My mom and sisters should be in town right about now. Eager to spend some time with them, but today, first things first - we've got one shot to get my sisters into the recording studio to do their part, all of Airi's and Zaya's dialogue in the pilot for The Choices and the two teasers which precede it. I guess if the series continues we'll have to find a recording studio where they are, and work with them remotely from there. Happens all the time in indie animation, especially these very indie (and very covid) days we're living in. Surely can't be too difficult. Regardless, not a matter to think about until the very far future.
And after this week, well, no studio stuff for a while. Isaac, our audio guy, he's going on a trip for a couple of weeks. So we'll be back to editing Better Yet?, including getting Gretchen in to fill in her missing dialogue, the week of the 20th. I haven't talked about Isaac yet, I don't think; he put together a little music studio in Quincy not long ago, I found him through a friend who directed me to the music shop, who directed me to Isaac, and he has been very receptive to helping TAPAS out with our not-necessarily-musical schemes, he just appreciates art of all sorts.
A picture Isaac took of the last recording session.
Left to right: Randy Wolfmeyer as Gary, Gretchen Wolfmeyer as Jodie,
Sage Mann (me!) as Trent, Adrienne Fisk as Corrine, and Mason Ellison as Ryan.
The big family dinner scene gone horribly wrong is the show's very complex dramatic climax, and as such it's been a sticking point for Mason, our writer/director. It was the last scene to get out of rewrites, the last scene to get out of rehearsals, and the last scene we recorded, which even went on a little bit longer as Mason decided that, to get the good performances we needed, all five actors should be present for the actual dinner part. For every other scene with more than two characters in it, we recorded only one or two actors at a time, and this was the only scene with five characters in it. So we brought together the whole cast except Jerilyn, who is sort of a featured player, being my character's therapist, appearing only in two brief scenes.
Only, it's not the last scene recorded anymore, 'cause yeah, when Gretchen and Randy were recording the first scene they're in, it seems we completely forgot to get Gretchen's lines from after Randy's character exits the scene. Makes sense to me! That'll happen. We'll get it next time.
Been showing off a lot of stuff in private, insiders-only locations. Suffice to say we're definitely ready, after Better Yet? is done, to move on to The Choices and Irregular Fantasy! - hopefully not leaving Better Yet? in the dust as we do so, I'm sure it'll have time to experience some glory - and Mason expressed to me how overwhelmingly exciting it is to be moving forward and almost having stuff to share with people. I agreed, especially since I'd been planning to have all this stuff happen around this time last year. It's better this way, you know, not only do we have last year's disappointments to make this year's successes even more exciting, mistakes we've learned from to make things easier going forward... and it really wouldn't have worked as well last year; no vaccines, not many safe ways to get this stuff done. I think things are going just as they were meant to. Now we can have a wrap party!
So, back to work on the 20th, and we know what we're doing from there, having edited the first three scenes, figured out what it's like to edit scenes, so once we're back to work on it... July. Just July.
Good to have a little more time! More time to get Phase One finished, more time to get my laptop repaired, very much nice to have a deadline that's not freaking me out. I mean, we'll see how things end up when I find out how much time and money it'll take to get my hardware fixed, that might freak me out, but for now I'm good, time is on our side.
Another day now. My sisters have done their parts, that was really amazing. They're not experienced performers, and they were very nervous. Getting true intensity out of them was hard, but they still had some great standout moments. I'm hoping the story progresses and we get to see them grow and gain experience.
Apart from taking advantage of that little window of time with my sisters, we'll then be finishing up Better Yet? before we move on to anything else. That being said, a pretty major lull in the action is coming up for TAPAS; Isaac's going on vacation, so the editing of Better Yet? will be on hold for a couple of weeks, and I'm taking in my computer for repairs, so that'll slow things down until it's repaired. Which might take just a day, or might be several weeks, don't know. I just know a few bits of hardware need replacin'. I'll find out on Tuesday. Me without my laptop represents a massive lifestyle change, so I'm bracing myself for it being a long-term deal just in case.
So for now, taking a break. I think we'll have one big Zoom meeting about the future of Irregular Fantasy! before going on that lull. And hopefully I'll get the latest podcast done by then.
And... just did that, the meeting about Irregular Fantasy! I brought Mason into my usual Sunday meeting with Naty and Kenzie, and the four of us together read all the scripts, took some notes. Not a lot of notes, but at least we all know the big picture now for when it's time to properly write and design that stuff.
Funny thing, in reassembling the casts, everyone who didn't get back to me pretty much instantly, still hasn't gotten back to me. Heh, all or nothing, for some reason. I'll have to figure out some non-naggy ways to establish contact with everyone I still need. Well, I don't "need" them, if they tell me no I'll figure something out. But, you know, still gonna do all I can to get as much of last year's cast as possible.
Also kitties. I have tiny kitties now. More on that later, I put a few things on hold to discuss in the next blog. If my computer repair doesn't take very long, you'll see that at the usual time next week, if not... you'll see it when you see it. Cheers, all.
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