← The Audiobook Club with John York
The Audiobook Club with John York
The Team Behind: The Legend of Valentine | 2026 SOVAS VOICE ARTS NOMINEE
01:00:02
In an age of tyranny and turmoil, an eternal love story ignites a revolution.
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- [00:03]
A
Hello and welcome to this very special episode of the Audiobook Club where we're so thrilled to be celebrating the release of the audiobook version of the Legend of Valentine. Written by Sheldon Collins and produced by Pro Audio Voices, the Legend of Valentine has been nominated for four SOVAS Voice Arts Awards for outstanding Production in the Audiobook category for best Producer, as well as best Director in the Audiobook Narration category, Outstanding Audiobook Narration for Fiction, and outstanding Audio Engineering Sound Design in the Audiobook category. It's a huge feat and no audiobook is more deserving. On today's show, we're so lucky to be joined by writer and co director Sheldon Collins, co director Becky Parker, Geist, audio engineer Daryl Bolissek and Grammy nominated composer Steven Elderman. Let's start the show.
- [01:01]
B
Hello and welcome to the Audiobook Club. I'm thrilled to be joined by the team behind the Legend of Valentine audiobook. Sheldon, it's so lovely to see you back with us once again. We have some very friendly faces joined with us. May I please ask of you to let us know a little bit about how you first gathered this team and maybe introduce us to those faces that, that we see before us.
- [01:27]
C
Absolutely. Thanks for having us on your show, John. I really appreciate it. So today we're with the post production team really of the Legend of Valentine. And I would, I mean, Becky's been with the project all the way through as my co director and also the producer. And so it's, it's appropriate to start there actually. Is that when Becky and I met, which is, I think it's got. Becky has been like 14 months now. I think it was like. Yeah, it's, it's been a, it's been a long run and we thought it might have been half the time to complete the whole process, but then we just kept elevating it, wanting to do more and all that kind of stuff. And so Becky, I was seeking out a company that could really come in and partner up with me and you know, allow me to the. The freedom to direct with, you know, with her, which has been a fantastic experience. And also a company that would be able to produce the whole project and that became Pro Audio Voices. And then she also has this wonderful platform called Amplify Audiobooks that we'll get into later. So I was looking for a production company that would really be able to partner with me all the way through the process of production and that was Becky's company. 14 months ago we started. We both realized that this could be an awesome collaboration and so that's where I started with Becky. And then, you know, we. We get into the post production part. Of course, we went through production with all the actors and so forth. But today we're with a couple of other very talented individuals. Stephen Endelman is joining us today and he is the composer, a Grammy nominated composer. And that has just been an absolute thrill working with Stephen. Stephen and I met through one of our mutual friends. Right, Stephen? Yes, sorry.
- [03:21]
D
We did indeed. Yes.
- [03:22]
C
Yeah, Angelica. And so it was really serendipitous. Right. So it was like we had this friend that had read the book and she was just so swept away from the book and she thought that us coming together, Stephen as a composer and myself as an author, director and executive producer on this, that we would make a great team. And in fact, we have made a great team and it's been absolutely incredible working with Stephen. And we'll get into that in a bit. And I was kind of going around clockwise with this zoom of everyone's picture. But in the process, I met Darryl before Stephen and Daryl was. I met through Becky and her production company found Darryl, thank goodness. And he's just been an incredible collaborator through this process, through the whole sound design process. And then also coming in to help us with the temp score that was laid in and some of it became the final score. And we'll talk about that in a bit. And then he's also helped us all the way through the mix, which has been an incredible project and very ambitious in terms of all the layer that this is. So that's how I kind of met everybody here and yeah, it's just been fantastic.
- [04:42]
B
Amazing. There's so much, so much I want to dive into. Let's go, let's go. In order. Becky, when Sheldon first kind of approached you with this idea, what was your sort of initial reactions? Obviously you have experience dealing with multicast projects, but this is on like a whole new scale. Was that like, just talk us through kind of your thoughts and like early on in this process when it was first sort of pitched to you.
- [05:05]
E
Yeah. So as part of our process, we had an initial conversation, but then went pretty quickly into our. For a strategy call. And what happens leading up into the strategy call is I get to look at the manuscripts and really get a feel for how well is it written, you know, and I don't. It's not that I have a huge amount of time, but it was very clear to me from that point, that first look, this is a really quality manuscript and very exciting, you know, so even though I didn't yet have the full scope of the story and how all the arcs and characters, I was excited at that point. And I have learned over the years that I have had some of my greatest experiences with full cast projects, working with people who have film production experience because they understand what's going on. And I think that's a part of it. But there was an immediate, from my perspective, an immediate. I felt like, yes, we're in alignment. Yes, this is an exciting project. You know, it just. Everything felt like a big yes to me. And I knew it was going to be a big project. And we had, even though we had several months to our initial deadline, I knew that it was going to be a tight time schedule that puts an extra demand on everyone. We, you know, we went past that initial deadline really because of the commitment to quality, really making it the very, very best that it can be. And, you know, being able to work with a team that has that level of commitment is awesome. So I've been, you know, very excited to be part of the whole project.
- [07:03]
B
Yeah, absolutely. Stephen, if I could ask you a similar question of when being approached to work on this, I mean, how did you kind of feel about, about creating for an audiobook? You know, you have such a wide plethora of experiences composing. You have experiences there. How did you kind of feel about, you know, jumping on board with an audiobook? How did that affect your sort of process or did it affect your process or the way that you kind of. That you usually work?
- [07:30]
D
No, I think it was, I think at the time I didn't really even think about it. I just met Sheldon. I, you know, our mutual friend had said, you know, why don't you talk to him, Stephen? He's a really nice guy and you'll probably really like him. And actually I did meet him and I did like him. And I didn't realize what a lunatic I would be for taking this on because it's massive. It's ridiculous. Anybody in their right mind would have said no immediately. But Sheldon has a very, I'm not even going to use the word persuasive because it's not persuaded. Persuasive. It's actually just charming manner about him. So you kind of just wanted to get involved and so I really didn't. You know, he, we, we sort of started at a. And went to Zed and it was pretty, it was pretty straightforward because Daryl had done an excellent job on putting it all together. So there was a road map and then Sheldon went through the roadmap. And then I would just, you know, just do my thing. The other thing about it that I liked was that I could. It could be orchestral, right? I. Because it feels like it needs to be an orchestral school. And so I. I could do that, but you know, obviously with the budget as it. I had to do it all on my keyboards and synthesizers, which actually worked out pretty well because I could. I know how to do that and make it sound vaguely decent and then to sort of help me on some of. Because I'm a. I'm not the greatest technologist of all time. I'm really not. And I come from a world of real instruments and I still usually, you know, would insist on recording always. But this didn't allow for that. Also, time wise, it wouldn't have allowed for it. Also. There is such a lot of music. There's a. So much music. Even though, as Sheldon said, that Daryl has contributed a large portion of it with his. With his edited. I know you call it temp score, which they're able to purchase or they got for free, I don't know. But library music, I guess. But in my case, I. There's a lot of music that I wrote, but it was mainly themes. It was mainly themes that then could be adapted and changed in a very traditional manner as the story developed. So as we see Agatha and Valentine's change from being children to young adults, to getting onto all kinds of trouble, to coming back together.
- [10:08]
B
It'S really fascinating. I want to dive. I'm really holding back from diving in. I'll wait my turn. Daryl, Steven mentioned you were creating a roadmap.
- [10:19]
C
Right.
- [10:20]
B
And I think that there's so many people who listen to this podcast who listen to audiobooks all the time and love audiobooks, but may not necessarily quite understand all of the sort of work that goes into your area, I was wondering if I could be super cheeky and sort of ask for a little bit of an explanation of what your process looks like, like, when working on this. Like what. What are the sort of tasks that you need to get done in order to. To make sure that everything's flying as it should?
- [10:49]
F
Well, yeah, that is a. That's a good question. First of all, you know, the roadmap for me was laid down by Becky, who was paramount in sourcing some samples for me to work with in the beginning of this project. We were under a time crunch and her ability to help find the music that she thought would work well with. With Sheldon's approval as well. We really kind of Worked as a team to find the right music, but it really did. That true Roadmap started with Becky submitting ideas for, hey, how does this sound here? At the end of the day, I would just listen to the narrator and try to immerse myself in the descriptive writing that Sheldon did there, where it's so descriptive that you can paint these pictures in your mind. So if the music fit that picture that was being painted by the narrator, those are the. Pretty much the clips that ended up in there as the road map for Steven. And, you know, we can talk about the sound effects later, which is another very dynamic part of the book, which is separate from the music side, because then we have all of the. The different sounds of these atmospheres that are being described by the narrator. So that's kind of the, you know, in a nutshell, that's kind of the initial spot is to immerse yourself into the words, into the story. That's obviously very important. And Becky did a great job. I was so thankful that she actually was picking out some of this music because there's a lot of it. There's a lot. There's a. There's a lot to lay down. And then we had to go over and make sure that everyone was seeing these same painted pictures, because to me, it's all about. It's like this picture you're painting in your mind, and you should be able to listen to this audiobook with headphones on. And between the narrator's descriptions of the scenes and then the sound effects and the music, it becomes extremely immersive and very, very vivid, as a picture in front of you would be.
- [13:00]
C
I just want to jump in real quickly just to talk about a little bit about what was a little bit unusual about this process. So. Well, first, I mean, maybe it wasn't unusual kind of coming from a film background, but it's pretty unusual coming from an audiobook production background. So it's like what ended up happening is after we were done with the main narration, we went right into sound design and we were also doing the music score. And like. Like what Daryl was talking about and Becky was putting together. Both of us were putting together just kind of laying out a roadmap on the music. But we spent several months just doing the sound design with Daryl before we even got to the music portion of this. And so what was interesting about that is, you know, you got an eleven and a half hour audiobook, which is like six movies, right when you're thinking about it from the audiobook and music standpoint you know, take away the visuals and just focusing on audio and put. It was four months just banging out the. The sound design portion of this, which, like Darrell said, even further immersed yourself, everybody into the world beyond the words. And then we started to add the music in and we realized that just getting all library music and like, you know, what Stephen was referring to before was just some of it was working, but it wasn't necessarily what I wanted. And then Becky and I both were on the same page with that when we started listening to what it could be. And that's where we realized we needed somebody with Steven's talent and skill to really elevate this to a whole nother level where you bring in stuff that is specifically created for every single moment with the music. So. So that was an interesting balance. Stephen did a tremendous amount of work putting in musical cues in every single episode or chapter. And. And then some of the stuff that was sourced from library source music ended up working in certain areas too. So the balance was incredible between the sound design, you know, what. What did work from the temp, and then what Stephen brought in that just brought it to a whole nother level. And the two of them actually having the sound engineer skills that Darryl had on the, you know, after Stephen would compose the music to go in and then further mix stuff too, was hugely important as well. So it was such a collaborative effort. But the process was really interesting how it just went from sound, getting that rich soundtrack, then adding this layer of temp score, I shouldn't really call it score, but sourced music. And then finally, you know, Stephen came in and just brought his incredible talent to the. To musically to this project that brought it to a whole nother level. So that was the process, I would love to say.
- [15:55]
E
Also a piece of that process was Sheldon going through. And after the sound effects and atmospheric, all of that was pretty much in place, going through and looking for the places for where we might potentially want music. And so there was some also back and forth in that process, figuring out what moments really needed music and what didn't. And then we moved into that sourcing, you know, trying to find music that would work in those moments. And I, it. It felt like increasingly I kept coming up to that point where. And. And I knew that. That Sheldon had already spoken to Steve. And I was like, we need Stephen here. He's like, it's just, you know, there's a limit to how much you can, you know, especially when you have. When you have moments, a scene that evolves in very unique Ways, you know, it. You know, we're. We're in this happy moment and then suddenly, you know, something really dramatic, scary happens and then there's a rescue. And, like, you're not gonna find a piece of music that's gonna fit all of that. Right. So it was very difficult. Such a relief in many ways and a delight in, you know, in others, to have Stephen on board and. And just creating this, such a masterful music that. That really carries those moments. You know, we're. We knew, yeah, we need music here, but we need someone who is really added.
- [17:42]
F
It added the emotional quality that the book needed, the audiobook needed. It needed that emotional touch of real music with real thought, like you're describing, to. To hit all the different points and the emotional quality of the book after Stephen amplified quite a bit.
- [18:04]
D
Yeah, I'm gonna be really British for a minute, right? Really British, because there's way too many compliments going on. So I'm actually gonna. Because now I know that John's in England, I'm going to give a shout out because I have a. I have a little. Some helpers that I needed to bring in to help get this done on schedule in terms of, you know, once I've done the writing, sometimes I'll need help with orchestrating and things like that. So I have three little helpers and I say little helpers. They're not little, they're young. There are three gentlemen. I want to give them a shout out because they can listen to this and it'll be great because they're terrific. I'm speaking to them again in a minute. They're all brilliant composing students at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where I'm a professor very. Once a week. I'm a professor. It's once a week. But I love. I love it, and I love them. And they're all hugely talented. I mean, the talent coming out of these. Well, Guild hall is number one in the UK and number three in the world now in terms of music students and this program that we've created there. And these young composers who are avid about film, all they want to do is film. And they were so excited to be part of this because this is a completely new experience for them. And one of the things. Now, I have done this once before, but it wasn't an audio book, is what they called an audio movie. But actually they've done exactly what we've done, which is there was a script, and it was a script and sound design. They had two sound designers and music Me, music. They didn't temp anything out, though. It was a different process. It was. Took forever and it took a really long time. This was done at a speed which is kind of unheard of. It was really ridiculous. I was. I was doing like the last week. I did maybe five episodes or four of the last couple of weeks, but I had it all in my head. So my three students, because I digressed. Ryan, Christian and Val Valentine. Thank you very much.
- [20:30]
C
Hey, it's got the right name.
- [20:35]
F
Really?
- [20:35]
C
Yes.
- [20:36]
D
And Valentine had the right name, so they did a great job. And actually, you know, it really was. This was really a communal effort. I mean, it really was a. You know, I work on a lot of movies and it's a. It's rare for the community to be. For the community to be quite this in sync. But that says a lot to Sheldon and his. I think. I think he's probably the most organized person I've worked with for a long time.
- [21:13]
C
I agree. I don't know if my wife would agree, but I'll take that compliment.
- [21:18]
D
Oh, you. Well, I tell you what, if you manufacture the spreadsheets, you manufactured for this your own life. She couldn't complain. But I. I think. I think, you know, it's a testament to you. And also, you know, the other thing I was thinking about when I'm in England, and I've been there a lot recently for long periods of time, at 2 o' clock every day, I listen to the Archers. And from. That's on Radio 4, by the way. And every day from 2:45 to 3:00', clock, there is a play. And the plays that they do on radio every day, some five days a week, I think. I don't know about weekends, they always have music and they always have sound effects. So I guess there's a really big tradition for. For. I mean, certainly in radio audio, the new system is a little different, but in radio there's always been a huge tradition for this in England. Am I right, John? I mean, this is absolutely.
- [22:17]
B
Yeah, 100%.
- [22:19]
D
I mean, and great writers. We're not talking about. I mean, John Godbert from the north, you know, cheek by jowl, these terrific. There's really been a tradition for this in the uk for sure.
- [22:33]
B
There's an appetite for it as well, in terms of like their audience. You mentioned the Archers there. I mean, everybody where I live listens to the Archers. There's such an appetite for the. For this medium that led me, that leads me beautifully actually into this next question. I have actually, for Shelton, obviously amazing praise about your organization and obviously that also crosses over to yourself, Becky, as well. But, like, how do you, you know, we've spoken before about this. There's so many bells and whistles. There's so many moving parts of this. There's cast members, you know, internationally. Everyone's working on different time zones. There's so many different people that need to be. Need to be communicated with. And did you sort of set out with like a game plan? I know it's obviously a part of your experience and your job to do this, but, like, is there a game plan of like, how to get so many people on board so quickly with this single idea of, like, how do you sort of approach that kind of, I don't know, just making sure that everybody's on the same page.
- [23:30]
C
Sorry, is that for Becky or for you, Sheldon?
- [23:33]
B
Sorry.
- [23:33]
C
Okay, so. Well, we did develop a process as we got into it, and being organized with an 11 and a half hour production is about the only way I keep my sanity. If I'm directing a film, I need a script, I need a shot list. If I'm directing the post production with Becky on music and sound design, I need organization. And Becky was very organized as well. I think we both kind of share that. You know, we need spreadsheets. We need to figure out what's happening where, who's on what, where. We're using musical cues. You know, I mean, it was a very tight timeline because we are, we're getting these in in order to be eligible for some big awards in the. With the Sovas and Audis at the time, you know, coming up. So we had to finish literally within two, three days before the deadline for that. And so when we brought Stephen in, it was really like Stephen said it was. It was really important to be organized because we had to work backwards from that deadline. And like he said, you know, the final week was just crazy. I mean, he did, you know, put that in perspective. He said he did four or five episodes. That's three cues typically pretty per chapter episode. So that's like anywhere between 12 to 15, you know, somewhere between. In that area of. Of brand new musical cues to create in one week. I mean, Stephen, how, how long would a project like this, you know, on a studio level, you know, would you stretch this out?
- [25:09]
D
Well, on a studio level, there'd be a minimum, an absolute minimum of. For just an hour and a half. It's movie, right? And movie. There shouldn't be more than 40 minutes, right? There really shouldn't be. But There is sometimes and there's sometimes less. But the. They would normally expect to have me for 12 weeks.
- [25:30]
C
Right. So that's three months. Three months on just an hour and a half production. We did 11 and a half hours production in three months. So he got about a quarter of the amount of time that he really needed to do to do this. And he did a phenomenal job. So it was incredibly organized to be. I mean incredibly important to be organized especially. Becky is in Portland, I'm in Los Angeles with Stephen, Darrell's in Minnesota, you know. And yeah, Stephen's going back and forth between London and had other helpers in London. So without that organization, you can't all work remote. I mean the, the nice thing was is that when Stephen got something that, that he was really ready to have me listen to, I was able to go down to his studio and work with him, which was a fantastic experience, us just sitting down all day long and going through the music. So yeah, so I don't know if I answered the question on organization, but that's my take on it. I mean, what about you, Becky?
- [26:40]
E
I think I have to give a shout out to Jerry Lee, our project manager who especially during the production, the first part of the production from pre production through casting and the recording sessions, without her level of organization. Yeah, would have been a mess. So. Yeah, so just a shout out to Jerry Lee as well.
- [27:07]
C
But yeah, and sorry. We did the same process with Daryl by the way too, through the whole sound design. So you know, I'm talking about music, but we spent just as much time on sound design for three, four months going through every single sound from horses approaching in a scene or battle scenes that are incredibly layered. And Darryl, I mean I think one of the scenes you brought up on your computer at one point you sent me a screenshot. Maybe you could put in perspective of how this compared to other audio drama or other audiobooks in terms of just the. The layered of design, music and design that, that you've seen in the past 20 years of working in this industry.
- [27:54]
F
Well, for audio, I mean, I feel like this is a step above most audiobooks that are doing the same thing. You know, there's a lot of other audiobooks out there with sound design and stuff, but I don't think is in. Not as many of as in depth. Some of the sessions that we worked on chapter. So Chapters have upwards of 100 tracks going all, all layered in with different automation. So the volume automation and all that other lines and tweaks on every little file there was a lot that went into it, I think. And for anyone who knows or cares, I think it's funny from my perspective that the file for this, for this particular audiobook is right around 100 gigabytes of music files, which is a lot. I mean, it's a lot. So it's probably a half a mile long of folders and files. And I had to try to keep all that organized on my end as well, which was a challenge. But there's no other good way of doing it. It has to be organized, especially when we're talking about 100, sometimes upwards of 100 tracks for some of these chapters.
- [29:03]
B
Yeah. Well, the thing is, we've mentioned obviously the time constraints and then obviously dealing with like file size and all these elements that are so huge. This may be an equally huge question to ask you, Daryl, but like, is there any, or were there any sort of specific kind of technical challenges that you ran into that kind of stick out? Was there anything that was like, that caused a real sort of pain in the butt from this?
- [29:27]
F
Yes. Well, there always is. And it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter where the project's coming from. There's always issues. But with multicasting, there will always be the same issue, which is a lot of the voice actors have different equipment and different microphones. So that, that in particular, if, if, you know, someday we can all figure out a way to. To work that kink out, there's. It's almost impossible to get 18 or more voice actors into one studio. You'd have to fly them all in. You'd have to set them up with hotels and all this stuff. But that would be the only way around it. So other than that, 99% of the time will get the files recorded in their own studios and then all studios, all microphones, all equipment sounds different. And to try to get those as close as you can is the challenge. And it's dawn. It's a daunting challenge. So, you know, it's not super fun to do that, but it. At the end of the day, it needs to be done as well as it can be. You know, you have to. You have to get them all sounding like they're in the same area. Otherwise it'll throw your. Your ears and your brain will throw you way off. If something's weird or misplaced, it'll throw you off pretty quickly.
- [30:34]
C
Yeah, sorry. And just. Daryl, maybe you could share the story that you shared with me before about kind of how you got involved with this, with your background in music. And bands and so forth. Because I think Daryl has such an. You know, as I worked with him more and more with the mix, you know, it really started to make sense why he's such a gifted sound engineer. And a lot of it has to do with how he got into this industry. Maybe you could share a little bit of that, too. Sorry, Johnny, didn't mean that.
- [30:59]
F
Are you referring to, like, the me standing behind the audio engineers and poking them on the shoulder, being like, why? Why can't I hear the kick drum?
- [31:09]
C
Yeah, exactly.
- [31:10]
F
Well, yeah, so I just. I've been a musician and a drummer, percussionist since I was in fourth grade. And I went to music college, and I went to music business college as well, which was a joke, by the way, but. But.
- [31:28]
B
I.
- [31:28]
F
You know, you spend all this time writing something or playing something or performing something, and then you go listen to the. The recording in the engineering room or the control room, and you're just. And you're just like, well, what is the guy not hearing? I don't understand why it sounds like the. You know, and then they'll do their mix and it's the same problem. It's like, well, I was just never happy with engineers mixing. I mean, of course, there's the greats out there, and we try to aspire to be like them, but the majority of the guys running studios, you know, well, nowadays even more, they're in the basement of their mom's house, is what I like to say. But I just found the only way to get the mixes the way I wanted them, which I thought I had the superior perspective on it, of course, like, we probably all do. I just knew that I had to do it myself, period. End of story. And that's what got me into audio engineering. And it kept me in. It kept me in the industry. It kept me.
- [32:20]
D
Well.
- [32:21]
F
And also I was in a band and performing, and we were on a national tour, and our manager sat us down one day and asked us, what is one goal you have that, you know, you will accomplish in your life? And I said, I would like to have a family. And so we reflected on that. And after that tour, I actually ended up the. I ended up staying home and developing my family. And by doing that, I wanted to stay as immersed into the music industry as I could. And starting the audio production company was a way to do that.
- [32:57]
B
Yeah. Amazing.
- [32:59]
C
Lucky for us.
- [33:01]
E
Yeah.
- [33:02]
D
Thank you.
- [33:04]
E
You know, I wanted to bring up something else as well that that many listeners aren't aware of, but we definitely had to find the. Find the solution for, and that is that depending on how you listen to an audiobook, what kind of headphones, earbuds, whatever your listening system does impact what you hear and how you hear it. And so one of the things that was fascinating was as like as Sheldon and I were listening to a passage, he's like, whoa, this thing, you know, this background has to be turned down. And I'm like, I can't even hear it. You know, what's going on? Is it, you know, so, you know, figuring those things out. And then a point that I really want to make for your audience especially, and this is something that Darrell made very, very clear when he was doing the sound design mix, is this project you absolutely want to listen with stereo, either headphones, earbuds, something, but you really need the stereo. It will change the experience of it and you'll really hear the greatness of it.
- [34:24]
F
Otherwise, the time I spent making the horse pass from your left side in front of you to your, to your, to the other side would just be all for nothing.
- [34:36]
D
I've been, I've been dealing with this. I came up with a solution a few years ago, and I can't remember exactly how many or on what project it was, but it would always bug me because I knew that the executives at the studio were listening to the cues either on their telephone. Yeah. Or on their computers. And I would think. And so they're going to judge the music that I'm writing for their scenes, for their, their movie, their TV shows, whatever it is, on some. On a phone. Right. On a device that has inadequate audio. And so I decided that I would send the executives a. A pretty reasonable pair of headphones, all of them. So I went out, bought myself. I spent way too much money, but I went out and bought like eight pairs of Sony studio headphones that you'd use in a studio. Not just domestic ones, professional ones. And I sent them all to the. And this was, you know, I remember now, it was abc. I was doing a show at abc and I said, this is, this is how you're to listen to my music for this show. I don't know if they ever did. I have no idea. But I didn't. I got the feeling that it was a good gift if nothing else. Right. I guess it wasn't bad, but it's a huge problem. And now it's. I think it's even more ridiculous because now there'll be a computer on and they'll be playing on their phone or, you know, two screen, two screen content. Because now we're just, like, in a whole different element.
- [36:19]
B
Yeah.
- [36:21]
D
The other thing is that I'm. I'm amazed, actually. The thing that I'm really amazed is that we actually got it done. I'll be honest with you. That we got it done at the prescribed time because. And that there were more problems. I mean, there could have been massive more problems. Massive. Because we were moving a lot of data. It was moving fast. I was unlike any other project. Although I'm doing it right now and I'm not enjoying it. Right. I normally write, like. We'd have a spotting session and I would write cues. My music editor would set it all up for me. There would be a cue, I'd write a cue, and that would be a piece, and there'd be another piece, separate file. And it would be really easy to keep everything in locks because I would be writing cues. I'm writing reels. So they're chapters, but they're the same as a reel. Now, a real is usually 220 minutes, 2000ft in old school film. But now these reels go up to 25 or 26 minutes, these chapters. And I've got various cues. And so if there are three or four, and sometimes there are more. Because Sheldon would come to the house to do his playback session. He goes, I think we'll have a queue there. Why don't we move? Why don't we just. I might have to bite my tongue and go, okay, You're gonna make it here and do this now. And I'm gonna have to do it now. And I know I can do it now, but I don't want him to get the idea that I can really do it now.
- [38:01]
C
I think, you know, one of the things that was so exciting is when I did go to Stephen's house and we talked about the music, we.
- [38:10]
E
We.
- [38:11]
C
We were quickly getting on the same page real fast. And that, you know, I'm, you know, just, like, working with any big talent, whether it's actors or cinematographer or, you know, in this case, a composer. You know, we had not worked before, and it was a short period of time. And so we went into this and, you know, at least on my end, I was. I wasn't sure how that was going to play out. The speed, the time, the pacing, all that kind of stuff. And that was just. It was. I'm so grateful that that collaboration worked, and it worked really quickly. You know, I'd hear something and he'd be like, you know, what are you feeling here? And I was like, well, I'M feeling like it needs to be a little more intensity here. And we bounce back and we would take what, you know, what Stephen wrote and just elevate it. And it just. It was such a phenomenal experience. And he came in with such an incredible idea already. I mean, I came to him and I said, you know, it was really important for me to find this. This musical theme that would carry through the. Through the entire piece that. That followed the Love story. And I had no idea what Stephen was going to come up with. I just trusted that he was going to come up with something brilliant. And he did. And. And that was remarkable because it was such a short period of time. And he came back, like, a week later and he was like, I'm hearing it in this. What was it? B flat or something like that. You knew that the note, you know, exactly the type of.
- [39:40]
E
He had.
- [39:41]
C
He had written this within a week, and he knew exactly how this was really going to carry forward. Tracking the Love song. And it's exactly what we needed, which was really kind of the heart, like Daryl was saying musically, the emotional heart of this. This piece. And it was just such a blessing that we were able to collaborate quickly. And I would say the same thing with Becky and Daryl, too. It was like we all worked really well together, and that's what made it move quickly, because when that doesn't happen, it's a real nightmare, especially on a project this ambitious. And we're hearing also all the different layers of creativity here. I mean, we've been talking about sound design, we've been talking about the music, and then we've, you know, whether, you know, with Stephen, but also the scored stuff that we brought in, and then also just the creativity behind the actual mix, which is so important with it, with a project this layered. Right. Because it's like what Darrell saying before is you have all these different tracks, and Becky and I would go through and listen to that and. And we'd be, like, trying to figure out where the sweet spot was in terms of. And Daryl had his ideas, and all three of us were really kind of talking a lot about that, of, like, how high is the music? Is it too high? Is it. Is it intrusive on the narration, or is it just right? And, you know, we had to kind of find the sweet spot on the mix, not only for the way people, the audience will listen to this, but also just what served the project best with this incredibly rich soundtrack. Right? So that was a process, and I think we nailed it. And I'm really Excited about how that all came about. But when you think about post production that we've been involved with for nine months and this team from all the different layers of creativity, it's really interesting because there's so much, you know, you can mess up, sound design or music or mix, and the whole thing's done right. You know, so it's. It's. You don't think about that when you're just kind of listening to an audiobook as a. You know, most people don't think about it at least they just go, oh, wow, that music's fantastic. And it just all came together like magic. Right? But. But it is an incredible process.
- [41:58]
B
Do you find, like, as. As the. As the project, Sheldon, grew in scale, as all of these elements kept going, as you know, Stephen came on board and, you know, everything just sort of grew. Did your relationship with the Legend of Valentine change? Or did it. Did it change alter or any. Did you find yourself kind of feeling kind of differently as it kind of got bigger and bigger and bigger and snowballed into this?
- [42:22]
C
Well, I mean, it's evolved. But I mean, honestly, every creative project I've ever been involved with always does that. If it's a film or TV show or, you know, whatever it is, I mean, the collaborative process with anything in the arts, I expect that. So it's very important to me to be working with the right people, because I know that every. Like, Steven's going to bring his brilliance and Darrell and Becky, they're all incredibly creative people, and they're going to bring that to the table. And it's always what collectively brings the material higher and higher. So I expected that to happen, but I was hopeful that we would all be seeing being in alignment. Right. We're all moving the same direction. Because I have worked on projects where you bring somebody in and their vision's gone this way, my vision's gone that way, and it just isn't the right fit. But we were really lucky with this time schedule and just the key people that got attracted to this project that I was fortunate enough to work with, that we were all seeing this the same way.
- [43:29]
F
So I'd like to add that I think, Sheldon, you got lucky to some degree, if not by design, that part of the reason we work so well together is that we all own our own business and we're all passionate about what we do. So for that reason alone is why I think we all worked together so well, is because we're all so passionate about what we do. An employee, not necessarily is Going to be the most passionate person. You know, we can get lucky and get employees that are passionate, but for the most part, all of us are business owners passionate about what we do. And therefore, here we are with hitting deadlines and. And really nailing this project.
- [44:14]
C
So, yeah, there's a sense of accountability being a business owner. And then, you know, you just also have to have the creative. Same creative perspective. So it all worked out.
- [44:26]
D
I'm sorry to shatter your illusion, Daryl. I hate what I do. I get up every morning, I stab myself with nitty and go, why do I do this day in, day out? No, actually, the truth is. No, the truth is I love. I actually will admit to really enjoying writing the music for this. Okay. I don't always enjoy what I'm doing, to be honest. Sometimes I don't enjoy. I'm assigned a task and I start. I always start enjoying it. I start by, this is great. I'm going to be able to write this down. The other. And very, very quickly, it's like, well, no, actually, we want this or we want that, we want the other. And no, it's not working. Can you do this? Can you do that? And very quickly you go to that place, why am I doing this? What am I doing this for? But actually, first of all, you kind of get a sense of when you're in the same page in the same room with someone. And Sheldon and I had that experience, which was great. It doesn't always work out like that. It really doesn't. And then I absolutely wish I wasn't doing what I was doing, but I always come back to it, and I've been doing it for such a long time now. I really liked the relationship between Valentine and Agatha. I like the fact that she's blind and that he is in love with this young girl. And then he becomes a man and he goes down the journey of a journey.
- [46:00]
C
A journey. No spoiler. No spoilers. A journey.
- [46:05]
D
I've not spoke anything.
- [46:09]
B
Daryl, could I. Could I approach you with a. A question in a similar. A similar vein really is in terms of like. Like take like a battle scene, right? And you're layering everything and you're kind of immersing yourself in this world. Where's your kind of focal point in all of this? Like, is it like a real. Like, is it a. A case of having to, okay, well, I'm stood in the middle of a battlefield now. What can I hear? What can I sort of see? And then emulating that forward, like, how. How do you kind of approach oh.
- [46:36]
F
You pretty much nailed it. I. I would listen on various speakers, but my final real listen was with headphones and my eyes closed. I think when you close your eyes, you're able to focus in on exactly what the point of all of the sound design is, which is to paint the picture.
- [46:54]
C
So.
- [46:56]
F
Yeah. And we all have different perspectives on what that sounds like. So collaborating is what dialed it in to be good. And. But my initial take was like, the what? The way I see it, standing in that battlefield, what do you hear? Are you paying attention? Actually, Sheldon had to help me on more than 10 occasions of perspective on where is the perspective coming from? So that was a challenge for me is to think a little bit more about the story and the writing than just hearing what I thought I should be hearing. So it was an eye opener for Sheldon to say, hey, well, that actually we've panned over to this other location with this other character here, and that's why this isn't working for me. And then when I listen to, it's like, oh, yeah, duh. So. But, yes, initially, immersing yourself into the scene from a perspective, which typically the writing and the narrator will give you that perspective if I catch it or not at that time is something I'm learning, but. And then just painting that picture from that perspective and, you know, if something's a little loud, it's probably because it's not in the perspective from whoever's listening to it from their perspective. If this is. Seems a little loud, it's not fitting into that painted picture that we're all painting in our minds. It's definitely a challenge to getting the perspective right.
- [48:21]
D
I have to leave now. Is that okay?
- [48:23]
C
No problem.
- [48:24]
B
Of course.
- [48:24]
D
Okay. Been a lot of fun. Thank you very much for having me.
- [48:27]
B
Oh, thank you for being a part of it.
- [48:30]
E
Thanks.
- [48:30]
D
Thank you. Thank you.
- [48:31]
C
Thanks, Stephen.
- [48:32]
D
Bye.
- [48:34]
E
I wanted to say this is one of the areas where I think Sheldon's background in film really helped because Sheldon has that perspective of understanding where the shot is. You know, what is the perspective? What are we seeing? So. And I think of moments, just as an example. The carriage goes careening off the cliff and splashes into the water. And then we hear Marius up on the cliff top. Where do we hear him from? Are we down at the bottom when we would hear him shouting in the distance? Or are we up at the top looking down at the people, you know, and that kind of moments like that. I think many times even authors are not really thinking about the perspective they're kind of seeing the whole screen as a general, broader perspective. And with this book, we really got to move with the characters and the sound carries us through those perspectives. So if we're with Valentine, if we're with Agatha, she rides away behind her dad on horseback. You know, who are we with in that moment? And it's one of the things that I think is extraordinary and magnificent about this project.
- [50:10]
C
Yeah. Thank you. But it is, it is interesting. I'm just gonna add to that. You know, it is, you know, when I think about it, I always think about it from that lens as well as like, where's the camera? And so where's, where's the audience right now? And so that is what I'm always taking in consideration. And it helps in terms of guiding the sound, the post production process. And you know, I would, you know, in some cases, like Daryl was saying, I would help him out with pov, the perspective of where we are. But, you know, it's, it's also interesting because, you know, this goes back to the collaborative process is that he would hear something that I would never hear, you know, which is, is so cool, you know, and that's the artistry is that, you know, he's hearing these ravens come in, these birds, or it's a river or this, the sound of the trees that I, you know, and that's where it just builds on top of each other. So once you understand where the shot is, then everybody's bringing in, you know, what's going to help the audience immerse deeper into that moment. And yeah, it's just such an incredible process with the whole post production process here.
- [51:22]
E
Yeah. And then even little things like, you know, in the battle scene, what sound is the horse making in the moment?
- [51:32]
C
You got a good one there.
- [51:34]
E
I know a little bit about horses and those guys don't. So, you know, just, but just the, you know, those kinds.
- [51:42]
C
She flagged a horse sound that wouldn't have happened, by the way. She, she flagged a horse sound that wouldn't have happened that Daryl and I miss completely.
- [51:51]
E
Well, but only because if you're not familiar with horse behavior, then, you know, it's easy to mix. So. Miss.
- [51:57]
C
Yeah.
- [51:57]
E
So, you know, but even these kinds of little details, they, they, you know, because I thought, well, because I noticed it in the, in the moment right as I'm listening, I was like, why would a horse do that in the middle of battle? They wouldn't.
- [52:14]
C
Right.
- [52:14]
F
That's funny. And there's going to be a percentage of people that catch that type of thing. Just like what I still hear in movies when the eagle flies by and you hear a hawk or you hear some other, you know, because eagles don't have a cool sound if they sound like a sound bad. But so we all know that now every time we see an eagle fly by in a movie and we hear the other bird sound that sounds cool and majestic, it's like that's not what a bald eagle sounds like.
- [52:41]
E
Right, Exactly.
- [52:43]
B
That's amazing. I just love the idea of a listener being also an equestrian and then you've just saved them from raging. We've talked a lot about how different, you know, different headphones and all things like that, from a listener's perspective can. Can change the way that you hear hear a production. Much like these different platforms can. You know, different, different platforms. Hosting can. Can offer a different experience for listeners and also authors who publish their work. Now I know that the Legend of Valentine is actually exclusively available on Amplify audiobooks for a good amount longer than it is on elsewhere. Becky, I thought it'd be really, really awesome if you could explain a little bit about why that's a thing that people want to do, essentially.
- [53:35]
E
Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Well, there are a number of reasons. One is that as a listener, when you get it on Amplify, you are actually having a greater impact on in the world because the. Just without going into the details and the weeds, you know, it much better supports the author. So when you are, when you purchase an audiobook, for example, on Audible versus on Amplify, the amount that the. Even if you buy it for the same thing, the amount that the author receives is going to be about three or four times the amount on Amplify than if you bought the exact same book, exact same price on Audible. So by doing that, by supporting the creators in that way, it makes it easier for them to then keep creating the great work that you love. Right. So that's one thing. But I also want to say that very, very soon now there are going to be On Amplify features that are going to allow you to communicate directly with Sheldon and directly with Daryl and directly with the Valentine who played the actors, all the actors with me. Because there is a built in community like conversation around each title. That's just one of many features. But that is a huge advantage to getting it on Amplify. And that is coming very, very soon.
- [55:13]
B
Amazing. Incredible. I have, I have a question that I would like to go around. It's the final question, but I'd like to ask each of you Individually, if that's okay. It's the same question. Daryl, I was hoping to start with you. What takeaway would you like? Audience members, listeners, what would you like them to take away from this?
- [55:44]
F
That's a good question.
- [55:45]
B
It's a good question to throw at you, I do appreciate.
- [55:48]
F
Well, I. I think there's probably a couple different things. Well, the love.
- [55:57]
C
The.
- [55:57]
F
The love story of the book, I think. I don't know, it could shed some light on what we should all realize and know that love is the answer. You know, the world needs more love. The book was written in tribute to the legend of Valentine and Valentine's Day, which is about love. And I think at the end of.
- [56:26]
D
The day.
- [56:29]
F
The world needs more love. And it's. It's quite a breath of fresh air. Even though the book does have some negative scenes and some. A little bit of violence, which is obviously what most people want when they're watching or listening to content. The overall theme of the book is about love, and I would want them to take away kind of what I have, which would be that, you know, love is the answer. I. I could probably go on and on, but you put me on the. On the spot with that one. But. So that's what came out.
- [57:06]
C
That's.
- [57:06]
F
That would be my initial thought on that, I guess.
- [57:08]
B
Yeah. See, that's very beautiful. Amazing. No, seriously, that was great. Becky, can I also throw that to yourself? What would you hope the audiences take away from the Legend of Valentine beauty book?
- [57:21]
E
I hope that they take away the. The knowledge and the feeling that backs it up, that persevering and sticking to what you know is most important in your life, that those two things that when you. When you persevere, when you, you know, no matter what you go through, you stick with what matters, what you value, that somehow it's all going to work out amazing.
- [57:58]
B
Sheldon, may I please give you the honor of finishing his offer?
- [58:04]
C
Well, I mean, they're both saying the things that I would say. You know, it is all about love. That's always been my goal in writing the story and now directing it is a story about love in so many different ways. You know, there's even the antagonists, you know, is motivated by love in what he loves and what he feels righteous. And. And the protagonist is, you know. You know, is all. Is its story all about overcoming adversity. And, you know, the way that he overcomes adversity is through finding love, and in different ways, romantically and in his own faith. And so it is a story at the end of the day, rooted very much in love, Overcoming adversity, community, all these big themes, finding faith. I mean, there's. And ones. I think that the one that really overarches them all is just the theme of love and how. And how we journey through this story with our. With our hero and how he finds his way through finding love. So it is all. It's a story about love and it's a story about Valentine's Day, and that's. That's where. That's what it's all about. So. But yeah, along the way, Daryl's right. There's a lot of areas of action, I think, that, you know, when you get these big epic films and you think about some of the biggest films that have been made, you know, that. That have that underlying theme. You have these big tent pole scenes, right, where there's. There's, you know, this is not just Romeo and Juliet. It is definitely a fusion of that with, you know, your big action type film. So there's a little bit for everybody in here, but there's some really strong messages about love and faith.
- [59:51]
B
Well, thank you so much for joining me on the show. That just about does it for today's episode of the Audiobook Club. There is links, of course, to the Legend of Valentine, all in the show notes, as well as more information on our wonderful guests. Thank you so much. Daryl, Sheldon, Becky, and of course, Stephen. Thank you so much for joining me. It's been absolute pleasure talking to you.