Diary of a Big Finish Producer
(
12/03/2008)
Five exciting days in the life of Big Finish’s line producer David RichardsonThursday February 28The deadline for
Big Finish Magazine 11, which is given away free to our cherished subscribers, is rapidly looming.
Nick Briggs has recorded the links to my script,
David Darlington has completed post production on the interviews, trailers and features, and he’s sending stuff to me to approve in sections. It’s sounding great so far. Meanwhile just the cover to finish…
Lots still to sort for our Top Secret
Doctor Who Project which I’m looking after while Nick concentrates on his one zillion other responsibilities at
Big Finish. The three stories for 2009 are recording in April, and I’m organizing auditions for actresses for tomorrow. We’ve got 11 reading for parts, so that means a schedule to draw up, scenes to mail out to agents, and final checks that I haven’t messed up and got someone coming in to read of Character X when she should be reading for Character Z.
The cover proofs for two
Doctor Who releases arrive -
The Haunting of Thomas Brewster and
Skull of Sobek. Both look perfect - a quick call to Key Productions, who dupe all our CDs, and both will start rolling. They should be in very good time for the April release.
Friday February 29I’m only in the office for the morning, and there’s so much to sort that not everything will get done. I’m going to prioritize. Hurray for prioritizing! First up, some extra names for today’s auditions. The more the merrier - get ‘em booked. Nick’s asked for a small revision to the cover of
Assassin in the Limelight, so that goes back to artist
Grant Kempster for some tweaks, mainly involving lighting. Talking of covers… we need to finish off the cover for our first
Stargate SG-1 release today, but there’s a problem accessing our FTP server. It’s not going to happen. The clock ticks to 12… and I’ve got to go. That’ll have to wait until next week now.
Quick train into the centre of London, and I meet up for a coffee with one of our directors and actor
Bryan Pilkington, who is going to be reading the Doctor’s lines at our audition (before rumours start: Bryan is NOT auditioning for the Doctor!). A gulp of latte later and we’re in the audition rooms at the Arts Theatre with our executive producer
Jason Haigh-Ellery for the next three-and-a-half hours. I record each of the performances onto a digital recorder; it’s going to be impossible to make a decision now, so we’ll take the sound files away to mull over.
Saturday March 1I leave home in Bromley and head off to Barking for
Invasion, a
Doctor Who convention organized by the lovely people at
Tenth Planet. This is the first convention I’ve been to in almost 20 years, and I’m impressed by the brilliant organization - those attending get to see star panels and even intimate ‘coffee lounges’ with actors. I’m here with our Marketing Manager
John Ainsworth and Website man
Paul Wilson, and we run the
Big Finish table in the merchandise area. It’s just lovely to meet and talk with the people who buy our CDs - some talk to me about my blog, others tell us about their favourite stories, and congratulate us on the new website. And who’s that on the opposite table? It’s
Anneke Wills, signing her autobiography. I pop over and say hello, and it’s my first opportunity to tell her about the plot for her upcoming
Companion Chronicles. I was reading the script on the tube coming here, and we hope to record it within six weeks or so. As I describe the story, Anneke’s jaw drops. “
That is so bizarre,” she says. “
That actually happened in my family.” She’s thrilled.
There’s a strong
Big Finish presence here today:
Paul McGann has shared the stage with Nick, while
Sheridan Smith has popped along for the afternoon to sign autographs. It’s her first convention, and she’s perhaps a little overwhelmed. Paul, John and I record a podcast with her, and it’s great fun. When it’s time for Sheridan to leave to begin signing she exclaims, ‘
But I’m enjoying this! We’re having a great chinwag!’. She’s just as loveable as
Lucie Miller.Sunday March 2Day off. I watch 3.10 to Yuma. Great movie, you should see it.
Monday March 3I’m working at home today. I’ve got five scripts to read, and they’ll never get looked at if I’m in the office. First up I’ve got the second draft versions of two scripts from our Top Secret Project, which will be released in January to March 2009. It’s recording at the end of next month, so these scripts have to go to Cardiff to be approved by next Monday. Which gives us a week for the director and me to make any notes, and for the writers to amend them. I’ve also got the first and sixth scripts from season three of
The Companion Chronicles to read. Emails piling up in the Inbox. The master of the
Big Finish Magazine to listen to and approve… The last one will get bumped to tomorrow.
Tuesday March 4Yay! Access to the Big Finish FTP site, so I’m starting to get the Stargate cover done. It’s taking ages to download. So I’m writing this!