The Guide to the Guide - November Issue (Extra, extra!)

Happy November!   

We are deep into fall, folks! The spooks have been sated, the clocks have been rolled back, and the winter holidays loom just over the horizon.

Here is a quick update since we last briefed you on Wayward Guide happenings:

As we’ve explained in previous updates, the entire series has been picture locked for some time now, except for a handful of shots in Episode 9 which need visual effects (VFX as we say in the bizzzzzz). If you are wondering whether these are werewolf related shots, the answer is YES. If you are wondering whether one of these shots is Jon Cozart transforming into a giant bone-in ribeye steak before our very eyes only to be devoured by a pack of hungry werewolves, the answer is MAYBE. These VFX shots will be locked in the next couple of weeks and because a lot of post production work is contingent on other post production work being completed, finalizing our plans for these scenes will clear the way for several other items.

Firstly, Clark and Pierce will be able to complete the scoring for Episode 9. The other episodes have already been completely scored. Signed, sealed, delivered…they’re scored. While this episode in particular will include some riffs on familiar musical themes from the rest of the series, C & P will be coming up with some brand new musical moments to highlight the action packed climax of Season 1. That’s right, “action packed climax!” Are you enticed? Sounds scrumptious, huh? Almost as appetizing as a big ol’ Cozart sized steak.

Secondly, once we have the final score and stems (individual instrument tracks used for sound mixing) Matt & Mark will be able to complete the remaining mixing and sound design. A couple of weeks ago, we had an exciting work session with the fellas at Ears Up (that’s the name of their company) where we went through Episodes 4 - 8 to hear the semi-final mix and sound design for these episodes. We say this all the time, but WOW sound really does play such an essential part in bringing the world of Connor Creek to life. Two of the episodes we reviewed include complex crowd scenes with over a dozen characters speaking, which they did a fantastic job making sense of. These crowd scenes were shot in fragments, so when we finally put the puzzle pieces together and it all worked, it felt pretty pretttty prettttty pretty pretty good.

We spent part of this work session discussing one of the final creative decisions we still have to make when it comes to sound; what do our werewolves sound like? Of course, once you begin to unpack this question, a slew of other questions rear their pointy, fanged heads, such as: Do you pitch down the actors’ voices to make them sound more menacing? Should the vocal effect happen more in performance or in sound design? Do the werewolves sound differently at different points in the series? Should an effect applied to male voices be the same effect applied to female voices? As of now, we are still experimenting to find what works best, but we’ll need to come to final decisions on these questions soon. 

Once Matt & Mark complete their work on the final few episodes, we’ll move on to ADR in early 2020. We’ve been keeping track of lines that need to be re-recorded because of interference with the recording quality on set. And in some cases we’ll be adding a line here or there that we didn’t know we needed originally, in order to make moments clearer. It will be fun to get some of the cast back together for these recording sessions and we’ll be sure to bring you a thorough update of that process when it comes time.

We are continuing to take a couple more meetings before the end of the year. As expressed in the previous update, navigating the digital and broadcast distribution markets has been both challenging and educational. Although we are still in search of a distributor, at this point, because of a number of factors, we are more seriously considering releasing the series ourselves next year. Wayward Guide has been a calling card that has opened several doors for us this past year, which we hope will lead to long term working relationships for TCB. We are grateful to all of YOU for helping us achieve this step forward on our journey to creating bigger and better projects. That being said, we plan to approach our remaining meetings this year with the same seriousness and hopefulness as we have been and see what happens!

As the year wanes and we slowly solidify our release plan over the next couple of months, look out for updates a little more often than we’ve been posting recently! One thing is for sure, friends. We are in the pre-endgame for post. The end-endgame is certainly in sight.

Best,

TCB

P.S. We have lot of other fun and exciting TCB announcements coming soon, so stay tuned to our socials for that!