(CS 5) Production Notes

(very minor spoiler for episode 5 below)

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It was neat to switch to doing normal inflection and emphasis for Body’s voice this week. When I first started Crystal Society the robot voice was so unnatural and weird that I had to do multiple takes to get it properly flat and monotone. It didn’t take too long to learn though, but then just as I get it down, we switch to human-inflection, and I gotta uproot all those habits! It was interesting clearing my throat and practicing saying “Mister Potter” in a sardonic tone a few times again. :) Made me nostalgic, but not in a bad way (which I say because I generally despise that emotion).

I did have a lot of self-doubt this episode. On the /hpmor subreddit a few weeks back someone commented that in their opinion, my emphasis was wrong, and wrong in exactly the right way to maximally grate against their own internal voice when reading the story (every single time!) that they just couldn’t listen to the HPMoR podcast. I know there’s many ways to read a text, and a performance is inherently interpretive, and everyone’s vision is different, etc etc. I know lots of people like what I did, and I’m grateful for that. :) But the entire time I was recording this episode a mental thread kept surfacing saying “Hey, is your emphasis off here? Does it make you sound weird and like you don’t get it? Maybe you should try that line again…” It was hard smothering it down.

Which is not to complain about that comment on the subreddit or anything! It’s a valid opinion, and totally legit, and I don’t want the commentor to feel bad for speaking about their experience and finding other people to share in it. That builds community too! ^^ I just hope it evaporates from my brain quickly so I can get back to recording without that whispering doubt bugging me. And I suppose writing about it doesn’t help that process. Doh.