Last night was the recording session for the audio play version of Habitat. Chrissie captured me making my “smoldering” face in the recording studio:
Likewise, I captured her making her “I’m having so much fun!” face:
There were also pictures of Matt that I’m sure will emerge with time.
Despite that I’ve been a grown-up for a long time, and in L.A. for a long time, there’s still this thrill I get when I get the sense I’m being allowed to play with the grown-up toys. All of my podcast participation thus far has happened in living rooms – to be working with genuinely Very Expensive microphones in a soundproof room where the Real Professionals record by day, I still feel like somehow I’m getting away with something.
I remember, in college, working on a silly little VHS camcorder movie (yes, folks, that’s how old I am), and sneaking into an editing room in the art building to use their dubbing machines to cut it together. I had never used anything like it before but I taught myself and didn’t break anything – which is my favorite kind of learning. I got run out of there just as I finished all the picture edits. And I still get this funny feeling that, when I do things like this, I’m going to get run out of the building at any moment.
Speaking of that silly camcorder movie, that was the last time that I wrote a role specifically for myself to play. Even as the acting side of my ambitions has blossomed so rapidly in the last couple of years, I still haven’t given myself a part. Part of it is that Writer Nick has high standards, damn it. And part is that my maturation as an actor has involved a lot of work at my sense of self-awareness, an understanding of what I “do” as an actor combined with the cultivation of a belief that what I do can be worthwhile. So I wasn’t just going to wedge a “me” role into a script unless it seemed to fit organically with the idea.
But it’s finally come together, and last night it was my own words on the music stand, and my own voice performing them. I won’t deny I gave myself a tricky role, and with the microphone so sensitive I could hear every syllable where I felt I could have done better. I have to admit, though, that I could get used to this voice-acting thing. Matt, who was directing from the booth, admitted that he could get used to this sort of thing too. What’s not to love about being able to get an alternate version of a line just by touching the intercom button and asking for it? No need to reset cameras or anything.
The script in its audio drama form is 40 pages long, which we hope produces a 30-40 minute episode; and all-in we were probably recording for about 2 1/2 hours last night. We easily could have spent two full days getting all the nuances right, but I still think we have enough raw material for something really good. It’s in Matt’s hands now to edit and finish with music and sound effects. Because I trust him thoroughly, I get to just relax and be excited to hear the finished product now.
Not completely, though. I don’t intend for Earbud to be Habitat‘s last stop. So I’ll be working on incorporating what I’ve learned through this adaptation back into the feature version of the script; and see if anyone else thinks like I do that this thing could be a movie.