phew! what a subject heading! 
today saw the first recording session for btr's first continuing original drama series (and, as matt keeps describing it, our first fantasy series), "a sprinkle of stardust". as you may have gathered from the subject line, the episode is called "rugby money".
actually, we recorded a whole bunch more than just "rugby money" today, as we were running a touch behind schedule with various bits and pieces. certainly i'd been unavailable to direct an episode we've put together for quantum realities at the last session (due to the flu), so we had an extra episode to fit in today. add to this the fact that i needed to get my handful of lines recorded for "second sight" (the rest of which was done a fortnight ago), *and* matt elected to record an audio short trip today, just to really fill the day up!
because of all this, we did end up running about an hour over time, but just about everyone present seemed pleased with the day's proceedings, and nobody particularly seemed to mind.
the day started with my quick catch-up for "second sight", under the brief direction of kane major. this was followed by the recording of the short trip, "countdown", which matt appeared to cast on the fly! he's also suggested that the next short trip will be called "top of the pops", but i think everyone successfully talked him out of it.
following these brief mini-sessions (and a whole lot of stuff with daleks in it, by the sound of what could be heard from the green room -- even though there are no daleks in any of the stuff we recorded today!), we started on "sprinkle". as writer-director of the episode, i've got to say that i really lucked out on the casting front, as all eight actors involved were uniformly brilliant. (well, except me: i was only merely good. ) newcomers caroline frewin and tiffany melius proved to be fantastic from start to finish (i thought their auditions were good, but they were obviously saving the best for the real thing), while such btr stalwarts as kane major, jacob aldridge and david hutchison gave among their most polished efforts for a btr production. this project also saw the welcome return of susannah tiller to btr after quite a break, and although she'd had substantially less preparation than most, her scenes were enlivened by her presence.
then there was matt, standing in for a sadly unavailable actor (apparently he got paid work -- yeah right!), but giving a full-bodied performance just in case. and what a full-bodied performance! to indicate the template i recommended for the character would probably give too much away, so let's just say that the interpretation was exactly what i'd hoped for, and led to some amusing ad libs.
overall, this has probably been the strongest ensemble recording i've experienced as a btr audio director. which isn't to belittle the talents of our other actors by any means, many of whom are equally very good. but something really clicked today, and everyone's game seemed to be lifted. maybe it was the material, or the excitement of being at the start of something potentially big. whatever it was, it worked!
after a very nice lunch break, the prawns for which were painstakingly peeled by kath fallon and david (well, kath had to do *something* to keep occupied!), we started on our episode of the multi-group dw adventure "fractures of infinity", the subtitle for which is now apparently "the one with jacob in it"! although we were a little rushed, and were running out of minidisc at an insane rate, we got everything in the can with about 30 seconds to spare (!), and not at the expense of the performances. acting here was also decidedly good, though i think everyone was starting to get a little tired. hopefully this won't show through in the finished product, as everyone was still willing to try giving it their all to the very end. and i've got to say, this episode saw some of the consistently best sight unseen line readings known to btr! i mean, we had people with little idea of what the plot was about, no real idea of where their scene fit into the scheme of things, and no real prior study of the script, and yet they managed to give vocally interesting and very appropriate performances all the same! maybe my script was too by the numbers... though i doubt it -- i reckon we've just got a decent cast who know how to work under silly pressure.
in between uni assignments, recording a full "beyond" play and finishing a book this week, i hope to have the dialogue edits ready to give to matt on friday, at which point the updates will be over to him.
today saw the first recording session for btr's first continuing original drama series (and, as matt keeps describing it, our first fantasy series), "a sprinkle of stardust". as you may have gathered from the subject line, the episode is called "rugby money".
actually, we recorded a whole bunch more than just "rugby money" today, as we were running a touch behind schedule with various bits and pieces. certainly i'd been unavailable to direct an episode we've put together for quantum realities at the last session (due to the flu), so we had an extra episode to fit in today. add to this the fact that i needed to get my handful of lines recorded for "second sight" (the rest of which was done a fortnight ago), *and* matt elected to record an audio short trip today, just to really fill the day up!
because of all this, we did end up running about an hour over time, but just about everyone present seemed pleased with the day's proceedings, and nobody particularly seemed to mind.
the day started with my quick catch-up for "second sight", under the brief direction of kane major. this was followed by the recording of the short trip, "countdown", which matt appeared to cast on the fly! he's also suggested that the next short trip will be called "top of the pops", but i think everyone successfully talked him out of it.
following these brief mini-sessions (and a whole lot of stuff with daleks in it, by the sound of what could be heard from the green room -- even though there are no daleks in any of the stuff we recorded today!), we started on "sprinkle". as writer-director of the episode, i've got to say that i really lucked out on the casting front, as all eight actors involved were uniformly brilliant. (well, except me: i was only merely good.
) newcomers caroline frewin and tiffany melius proved to be fantastic from start to finish (i thought their auditions were good, but they were obviously saving the best for the real thing), while such btr stalwarts as kane major, jacob aldridge and david hutchison gave among their most polished efforts for a btr production. this project also saw the welcome return of susannah tiller to btr after quite a break, and although she'd had substantially less preparation than most, her scenes were enlivened by her presence.then there was matt, standing in for a sadly unavailable actor (apparently he got paid work -- yeah right!), but giving a full-bodied performance just in case. and what a full-bodied performance! to indicate the template i recommended for the character would probably give too much away, so let's just say that the interpretation was exactly what i'd hoped for, and led to some amusing ad libs.
overall, this has probably been the strongest ensemble recording i've experienced as a btr audio director. which isn't to belittle the talents of our other actors by any means, many of whom are equally very good. but something really clicked today, and everyone's game seemed to be lifted. maybe it was the material, or the excitement of being at the start of something potentially big. whatever it was, it worked!
after a very nice lunch break, the prawns for which were painstakingly peeled by kath fallon and david (well, kath had to do *something* to keep occupied!), we started on our episode of the multi-group dw adventure "fractures of infinity", the subtitle for which is now apparently "the one with jacob in it"! although we were a little rushed, and were running out of minidisc at an insane rate, we got everything in the can with about 30 seconds to spare (!), and not at the expense of the performances. acting here was also decidedly good, though i think everyone was starting to get a little tired. hopefully this won't show through in the finished product, as everyone was still willing to try giving it their all to the very end. and i've got to say, this episode saw some of the consistently best sight unseen line readings known to btr! i mean, we had people with little idea of what the plot was about, no real idea of where their scene fit into the scheme of things, and no real prior study of the script, and yet they managed to give vocally interesting and very appropriate performances all the same! maybe my script was too by the numbers... though i doubt it -- i reckon we've just got a decent cast who know how to work under silly pressure.
in between uni assignments, recording a full "beyond" play and finishing a book this week, i hope to have the dialogue edits ready to give to matt on friday, at which point the updates will be over to him.
nothing is certain. maybe.
