Over a year has passed since our last reading at CAP21. We thought it went splendidly, but nothing came of it. So Heidi and I have been asking ourselves, "How do we blow on the embers of this show, which we think is a pretty good contestant for The Best Musical Ever That You've Never Heard Of?"
Answer: Podcast series.
The idea came from our desire to produce the show in a different way. Originally we thought we'd film it and release it as a series of web videos, but the monetary restraints of filming a 2 hour musical seemed overwhelming. We asked around to see what the typical budget would be for a bare-budget indie film, and it was like 10x more expensive than what we could afford. And we SO do not have connections to people willing to throw money at projects. I'm from West Virginia, Heidi's from Hawaii, go figure.
Thus the idea of recording the whole show as AUDIO only surfaced. We could still create a web series, but without video, like a radio show. We'll rehearse like we're doing a live show, but record it studio-style at Princess Martha Studios (aka my living room). It's something that's definitely within our capabilities and resources. And maybe this is a step in the direction of doing a video series for our NEXT project.
SO. The Time Travelers Convention will be released via podcast. We're aiming to release the first episode this winter, and once the ball is rolling, I guess release an episode a week.
Where are we so far?
We just signed on
Michael Perlman to direct, and are currently approaching actors. More on that later.
Musically, what are we talking about here?
So the one way we're hoping to monetize this project is by releasing the soundtrack for sale on iTunes. The podcast is free of course, but hopefully if you like it, you'll buy the album so you can listen to the songs and stuff. And we're nice people so we're giving the actors a cut of the album sales.
What this means for me is that I'm orchestrating the whole show myself. If you don't hang out in the musical theatre world, one thing you might not know is that composers usually don't orchestrate their own stuff (they just write piano and vocal), sometimes because they don't know how, or usually because it's SO time consuming ... unfortunately for me, I do sort of know how, AND it's consuming my life right now. Because it's all going to be digitally created, I don't really have to take band size limitations into consideration. I just write what I hear, which is a blessing and a curse (meaning I have to tell myself things like, "Okay, 'Could It Happen' needs that zither solo, but I'll probably have to get rid of the third harp part." Alright, 'Could It Happen' has neither harp nor zither, but you get my point). And even though the show has what I'd call an "indie rock sound" for the most part, most of the songs are now orchestrated to have at least 8 or so orchestral instruments (that "Arcade Fire-like indie rock sound"). I couldn't be more excited to be fleshing out the show this way, but dude. It's eating my life. Thankfully I'm isolated in Pittsfield, MA right now, doing an out-of-town show at Barrington Stage, and there's not much to do in town other than orchestrate a musical that you wrote. So win-win.
Once I get back, I export the orchestrations into Sonar and start building the tracks. And mapping out drum parts. And playing the piano/guitar/bass parts. And by time I've got the track built, it'll probably be time to start recording in early October.
Yes. Awesome. The circles under my eyes are darkening, but the embers of The Time Travelers Convention are definitely being blown upon.
- mike
