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- [00:05]
A
Hi all. This is Mark, the Mark who writes and co produces the show. Not the Mark I Also voice in archive 81.
- [00:14]
B
And this is Dan, the Dan who co produces the show and does the sound design and music. And pretty much not the character of Dan in Archive 81. Although there are some strange similarities that we don't have to get into.
- [00:25]
A
We do not have to get into it anyway, so first off, we would like to thank all you of all of you for listening to the show. Season three was a really, really eventful experience. It was a lot of work, but it's something that we're really, really proud of. I don't know about you. It's probably my favorite season. Although that's like picking between children. Except not. Because if I was like a mom or a dad, I feel like I could easily pick between my children, you know, like, I would definitely have a favorite.
- [00:53]
B
It's, it's funny that these themes, choosing a favorite children. It's funny. They don't come in to play in the show. Oh wait, they do come in to play in the show a little bit.
- [01:03]
A
Season 3 of Arcade 81. Daddy issues. Anyway, so, yes, thank you so much for listening to it. Thank you for supporting us on Patreon. Thank you for tweeting about it. Thank you for giving us a review on itunes. We always appreciate your support and we always appreciate you listening to the weird stuff that we make.
- [01:23]
B
Yes, it makes our day to know that there are so many of you out there who listen to this weird and wonderful adventure we have crafted.
- [01:30]
A
Exactly. So a couple things that we wanted to do in this special fun wrap up episode is we are going to get to some of your questions, not all of your questions because, oh my God, you asked us so many questions. So we'll get to some of your questions. Thank you, by the way, for sending us so, so, so many questions. And then before that, Dan will talk about a cool little other extra bonus thing that he's working on. And before that, and before that, I mean, right now we're going to talk about the thing that you probably want to know most about, which is what we're working on next. So next up, a little bit tentatively, but we're confident that this is the direction we're going to go with, is going to be a short little miniseries, kind of like the golden age, and it is tentatively titled Left of the Dial. Although we reserve the right to make changes to the title depending on if we feel like changing the title. If you've ever been in a car and you've gone to somewhere you've never been, somewhere in the middle of nowhere, and you've just, like, tuned the radio dial and you've heard strange things coming out the speaker.
- [02:46]
B
You.
- [02:46]
A
You hear, like strange, weird sermons. You hear music you've never heard before. And it all feels a little bit alien and a little bit disquieting and a little bit of that strange archive 81 magic that we so like to replicate. So that's the direction we're going to go with. That's going to be the short little miniseries before season four. And we're really excited to share everything once it gets into a place where we can share it.
- [03:17]
B
But it's going to be awesome. Even if we change it to something that's radically different from what we say it is now, it's going to be awesome and you guys are going to love it.
- [03:27]
A
Yeah, no, I mean, that's the main thing. To take away. Whatever we make, you guys are going to like. And if you don't like it, that's your fault, not ours.
- [03:36]
B
It's a podcast. You can. You can just turn it off instead of. You don't have to sit in the theater or feel pressured to stay at the show.
- [03:41]
A
Right.
- [03:42]
B
You bought a ticket. You can just.
- [03:43]
A
Right. I mean, to be fair, we did. When we saw Assassination Nation leave five minutes in and go to screening of.
- [03:51]
B
The Nun, that was the best bail and switch movie decision I think I've ever.
- [03:56]
A
Oh, my God. It was.
- [03:57]
B
I think that was really a good call on all fronts there.
- [04:00]
A
Oh, yeah, Assassination Nation. Not a good movie. The Nun, a wild and bonkers movie that I had a lot of fun watching with you. Anyway, just so that this doesn't become a nuncast, that's my other podcast, Nuncast, where we talk about nuns and news and films relating to them. Anyway, Dan, if you want to cut this part out, the. The Nun digression, please do.
- [04:27]
B
You know, it's good to have a little nun digression to work with.
- [04:30]
A
Yeah. Going to give a lot of editing work for Dan.
- [04:33]
B
That's actually my ringtone. Whenever you call, it's you saying that on the loop. It alternates between that and this should be a fun challenge for you.
- [04:44]
A
Okay, so before we get to your questions, Dan actually has a really, really cool behind the scenes thing that he's working on. Dan, would you like to talk a little bit about that?
- [04:54]
B
Sure. So even though season three is over, Mark and I love to have lots of hashtag content for you all. I am working on Basically, a small music featurette that breaks down in probably too nerdy, painstaking detail, all of the music in season three of Archive 81, and talks about the writing process, talks about how certain sounds were created, how things go from start to finish, how they go from a line of text in the script to the complete song in the show. If you've ever listened to the podcast Song Exploder, it's a lot like that. It's just sort of breaking down a song into its essential ingredients and discussing what makes it tick. I am working on that. And we should have it out by the end of this week, probably by the weekend. And it will be available to all Patreon subscribers.
- [05:42]
A
Mm. Yep. And we'll probably make it, knock on wood, available to everybody with no donation required, because it's very, very, very cool. And I want people to listen to it and realize how much work you did on it. But you will be able to find that in our Patreon feed, patreon.com archive81. And if you're there and you are feeling generous and you're feeling like you want to help support the stuff we make, you can make a donation. I understand if that's difficult for y', all, but it's. It's there and we really appreciate it. And as we gear up for Left of the Dial and season four, money and resources are much appreciated. So without further ado, let's get on to questions. Yeah, cool, cool, cool. So, first off from email, Nate asks, Loved the third season. You guys are making some wonderful fiction. Aw, thanks, Nate. I've got a question regarding the huge shifts between each season from Dan listening to tapes in season one to the exploration of a strange new world in season two, to a whole new cast performing a mysterious ritual in season three. Each season almost feels like a whole new show. What inspired your decision to have such dramatic changes between each season? So, essentially, at least for me, because we get bored. And it is much more fun to do a show that is surprising and changes a lot than one that kind of follows a predictable path and is just like Archive 82. This time, it's a mental hospital. That would just be a terrible idea for a bunch of different reasons. But, you know, it would also be very boring and not something I really want to write. Dan, do you have a better, more interesting answer?
- [07:41]
B
I agree. I mean, we get bored and we also. The great thing about Archive 81 is it has this frame to it of someone listening to tapes. There's the found footage, cassettes aspect to it, and I think one thing that was really great about the architecture of the changes like season to season is that same frame is applied to different circumstances and then in season three to different characters. We actually, in early brainstorming talks for season three, we were initially going to have Dan more involved and we eventually decided, you know what, it's time for Dan to take a back seat. Because. Because other characters, one, the real Dan is tired and wants to focus on the music and sound design. But two, you know, the frame of a character listening to tapes is something you can really. It doesn't just have to be Dan doing that. You know, any, any character in the universe can do that. So it's great to have a sort of central storytelling device that can be applied in so many different ways with different characters. And I think it's really fun for us to like switch that up and just see, you know, how can we take this sort of basic ingredient and just change the settings and the themes and all that, so.
- [08:52]
A
Right. And I think that like with the seasons, we're kind of exploring different aspects of the genre. Like season one was essentially haunted house type fiction a little bit. Season two was a mix between body horror and Lovecraft Dreamlands stuff. And then season three was more ritual based, more magic elements. So it's nice to shift them up. It's just fun. Yeah. Like originally we had in season three in the preparations, you were like stuck in the body of this floating organic whale and like gradually discovering new aspects of this. It was sort of once again very Jeff Vandermeer and like super gross. And you would have had to do a lot of acting and for many very good reasons, we decided to shift it away and have Kristen and Peter do a. Not a better job because I think you're a great actor. But it's a much easier job for us if our main characters are not voiced by the person.
- [10:08]
B
Sound designing, definitely, you know, as the co producers, it's good for us to sort of have some objective distance from the main performance. And the other thing is I honestly felt like the character of Dan only had. So I feel like there was only so much I could say as Dan.
- [10:24]
A
Right.
- [10:24]
B
I feel like there's. And I feel like, honestly, even if people might think otherwise, I think people would have gotten sick of like, ugh, God damn it. I gotta find the. You know, like there's only so much. There's only so much you can do with that. And we think it's probably good to quit while we're ahead with Dan and bring some New people into the fold.
- [10:42]
A
Right.
- [10:43]
B
Obviously, it's still fun to have Dan involved in the background and just kind of popping in and out, but, yeah, I did not have any hesitations about handing the lead performance role over to new people, so, yeah, that was good.
- [11:00]
A
Yeah. Moving on to the next question. This one's from Will. Will asks, who is your favorite character?
- [11:09]
B
I love Static man in this season. Sometimes when I'm reading script drafts for the first time, it'll take a little while for me to wrap my head around new characters and sort of parse out where they fit into the story. Static man, it was very much a love at first sight. Like, oh, my God, this is awesome. This crazy entity who loves Popeyes and is really funny. I would say, yeah, from season three, it would definitely be Static man all the way. And in terms of the show as a whole, I'll come back to that. What about you, Mark?
- [11:41]
A
Well, I like static man 2. That was just a blast to write, just because he is just a bro I have met at bad college parties, but just with a bunch of eldritch evil power. So it's literally just a college bro. But, you know, he can rip people in half with his teeth. So it's difficult for me to pick favorite characters because they're all my children and I love them equally. But just like children, there are some I love more than others. So for this season, I really enjoyed writing Christine and Nicholas's sibling dynamic. Cristine is a lot of parts of me essentially, like Cristine is half of my personality and Nicholas is the other half, and I just segmented them. But I really do like. It's probably a toss up for me of. Gosh darn it. This is really, really. This is genuinely difficult to decide.
- [12:45]
B
Yeah, you're having to choose your favorite child right now.
- [12:50]
A
Yes. This is Sophie's Choice, and I just watched that movie recently, and I no longer like making that comparison. So this is a difficult decision. Yeah, so it might be Nicholas, but I also really, really enjoy Payphone. I enjoy writing very creepy robot voiced characters. That's. That's a. That's a thing that I enjoy doing. And also, I know we only got him for a couple scenes, but writing for Lou is really fun. I really enjoy that character's growth, and I like how you get him in small doses. And Alistair does a really, really good job. He has some of the best comic timing, so it's just really fun to see how he reacts to stuff. So did you have a favorite character in general? Oh, also no, no, scratch that. My favorite character is Mark, the character based on me. Duh.
- [13:48]
B
Oh, man. I wonder what led you to that decision.
- [13:51]
A
Yeah, no, he's just really, really charming and I think that, like, he just sounds really handsome and smart, you know?
- [14:01]
B
You guys can't see into the studio we're in right now, but Mark, the real Mark, just handed me a piece of paper saying, dan, please say that the character Mark's phone number is the same as the real Mark. I'm not going to read this. I think I'm going to. We can put this at the end of the show.
- [14:17]
A
Yeah, no. So did you have a favorite character from the entire thing or.
- [14:24]
B
It's so hard to pick. I love Nick and Christine. It's very clear to me, as your friend and colleague, how they are sort of two halves of the Mark Salinger personality. And that's fun to see. Yeah, it's really tough. I don't know. I don't think I. Yeah, I'm going to pass on that for now. It's too hard to choose because each season is kind of a universe unto itself, so I don't know. Yeah.
- [14:54]
A
So, moving on to the next question. So Josie asks how she can contribute to this amazing project and a lot of people have asked similar questions. So best way to do that is by Patreon. If you have the money, donating to us on Patreon is great. Plus you get bonus content, extra Q and A Sessions, and a 10 episode science fiction audio drama. That was the first project Dan and I worked on together. But other than that, there's telling your friends and spreading the word. That's much appreciated.
- [15:32]
B
Spread the word.
- [15:33]
A
Yeah, exactly. Spread the word. That's much appreciated.
- [15:37]
B
The Archive 81 street team is still in the works, but once we have this sort of merch and plan ready for that, we'll let you know.
- [15:46]
A
Yeah. Leaving a review, a positive review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast, that's much appreciated. But honestly, listening is nice. We're glad that you're fans. You don't have to donate money on our Patreon. We don't want to hard push it. Like, yeah, if you can, it's much appreciated. But if you.
- [16:10]
B
And even if you think like, not to be all public radio fundraiser right now, but even if you think like, oh, $1 isn't going to do anything, like no amount is too small, like it seriously all helps.
- [16:24]
A
Dan and I both work in public radio, so we both have very, very attuned pledge.
- [16:30]
B
Yeah. As someone who Literally has to mix fundraising promos at my D Day job. You know, learned a thing or two about guilting your audience, but okay.
- [16:39]
A
Yeah, no. So moving on to questions we got from Reddit. Ol Shrimpdog. We're gonna have much more fun names now that we get to Reddit and Tumblr.
- [16:51]
B
Ol Shrimp Dog, I love that. Guy.
- [16:55]
A
Asks, can Dan survive, quote, unquote, real New York City despite parts of his body being mechanical?
- [17:03]
B
Speaking hypothetically, I think, yeah, I think a weird body mod Dan could fit in perfectly well in Bushwick or any part of New York. If you were to get on the subway and see some half radio, half metal creature get on with tape sticking out of his body, a lot of everyday New Yorkers would probably just, like, look up for a second and then just go back to, like, reading whatever they're reading or listening to their headphones. You know, of all the. Of all the metropolitan areas, you know, I think New York would be good for Body Modified Den. Maybe Berlin also. But anyway, that's just my theory.
- [17:50]
A
The real answer is, can anyone survive New York, what with rent prices? But also, the real answer is his body is no longer mechanical. He is now fine. He is now 100% Dan. Canonically. Oh, cool. That's something. I can. I can say it's stuff and it's canon. Oh, that's very cool. Anyway, canonically, I don't know what to do with his power, but I'll think of something cool. So, moving on to the next question. How much explaining do you have to do with your actors to get the desired reaction in a scene where they're seeing something? We only get a vague description for. So for the most part, not too much. Our actors are professionals. Our actors are really good, and they're able to kind of just get what we're going for with fairly limited direction. Honestly, like, for the most part, our instincts are always to tone it down rather than increase their emotional energy. Like when I'm directing, like, my notes are always decrease that emotional energy because podcasts are such an intimate medium that the instinct is to go. And since you can't see anything, it's to heighten stuff and be more theatrical. But I personally think the correct response is to lower the emotional energy because podcasts are an intimate medium.
- [19:20]
B
And.
- [19:20]
A
And if things are, oh, God, no, the monsters, Clarice, no. Please protect us from the monsters. We are being chased. No. Then it's phony. And people get that instantly.
- [19:35]
B
Agree. I think, you know, we try to get the character right at the casting stage. We try to, I think when we're going through auditions and working with our amazing casting agent, Jamie, who also, just.
- [19:49]
A
FYI, also plays the payphone.
- [19:51]
B
Yes.
- [19:52]
A
She's very, very talented and we're very sad that she moved.
- [19:56]
B
Yes. Why is she in Pittsburgh and not New York? When we are going through auditions and working with Jamie, we really try to find actors who just have something innate in them that we feel really works for that character. Initially casting Nicholas, we were just looking for someone who could really do a good Orson Welles for the golden age. That's how we found Peter, who plays Nicholas. And you know, Jamie just sent us, I think it was like an all caps email to the Dead signals Gmail account saying, I got your Orson Welles right here and sent us Peter's stuff. And we were just like, yeah, like that's it. He's our guy.
- [20:34]
A
Yeah. And it's very lucky that, like he was able to actually do more things than Orson Welles.
- [20:41]
B
Yeah.
- [20:41]
A
Because we would have been just screwed if he wasn't. Yeah.
- [20:45]
B
Yes. So we lucked out a lot in that sense. But yeah, I mean, the key is just to get the ingredients right from the get go with. With the actors.
- [20:55]
A
Yeah. Cool. So moving on to the next question, Rivers with a Z asks, why doesn't Static man know that the greatest fast food chicken is Bojangles? Get the man some friends from the south and a Supreme's platter, extra seasoning on the fries, a Bo sauce and a Cheerwine. And you are going to take this, Dan, because you're actually from the South.
- [21:21]
B
I am. I don't know who you are at Rivers, but I'm guessing you're from Georgia. I have a feeling. I grew up in a town with like three Bojangleses. So, you know, this is close to home.
- [21:36]
A
300 people in that town and three Bojangles. Right?
- [21:39]
B
Yes. Bojangles. So this is pure the answer to this question. This is just guessing on my part. Mark, you can chime in since you created Static Man. My guess is that since Static man is a college party bro, and that Mark may have been influenced by the real life college party bros we ran into while attending the great institution of Syracuse University. I'm guessing he's from the northeast area or went to school somewhere to some kind of like big northeast state school.
- [22:10]
A
Right.
- [22:11]
B
In which case he would have, you know, Popeyes wings, all the sort of like Buffalo Wild Wings, all of the chicken joints that are north of the Mason Dixon line probably would have formed his palate for this. And he, you Know, outside of a Mardi Gras trip down to New Orleans with his frat brothers, I don't think Static man would have been exposed to Bojangles.
- [22:32]
A
Right.
- [22:33]
B
But that's just my guess. So.
- [22:35]
A
So Static man is a bro with hipster elements. It's important to add that he does have some hipster elements. Like, he sees, he knows adventure, time and stuff. So he's based on, like, not full frat bros, but, like, the cool frat bros that I kind of knew but still wasn't a huge fan of. So Static Man's adoration and love of Popeyes is based on my adoration and love of Popeyes. I really enjoyed Popeyes fried chicken. It's good. And I thought it was interesting to have something to ground him, like, in a physical way, since he's such a, like, nebulous character, since he's literally made of static and teeth. Like, it's important to keep the weird stuff grounded. And Popeyes was a really fun way to do that. But, yes, since I went to college in the Northeast, and since I live in the Northeast now, the Popeyes is basically where you get your good fried chicken. Although Boston does have a really good fried chicken place called Raisin Cane's, which might be better than Popeyes.
- [23:43]
B
I want to go there next time I'm in town. I would like to check that out.
- [23:47]
A
It's good. It's good. The sauce is really good. It's basically just a. They put it right by Boston University, so it's basically like a honey trap for drunk college kids anyway. So we could definitely spend hours and hours talking about fried chicken, but we will not. So, moving on to Facebook, Kara or Kara asks, were there any other ideas for rooms in Alastor's creation? I'm incredibly fascinated by it all, so kind of like, it's not like I came up with a bunch of hundred weird rooms and then narrowed it down. It's just a. It's. It's a matter of thinking of cool, like, little images or things to mess the characters with. For the most part, I didn't think of weird rooms. I thought of weird situations to put the characters in. So, for example, the bee room, I was like, ooh, bees are creepy. Essentially, it's like, okay, well, they're not that creepy if nobody has an allergy. And we can't, like, say episode. I believe it was episode nine. Hey, Christine, you have an allergy, right? So this is really creepy. So I was like, okay, well, we'll have to add in, like, a bunch of bee references to the rest of the show and we added them back that way. Moving on to more Facebook questions, Reggie asks, when you began season one, did you have an outline of an idea for a second season or the third? Or were they created after the previous one ended? And the answer is, we did not have an outline. No.
- [25:43]
B
Nope, nope, nope.
- [25:45]
A
Not at all.
- [25:47]
B
We had no idea things were going to take off as much as they did. In our first discussion when we were about to launch it, we were like, you know what? I think it'd be cool if 5000 downloads, if we got that, that was our reach goal. We were like, it'd be nice if that happened.
- [26:02]
A
We started season one so that like, if it ended, we would be happy with it. Like, it would be a complete thing, you know, but still, it still obviously left things very, very open for, for a second season and a third season. But yeah, I mean, we had no idea about like the weird city or ritual magic or anything. Like, I personally think it's much better to do the things that interest you and find interesting ideas based on how the season goes and how it comes along rather than like, have a five season. Like, here's exactly where I want the characters to be at the end of episode 73, and if they're not there, it's a failure and blah blah, blah, blah. Like, then it's just like Lost and Lost sucks.
- [27:01]
B
Well, after a certain point, Lost sucks. Then again, I haven't. I didn't make it to season three. At all. So yeah, maybe that is a testament. But yeah, that's. And on that note, if any aspiring podcasters or audio drama producers are listening, make the shit you want to make. Like, tell the story you want to tell, all the things you're interested in. Don't worry about, like, is this marketable? Or like, oh, is this going to be part of my three part Wagnerian cycle of podcasts? That is a magnum opus. Just like, make one thing that's really good and if it's good, then everything else will follow organically.
- [27:40]
A
Right. So moving on, AJ asks, can you recommend any other stories of high strangeness, cosmic horror from other forms of media, books, comics, movies, shows, etc. That could hold us over until season four? Or left at the Dial the Miniseries between seasons three and four? That person didn't write that in the question. That was just me adding in. Dan, do you have anything they could watch, consume, listen to?
- [28:10]
B
Yeah, I guess, if you like the. I'm sure we've recommended this before, so if this is redundant, I Apologize. But if you like the weird fiction thing, the novels of China Mieville, particularly the Bas Lag trilogy, starting with Perdido Street Station, are really awesome. Especially if you like the weird world building in our show. Chances are you will enjoy the weird world building in those books. Movies wise. The most bizarre cosmically strange movie I saw recently was an anime movie from 2004 called Mind Game that is absolutely incredible and unlike anything else I've seen before. It's one of those movies that, like, really haunted me for a while and it's best to go in blind, so I won't say anything about it.
- [28:56]
A
Well, I am just about to watch or start watching rather, the Haunting of Hill House, and I'm very excited to start that. So I don't know if it's good, but I am hoping it's good. I'll start watching that right after I see all episodes of Great British Baking show, because that's where I'm at in my life. But I'm sure I've recommended this before, but basically everything by Jeff Vandermeer is very, very good. Very similar to stuff that we've done. Yeah, Jeff Vandermeer is probably the person to start with. Uncle Boonmi, who can recall his past Lives, is one of the best movies ever made, I'm gonna say. It's a Thai movie. Everybody calls it Lynchian, and I hate that adjective. But it's probably. It's a good way to describe it. It's. It's. There's a dreamlike quality to it, and it's just absolutely wonderful. It's. It's got. It's. It's weird, but it's got its own internal emotional logic, which I think is the thing that separates good weird from bad weird. Yeah. So Uncle Boonmi, who can recall his past lives also, and this was a thing that I'm a big fan of the movie Dogtooth, if you've seen that, it is another great, great movie. And if you're interested in exploring the strange family dynamics found in season three, that's a good movie to start with. So, okay, yeah, watch dog.
- [30:42]
B
I gotta check out Uncle Boonmi. I've never heard of that.
- [30:45]
A
Oh, so good. So good. Up next, for next question to answer, Jennifer asks if there are any. Were any scenes in season three recorded on location? If so, which scenes and where? If there were any record of the location, what was the hardest part about it?
- [31:06]
B
So for the most part, we did not record on location. We did pretty much all of the principal recording in a studio in the same two studios over the course of two weekends. Just a very intense kind of production process there. So we did most of the scenes just in the studio. And the reason that is it's just logistically, a lot easier for us. Mark lives in Boston. I live in New York. But he comes to New York because that's where our actors are, pretty much. So when Mark is only in town for, like, a short period of time, logistically, it's just not really, like, effective for us to, like, do locations scouting, because, as Mark can tell you, scheduling stuff even just in the same studio is really, really a process.
- [31:56]
A
It's really so difficult. It's so difficult. Like, it is. Basically, I get in this to write cool, like, weird fiction and work with a friend to create cool audio, and then I end up with this, like, time management jigsaw puzzle I have to do every season. And I have to be like, okay, so here's the scenes that you two can do together, but you can't work that one day because blah, blah, blah. But you can't work the other day. And it's like every stupid math slash logic puzzle. And it is so annoying. It's so annoying. It's so annoying.
- [32:38]
B
It is annoying. But Mark does a very good job at it.
- [32:41]
A
Thank you.
- [32:42]
B
And Mark's a really good friend for doing it all.
- [32:45]
A
Yeah, right. I was always in advanced math. Not bragging, but, you know, I was really cool. I was also in the honors program in my university. Renee Crown University honors program. Yeah.
- [32:58]
B
So he still puts that on his resume, I hear.
- [33:02]
A
Hey, it's a. It's a. It's an honor, they say, list degrees and honors.
- [33:07]
B
Yeah, yeah. And I graduated with distinction.
- [33:10]
A
Yeah. The distinction.
- [33:11]
B
Anyway. Well, yeah, Absolutely devastating. Anyway, so there was actually.
- [33:20]
A
They're gonna. The audience is gonna see our partnership break up live during this Q and A.
- [33:25]
B
This is like Simon and Garfunkel backstage at Central park in 1981.
- [33:31]
A
My favorite thing about their antagonism and their heated. Heated rivalry and hatred is that it's okay. It's just Paul Simon just calling him a talentless fuck off that should die in a hole. And Garfunkel being just super mean and catty. And then they go on stage and they perform like.
- [33:52]
B
Like the sweetest melodies you've.
- [33:55]
A
I am just a boxer Though my story seldom told it's like. Like just Choir of angels. And then backstage, it's like, I will kill your mother, and then I'll kill your dog. And it's then America. It's like, okay, cool.
- [34:15]
B
Makes you wonder, like, would. If they had been a metal band, maybe they would have gotten their aggression out in the music and wouldn't have had any left for one another.
- [34:24]
A
Yeah.
- [34:26]
B
Another thing Garfunkel said that was fucked up was, like, when they first were in high school and playing together and, like, starting to get some success, he, like, turned to Paul at a photo shoot and was like, you know, like, you're writing the songs, but no matter how good we get, I'm always gonna be taller than you. Like, allegedly, he said that, which is just like, dude. Like, it's so, like. Like, you have a great voice. He writes great songs. Like, just. Anyway, so that was a real digression there, but there was one scene recorded on location, and that was the minor character from the real life reimagined podcast. What actually happened? That was my uncle. I was visiting him and my aunt at their family farm, and I just recorded him in his kitchen talking about it. Because in a true crime podcast that is, you know, how it would be recorded on location. And one, I just. It wasn't logistically easy to get him into the studio. And two, it just was kind of like, well, might as well just do this here and have it sound a little raw. But that's pretty much it. I mean, for the most part, I find if you have the budget and logistical, you know, ability to record things on location for an audio drama, it can be really cool. I don't think it's necessary. I think the main thing is that you record it really, really well in the studio. And ideally, if possible, like, have, in addition to the primary microphones on the character's voices, have, like, a room mic so you can play with perspectives and stuff. But, you know, we didn't even really do that. So. Yeah, it's really. Yeah, it was pretty much all studio affair.
- [36:08]
A
Yeah, I think. I think location recording is. It's. It's cool if you want to do it. Okay, so up next, mattlaguetti asks, how many hours of editing do your episodes typically take and what inspires you?
- [36:28]
B
I really should. You know, every season we do. I'm like, oh, I should, like, do the thing where I, like, measure how much time I spend editing an episode, and I never do. So I'm really sorry. I'm gonna be, like, eyeballing it here. The sort of principle take. Editing doesn't take that long. Just, like, finding the master takes and cleaning that up. That takes about, like, I would say, you know, two to three hours per episode, assembling it and Then doing the dialogue mixing, which comes next, because I like to get the dialogue basically to an even sort of loudness before adding anything else, just because I think that's good workflow that maybe takes another hour. And then the sound design, I mean, I would say in total, with everything else included, an episode with sound design and final revisions can take anywhere from like 10 to 20 to maybe even 25 hours, possibly more. I think episode six must have been a lot more than that because in addition to just editing it, I was recording a lot of stuff from scratch for that one, for the sound of the ship, for the ocean sounds. We really wanted that one to be, like, just painstakingly feel like its own world. So it takes a while. I'm sorry I don't have a more exact estimate for you, but let's just say like, 20 to 30 hours per episode to be safe. I think that's about right. And. Yeah, yeah. And it's exhausting, but it's fun.
- [38:01]
A
Yeah, yeah, no, that's. It's a lot of work. Just.
- [38:06]
B
Yeah.
- [38:07]
A
Answer to the question is it's all a fuck ton of work.
- [38:10]
B
It's a tremendous amount of work. It involves. I mean, like, just to sort of give you an example, like, the goat sacrifice scene, I spent, like a whole night just in, like, one of the studios at my office, like, rustling different kinds of fabric and, like, shaking and grabbing different types of objects and, like, playing with microphone placements, just trying to get the right sound of, like, wrestling and grabbing an animal. And that was just for that one episode of that scene that was, like, you know, two to three hours of physical labor of, like, writhing, you know, some of the scenes with a lot of physical action, I will physically, like, you know, fall down or writhe around on the ground, like, with, you know, cloth, fully props to kind of capture the sense of motion. And that can be just for one scene. So, yeah, it's. It's pretty involved, but it's hopefully worth it.
- [39:04]
A
Fingers crossed.
- [39:07]
B
And then what inspires you? Mark, do you want to say what inspires you?
- [39:10]
A
What inspires me? Money. Next question. Yeah, no, I do this for the money. No, what inspires me? I don't know. I. That's a tough question. Probably fear, if I'm being honest. Just, like, the idea that if I don't get stuff produced, like, I'll be a failure, like, completely, honestly. Yeah, Fear. Desperate race to not be a massive failure. That's it. But also. Also the work of Jeff Vandermeer and Thomas Ligati and Kelly Link And Samuel R. Delaney. Anyway, so a bearlightbulb asks what was the most challenging aspect of production? Sound, character development, plot exposition. Love the show. I feel like choosing what was the most difficult is. Is tough because the writing is like, it's fun. I guess. Like when people say writing is fun, I am suspicious of them because it is not fun. It is fun to get ideas, but it is. Sometimes it's like, oh gosh, I'm so glad I was able to do that. Well. But most of the time it is like slowly squeezing an orange and trying to get as much of the juice out of it. And you're wearing like mittens and the orange doesn't have a lot of juice in it. And it's just. You have a beautiful idea in your head and you need to get it on the page and it's really tough cause it's just everything's perfect in your head and it's not perfect. It never is when it's on the page. But then again, writing is something I enjoy. Question Mark Production is something I don't.
- [41:18]
B
Straight up because there's a lot of that. There's a significant amount of that.
- [41:23]
A
It's a lot. I mentioned it before, but it's a puzzle. It's just a giant, like the scheduling, the production, like the business related thing. Like it's all just a bunch of a lot of work. And like there's social media and I don't like being on social media. Yeah. So. But the production is just, it's, it's tough and it in like a doing 5th grade math kind of way, but everything is tough. Gosh, this isn't a happy answer. No, everything is very, very tough and very, very complicated and a lot of work for everything. Just everything.
- [42:00]
B
It's rare that like, I mean even Mark and I have done this, you know, for four shows now and. Well, five if you count transmission. Five shows. Although five was Mark's senior project and I was just acting in it. I didn't really do anything. So we have a pretty good like streamlined production system which is pretty cool to have. But even with that and even like, even with having a good workflow and a good like working relationship, it's still like. It's not like things just easily come out and it's like, okay, we did that. It's, I mean, you know, writing. Writing squeaks music for episode 6 I've been trying to do since Mark wrote the first draft of episode six. And I seriously had like multiple weekends of like trying to write those fucking songs. And just like, beating my head against my desk and like, feeling like a failure. I'm like, I am never gonna get this fucking trip tree bullshit creature to sound cool or interesting. I hate myself. Like. And then eventually, eventually, you know, things kind of worked out. But like, it's. Yeah. Like, even like little components like that sometimes, you know, sometimes it's, like, fun. But it's. Yeah, it often is. Just like.
- [43:13]
A
Yeah, it's.
- [43:14]
B
It's hard.
- [43:14]
A
Yeah. Yeah. No, but we. We enjoy doing it. Okay, so next question. SpyViolet asks, what's your favorite episode in season three and why? I believe I kind of already answered this question with Kristen in our mid season Q and A. And I was like, episode six, but I can't tell you why. And my answer is still episode six, but now I can tell you why, because it's a whole whaling adventure. It's fun. It's great. Like, it's. It was a whole little. It. It was like an entirely different show in a show. You know, it was difficult to write, but it was really, really fun to write. But I also really enjoyed, like, writing all of father's rituals and writing all of, like, Nicholas and Christine's interactions and all the payphone stuff and all. So I like them all. But episode six, just because it was different, you know? How about you?
- [44:17]
B
Yeah, I'd probably second that. For me, it's a tie between. I'm thinking of it both in terms of liking the episode itself and what was the most fun to work on. So episode six definitely ticks both of those boxes. Episode nine was one of the few episodes of the show where pretty much the whole time editing it, I was having a really good time. I never hit a point where I felt like I'm fucking everything up and this sucks. I, like, was just. It was just like this smooth sailing all the way through is like, oh, this is fun. I was just having fun playing with the different background sounds and like, like any. Anytime the characters get to go into, like, a totally different world. I mean, in terms of scenes, I really love the opening scene of this season with Christina, Nick, and the water. I think it's one of, like, my favorite opening scenes of anything we've ever done.
- [45:06]
A
Yeah, no, it was. Yeah, no, I. I am. I've always wanted to play with, like, rituals and, like, do some do like our own take on magic. And I like. I like, you know, magic as a really, really messed up cookbook. But half the pages are burned and the directions are really unclear, and if you mess up your arm turns into. Into a tentacle. And you, you are now eternally crying like liquid gold out of every single orifice in your body. You know, I kind of like magic is that.
- [45:49]
B
Yeah, it's like a high stakes, complicated craft that you have to do. Right? Not just like, ooh, I'm gonna wave a wand and Wingardium Leviosa, you know?
- [45:58]
A
Exactly. Yeah. No. If you've listened to season three, you probably catch my feelings about Harry Potter. Also, I've probably been talking about baking just too much during this Q and A session, but I just finished watching an episode of Great British Baking show, and it's on my mind. Anyway, up next, Pacificobadiah asks, what was your favorite sound effect Soundscape in season three.
- [46:31]
B
I really like the sound of the Irons. The ship in episode six.
- [46:35]
A
That was going to be my pick too.
- [46:37]
B
Everything from the. Because that was something where I really designed everything with this really 3D. Like, I thought of, like, what does it feel like on the upper deck? What does it feel like on the lower deck? What does it feel like in the sort of engine room where Teddy does his work? It was really fun to think architecturally about, you know, one whole unit as this, like, living, breathing entity and how that carried over to the sounds of each chamber of it.
- [47:06]
A
Right.
- [47:07]
B
Yeah. And then the. Again, in episode nine, I made a bunch of soundscapes for that episode, not all of which made them in, but I had a lot of fun making that. Were partially inspired by the incredibly campy and not great, yet still somehow entertaining Canadian horror franchise Cube one, which I just watched prior to editing episode nine. And it's not great, but it does have a lot of cool. The way they sort of evoke the sound of the cube and all these, like, interlocking rooms moving around outside. There's some cool sound. So it was a lot of fun to play with that. Yeah.
- [47:46]
A
Cool. Yeah. So I really like the Irons. I think that's a cool. That was just really, really cool to listen to. Also, fun tidbit. Reason it's called the Irons. One, it's a good name. Two, it. In season two, Lou mentions that his favorite football club is West Ham. And I googled West Ham nicknames, and one of them was the Irons. And I picked that up.
- [48:16]
B
Hey. Yeah. Nice. Yeah, that's pretty cool.
- [48:19]
A
It's a very, very, very, very, like, little. Little tidbit thing. But yeah, I think it's fun. Also, this might be a little bit out of left field, but it seems like every season we do a Creepy catalog scene. So for seasons one and two, it's the museum thing, and then in season three, it's the Neiman Marcus catalog, but for wizards. And every. Every time I write it, I'm always worried because it's just a list of unsettling things, but you make the soundscape sound really cool on everyone. And season three.
- [49:03]
B
Thanks, Mark.
- [49:04]
A
Yeah, cute. Season three especially. You did, like, just this messed up Christmas music thing. Oh, yeah, that was just. That was genuinely a. A blast to listen to that.
- [49:16]
B
I. Yeah, there's messed up Christmas music. There's like a messed up, like, Hallelujah chorus arrangement.
- [49:21]
A
Yeah. Yeah, I really like that. But obviously, lots of. Lots of great stuff to pick from. So. Up next, Faizan723 asks, is anyone besides Mark and Dan planning on returning for future episodes? It'd be great to hear from Kristen, Peter and Jack as Chris, Nicholas, and Staticman again, along with the rest of this incredible cast. And we can't say anything definitively, but personally, I would be very surprised if other people did not return. And we'll leave it at that.
- [49:56]
B
Yep.
- [49:57]
A
Okay. Yeah, we can't say anything definitively for stuff, for future questions, and for plot questions. I don't like answering things definitively just personally, because, like, it's yours. Once it's out in the world, it is yours. You get to decide what it is. And I might fundamentally disagree and think you're dumb for thinking the things about Archive 81 that you think, but that's my opinion. Doesn't matter. Or it matters, but not more than yours. The author is dead. All that stuff. So, up next, Subsonic Alex asks, what's your favorite audience reaction that you've gotten to the show? What audience reaction have you been most surprised by?
- [50:52]
B
Favorite audience reaction that you've gotten to the show? Let me think. I mean, it's always great, just in general, when people add us on Twitter and say what they like about the episode. It's fun. It's like every Wednesday an episode drops. I just refresh my notifications. I'm like, aw, you guys, it's. It's pretty cool to just see in real time that people are enjoying it. We were really thrilled. I think both of us are really thrilled that people liked episode six of season three because we were a little worried that, like, what if it's too. What if it changes things up too much? So that was pretty cool.
- [51:27]
A
Yeah. I always like fan art. Fan arts?
- [51:30]
B
Really? Fan art's awesome.
- [51:31]
A
Fan art's always cool. Yeah. Yeah. But, like, honestly, just people Being nice nice about it is the nicest reaction and also the one I'm most surprised by. So up next, Jeff Frankenson asks, what's your magic background? Prior knowledges about rituals or inspiration? Do you do chaos magic? So we get this question a lot. If we are practicing magicians. We are not. I mean Dan, I don't know about like if you do anything without my.
- [52:03]
B
Knowledge, but actually, well, when I was like 14, so my dad went to seminary and he had a lot of like religious texts from all over the world, like in. On the bookshelves in our house that I would flip through, including one book of like ceremonial magic rituals, like basically like medieval witchcraft, demonology and stuff. And I was never like a believer or practicer, but I definitely did go through a phase where I would like carry that book around and, and like draw some of the runes in my notebooks and be like, oh yeah, that's like the sign of Valefor. He's like the spirit that leads people into deception.
- [52:39]
A
That's the most 14 year old thing.
- [52:42]
B
It was so 14 years old. I was probably, you know, nothing had changed in the sense that I was wearing a lot of black T shirts then as I do now.
- [52:50]
A
Oh no. Like I saw you like you're literally wearing like when we started, when we, before we turned off the video on this call, you're wearing like a shirt with a bunch of runes on it, right?
- [53:01]
B
Oh yeah, it's. You know what this T shirt is and you're gonna hate me when I tell you.
- [53:06]
A
Is it of death grips?
- [53:07]
B
It is. It is the.
- [53:08]
A
Oh my God.
- [53:10]
B
It is MC ride of death grips tattoos put onto a T shirt by a fan who like painstakingly copied them and then put this T shirt together. And I'm not gonna say how much money I paid for it because you're going to judge me even harder. But yeah, I bought. It's my like Halloween. It's my spooky season, you know?
- [53:33]
A
Spooky season. Okay, cool.
- [53:35]
B
Yeah, yeah.
- [53:36]
A
Do you wear it all year round though is the thing. I think you wear that all year round though. That's the thing. It's not really a spooky season if it's an all year round shirt.
- [53:47]
B
Well, it's all year round for everyone because there's a spooky skeleton inside all of us.
- [53:51]
A
Okay. Just anyway, waiting to get out. Okay.
- [53:55]
B
Anyway, Mark, what's your magic background?
- [53:57]
A
I do not like death grips and did not go through a witchcraft phase. So I don't know Chaos magic. I just, just Put that out. To put that out there. I have no beef or bones about anyone's religion, whether that's paganism or witchcraft. That is definitely.
- [54:18]
B
Cool.
- [54:19]
A
And if that helps you make sense of this weird world, great. I do not personally believe in witchcraft, although I do have a couple witchcraft books that I got for research for this season. And the main one is Sorcerer's Screed, which is a book of Icelandic magical runes and, like, Icelandic magic. And that is very, very interesting. Good book. And was a major inspiration for this season. Yeah. But no, I do not perform chaos magic. Sorry. Okay, so up next on Patreon, and we just have a couple more questions. So David from Patreon asks Mark, any other writing creative outlets? Dan, any other composing outlets? What do you do when you're not working on Archive 81? So I have another creative outlet. I am not in a position where I can talk about it right now. So I'm going to do the really, really annoying artist thing of saying, oh, yeah, it's. It's really cool, but I just. I'm not in a place where I can talk about it. Sorry, guys. It's the most annoying thing in the world, and I hate when people do it, but. But now I'm doing it, so it's like a full circle. Circle of life.
- [55:40]
B
I think it's good to have some mysteriousness in that answer. So, yeah, I write a lot of music. Maybe it'll get released someday, maybe not. And, Mark, do we want to say what we do when we're not working on Archive 81?
- [55:56]
A
Sure. Yeah. I mean, go to work. We have day jobs, which I don't know how we do, but, yeah, we do have day jobs. Other than that, read, watch, you know, watch Netflix. I like to go on adventures. I like to hike. I really like petting dogs. Sorry, I'm just doing a OkCupid profile. Yeah.
- [56:23]
B
Next up, there's gonna be a, like, DC plane emoji vos plane emoji section.
- [56:30]
A
Right. It's just people saying they want to go on adventures when they mean they just want to go to a craft brewery. Oh, people saying they like whiskey for some reason.
- [56:43]
B
Big whiskey enthusiast.
- [56:45]
A
Oh, I speak fluent sarcasm. If there is something that annoys me more I cannot find, think of it than people who say they are fluent in sarcasm. Because if they were fluent in sarcasm, they wouldn't say it anyway. I mean, the thing is, like, writing, doing archive 81, doing my day job, doing my other creative pursuits, and also trying to be a friend and not just explode from Stress. That's basically it.
- [57:18]
B
Well said. Yeah. About the same here. You know, reading, watching stuff, doing some music. I like riding my bike. Yeah. I hang out with my girlfriend. We do. You know, she is a jewelry designer. And it's a really good thing for our relationship because it means we both have pursuits in which we are locked away in our respective studios for long periods of time. So that's pretty good. No one feels like they are neglected for the sake of the other's art. So that's pretty cool. And yeah, just try to, like, have a social life and not be too much of a shut in which I don't always succeed at, but when I do, it's great to be out in the physical world, so.
- [58:01]
A
Yay. So Joseph F. Ward from Patreon asks, how did you come up with the idea for season three since it's so different than the first two? Also, why did you use Sponsorbot instead of Droman for the ads? So, first off, season three, we didn't want to use as much of Dan, and we wanted to work with Kristen and Peter, who played Oscar Waters and Alice in the Golden Age again because they were really, really good actors. And after that, I've always kind of wanted to do something with magic and rituals and that kind of. So it sort of kind of flowed organically from that, from wanting to do something about family dynamics and wanting to do something about weird magical rituals and wanting to do something about people getting in over their head with magic. As for why we used Sponsorbot instead of Droman for the ads, well, technically, and this is technically, it is in universe. So it's part of the strange flotsam and jetsam of the audio universe that is transmitted. So technically, very, very technically, it is in universe. The real answer is Sponsor Bot is a lot more fun to write than Droman and people like him a lot more. Sponsor Bot is great and the tone works so much better for ads than Droman does. Like, Sponsor Bot is he wants to, like, torture all organic life, but he also wants to sell you Audible. It's a fun little thing. So the technical answer, it's still in universe, so it works. The real answer is Sponsor Bot is a lot more fun.
- [60:07]
B
I have to say, one of my favorite things about editing the Sponsor Bot ads is I have like, a Sponsor Bot template where I just throw Mark's raw tape in that he sends me, and it automatically applies all the effects and has the music and it's great when I'm editing it. And Mark is like, super in character and like, doing the sponsor bot thing. And then all of a sudden there's like a God damn it. And he, like, switches back to mark for a second. I, like, like, one of. One of my dream things has been to do, like, a super cut of sponsor bot outtakes because they're really funny.
- [60:40]
A
You have to. You'll have to send me that sometime.
- [60:43]
B
Oh, dude. I have from season one. I have some amazing, like, Samuel with the, like, monster voice effect outtakes on where he's like, for the apotheom. Daniel, for the becoming. And you have the honor of witnessing it. You are. God damn it. Sorry.
- [61:05]
A
It's just this morning, for some reason.
- [61:08]
B
And Austin is just like, oh, geez. Like, just. It's so. It's great. Vocal effects are a lot of fun.
- [61:16]
A
So I think that wraps it up. That's all the questions that we could get to. There were a lot more. Thank you for.
- [61:24]
B
Thanks to everyone who submitted. We, like, we're so happy that you want to know so much about the show.
- [61:29]
A
Right. And sorry for not getting too much into plot spoilery and, like, plot stuff. But the answer to plot questions are whatever you think they are, that's the answer. If they're true for you, they're true. So before we leave, a couple things we wanted to do. Everybody that has worked on this is very talented. All the actors, all the people that helped us out are. They're all great people. Like, I can't think of anybody who's bad. They're all great. They all do great stuff. If you want to check out the Archive 81 cast list, we have a pretty exhaustive cast list of all the stuff, all the people that have played parts in Archive 81 and check them out. They're all doing really cool stuff. Kristen is in a bunch of plays. Peter is doing a bunch of other cool actorly things. Jack Kolk, who plays Static man, is a playwright as well. Like, they're all doing cool stuff. And you should check out, like, Ashira, my friend from who does the Real Life Reimagined, or, like, the True Crime intro. Like, she has the best Boston newsletter. And if you live in Boston, it's called Inbound Boston. You should subscribe like, everybody is working on cool shit. And you can check out everybody's shit.
- [62:51]
B
Yes. We've linked to their, you know, various social media presences. So, you know, please check them out if you have something in mind that their talents would work well in. You know, hire them. They're amazing.
- [63:03]
A
As long as you pay them.
- [63:04]
B
Yes, yes.
- [63:06]
A
Not, please Only. Hi. Only hire them if you can pay them. Just period, like, it's fucked up if you don't pay people. That's. That was my. Every. Every one of these. I have to talk shit about people that don't pay their actors or pay the people they're working with.
- [63:25]
B
Okay, great. And just a reminder that there will be that fun little music featurette coming out this weekend. If all goes according to plan, you can check that out on Patreon. It'll be available for everyone. Yes, anyone who wants to check it out, you can listen to it, and it'll hopefully provide a lot of fun insight into some of the behind the scenes of this.
- [63:45]
A
Oh, and before I let y' all go, a lot of people are asking, where do we get the music? The answer, Patreon selections of the music Dan has composed for the season are all available exclusively for our Patreon backers. If you donate, you get them. That was, like, a third of the questions. Everybody likes the music. Once again, thank you so much. Thank you for enjoying season three. Thank you for listening to this very indulgent Q and A. I don't know if it was five hours, but it felt five hours to me.
- [64:18]
B
I have, like, an hour and a half total on my time code here.
- [64:22]
A
Okay. It'll be a lot. But once again, thank you so much, and we will come back to you soon with even more of the content that you so love. So this is not goodbye. This is see you soon.