GWC Podcast #192 (Halloween!)

[Nickname_Boomer]

thanks for the halloween treat it was a very fun cast

[Glimfeather]

I didn’t think GWC’s production values could get any better, but this episode was a masterpiece. Thanks, guys! I had so much fun listening to this one.

[Glimfeather]

Okay, now that I’ve had a chance to read through the rest of the thread and the general GWC reaction to this episode, I have to expand my comments.

I knew from the moment Chuck smelled something that there was tomfoolery afoot in the best of ways. I loved how the crue kept their conversational tone even while confronting zed-words–very SotD-like. And of course, the flute frakking cracked me up.

As far as production values–well, the sound effects just sounded nice. I know Chuck’s an audio whiz, so whatever magic it is that he does, I liked it. The SFX had ambience and depth to them and made it possible for me to believe the crue was really taking me along for the ride with their portable equipment.

And using the Rover as the Winchester sealed the deal. Chuck, I know you wish you’d had a stronger script to work from, but for a first time experiment, this was a heck of a lot of fun. The 'cast has really turned a corner in the last few weeks with more produced segments and special guests, and it feels very much like the sea change we all made when we jumped from the blog to the forums. It’s different, but I’m getting used to it, and it proves that GWC has life and imagination in it to keep going for a goodly long time. Many thanks!

[Gryper]

Wow. You are WAY quicker than I.

Umm…only on alternate Sundays…

[Solai]

Wow. You are WAY quicker than I.

You can see a doctor about that.

[LordCorbin]

Holy Craaaaaaaaaap! I love a good sound effect, and I had no idea that was Audra. Speaking of sound effects, I loved the Halo weapons sounds in Halo part, you need to put that in more offten, no matter what your talking about.

And speaking of Gouls, I’ve been thinking about changing my middle name to “And-his-undead-army-of-Gouls”, and making people use both first and middle name. What do you think?

I fully support both of these courses of action. seal of approval

[Shooter]

I’ll take the blame for this one, I guess. There’s nothing worse than making a funny and having it fall flat. For anyone else who’s wondering what the hell this is, here’s the deal laid bare:

A few weeks back in one of our production meetings I brought up the idea that we could do something entertaining for Halloween; rather than just another talk-about-something-Halloween-related, we could try our hands at a little radio theater and maybe make it kinda funny. At the time I had sort of a rough outline of what we could do, but I expected we’d have time to flesh it out more.

In short: we didn’t. And in classic Chuck style, I refused to let it go. Some interesting facts and lessons learned:

[ul]
[li]We actually recorded two separate versions of this, in pieces. Without time to sit down and write a script, we had to improv most of it, and it took a couple of tries to get enough to work with.
[/li][li]Improv is a lot harder than you’d imagine, and you (like me) probably imagined it to be hard at the start.
[/li][li]All the sound effects you hear – except the zombies and the window breaking at the end – are our own. I’m responsible for the initial getting into the car bit, Sean and I recorded any gun sounds and gunfire you hear (just a little bit at the very end – and they are indeed a 12-gauge and a .22 automatic), and Audra foley’d every other sound you hear including rummaging, doors opening/closing, etc.
[/li][li]Sound effect recording is a lot harder than you’d imagine, and you (like me) probably imagined it to be hard at the start.
[/li][li]The ODST segment was indeed a produced segment and was scheduled for release this week anyway, so we included it. Again, with some time to script it we’d probably have been able to make it clearer that we were playing a segment. But it was pretty much improv’d.
[/li][li]The call you hear to Juan is an actual Skype call, and it’s mostly unedited. Seems Juan is better at improv than most of us, and works great from a cold start (as I just called him up).
[/li][li]Editing on this 'cast took in excess of 12 hours over two days, not counting the prep work beforehand, about 3-4 hours of effect recording, and two nights of improv sessions. The final product utilized over 80 tracks in ProTools, which means it had to be rendered in four pieces, then re-assembled and rendered to the final file.
[/li][/ul]
All in all, this podcast suffered a lot from my underestimate of the time required to get it right. There’s a bunch of funny stuff and great ideas that just didn’t make it in due to time constraints. So I essentially learned two important lessons, one positive, one negative:

Negative: This stuff takes a lot of time, and if we ever do something like it again, I’ll need to schedule it months ahead of time, put together an actual script, break it down, and leave plenty of time to work through it.

Positive: If you filter out the frustration over time issues, this is kinda fun. Who knows? Maybe I’ll try something like this again in the future, though it’d almost definitely be separate from the podcast.

Anyway, hope you enjoy what’s there at least a bit. And next week we’re back to our regularly-schedule podcast, discussing Contact. We’ve already got some pieces of this week’s 'cast together, and you’re not going to believe it. Let’s just say this: don’t miss it. If you’re going to take a week off from GWC at some point, this shouldn’t be it. Those who watch Contact this week and participate in the podcast/discussion are going to get a really special look at it. Seriously.

Thank you for putting so much work into it. It was a very entertaining departure from the norm. Plus, in my opinion, it was the perfect cast to do it with - a halloween cast. I’m not big into horror, but there is something a little different when it comes from 1) Big SciFi fans and B) you three and the production team specifically. Everything you guys put out has been wonderful to listen do.

PS - I know my listing went 1 then B.

PPS - Please let us have a little advance notice if you ever wish to produce a Guild-style music video. I’m sure the hive mind would have lots of good suggestions for you.

PPPS - Looking forward to this week’s podcast!

[Sean]

PPS Who owns the 12-gauge?

PPPS And where were the zombie dogs?

Since we’re telling all this week… The shotgun was Bwana’s and it was him firing it. The .22’s used were both me and Bwana firing (however both .22’s used belonged to him as well)

And the as for the lack of zombie dogs, their agent couldn’t be reached for comment so they were unable to participate in the project. Hell hounds are such prima donna’s (or Pre-Madonna’s as my brother used to say)

[Uchiha_Daisuke]

When Chuck asked “What’s that smell” my first thought was that Chuck smells undead people.

My thought was Chuck passed gas and was shifting the blame to Sean.

Greatest cast ever!!! In hindsight, maybe we should have nominated GWC for Best Produced Podcast.

[CylonMATRIX]

Since we’re telling all this week… The shotgun was Bwana’s and it was him firing it. The .22’s used were both me and Bwana firing (however both .22’s used belonged to him as well)

And the as for the lack of zombie dogs, their agent couldn’t be reached for comment so they were unable to participate in the project. Hell hounds are such prima donna’s (or Pre-Madonna’s as my brother used to say)

Who’s Bwana?

[Pete_from_PA]

Who’s Bwana?

Sean’s dad.

[frakkintalos]

When Chuck asked “What’s that smell” my first thought was that Chuck smells undead people. And connected the Rover with the Winchester when mentioned.

I got it once someone giggle said, “Let’s go to the Rover.”

[Apollymy]

I got it once someone giggle said, “Let’s go to the Rover.”

Me, too. And then when Audra said “But we’ve been there 9 outta the last 10 nights!” I totally twigged what was going on!

[dxf]

Sean of the Dead. Niiice.

In Shaun of the Dead, I’ve long-since forgotten most of the dialogue, but I’m pretty sure a lot of the early TV reports are retreads of lines from Night of the Living Dead.

Tangent: Now I think of it, Night, Dawn, and Day have all been remade. Has another entire trilogy been remade?

[Pike]

Pet SotD peeve: If you’re going for the pun, why is it not “Shawn of the Dead?” If you’re not, why isn’t it “Sean of the Dead?”

[Default_Prophet]

Pet SotD peeve: If you’re going for the pun, why is it not “Shawn of the Dead?” If you’re not, why isn’t it “Sean of the Dead?”

Because Shaun is the british spelling of the name?

[frakkintalos]

Pet SotD peeve: If you’re going for the pun, why is it not “Shawn of the Dead?” If you’re not, why isn’t it “Sean of the Dead?”

Because Shaun is the british spelling of the name?

Cuz then it’s Seen of the Dead?

[Gryper]

Wow. You are WAY quicker than I.

You can see a doctor about that.

Oh my! LOL!

My thought was Chuck passed gas and was shifting the blame to Sean.

After Sean commented that it wasn’t him…I thought they were going to blame Audra.

I got it once someone giggle said, “Let’s go to the Rover.”

You just “someone’d” Chuck…bwahahahaha! Good one!

[FireBreathingChicken]

I was really hoping in the final battle there would be flute music…

[Chuck]

I was really hoping in the final battle there would be flute music…

Listen carefully. There is.