SCORING MAGIC
MINI EPISODE 2
“TAKE SELECTION”
WRITTEN BY: ANNE BAIRD
RELEASE DATE: 02/15/2020
It’s time to select takes. So, let’s talk about time . . . and how sometimes we’re not great with it.
About Scoring Magic – Scoring Magic is presented by Hug House Productions. You can support us for behind-the-scenes details and early previews of upcoming projects on Patreon.
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Credits: – “Fluff a Duck” by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
TRANSCRIPT
ANNE
Guess what, it’s-a me, coming at you with our second minisode, and this time on Scoring Magic, we’re going to be talking about: take selection!
ANNE
Now, don’t think this is going to be all fun and games. Because actually, this is a sad tale… a tale about how I… [sigh] am a big procrastinator. And we are behind schedule.
[INTRO MUSIC]
ANNE
Alright, before I reveal just how far behind our original schedule we are, let’s do some housekeeping.
ANNE
First, episode 1 of VALENCE hit 1,000 listens in only 24 days! I’m recording this a few days after episode 3 came out and episode 1 is now over 1,100, almost at 1,200! How are y’all enjoying Nico, by the way? God, I love that gremlin.
ANNE
We revamped (haha, vamped…) our Patreon to be monthly instead of per-creation because now we have… several… creation, and per-creation just won’t work for us anymore. So if you support us on Patreon and haven’t already done so, make sure you go check out the tiers and change yours if you need it so that you’re getting the rewards you want!
ANNE
Oh! Also, I’m in Los Angeles right now! As of this episode being released, not while I’m recording, for Podcast Movement Evolutions, representing our good old House of Hugs. I hope I got to see some of you– or, will get to see some of you… you know what? It doesn’t matter. I don’t have time for this because I’m about to leave for the airport. Uh, so let’s talk about this episode’s content.
ANNE
Picking takes. For those of you not familiar to this concept, what happens in the recording process is that we get a few takes of each scene from every actor, and before sending the audio to our sound designer, we have to listen through and pick our favorite takes that fit together and don’t have any mistakes. Sometimes the actors do fun things like improv lines that you can’t actually use…
[FIELD AUDIO]
JOSH
How have you never noticed how heavily you walk are you trying to get yourself caught hey Frankenstein for fuck’s sake walk less like a badly trained circus bear Frankenstein was the name of the monster actually now is not the time for that!
[NARRATION]
ANNE
And sometimes they stumble over words…
[FIELD AUDIO]
GIANCARLO
No problem — mm-mm, nope, that’s not it. [laughs]
[NARRATION]
ANNE
When we’re directing live recording sessions, our typical style is to have the actors go through the scene once however feels right to them, followed by some feedback and a bit more direction. We include stage directions in our scripts (which you’ll likely have seen in the transcripts), so on subsequent runs of the script I tend to not read those in the interest of letting things flow more naturally. And sometimes we do a take where we just let the actors go wild and do more improv.
ANNE
And what you end up with is that perfect sweet-spot that makes the story come to life. But first what you have to do is listen to several hours of audio and actually decide what sounds best together.
ANNE
As someone who works a full time job managing operations for a real estate investment company, manages the finances for a podcast production company (that’s this one), has been in the process of moving, and also has to cope with executive dysfunction, you can probably see where this is going.
ANNE
[sigh] I procrastinated.
ANNE
According to our schedule, I should have had the takes selected for Julia for episode 4 by… January 1st. But uh. Guess when I actually got them to her? [pained noise] January 27th.
ANNE
And in that same vein, episode 5 should have been to Julia by January 8th. And that one was just finished… the first week of February.
ANNE
Now, this wasn’t entirely my fault. We didn’t have the audio organized in a way that we could… find it… and now we do. It also turns out that we were MISSING audio for like. Half the show? There was definitely some panic happening, but we got it sorted out. It’s all fine now.
ANNE
But, had I started working on gathering the audio earlier, we would have discovered these issues earlier, and thus would have been able to actually keep ourselves marginally on track.
ANNE
As of this episode’s release, we have pretty much all the takes up through episode 10 done! Which means we are officially: just about ahead of schedule on take selection! But that delay did put us behind for episode drafts, womp womp. Luckily, Julia is a goddamn hero and is getting episodes done so fast, so we’ll probably be ahead of schedule on those soon, too!
ANNE
The one takeaway from this is: Don’t let me procrastinate. Because I will do it if given the chance. Sorry, it’s just how I am!
ANNE
And most importantly: don’t panic. That’s what your team is for! And even if you don’t have a team, you can figure it out! I promise. Delays are bound to happen, so the best thing you can do is work to do your best going forward. There’s no use stressing over something you can’t change, right?
ANNE
Now go create something wonderful! Do some goofy and interesting takes of audio, and send them to your producers, because sometimes they end up in the final cut. And sometimes they end up in blooper cuts. But they are always always appreciated.
[END MUSIC]
ANNE
Scoring Magic is a Hug House Production. You can find out more about our other projects and information on podcast consultation at HugHouse.Productions. You can find how to support us with money on our website, or just go to Patreon.com/HugHousePods for monthly support.
ANNE
Our music this week is “Fluffing a Duck” by Kevin MacLeod, which actually isn’t as funny as Katie made it seem in the last episode? Honestly, who wouldn’t want to just– [Anne making whooshing noises] –fluff up the feathers on a cute lil duck? Wil, can the audience have some uh . . . have some duck noises please? It would just be amazing if you could just like. Throw some in here right now. Just a li’l parting gift.
[QUACK]
ANNE
Ok bye!