The Process

I managed to get the whole group together for two table reads, and the script seemed to work when read aloud by the actors. I then had to start scheduling studio time in the school’s audio production room, and time in WRFN’s production room. Since I could never get everyone together at the same time, I had to record different pieces in different studios at all different times. I recorded it all on ¼” reel tape with the intention of cutting it all apart later to build a continuous program of spliced-together sections. We used the ultra harmonizer in the school’s audio production room to create a robot voice for Harry, which we recorded live along with the other actors in the scenes. I later discovered that the robot voice was unintelligible on the recording and I had to re-record all of Harry’s lines separately and splice them in later.

Since I swiped the character of Barth Hornet from Darth Vader, I needed someone with a deep voice to play the part, and what better actor did I have at my disposal than our professor, Dave Thompson? Dave had a deep, bassy voice, and I asked him to read the lines for Barth Hornet, which he was more than happy to do. His voice is heard twice in the show: over the “radio” following the space battle, and again in the closing credits.

For music and sound effects, I used the Star Trek original series sound effects record, a Dr. Who sound effects record, laser blasts, cafeteria and office noise from the school’s audio production library, and a sound effects record containing “Niagra Falls,” (used for the hiss for the radio), and the sound of an elevated train whizzing past (used for the Empire ship fly-by). Music cues came from the Battlestar Galactica theme, a Dvorak Symphony No. 9 CD, a scratchy Star Wars soundtrack record, and one cue from a Stan Freberg History of the United States CD (this last was used in a moment of desperation when I couldn’t find anything else). For the spaceship liftoff sound, there is this awesome sound effect of a “starship liftoff” on Jefferson Starship’s “Blows Against the Empire” CD, which I had bought the year before. I just had to use that sound effect in something, and Galactic gave me that opportunity.

As I said before, we recorded almost everything live with sound effects onto ¼” reel tape, in several different sessions recorded in the two different studios. When recording was finished, I decided I was the only one who knew how the whole thing was supposed to sound, and spent a long day editing out all the individual scenes from the master reel, splicing them all together on their own separate reel. When that part was complete, I divided the two tracks, and recorded additional sound effects and music onto the right track only (the additional effects were supposed to mix perfectly with the already-recorded track. It didn’t quite work that well). I also had to splice in re-done Harry segments after we tweaked the voice processor and re-recorded his parts. Two later segments involving Lee, Brett and Lisa had to be re-recorded (while I was at work, so I couldn’t supervise), and edited in as well. The whole program required many hours of editing, mostly done by me, and little done by a couple other members of the group. And since I didn’t want to take ALL the credit for editing, in the end credits I said the show was made possible by “Left Arm Production Team.” This title meant absolutely nothing, as I just called it that to avoid identifying myself the sole editor.