Scoring Magic – Season 2, Episode 3: “Production Update… Update”

SCORING MAGIC
SEASON 2, EPISODE 3
“PRODUCTION UPDATE… UPDATE”
RELEASE DATE: 09/04/2021

This week, Hug House brings you an update on everything we’ve been working on. And then… another update on everything we’ve been working on. And then…

Credits:

  • Written and recorded by Anne Baird (and surprise guest Wil Williams).
  • Edited and sound designed by Wil Williams.
  • Music by Komiku and Kevin MacLeod.

TRANSCRIPT

[[Warm synthy guitar intro music fades quickly into . . . ]]

ANNE: 2021 continues to be a nightmare. And that’s why I’m bringing you another update on production updates on this episode of Scoring Magic.

As we always do, we’re going to start this episode with a little bit of housekeeping. As of now we are at production on episode nine of season two of VALENCE. We’re just finalizing it. It goes out to Indiegogo backers and patrons at the $10 and up level on Saturday, and if you’d like to get early access, and you missed the Indiegogo, you can support us on patreon dot com slash hug house pods. And there will be a link in the show notes. 

I’m pointing down as I’m saying this, like anyone can see me alone in my office in the dark. This is — this just got really sad. 

Anyway, the reason for this mini mini episode is to talk about how, in the last episode, I said that you should always have a timeline. But also know that if things get off track, not to worry about it, because you can always change things around and nobody will judge you for pushing back a timeline.

[record scratch sound effect]

WIL: Hello, audience, it’s Editing Wil. Now if you’re listening to this, when it comes out, you might notice, well, golly gee, we’re kind of far away from episode nine of season two of VALENCE. In fact, all of season two of VALENCE is out. And it has been for a while. So you know what Anne just said about schedules and timelines and being adaptable. We did that with Scoring Magic, too. So here’s the thing. [laugh] 

2021 has been rough for all of us in Hug House to varying degrees, for a lot of different reasons. And we’ve just decided to be kind to ourselves. Currently, at present, we are writing season three of VALENCE. Season Three is our final season. Because of that, it’s been really emotionally hard for me, especially just given how long the story has been with me and also, especially with how awful 2021 has been. Y’all didn’t judge us back when we took that first break. And I know that you’re not going to judge us for Scoring Magic. And I know that you’re not going to judge us for taking our time with season three.

We will still be doing Scoring Magic updates a bit more here, now that production on season two has died down. Because I am the person who puts together Scoring Magic. And because I was also the person who put together VALENCE season two — I did all of the editing and sound design. That was a lot of work. [laugh] And now that that’s all out, now that we have some other irons in some other fires, and now that I am doing more writing than I am sound design, I can get back to Scoring Magic, which is nice because I really love this show. And I know that for a lot of you it’s been really beneficial. 

So thanks for your patience, we appreciate you. And again, I just want to stress the importance of having a schedule. But putting yourself first. Okay. Okay, back to Anne.

ANNE: And with that being said, hopefully no one will judge us for this. With Wil doing the sound design for season two on top of being the showrunner and writing for season three, all at the same time? Plus their job, managing editor at Discover Pods plus editing interviews for Radio Drama Revival, plus writing articles, plus doing 50 million other things because none of us have any self control and just keep on taking more job responsibilities. It got to be too much. 

And what we realized was we were continually falling behind on season three scripts. And we were supposed to have most of the season written by now but only had two episodes, kinda. And we’re behind on audio production because we were trying to catch up on scripts, and everything just kept falling behind. 

So I made the executive decision to push back the whole production schedule for season three, including writing, recording, release, everything. And I think it’ll work out better in the end anyway, with a different release date for season three. 

I’m not going to announce anything, because if I make it a real date, then I have to stick to it, or I feel like I will. But if I don’t tell anybody else except the Hug House team, we can change it again. And none of you will know unless I tell you, of course, because that’s the point. 

We pushed back the release date for season three, and all of the production for it by five months. It’s a big change. Usually, I’m more of a one week or two week kind of person. But we just totally shifted everything. And that’s going to change schedules for future shows we were planning on working on that we already had planned out. It’s going to change — everything else we work on is going to have to work around a different schedule. 

But for now, it was more important for us to take care of ourselves, and really think about what continuing to fall behind on things and take on too many responsibilities right now is doing to us mentally and physically. And with our friendship and our work relationship. It just was getting toxic. And I hated having to follow up with everyone constantly and be like, Hey, can you send me this? Hey, did you do it? Hey, did you do it? Hey, did you do it? And always getting a no, it feels bad? Feels bad to be that person. 

So I can’t fire Wil. I can’t — they’re my — they’re technically my boss. I don’t know. I can’t fire them. I wouldn’t fire them. And I would feel bad doing that. So instead, I’m a good manager. And I said, Hey, you need an extension. Let’s do that. 

So yes, that’s the update. That’s where we’re at. And hopefully, I will not have to give you another update like this. But that being said, I won’t entirely count it out. 

And that’s where I think I’m going to end this episode of Scoring Magic. Hopefully next time, we will be back with an episode from Wil talking about sound design, but that will be when we have time to do it. And between seasons of VALENCE is usually when we have more time to do things like this.

CREDITS: This episode was written, recorded and produced by me, Anne Baird, and sound designed by Wil Williams, who works too hard and deserves more. 

You can follow Scoring Magic at @ScoringMagic on Twitter, and find all of the updates for VALENCE as they happen at @ValencePod. You can also find full transcripts for all of our shows at hug house dot productions. and links to all these things in the show notes. Goodbye and I love you and take a nap.

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