Blue Hot Gossip

Day 13 - Halloween

http://www.archive.org/download/BlueHotGossips13DaysOfHalloween2011-Day13/Blue.Hot.Gossip.13.Days.of.Halloween.Day.13.mp3

Happy Halloween!

Took the time today to carve my pumpkin for this year. It saves me the time and effort of doing it tomorrow when I'll likely be busy decorating.

This may be the last post for Blue Hot Gossip, although I can't say for certain. I don't think I'm going to bother doing any more episodes considering the amount of work it takes for a single episode and the difficulty in coming up with suitable music. I don't want to rely completely on The FuMP for material and I haven't been all that impressed with their latest offerings. And if anyone wants that music they can just as easily subscribe to that podcast.

I am seriously considering doing more Podcast Ping episodes and may try to get one out for Christmas this year. But it depends upon how things go. It's more a consideration for next year. There was one epic classic poem that I was going to do but it would take a little translation from Old English first; mostly changing a lot of "f"s and "s"s around. It's just a little too hard to read out loud the way it is.

And I've been mulling over turning one of the finished manuscripts I've written into an audiobook. The first attempt at such a project sort of fizzled out because I was working on an unfinished manuscript. If I try it again I'll work with one I finished. But I may try to find an e-book publisher for the book first and use the audiobook as part of the promotion.

I'm not ready to quit podcasting, it's just that I need to do something worthwhile.

Day 12

http://www.archive.org/download/BlueHotGossips13DaysOfHalloween2011-Day12/Blue.Hot.Gossip.13.Days.of.Halloween.Day.12.mp3

I was able to record and edit the final day today which I'll be posting tomorrow. It will be nice getting it finished, although at this point it was good having done it. I can't say at this point I won't do it next year, but it's not looking likely. However, I most likely will have some sort of Halloween episode for one of my podcasts.

For many reasons I've been busier this year than last, at least for the past couple weeks, so it's been harder to find the time to work on the podcast. I keep feeling that I'm posting the episodes late, although I have to remind myself that I'm posting a day early. And I do wait until at least 6pm EST, so that I'm at least after midnight UTC, so it's late in the day when I post.

Mostly this comes about because I'm posting episodes on Mininova and they use to clear their favorites at midnight so that I would give the podcast the most amount of time. But they've changed the way they do things so it doesn't matter. The only downside is that they will only list the most recent on their main page, but those use to searching shouldn't have a problem finding the other episodes.

In comparison, last year's 13 Days have got between about 3,500 and 5,000 downloads an episode. The year before got between about 6,200 and 15,400 downloads per episode. Although they have had one or two years of availability. The highest so far this year is less than 800, which might climb to about 2,000 by next year. But it does seem that the numbers are dropping. Still, Mininova is probably still the best place for a show to get attention. And if I went by direct download numbers I likely won't have even bothered doing one this year. But as the numbers drop it's harder to justify spending the time working on the podcast rather than writing or some other venture. It's sort of similar to the reasons why a TV show gets cancelled.

I have been meaning to do an audiobook or something similar this year but I could never get around to it. I've also been thinking lately about reviving Podcast Ping, although I'm likely to take a slightly different approach. Instead of the spoken portion being all poetry I may include short prose as well. And ratings--I mean download numbers--for it aren't as important since they never were all that high.

It was because Blue Hot Gossip was getting better numbers that I dropped it to work on Blue Hot Gossip, but I wasn't able to get it going as regularly as Podcast Ping and it turned out to require a lot of work for each episode. Podcast Ping episodes are easier to put together and the music for them is easier to come up with. Much of the work for those was writing the poetry, which is why I'll probably use some prose. Besides, I've listened to the old episodes so many times I need new episodes myself to listen to. They do have a certain timeless quality to them. I just can't say at this point how frequent they will be. I would like to do them weekly but I would try to do at least one a month.

Day 11

http://www.archive.org/download/BlueHotGossips13DaysOfHalloween2011-Day11/Blue.Hot.Gossip.13.Days.of.Halloween.Day.11.mp3

I haven't found much so far in the way of good new podsafe Halloween songs. Fortunately there's plenty of older stuff but it will make it harder to come up with stuff for next year, should I do a show.

At this point I'm thinking that if I do another 13 Days I won't bother with a host but just play music. Having a host means I have to write and record the scripts which takes up time. And I have to justify spending that time and effort.

Although that of course depends upon how much music I can come up with. And since I try to do 13 days then I need 13 good songs to play. Less than that and I'm better off doing just a single show. I could use songs I've already played but I feel that I would just be repeating myself and this year's shows will almost certainly still be available.

I also don't know how much the show would be missed if I didn't do one next year. The download numbers have been okay but nothing near the levels of past years. And I haven't seen any feedback so I don't know how the show is being received. The number of downloads on Mininova has dropped, but that has more to do with the drop in Mininova users. I would use Demonoid or The Pirate Bay but they don't host files like Mininova does and they don't provide stats so I don't know how well the show does. I did use them last year but it didn't seem to make a difference. (Although since I can't get stats from them I have no way of knowing.)

I do hate to drop it but at the same time it doesn't appear to be taking off the way I hoped it would. After three years there will be a total of 39 shows and over 40 songs in those shows. So there's still a good body of work for people to draw from. But I was hoping that there would be more feedback and possibly some blog posts to help bring attention to the show.

But podcasts have past their heyday. They now have to compete with streaming television shows that were made for millions. Fortunately, I have got enough downloads from Mininova, even at a smaller rate, to have made doing the show worthwhile. Although as I have always said, whether I do one next year depends first and foremost on whether I can get enough music to do the show. And if I do revive Podcast Ping then a Halloween episode of that show may be sufficient.

Day 10

http://www.archive.org/download/BlueHotGossips13DaysOfHalloween2011-Day10/Blue.Hot.Gossip.13.Days.of.Halloween.Day.10.mp3

It turned out to be a busy day for me today and I almost forgot to upload the episode. I've still got to record the final day but that shouldn't take too long and I can do that on Sunday if I have to.

The theme of this show is magic and as it happens I'm finally getting around to watching the pilot of Once Upon A Time. I can't say I'll stick with it though. There's just too much focus on the "real" world elements and not enough on the fantasy world. It's shaping up so far to mainly take place in the "real" world with fantasy world flashbacks. And it's also shaping up to be a prime-time soap.

Day 9

http://www.archive.org/download/BlueHotGossips13DaysOfHalloween2011-Day9/Blue.Hot.Gossip.13.Days.of.Halloween.Day.09.mp3

Today's theme happens to be zombies. I'm not really a fan of how they treat them today since they've made them out to be really what they aren't. The zombies that are popular today are actually more akin to revenants than to zombies. The current incarnation has much more to do with movies than actual folklore and seems to be an excuse for gore than real terror. Even vampires have gone from being revenant-like beings to more like romantic predators.

It's like modern storytellers don't know how to scare people anymore. This is most evident with ghost stories. Since Poltergeist people think ghost stories have to have a sense of danger to them but it was simply the sheer nature of the ghost that made them scary.

A ghost doesn't have to kill. It only has to warn someone that they will die. The mere thought that someone will die through accident or natural means is scary enough. The ghost doesn't actually have to do anything. It's those ghost stories that merely suggest a supernatural element that are often the most effective because it suggests that the world may not be as safe and comfortable as you think, but at the same time it offers a hope in something beyond death.

Day 8

http://www.archive.org/download/BlueHotGossips13DaysOfHalloween2011-Day8/Blue.Hot.Gossip.13.Days.of.Halloween.Day.08.mp3

I've been spending most of the day cleaning up and organizing files my computer but I did get a script written for the final episode. I did have to get rid of part of a line that I liked but it was keeping the flow of conversation from moving. I'm a bit busy this week but it should only take me about an hour to record and edit the episode together. And I've got until Sunday to do it, so if I have to I can work on it on the weekend.

Usually about this time I start to get tired of the monotony of the posting, but I've just been so busy these past couple weeks I haven't had a chance. In previous years I would have all the episodes finished by the start of October but I just couldn't get myself motivated to work on it early. I think it was the selection of music that held me back. In previous years I only used one song a day but this year I decided to use three and I had to find and select enough music for each day. I couldn't start on the scripts until I had that worked out.

As for next year it will be hard to avoid reusing all the same music again. I'm thinking more about just having one or two shows filled with Halloween music rather than posting for 13 days. But that's likely to be based upon whether I decide to do other podcasting or not. At the very least I'm likely to have one show with some or all new music. And by "new" I mean music I haven't used before. Many artist wait until October to release their Halloween music so it's hard to get it in the show when I need to prepare the shows early.

Day 6

http://www.archive.org/download/BlueHotGossips13DaysOfHalloween2011-Day6/Blue.Hot.Gossip.13.Days.of.Halloween.Day.06.mp3

I've been having a bit of trouble with my computer after I tried out Windows 8 so I've spend most of the day getting it back to normal. However, I was able to get all but the last episode finished up and ready to go yesterday so there's no trouble with delay.

http://www.archive.org/download/BlueHotGossips13DaysOfHalloween2011-Day5/Blue.Hot.Gossip.13.Days.of.Halloween.Day.05.mp3

It would be hard to do a show about skeletons and not include Dem Dry Bones. I was lucky enough to find a decent copy to put in the show. Mostly because it's old enough to fall into public domain.

There are plenty of songs I would like to use but they aren't podsafe. I even tend to stay away from songs I'm uncertain about. The most obvious would be Monster Mash which I can't play because of the copyright. However, it gets so much radio play around this time and people have heard it so much that many simply get tired of it and there's no need to play it. A lesser known song and more modern song I would like to play is The Greatest Show Unearthed by Creature Feature. The title is an obvious play on the Ringling Brothers and Barnum Baily Circus tagline. The song itself reminds me a lot of the Something Wicked This Way Comes movie and "The Greatest Show Unearthed" could be the tagline for the circus in that film.

This is the first day this week that I've had plenty of time to work on the shows. I've recorded the voice part of all but the last episode and I should be able to get most of the shows edited together today. If I have to I can do all the work for the last episode next Sunday. The only problem with doing the shows at the last minute is that it doesn't give me the time to make improvements before I have to post the show.

I've also been considering getting back to Podcast Ping. It never got great download numbers but it's clear at this point that podcasts have passed their peak. With TV shows made for big money streaming on the Internet it's hard for a home producer to create anything anywhere nearly as competitive. Most of my downloads have been from Mininova and it's been dropping patrons over the years. Episodes of shows that use to get over 10,000 downloads are now getting only a thousand. But web postings are even worse. People just aren't seeking out podcasts as they use to, and there's millions of them out there. But I do enjoy listening to the Podcast Ping episodes and have listened to past episodes many times. And I think this time if I did it I would try and do a bunch at a time then post them on a weekly or bi-weekly basis.

Day 4

http://www.archive.org/download/BlueHotGossips13DaysOfHalloween2011-Day4/Blue.Hot.Gossip.13.Days.of.Halloween.Day.04.mp3

It seems to me that devils were more popular in the past as part of Halloween than they are today. It might have something to do with the pranking origins of modern Halloween. In the past pranks were performed to scare people into thinking that spirits had done things but today's Halloween is more about the celebrations than the scares.

Although Spring Heeled Jack isn't exactly a devil, he would have been thought of one at the time. It's a Victorian character that not everyone knew about, much like the Jersey Devil. I was surprised when the character showed up on Sanctuary. I suspect the song may have renewed an interest in the character, although I can't help but wonder if one of the writers happened to listen to last year's show.

http://www.archive.org/download/BlueHotGossips13DaysOfHalloween2011-Day3/Blue.Hot.Gossip.13.Days.of.Halloween.Day.03.mp3

I'm glad I got the the first three done since I've been a little busy the past couple days to do any work on it. But it doesn't take long to edit the shows together once the voice recording is done and edited. The rest should go quickly, once I get the time to work on them. The only thing I'm cutting short are these descriptions.

Since it isn't always easy to come up with Halloween-related songs that are also podsafe. However it seems that there's more podsafe stuff than commercial stuff. Some of it, like the old 78 records, are commercial material that's become public domain.

Day 2

http://www.archive.org/download/BlueHotGossips13DaysOfHalloween-Day2_463/Blue.Hot.Gossip.13.Days.of.Halloween.Day.02.mp3

I've been busy these past couple days so I don't have the time or energy to write much. I've got up to episode 8 recorded and only up to episode 3 edited and ready to post so I'll have to try and get some more work done tomorrow.

Initially I was just going to have one new song in each posting but I realized there might be a lot of older stuff that people haven't heard and the episodes were a little short so I decided to add another song. But since I was making the episodes two songs long I decided I might as well put three songs in each. And many may not have heard listened to those song since last year. That allows me to repost many of the songs I've played in the past. But there's still plenty of new music in the episodes as well.

The themes really came about as I was sorting out what songs to put in each show. I hadn't initially planned on themes but I found that I had many songs that would fit into groups. Since I chose to go with themes many days may have all older music while some might have a couple new ones.

Day 1

http://www.archive.org/download/BlueHotGossips13DaysOfHalloween2011-Day1/Blue.Hot.Gossip.13.Days.of.Halloween.Day.01.mp3

It's time again for the third annual 13 Days of Halloween. I say third even though it's only the second year I'm posting it at Blue Hot Gossip. The first year was posted at Podcast Ping.

I started working on it a little late and I've still got the last script to write, but I had decided already that I wouldn't make it as complicated as the past two. Initially I was just going to have one song and a paragraph of narration, but I wound up deciding to use some songs I had used before and felt it better to add Edward in with Count Cordova as hosts. So I've got a little bit of conversation plus three songs.

And like last year, I am going to try and post the evening before the day so that it's easier for people to download. That way come Halloween most people will have a whole day to download and listen to the podcast.

After a long delay, here's episode 22.

http://www.archive.org/download/TheBlueHotGossipComedyShow22/BHGCS22.mp3

This will probably be the last episode of the podcast, at least for a while. It's been hard enough to get around to doing it with all the other things I need to work on, and many of those take more priority. I also have another podcast I'd like to work on, however it could be some time before I start on it.

This seems like just the right time to wrap the show up. I've take the Count Cordova/ Francis storyline just about as far as I can. And I'm ending the episode in a way that would allow me to either continue with the format of the three hosts or to do the show more like I did for the first five. So if I do continue with the podcast I can do so with a fresh start.

It's sort of interesting how the airplane motif works into the show. The Count Cordova storyline started with a plane crash and (sort of) wraps up with the boys traveling home on one. The first song of the first episode was "At The Airport" which also related to planes.

The airplane motif relates well to the podcast because I've always felt I've been trying to get it off the ground. I would like to have been able to do it weekly but just found it took too much work as well as it being difficult to come up with enough good suitable music. In fact I'm a bit amazed at even getting 22 episodes out of it, or 35 if you include the Halloween specials. And likely because the episodes haven't been so regular it's been difficult to really draw much of an audience (aside from the torrentcast).

So rather than just coming up with one every few months I thought I'd give it a proper ending, or at least do a show that would work as a proper ending. But like season finales it also leaves it open to further shows should I decide to do them.

As for other podcasts I'll have to wait and see. I do want to get into a new one but I'm a bit busy right now. And I don't want to get into a new one unless I can be sure I can do it weekly. The big problem is that right now I can't afford to work on anything that isn't going to generate revenue. And podcasting tends to be non-profit. I could afford to do one or two a month but not weekly as I would like so it's best for now just to hold off.

But I'm not quitting podcasting, just taking a break from it for now. I have been blogging a bit more lately. My blog, The Best Blog In The Unknown Universe, can be found at http://writerpatrick.wordpress.com/ .

The Blue Hot Gossip 2010 Christmas episode.

http://www.archive.org/download/TheBlueHotGossipComedyShow21/BHGCS21.mp3

I know it's late in the month for a Christmas podcast but I almost didn't do this one. I kept getting interrupted and had too many other things to deal with this month. And I had trouble coming up with good music; most of the humorous Christmas music that came out this month wasn't all that funny or suitable.

The next one will most likely be the third anniversary episode in January. I already have an idea for it. Then I'll take a break from it but I can't say for how long. I'll probably give myself a break of a few months then get into a new podcast. Whether I work on this one has much to do with the music I find and the ideas I come up with.

This is a somewhat special episode featuring the music of Billy Jones. He was a comedy musician back in the 20s and 30s, although much of his work holds up today.

http://www.archive.org/download/TheBlueHotGossipComedyShow20/TBHGCS20.mp3

I was initially planning on getting this episode out before Halloween but I was too busy with the 13 Days of Halloween to get it done. The premise is a little different than what I was going to do but it worked out as well just the same. I would have done this a little sooner but I was holding off to today because of the Canadian podcasting five years celebration.

I can't say whether or not I'll get one done for Christmas. It mainly depends upon the music and I'm having trouble can't find anything decent I haven't yet used. Last year's Christmas Calendar for Podcast Ping as well as the Christmas episode used up what old stuff I could find and I've not been too thrilled by the new stuff coming out. In fact it seems that in general most of the stuff from The Fump lately has been a little too serious.

But it's really a matter of whether or not I'll find the time to write the script. I do want to get one done for the 3rd anniversary show in January, but at this point I will probably put the show into hiatus so that I can spend time working on a new podcast. I just can't seem to find the time or energy to work on more than one at a time and I would like the new one to be weekly. I'm hesitant to talk about it now since I may not start it until the spring.

Looking back at my old posts I can see that I've been podcasting for about three-and-a-half years and blogging for six years on December 2nd. Although before blogs I did have web pages with a few articles I had written so in a sense I've been blogging for longer than that. In all, I've been putting material out for about ten years, although the last few years have been the most productive.

http://www.archive.org/download/BlueHotGossips13DaysOfHalloween-Day13/Day13-13.Days.Of.Halloween.mp3

So this is the final day of the 13 Days of Halloween. In many ways it seems anti-climactic, at least to me, but it's only because the characters are finally out of the basement. But that doesn't mean they're out of danger.

I could probably have had the characters describing the library yesterday but there's little need. They're were going to be in it for one episode. After such a long ordeal one might expect it to be more climactic but there's little point. After all, it's not like the characters haven't been in a library before and the average public library is far more impressive then a small private one. And they were more interested at that point in just getting their music and leaving.

You'll also notice that I just seemed to jump past their use of the elevator. I had thought of starting the scene with the sound of the elevator but then I would have had to spend time with them stepping out and meeting again with Count Cordova. Their use of the elevator is nothing more than a way to get them from one point to another in a short amount of time. Actually spending time dealing with it would have done nothing more than slow down the story. By just starting at a point after they used the elevator I move right away into the interesting material and the listener automatically assumes they used the elevator.

So there you have it. I can't say if I'll be doing one next year because it depends on a few things. The most important of course is the music. If I only have a few pieces then I can present them in a single episode rather than over 13 days. I'm probably not going to do another story since it's so much work. Instead I'm likely to do what I was thinking of initially for this year and just having a couple of paragraphs of narration with a song. It also depends upon whether I have the time and energy to do it.

I've been planning on getting a new podcast going. I was thinking about doing it this year but I found I just didn't have the time. It seems lately that I can only work on one at a time. I didn't even get anything more done on Podcast Ping. I have been considering putting Blue Hot Gossip on hiatus, mostly to allow me to work on the new podcast, although that wouldn't be until at least next year. I'll also try to get an anniversary episode in.

I'll almost certainly get a Christmas episode in and possibly one before that giving me a total of twenty to twenty-one regular episodes of Blue Hot Gossip. I'm thinking of doing about twenty-five episodes before putting the show on indefinite hiatus. That's about the length of a TV season for a single show. The show has been reasonably popular, at least in the torrents, but since Mininova, the site I've been using, has been slipping so too have my download numbers on it making it less worthwhile.

Come January I'll have been doing the show for about three years. It's been hard to even get it out on a monthly basis and I'm finding it to be more work each episode. It's also hard to go back to something simpler after doing something complex. If I do start a new podcast I'm going to want to spend time on that. But it will probably not be until next summer before I suspend this podcast.

Keep an eye on my blog, The Best Blog In The Unknown Universe, which is now at http://writerpatrick.wordpress.com for more information.

http://www.archive.org/download/BlueHotGossips13DaysOfHalloween-Day12/Day12-13.Days.Of.Halloween.mp3

Since this was the first time did a script this long and I was trying to stretch it over 12 days, I probably stretched the story out a little longer than needed. This episode may also not seem quite as climactic or scary, but this was suppose to be a comedy story, not a horror. The scenes are made more to allow for jokes than a proper story. I could have had monsters pop up but the point is that they're locked away in the rooms. It's simply enough of a threat to just know they're down there somewhere. An actual attack breaks the tension because one knows for certain that there's a danger rather than the uncertainty of not knowing. And I do have Edward, who appeared throught the encounters, accompanying them and he's shown an affiliation for playing with sharp objects. And he has a knife. A very sharp knife.

Tomorrow will be the last day. It will be nice to get it posted and finished. It's been a big job and when it's done it will be the bulk of work for the podcast this year. I'll probably just have a couple more after this.

http://www.archive.org/download/BlueHotGossips13DaysOfHalloween-Day11/Day11-13.Days.Of.Halloween.mp3

This episode was tricky because of the number of voices I had to do. In doing so many it's easy to forget exactly how I did the voice. Fortunately, I've added voices gradually over time so I'm usually only dealing with one new voice. But I commonly find myself using the wrong voice.

There's a clear separation of voices in this episode which isn't always as apparent. I also did a slight separation for Walt's encounter with the little man and Charlie's encounter with the clown but those don't come across as clearly. The trick helps to distinguish each character as a separate speaker which can compensate for any slip-ups I might make. I also found the echo effect helped a little.

It's like a form of audio 3D. The brain initially hears a voice coming from a different direction and assumes it to be someone else. However, it tends to get weaker with long speaking parts because the brain adjusts within a few seconds. After that point it's only the difference in sound that works. So it works better when the characters are talking in short breaks. A good example of where it doesn't work as well is during the 25th day of the Christmas specials when the Blue Hot Gossip characters are reading a poem. But since I recorded it and I'm familiar with the sound of my voice it's harder for me to be fooled so I don't know how well it plays to other listeners.

There's something similar that happens with the Muppets. If you look at The Muppet Show you'll find times when Kermit, who was voiced by Jim Henson, is speaking with Ralph who is also voiced by Jim Henson yet they're taken as two different characters because we see two characters on screen. Although years of experience also helped him to keep the voices separate when speaking.

http://www.archive.org/download/BlueHotGossips13DaysOfHalloween-Day10/Day10-13.Days.Of.Halloween.mp3

The title and transition music is just something I made up using a program that allowed me to write sheet music and convert it to a midi. I then re-recorded the midi as a sound file and modified it a bit. I used an organ sound partially because of it's eerie quality and because I previously mentioned that Count Cordova had an organ in his house. It could be assumed that it's the same organ.

While last year I used a clip of music but I wanted something different for this year. I also needed transitional music between Count Cordova's narrative and the story to clearly separate the two, especially when transitioning out of the story otherwise it might seem as if he was appearing out of nowhere. By using something original I didn't have to bother giving credit which helped because I wanted to end the show on the song and not end credits. It would also have seemed repetitive to give credit every time I started the show. Using something original allowed me to avoid that.

The work is only about 20 seconds long, the length of the intro. I may develop it into something more later. I've played with the program only a little before but I do like it because I can play around and try things out while I'm writing with it. Although I'm not really a musician and I'm usually better with lyrics than music. I do play a little guitar, when my fingers decide they want to, but I'm far from professional even when I'm in practice. Still, I might just try coming up with something and sticking it on iTunes. (I'd also likely play it on a podcast as well.)

http://www.archive.org/download/BlueHotGossips13DaysOfHalloween-Day09/Day09-13.Days.Of.Halloween.mp3

There were many firsts for this production for me. It was the first time I've tried such a long story, particularly one stretching over many days. While I do try to keep some sort of consistency to the overall storyline of the show, each episode tends to stand on it's own. It also meant creating and using a new voice which takes a while to develop. And while I did use background for the Blue Hot Gossip 19, that was only the previous episode to this presentation. I also wrote a new piece of music, although that's not the first time I've done that. But I did do some mixing of sounds and sound effects which I haven't done before.

It was the first time I tried mixing up sounds. You'll notice when Al goes into the room he goes from the echoing hallway into a non-echoing room. I didn't feel the need to put background sound into normal rooms and aside from the sound of something like a TV or fan most rooms are fairly quiet. I used this a couple times in other parts which helps to give a feeling that the characters are moving from one place to another.

http://www.archive.org/download/BlueHotGossips13DaysOfHalloween-Day08/Day08-13.Days.Of.Halloween.mp3

When using the background sounds I had to be careful not to allow them to overpower the character's dialogue. As such some sounds seem softer than they should as anyone who has tried to record in a moderately crowded room would attest. But this trick is used in entertainment all the time. Most of the time when you see a TV show or movie where the scene takes place on a street all the sounds and even the voices of the actors are mixed in later. If you actually tried to record two people talking on a busy street all you would hear is traffic.

For this episode I used two layers of sound effects. The haunted house sounds are in the background while the footsteps were mixed in with the spoken portion. I didn't want the footsteps to blend in too much to the haunted house sounds or Charlie's mention of them would seem pointless. They had to be distinct enough for someone to notice them apart from the haunted house sounds.

You may notice that I left out the footsteps of the characters in the hallway but I felt they would have distracted too much and made the sound of the footsteps in the haunted house less significant. It would also have been tricky to add footsteps for three people that sounded like they came from those people without putting them into all the other parts of the story as well. And people usually don't tend to pay attention to their own footsteps anyways so I felt I could get away with leaving them out. It's one of those things that I could have added but would have added significantly to the amount of work and I was just trying to keep the sound to the essential effects.

I also make a joke about him talking to himself. Normally, people don't tend to talk to themselves when alone but since I'm not working in a visual medium I needed to convey what was happening. In a movie it's possible to just show the character acting silently or overdub them thinking to themselves. I've run into a few situations in the past where not having the visual element made things a little more difficult and I've had to alter my approach to a scene to allow for that. If you ever heard Orson Well's version of War of the Worlds you'll recall there's one character that tells the story into a tape recorder. This is done to overcome the handicap of having a character with nobody else to talk to. The news broadcast portion of the play also helps with that.

http://www.archive.org/download/BlueHotGossips13DaysOfHalloween-Day07/Day07-13.Days.Of.Halloween.mp3

Day 7 marks the mid-way point in the 13 days. At this point all the real work is done and it's just a matter of uploading. But even that takes time and it tends to be a little boring. It's sort of a marathon since I have to post every day, including weekends. As I discovered in the past, I'm uploading the evening before because it's a little easier than trying to get it all out on the same day and I have time to adjust for server problems.

Last year I was just uploading to the Podcast Ping podcast blog site and Mininova. This year I decided to upload to Demonoid and The Pirate Bay as well. In doing so I wound up uploading slightly different torrents. Since Demonoid requires an extra file that The Pirate Bay doesn't recognize for it's music torrents, I also included the show notes in the Demonoid file.

With Mininova I could use their content distribution service which meant I don't have to maintain a torrent. But Demonoid and The Pirate Bay require one, so I have to try and keep those seeded. Since the activity for those has been fairly low I probably won't bother to keep seeding much past Halloween, although I don't expect a lot of people will be trying to download from them. Mininova's structure makes it easy to find new torrents but neither The Pirate Bay nor Demonoid make the torrents as obvious.

I've also noticed far lower download numbers from Mininova for this year's show than the last. Almost all of this is due to people abandoning Mininova after it went legit last November. This discourages me from bothering to do it next year, but I don't know if I would be able to come up with enough good Halloween music for it. Even amongst non-podsafe music there really isn't a lot of Halloween music around. After Monster Mash the selection gets slim. Although this year's selection actually turned out better than last year's.

But at this point I can't say if I'll do it again or not. The lack of music would be the biggest reason, but there's also a lot of work in doing and posting them. And if I do the work I want to get enough downloads to make it seem worthwhile. It may still be worth doing a Halloween episode, and I likely will even if it turns out to be an hour long, but at this point it's not likely that I'll do another 13 days.

Day 6.

http://www.archive.org/download/BlueHotGossips13DaysOfHalloween-Day06/Day06-13.Days.Of.Halloween.mp3

Doing a voice, let alone a new voice, can be difficult. While I might come up with one I like it's not always easy to reproduce it the next day. My throat might be tighter, drier or more congested than when I first did it. And I've got to find the right voice for the character. It's also tricky switching between voices. Eventually, I get use to doing the voice enough so that I can keep it fairly consistent.

I've also got to do a voice that doesn't sound too much like any other. When I first tried to come up with a voice for the new character I was going to use a Peter Lorre type voice but that came across sounding too much like Charlie. What I came up with was something between Walt and Charlie that sounds distinct enough.

Day 5.

http://www.archive.org/download/BlueHotGossips13DaysOfHalloween-Day05/Day05-13.Days.Of.Halloween.mp3

I used some background sound on Blue Hot Gossip 19 and decided to use some for this story. I've kept it fairly simple though. The echoes were nothing more than a filter but they do add to the atmosphere. I was only going to use background sound for one part but found it helped to add it to a few other parts as well. All the sounds were ones I found for free on the Internet, although I did modify and mix them a little.

When adding in the sound effects for the doors I had to be careful in most spots to include the sound of the doors closing. This is most significant in this episode because it's related to the story. There is one spot where I didn't bother with the sound of the door closing because it doesn't really matter. It could be assumed that the door is open and it wouldn't make a difference.