This was another big one, and another episode I took a long time to put together. I was supposed to produce it numerous times during the 1UP Pod run of the show, but kept pushing it back because it felt like a tricky one to edit. It turns out that I was way off and it was among the easiest to do, I just need to ignore myself sometimes.
However, there was one massive technical issue when I lost my first recording to a computer crash just as I was about to save the file. I made two attempts to record it again – one was abandoned halfway through because I couldn’t get a quiet enough environment, and the second one was recorded while I was looking after my youngest and needed to take long breaks during recording to play with him/change his butt. That was the one I went with, once I removed all the extended silences where you could hear me trying to reason with a toddler (which I know is akin to trying to push back the tides with a broom, but I still try).
My eldest kid played Barnabus in the episode and they were super enthusiastic about being part of the show in some way, after getting the acting bug from several lead performances in school plays. I was really happy with their work. I remember one note I gave them to correct a line reading came after an overly chipper, verging on smug sounding delivery and I wanted something a little more weary and bored. I asked my kid to imagine we were out shopping and they’d already done all the fun stuff and just wanted to go home. They nailed it at that point.
Editing was really easy, putting together effects for scenes felt effortless – a lot of time and work but never a struggle. Creating the ambience for the town square or the tavern was a lot of fun, piecing together the bandit fight scene was breezy and satisfying. It really did cement the feeling I had after finishing my GTA episode – that I was back on form.
I played the monster hunter that killed me, wrecked my voice doing a Geralt esque rasp, but this was because an offer made to a friend to voice the character fell through. I tried to keep the dialogue to a minimum to help cover for my inadequacies as a voice actor, but I was happy with how the scene played out. I’ve come to accept that part of my show’s charm is the home made quality and me voicing a lot of characters (to mixed results) is part of that.
Overall, this is one of my favourite episodes – especially from a storytelling perspective – and on a sentimental note, because it’s the first one I got to share with my kid who I love to bits.