Angel Between the Lines

Please don’t forget to vote for Buffy Between the Lines at the Podcast Awards!

(A snapshot of our “spreadsheet o’doom” – Heidi’s mainly in charge of keeping this all in order).

An assistant producer is a great job to have on Angel Between the Lines. I get to have a part in almost everything. My job starts when the first script is released. I make sure I have down everyone’s roles. The day before the recordings are due, I email everyone to remind them to get their recordings in the next day. The day after the recordings are due, I email the people who haven’t gotten theirs done yet and ask when they’ll have their recordings done. I then proceed to bug them until the recordings are completed. Sometimes this can be a long process.

When the cast and crew see emails from me, I’m pretty sure they go, “Oh, crap!” I send email reminders and make sure everything gets done for recordings, editing, SFX, QC, and writing. I have to keep up with when things are due and what is overdue. If I don’t check for more than a couple days, I get really swamped.

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Episode 2 is out and we get to have fun with characters you’ve only heard mentioned by Wesley and only seen for a brief flash – Wesley’s gang.

Peter had a monumental task of giving these characters life. In fact, unlike some of our other episodes, this one is pretty much 100% Peter’s from outline to completion. And he did a great job. In a series of flashbacks we not only see who Wesley’s gang are, but why they are. From Diana Espen (who we met in BBtL S2, Episode 7) to Hawkins (a former Wolfram & Hart lawyer) to Jones (a former member of Holtz’ gang).

When we started Buffy Between the Lines one of the first conversations we had was how we could add more face time to some of our favorite smaller characters – Larry Birdsall being one of the first folks we thought of, along with the Evil Trio and Ethan Rayne. It was part of the whole “between the lines” vibe. Probably some of our strongest episodes from Buffy Between the Lines hardly featured the main cast.

Yet, Fragmented has something special. Probably some of our most obscure roles pulled into the light. But it was fun to hear the end result. I especially loved how out of step the end felt. It was the perfect reminder that Wesley is far from home.

This season we’ll bring some more tiny characters back, including everyone’s favorite floating fish – Betta George and Electro Girl, Gwen Raiden. And those are just two of many we’re bringing back. We hope you enjoy, and feel free to leave which smaller characters should get their day in the sun… unless of course they’re a vampire.

As I write this, it’s March 21st, 2009 and we’re 15 minutes away from closing auditions for Angel Between the Lines. You’re reading this way after the fact, but I wanted to let you know what this moment in time was like.

Now, most people don’t know, or might be surprised to know. I really don’t do a lot for auditions. I promote, that’s kind of my thing, but Kim handles most of the producer’s role of auditions. She gets tons of support from our Associate Producers – Heidi and Larissa. I get to play voyeur and watch the process. And it is a huge process. This year there’s nearly 100 people auditioning and most of them for multiple roles. That’s a lot of sound files!

Even though the process isn’t finished yet, I already know it’s going to be amazing.

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Written on March 22, 2009

Picture a hamster running on a wheel. Picture that hamster running really fast. Now picture that hamster collapsing by its water bottle, tired, but feeling accomplished.

It’s a day after the auditions for Angel Between the Lines have closed, and I feel like that hamster.

Don’t get me wrong – Buffy Between the Lines has brought me wonderful memories, friends, and opportunities that wouldn’t have occurred otherwise. But, boy, is it a lot of work.

Audition time for me means lots of emailing back and forth between me and Kim, Heidi and Tabz, and lots of staring at spreadsheets and audio files. It means emailing all those who auditioned and laying the foundation for the next step of the audition process: callbacks.

As I’ve said, it is a lot of work. That happens when you work on an international audio drama with hundreds of people. But, as I’ve also said, it’s very rewarding. There’s something so exciting and enjoyable about being at the start of it all: seeing the auditions come in and getting excited that so many people auditioned. It makes me very happy to be involved in the fandom in a project such as this. I can’t wait to see what’s in store next!

– Larissa

——-

So it’s the dawn after the eve of the night that auditions ended. I’m writing this on March 22nd and I am so excited.

I joined the crew after the auditions for BBTLs Season 2 so I never got to audition for a role. So this has been my first time through the audition process. I don’t envy the work that Kim, Heidi and Larissa have ahead of them to turn all of the audtions into a cast for ABTLs. Plus I can’t wait to find out if I have a role in the new production, and if I don’t then it’s still been fun trying…

As Tabz’s has said if you didn’t get involved this time around then please do so when Firefly Between the Lines kicks off. I was nervous about getting involved when I first contacted the crew having never done anything like this before. I needn’t have been, everyone is so welcoming and helpful, so if you’re not sure what to do then I encourage you to give it a try…

Andy
Assistant Producer, Upside Down and Halfway to Happyland

Written on March 22, 2009

So here I am, frantically getting ready for the “work” part of auditions. The submission time is all cake and anxiety for me, waiting to see how many people apply, waiting to see if the right kinds of people apply, waiting to see if people are excited about the latest production.

Thankfully, I have Larissa and Heidi to help with the organizing and emailing or I would never get it all done (and hopefully they will share their parts in this).

My first step is to make sure all the files are in order. I’m sure there’s a couple stray files we don’t yet have (and should) so with the help of the girls we’ll get those tracked and requested. I’ve been able to keep on top of responding to the questions so far (there haven’t been many), and I’ve set up (with some help, thanks Rose!) the pages for the callbacks. They are not traditional callbacks really, just some roles we have that need a specific sound, so we have to ask for additional readings for them. They aren’t even necessarily large roles, just important ones with a unique sound (that’s actually true of all our roles for auditions). The callbacks are also usually roles we want to keep secret for some reason.

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