Melbourne. August, 2020. I’d just celebrated my birthday on the very day which Stage 4 restrictions had been announced (even tighter lockdown measures than we’d already been experiencing for 3 weeks). Such a winning combination for feeling up to doing anything motivational, like writing, singing, exercise, or brushing my teeth.
On one of the (very) few occasions I managed to haul my butt out of my apartment during lockdown, I found myself listening to Zombies, Run! as I usually do when I go walking, and thinking ‘too real’. My mind wondered as I walked along, and a narrative started to form. I ambled home (within the allocated hour), and smashed out a script.
“@channel”, I Slacked to the Chaps. “It could be nice to do a Night Terrace lockdown related audio adventure, with some added encouragement for social media involvement. My thoughts are that we could release to backers as a “Thanks for loving us, stay safe, that’s good, keep warm” in the interim type of thing.”
The Chaps gave a thumbs up. We hashed out what the hashtag should be. David offered to score the music. Ben offered to make a spreadsheet. Just kidding! No, Ben as usual expertly figured out the best way to make my hair-brained idea a reality in order to get it to our beautiful backers. I figured out how to create a soundproof recording booth in my apartment, conveniently next to a noisy major road and construction site. We debated whether certain things were canon, or not. Ben added some tweaks to the script and I did my best to squeeze in every damn Night Terrace and sci-fi-in-general reference that I could think of (cut to me recording an extra one at 4am that I’d thought of while editing takes). Dave even put sci-fi references into the score!
One of the weirdest things about this process for me was trying to ‘find Sue’ again. A character’s voice I hadn’t performed in many years and, distressingly, without my beautiful Chaps (and Jackie!) around to bounce off or to receive direction from during takes. I performed to my laptop and re-watched so that I could re-absorb the Sue-isms, as we call it. There’s a take where I’m reading the script to camera, and cracked up at a joke that I had completely forgotten I had written (Iso Brain™, or, as Ben calls it “between two brains at the moment”).
We used Slack to sort out production issues, and I zoomed with Ben before recording to get performance and technical aspects right. We were all totally connected by technology – but the human connection, that’s the vital thing we can’t have right now. And it reiterated for me why it’s so important to us to wait and record Season Three with the entire cast in the studio together – when we’re finally allowed to. Because being in that room is such magic! And it’s that magic that, I think, you can really hear in the episodes of Night Terrace.
That being said, it has felt amazing to get back to creativity during a time that I was really struggling with inspiration, and brushing my teeth, and to connect again with my Chaps to produce a little something special that, hopefully, you’ll find just as fun as I have.
Agents, I know Sue looks forward to receiving the intelligence reports outlining your excellent field work. You can absolutely share this link with another trusted agent, if you wish. Eventually I’m sure it will get leaked more broadly, as tends to happen with D.E.P.A.R.T.M.E.N.T. secrets. But for now, we want to ensure that you, dear Backer, have the opportunity to experience For Your Ears Only, first.
Thank you, it’s good, keep safe.
Petra