Godspeed, Crazy Mike Journal (Week 2)

Welcome to the second week (first full week) of this detailed behind-the-scenes look at the August (“Calling Out of Time”) and September (“Godspeed, Crazy Mike”) episodes of Not About Lumberjacks. (“Calling Out of Time” came out today…you can listen to it, here.)

Here’s what last week was like…

7/25/21 – Sunday

Work shifted from “Godspeed, Crazy Mike” to “Calling Out of Time.”

I recorded with markers, which means…when I mess up a line, I push the M key on my MacBook Air’s keyboard, and it makes a marker I can go to until I get a good take. It makes knowing where bad takes are, making it easy to delete them.

I used to spend 4-6 hours trying to find the best takes. It’s now roughly an hour-long process.

7/26/21 – Monday

The narration for “Calling Out of Time” is all together. I got to listen to it during lunch today, and I’m pleased with the story. I made notes on the manuscript of changes I made while recording, so the transcript will be ready to load when I release the episode.

As you can see, progress on “Godspeed, Crazy Mike,” shifted to “Calling Out of Time,” and that will likely continue through the week.

I also noted effects I’ll have to make and find for the episode. Once I make that list, I can get busy making sounds.

7/27/21 – Tuesday

I entered changes and set up the transcript page (see previous photo) for “Calling Out of Time,” so all I’ll have to do when the time comes is link it from the episode show notes.

I’m not sure if anyone even uses the transcripts, and I understand why some people who post stories instead of scripts are apprehensive about them. It would be quite easy for someone to snag all the transcripts and publish an e-book or something. But if it helps someone with a hearing impairment, it’s worth the effort to me.

Theoretically, it also makes it easier for reviewers to pull quotes, but…at least right now, over six and a half years into the show, it’s received virtually no coverage. Which is why I need to create a press kit and work at getting more people to listen.

7/28/21 – Wednesday

Spent the morning before work getting the latest episode of Men in Gorilla Suits out. Men in Gorilla Suits is another podcast I do…a thing where a friend and I pick a topic and discuss it 10 to 12 different ways.

During my lunch break, I went through the sounds for “Calling Out of Time,” and color coded everything so I know what I need to find, what I need to make, what I might already have, and some things I may find or make.

(Yellow = Find. Blue = Sounds I Will Create. Purple = Either Find or Make. Green (Not Shown) = Ready Sounds.)

The sounds are broken up by scene, which I do on the big printed version of the episode…where I make notes about everything: sounds, rerecordings, music, and updates for the transcript.

It can be a time-consuming step, but it’s good to have everything ready up front, so you’re not in the middle of putting an episode together and running to the closet to make a sound you forgot about. (Although, it always still seems to happen…)

Regarding music. I get most music these days through a paid account through Epidemic Sound. It allows me to sort by moods, genres, and so many other things. Once I find an artist I like, I listen to their works on the site and save them to a folder I create on the site for the episode.

At this point, I grab anything that sounds like it might work for the story…and then go through with the story in hand, listening to pieces of music while narrating to see what sounds best at certain points.

7/29/21 – Thursday

This is where the whole process becomes rather repetitive. Spent my lunch break finding and thinking about how to make the sounds that will accompany “Calling Out of Time.”

I have everything assigned, and know what sounds I need to make. Most can be done in our apartment, but a walk to the park down the street is likely in order.

7/30/21 – Friday

Recorded some sounds for “Calling Out of Time” during lunch break today. The protagonist walks with a cane, so I grabbed my great-grandfather’s old [sword] cane and I little Ikea candle lantern (fitting—it was my Swedish great-grandfather’s cane). I made sounds to mimic the protagonist tapping the metal and glass of the phone booth he discovers.

Recording effects is always interesting. Sometimes, the thing you need sound for—if recorded from the real thing you need—doesn’t sound as much like the thing as something else entirely.

I tested sounds by tapping the metal on our patio door…and on the glass of an old china cabinet we have. But my wife seems to have a knack for imagining what will sound better than even the real thing in one’s ear…and she suggested the Ikea lantern.

It has the loose sound of a beat-up phone booth…not as solid as the metal on our patio door…and there was no risk to an antique cabinet’s glass, either.

I look forward to the weekend and hopefully getting all the effects I need together so I can begin assembling the episode.

7/31/21 – Saturday

The morning was all about making sounds…and gathering and organizing sounds I already have.

“Calling Out of Time” is a simple story, but whew…it seems like a lot of sound design. Most of it, though, is made up from lots of little sounds…not big soundscapes. All those tiny bits do add up, though!

I still have a bit more to d, but I hope to begin really putting the episode together tomorrow!