tighten up you really rapidly
I mean like I don’t know getting out of
my yeah I don’t I mean I’ve never stuck
around to what I know how to although we
learned a lot in your knowing the issue
in one five eight is they are all
knowable spaces so seasons 5 is grand
it’s just like ah you know what I need
the sound of a thousand people screaming
trivial come on
and moving into spoiler territory a good
example okay hey go the the anglerfish
is a baby
slowed down 60 times I think and then
with reverb and and bass boost added to
it it’s just a baby going easy no one
knows what angle fish sounds like no one
cares
but the ultimate evil which I have been
hating is transitions from one space to
another someone is in the archivist
office opens a door steps out into a
corridor that’s hours of work that is
absolutely hours of work to get that
right and see one five eight is full of
stuff like that yeah absolutely I know
people love the phrase Chaka is shocker
with stuff that sounds like oh cool
and he’s like cool that door that that’s
three hours of work Oh
what happened someone dropped their gun
clock in two more hours of post it’s
just because everything’s knowable and
whereas all of the finales up to then
have been sufficiently way I was worried
about the lone nails like Alex are you
gonna be alone and you’re like yeah it’s
it’s just gonna be like a beach sound
and then I’m gonna do a bunch of audio
effects on yeah it’ll be lonely lonely
was easy because I was just like cool
it’s gonna be in one space that’s the
only role as long as it’s one space we
can get this out real quick actually
question and it’s not one five eight so
it’s one five nine and it’s the only
episode where we’ve got panning of audio
technically not true there’s a small
amount in the unknowing oh is there and
I was like oh the rules that I have
always had which has been unspoken and
it’s a house style rule but I’ve never
had to teach anyone cuz did the
soundscapes and people gonna build
theories on this know anything about it
so the tape sounds aa stereo all of the
vocals are mono so they are not an
actual tape recorder would record in
mono is that yeah yeah yeah so an actual
tape recorder recorder - we have things
in mono meaning that it doesn’t have any
part it’s just flat down the level
everything centered in if you were
wearing headphones it’s centered in the
middle your head yep okay the tape
recorder is in stereo do the juice from
that what you will all of the effects
are in mono as well so like someone’s
dropping a gun so while going through a
door whatever anything that’s full post
ritual so in like the unknowing that was
full ritual style all of the music
because it’s semidigested meaning that
so digesting Imagi attic diegetic means
in scene as in like it’s one’s listen to
a radio in a car and it’s on the TV it’s
cristo jet ik if it is non-diegetic it’s
like a film score where the audience
can’t hear the characters can’t hear it
no I’m trying to think of like die rich
it’s pretty bad so semidigested is the
one where it’s like a character is
driving down the road listening to the
radio and then the music swells until
it’s the sound right okay so the
unknowing has semidigested where they’re
hearing music but it’s actually stereo
and it’s done the way that Magnus
is and the Magnus music has always been
non-diegetic so that one bled there this
is on the sort directorial warm thing
for 160 because of that I started to
mess around with making it become panned
because there in a post ritual scenario
so it should have been beginning to pan
a little bit at the start of the episode
and then towards the end all have gone
full like panning and stereo alright so
we mentioned in passing that Ben and
Alistar we’re not in the room together
to record their lines what are the
challenges that come with directing a
scene like that honestly directing is
not as bad as you might think what it
just consists of is having an idea for
what the scene is in your head and
making extra effort to make things match
that so you are the meeting place
between these two recordings if you have
all the time in the world what you do is
you play that recording for the next
person who comes in so they have a sense
of pacing and bla bla bla bla bla bla
bla we did do that in fairness for one
of the pairings but we couldn’t fill the
other because the turnaround was too
tight I can’t remember who it was I
think it might have been the Gertrude
been one where they have to do it in
complete isolation from one another so
in that one what you have to do is go
tell one person okay this is the way the
scene should be and then get the other
person to home in on that however I am
gonna be honest and say that the art
isn’t in the directing in that it’s just
not it’s in the editing is in the vocal
edit specifically the directing is just
again could you do that better better
how better in this specific way I’ll try
rinse repeat
sure in vocal edit is one where it’s
taking something there’s a little bit
broken and making it not I think what
you’re really hoping when you get the
files is that the energy between them is
the same because I think when you’ve got
someone beside you you are feeding about
that yes same amount of energy they have
the one scene which I’ve edited where I
was like god this is completely
mismatched was when Mel is she’s angry
at Johnny and this is after the surgery
[Music]
and I was like [ __ ] because like you
were yeah much low energy and she is
like you know yeah like she’s really
really high and so it was difficult over
this one I think tonight did I record
this first order che this is end of one
five seven it’s around that you will be
free pre therapy Melanie yeah oh sorry I
thought you were talking about I’m sorry
because that was a thing I was really
pressed again with you and I remember
looking at the script and sometimes you
do it with the script so when I get they
eat it so I’ll download the script and I
get some editing notes from Alex which
will have some time codes for when
things happen very good notes all are
well depends whether you’re on a scene
or not that’s really true it’s so
obviously I go by the script I look for
if there’s gonna be any noises that I’m
not expecting because sometimes you
listen through a demonstration yeah and
the editor thank you for that problem
it’s fine Elizabeth will take care of it
I can only laugh so much about that I
know you know you so you’re looking for
maybe unexpected things that if you’re
just listening to people talking you
might just not expect that they’re there
unless there’s a specific reaction to it
and you’re like oh it’s a gun okay so
you got to you got to know oh no those
are a nightmare but sometimes what you
do need to do is in that case I played
with the timing of your lines so what
you’d scripted I’ve moved it so that was
more spread out with her so you’re
trying to interrupt her but more rather
than and also add in a bit more like of
your arms and hours from other bits so
that you really came out became a
sounding good you know just to give you
that sort of sense like you’re you’re
trying to get to her while she’s in the
middle of the you know I’ll say
arraigned but while she’s in the middle
yeah came out really really well because
that’s what we call them as light as a
arbitrary phrase it’s not a real thing
like Frank and voicing yeah so yeah like
Franklin voicing is where you take
something that someone said mean like
this doesn’t work
we’ll chop it up and make it work and
put it back together like a Frankenstein
oh yeah well a Frankenstein’s monster
before his name was Adam Frankenstein
yes I mean you know it was the son of
Victor Frankenstein it works he’s still
Frankenstein we will come back to the
thing by I’ve got one last question for
Alex from the directing phone how many
takes we needed for the Elias laughs to
admit this he got it on the first take
just in case he doesn’t quite look as he
did he did a really good laugh but I
remember quite distinctly that there
wasn’t any relief in the laughs it was
all amusement and so like once we
explained what the laugh was because he
didn’t because he didn’t actually know
what was going to happen in 160 so we
had to explain no this is you’ve just
nailed this you have this is the laugh
of my plan is now actually basically
complete then it kind of all were to
know like as soon as we explained to him
what the laugh actually was he just did
it it’s really annoying by the way his
ego doesn’t need that and it’s also
annoying cause Villas just won an award
okay yeah I know I know
villain laughs traditionally are
terrible like no one can do villain
laughs that everyone thinks they can
that’s what it is everyone thinks
they’ve got the villain laughs and no
one does and he happens to have it oh
yeah yeah in fairness
Lori’s mom has a fabulous cackle and was
still disappointed because the one that
made it into bloopers isn’t full cackle
that was a little like a little side
cackle teaser and that was that wasn’t a
15-second er which I am heard oh yeah oh
yeah a 15-second around the end of it
you’re not bored you know they’re gonna
ask for that now I don’t have it it’s
not recorded oh there is no recording a
15-second cackle which I know that your
mummys Kate’s fine you’re overselling
out I disagree I mean bring her back for
season five I want it I’m just saying we
could record the cackle if we slowed it
down like 50 times put some bass in
that’s a hellscape turn it into an EDM
I think so moving on to the editing
we’ve we’ve touched on this throughout
but a lot of the comments from the fans
have been how good the editing in the
soundscape and on this episode were
which obviously starts with the vocal
card you’ve touched on a bit about the
editing notes that alex has given you
what were your thoughts when you saw
though who sir I remember I did have a
glance back and I remember there was a
piece and read which is like just ignore
this bit it’s just here for safety which
I’d really ignored in the editing notes
and the words strap and was also at one
point is because it was like wasn’t that
one version that was like so this is
take 16 and there was one way just went
on and on and I think that was when me
when the hunters burst in yeah lot of
takes of them a lot of different because
that was what we did have everyone in
the room so there were five people in
the room and like there were just a lot
of takes a lot a lot of different energy
levels low trying it different ways it
was amazing like especially because that
was both Ian and Faye who are two of the
harder ones to coordinate with travel I
mean that was probably more luck than
anything so basically I was I just come
back from a really great hole I was able
to listen to some edits that I hadn’t
been involved in which you know I
jealously want to do all the work so it
does give me a little bit of joy to be
able to also then listen to it it’s I
don’t know what’s happening before for
any of it right I just wait until I get
it oh yes like it’s interesting
sometimes you like yours is the first
audience reaction know what’s going on
Alex knows and then you’re getting
you’ll be like oh so this happened
dinner
I remember 160 I like Johnny I have to
tell all my friends to listen to this
demerit it drops cuz it’s like yeah yeah
my brother is still like why don’t you
just end it season 4 cuz he was like
it’s the perfect evening
this is how harsh it will be honest
there is like that was something weird
but at the same time I I’m really
interested in what happens after yeah
yeah no I saw my so yeah normally I just
listen to it as it comes in although
obviously first script like this you
with so many scenes you have to read it
and understand what’s going on you can’t
just like with the statements you can
just start playing it and editing it but
it was pretty intense and I just went at
it and then normally what I do is if I
if these little sections of things where
I don’t know because I’m not doing the
sound scraping I have to assume that
Alex will need some more time and spots
to allow for the sound scraping and also
like pulling out little bits that you
might want to reuse so that’s because
you’re not happy with fabulous habit to
have the one that I’ve chosen so that’s
kind of how I approach it but it was it
was a big innit I think overall it took
me like 25 hours saying since you’ve
been doing vocal cuts or at least as
long as I am you been doing the vocal
cuts I haven’t actually had to go back
to raw which is quite rare so normally
in mastering because again because the
tide turnarounds and something what’ll
happen is that we’ll have the vocal cut
and then we’ll add in the soundscape
never allowed in the music over the top
and then mastering you kind of make sure
that all levels are correct and I’ll be
like damn it
that was a good vocal cut but I need to
swap that out because of this other
thing I don’t actually think I’ve ever
had to go back to raw with a vocal that
you’ve done now I think about it which
is really rough but it’s because you
provide those options yeah yeah I’m the
massive enormous difference for me
exactly so if there’s been multiple
screams I will edit those really so that
he can just go oh character and didn’t
like that scream that she you know that
Elizabeth picked or I need to it’s not
working for some other reason because of
the actual sound scaping I like your
notes that come with them so if you like
okay
I’ve included this string cuz I think
the timings right frankly I preferred
demented three ones and apparently
demented threes probably not gonna work
with the timing so I’m very including it
just in case but if you can fit in
demented three or maybe apocalypse five
that’s a good attitude
I like that I just like the little
nightie yeah that’s like we always say
Elizabeth is the best unless you’re
another podcast company listen to this
in which case Elizabeth is I wouldn’t
even approach her were there any other
challenges that come with the very
piecemeal nature of this episode and so
many calf being involved I think that
you know as mentioned the big thing is
actually so it will take longer to eat
it because you need to go through just
more footage so to speak and then
whether or not the energy is right
between the actors I think you know to
be honest I think it’s mostly covered
it’s just that energy it will take
longer because you’re having to go
through more folders yeah I don’t think
I’ve got much more to add unfortunately
it’s not really any shortcuts you can
say and then we did this shot good
because we already take all of the
shortcuts we make a lot of stuff like
it’s not really if there’s no more
shortcuts we can make without massively
compromising quality oh you should be
cutting scenes like at that point if you
like called scenes three and six are
having sorry there were a few ones where
we were like look this scene we could
drop it it will make the story worse it
will make the episode worse but if we
literally cannot do the scene it would
function without it we can’t draw a good
example the Sarah and Daisy are in three
scenes in one five maids the recording
in scene two originally had Daisy saying
a bunch of lines that recording was one
of the ones that broke so as a result we
had to do an emergency rewrite and
basically redo the scene in such way
that Daisy was listening to hear what
was going on and we need you - Shh so
technically that counts as another
appearance by Hannah as someone else’s
character
I thought we thought we mash to go she
loved being one of the Hannah she’s I
believe a knife sense Ernie was one of
the hamsters yeah yeah no it was like
there’s the same it’s someone else doing
that yeah yes Daisy shush was actually
these all her breathing though I believe
because we have that big breath library
I think it’s no no that’s from there
because I don’t use this I don’t I’ve
got my own brief life
we collect breath yes store there’s not
many of them though not a big breather
I’m not in studio very often barely
breathe rally blinks and the times have
been in studio I haven’t been on my girl
actually when you’ve got list characters
in you can just grab a breath what right
it’s only one or two characters you just
grab it from earlier it becomes
problematic when you’ve got like four
characters and you’re like okay I need
to you know Alex is gone everyone do a
lot of Brits didn’t like Alex it sounds
like an have too many than too few
see where were all shouting so much for
so long that we all got dizzy because
there wasn’t enough oxygen and it was
one of the last ones involving Mike yeah
that probably would have been back in
the unknowing I think it was actually no
it was when everyone was freaking out
because the unknowing happened we did
like five takes so give too many gas
with with five takes or more of like the
unknowing starting to happen and
everyone was like freaking out and yet
by the end we were like we need to go
out yeah coming towards the end of
season three there was a lot of
breathing a lot so Alex you were doing
most of the soundscape in for season
four were there any specific issues that
the soundscape in for mag one five eight
raised uh what happened in one five
eight corridor by the way has done these
things where they’ve read the questions
ahead of time they prepare the know
Sasha was release yeah okay not Sasha
releasing let’s go through that they’re
not Sasha releasing was astonishingly
easy because Yves just on it he’s
another one who can just do villain
straight out the gate yeah Yves very
much a one take wonder where she’ll do
it look like actually it needs to be
this just like oh I didn’t realize
banging it starts so Yves Yves lovely to
work for for that I know the the tunnels
are okay because we have a lot of
pre-made templates yeah that we can
bring in for like three verbs and so on
so it’s just like add that in that’s
fine
it’s
Helen in 1 5 8 Helen’s no no it’s not so
the Helen Michael ones are annoying
because you have to manually add a bunch
of extra stuff in for the laughs and so
on that takes a while so the initial
scenes are fine it’s basically just FA
ok we did do a redraft because
originally was somebody like a subtler
than that but not by much
it was a bit like I’m going in full
season finale mode I did take the
opportunity to be like no no corpses
stumble into that no because it was a
lot of that background fighting between
with Trevor and Julia
so yeah you had a lot of those fight
scenes going on because I think you
meant you and your notes you’re like if
you want to do the fight scenes you can
and then I thought no response I would
say actually here’s a hidden interesting
challenge although we try to make it
like very similar to deenis and you know
it all holds together and feels quite
realistic normally the violence is fine
for me I don’t get affected by horror I
don’t get affected by the sound of
violence cuz it’s hard to stay like oh
that sounds like a heartbreak when a
piece of celery has just gone mushed and
you’ve seen the salary go mush you know
I mean also you like kill so many people
some point why quad you care but I found
it quite difficult doing the sounds of
removed hunters and the fighting and so
on and I’m happy to like publicly say
what it is which is it felt when I was
editing it had a certain school shooter
evine not me making light of it at all I
was editing it and because we were going
for we haven’t really done that kind of
combat you know the quite modern with
the gunfights is normally quite punchy
and nitrogen which isn’t London honestly
it’s not as loud as you think and where
is like with that it was the sound of
all of disturbs and then gunshots then
dissing people running a blah blah blah
it really hit the other school shooter
situation stiff suits a situation and I
found that really difficult which is
unusual from here like divine where like
writing it I don’t think I realized
quite how much of them it would carry I
was like oh
obviously we’ll do that content
warming’s and things like
but for that one that’s the first one
with me like really needs this yeah we
remember you really thing liebe for it
before it dropped unfunny yeah it’s just
it’s because it was muffled and so on it
just it worked in a way they didn’t like
but um I don’t think that’s in the
script per se there that’s like them
with guns you know they do have guns in
the like because for all I’m like oh
yeah it’s not something I wanted to
elicit I did want it to drive home the
monstrousness of the hunter mentality
the like the fact that’s like ya know
these are people who like attack
civilians because they have decided that
they are arbitrarily monstrous I was
gonna say though a bit because they had
to be distant as well I think they also
would limit you to things that make loud
noises right guns and balls and they’re
just like beating the crap out of people
you’re not going to hear that as a
distance noise right so you have to make
that kind of decision
it’s well the other audio le states one
of the strengths that audio has is when
it’s doing something that’s like distant
and overheard audio works better because
people are you paying attention people
are normally listening if you’re in your
car ninety percent of this has been lost
on you anyway if you’re listening with
headphones though you can hear those two
things that you’re not gonna hear when
you watch TV or film that’s because how
many people watch TV and film with
headphones I recommend that you do it
and try it it’s a completely different
experience because the sound is normally
done false around for everything that
you’re watching these days it’s just
that you’re not getting the experience
cuz you’re pumping out through stereo
speakers at the other end of the room or
your phone that I was finding very
tricky the panopticon was quite easy
with one caveat
so the panopticon is just it’s a big
echo ii room there’s some fun effects in
there there is whispering at the lowest
end that humans can discern via electric
equipment so maybe 50% of people won’t
even be able to hear it like that they
can’t pick it up that’s nice so that’s
in there it swells at certain points in
blah blah blah the footsteps they’re a
nightmare they’re walking along metal
grating that takes ages and the reason
being you can’t just take the sound of
one person doing a footstep and then
reuse it because what that sounds like
it is hopping doesn’t work so what’s
that that took a bit of wire it’s like
I’ve got to do this and I got to each
individual footstep he’s right up there
with the bloody chains in the prison on
Elias I was like oh oh
Cheng’s otherwise it’s just weird there
are at least 80 separate chain cues per
tiny little scene because I couldn’t
find a or do simple it was good to go so
I had to do it all manually I did all
right in the Train I feel I feel like
you put in the chase like I’m probably
not gonna put chains in there it might
be a bit much first steps are difficult
they’re just time-consuming chains or
handcuffs listeners who are early access
patrons will know that we have problems
come early release so much so that he
was delayed by about 19 hours which is
the longest delay that we’ve ever had on
that I should sleep and I was like no
and then you like no sleep that added at
least five hours self-care we insist on
that but what were the challenges are
bring that all together into the
cohesive obviously some of that we’ve
talked about but was it just a perfect
storm situation that we ran into or so
he’s a perfectionist perfect slum
situation
combined with the fact he’s a big
perfectionist two things that I’m not a
bad thing Johnny’s whose things that I’m
gonna share which I haven’t before which
is number one I have a personal
preference which is my secret shame that
I don’t like to talk about
I still master in audacity which is the
free open-source editing suite it’s not
the best one out there but the reason I
like it is you know when people talk
about like driving an old car and you
can feel the engine in the in the wheel
and blah blah blah that’s kind of how a
dusty feels for me because you can’t do
anything in it but you have to go all
the way down to like core principles and
build it up yourself you can’t just go
process this for me click a button and
it’s done but what that means is it
teaches you a lot but it gives you
complete control so that’s why I like it
it cannot handle that many layers 1/5 a
all in I had to start using certain
workarounds because it just crashes once
once you pass a measly 85 separate
layers of audio it just starts to break
which is nonsense
so the issue that I was running into
towards the end is that in the nicest
way I I had transcended beyond
day in editing equipment channel that
was you see I needed to Norrell
interface was really the only way to get
the nuance now just kept breaking so we
have to do that I have to do a few
workarounds and also audio density is a
problem in mp3 which is that you have to
remember that we have vocals okay cool
we then have music okay cool technically
within the music there are subtle layers
and alterations that get lost in the
compression and then on top of that we
have the sound scapes then on top of
that we have what we call incidental
effects so that is like stomping so
we’re not dropping footsteps or whatever
which isn’t your ambience and so on then
you got your transitions on top of that
blah blah blah basically the equipment
couldn’t really handle it I have as good
a laptop as you can really get for
editing and even if I swap across to
other programs
Magnus occasionally breaks things but
part of that is because I am not leaning
into the strengths of them I’m not going
hey could you please process this I’m
going no I will process it myself kazoo
but it also takes so long yeah and time
that you didn’t have because of the
production issues we’d had early down
the line as well so honestly 90% of the
delay was literally the equipment start
breaking and it’s that simple so we had
to work around that and that was one
where it broke once and I was like no we
can still hit this it broke a second
time went there might be a minor delay
then there was a third time where it
lost like two hours work and I save I
once every ten minutes because it didn’t
just lose two hours work is because it
actively corrupted save files that I had
and I lost three separate save files
that corrupted and I just like we had a
meeting on the Wednesday yeah and by
this point Magnus on five eight was
about four hours late and I’d been
running fire fighting on social media
too but I was people in for okay yeah
it’s fine second and no Alex told me it
will be done by midnight yeah and then I
said okay can you guarantee that he was
a bit arming and her exact phrase was as
long as it doesn’t break again we’ll be
fine so I sent out the message and said
okay and we’ll
building a little bit of leeway it
should be here by the morning didn’t
quite hit them on because I did insist
or we all insisted that Alex actually
get some rest yeah fans were mostly
happy to say that we were practicing
self-care it was annoying for me because
we would have met despite everything we
would have met deadlines even if it had
broken once but we had a bit of a
catastrophic like software collapse yeah
which is why it’s like it came out 11:00
a.m. the next morning which not ideal
and we do apologize for but sometimes
the equipment just can’t quite take what
Johnny has written before everyone says
I brought this on myself I did attempt
to work in a different suite that suite
collapsed we’re all very sad but also
it’s like you know so we’re doing 40
episodes generally in one year so that’s
12 weeks off there’s going to be
sometimes a bullets coming up to my
holiday I was like Alex you realize I’m
going on holiday highlighting this to
you you don’t know why I like something
his wedding and then August it’s a
perfect storm of events this isn’t
happening in isolation
no we’re recording the other let’s all
each you
what would you say with your highlight
of actually working on my wallpaper all
on the finished product when I was
finished and swiftly in there
I enjoyed the big recording where we
were all shouting and violence occurring
I was fun I enjoyed the feeling when it
was done I mean actually having everyone
in the same room I think for that big
scene with six people having them all
over five all in the same room that was
a nice it feeling and listening real
istening to it on the way here actually
I don’t real issen to anything ever
so we make
they literally have to it’s weird to me
yeah yeah so I guess you know being
involved in such a big project it’s
always nice when you deliver something
and it feels really good but to be
honest the real highlight for me was
hearing Martin disappear I mean we all
have money needed booting into oblivion
for a while okay like for me I have to
have a villain for why am I doing this
in my house I’m like it’s always Alex
Martin get sick because Martin’s great
especially when he doesn’t deserve it
interesting so so from a psychological
point of view that you are placing a lot
of your own criticisms of yourself on to
Martin and externalizing Martin will
always be as someone that I’ve already
progressed beyond so it’s okay for me to
think less of interesting how does that
make you feel wonderful I always like
the moments when I get the audio files
and you know you’re coming to record
particularly maybe season 2 season 3 but
it’s like just before you start going to
Martin you’re like pathetic well I think
just and before we have to spend an
exorbitant amount on therapy bills I
think we will grow this episode to a
close thank you very much for join us
qnl what was your favorite part was it
midnight on the day of release actually
I will say that firefighting and keeping
people informed with not my favorite
task of just having to get running
updates from giving you on that
unfortunate jobs there yeah um but in
terms of what was my favorite actually
seeing the fan reaction for how much
effort had gone into it the
I was getting the running update of the
difficulties behind the episode actually
seeing the finished product and seeing
everybody’s amazing reactions to a how
dense it was how much plot there was how
much emotion went into that episode and
I think it came out fantastically and it
also helped be a cap on well not so much
cap because 160 is the real cap but in
terms of an emotional high for going
into the lonely on 159 and then the end
of the world on 160 for everything that
had come today because we were getting a
few complaints about or not complained
per se but we were getting a few
comments about how the beginning of
season 4 it’s a weird one because
actually if you look at the amount of
plot that happens and the amount of
stuff that happens in season 4 it’s
actually almost late it’s like twice as
dense as season 3 like if there’s loads
of actual plot stuff happening all the
time it’s just that because emotionally
it’s dealing with loneliness and
isolation and like these very quite low
energy but intense emotions it feels
slow it feels yeah you know if you
actually like map out the plot points
it’s just boom boom boom boom but yeah
how they come across yeah it comes but
then 115 to the end is a massive ramped
up in terms of feeling ok so yeah the
fan reaction was is basically our
highlight so thank you very much for
joining me thank you very much for
listening I hope you have found this
somewhat enlightening we will see the
debrief yeah into exactly what you do so
that I can hopefully make your lives
easier we are a coordinated company
honest about one episode not funny for
anyone listening or me so just stop okay
thank you everyone bye
this episode is distributed by rusty
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