On the 23rd of September, I finally got an opportunity to get in on one of the aspects I like the most about Odyssey: The audio production. Jonathan Crowe was working on the voice tracks of "Live at the 25!" and so Nathan and I spent the morning, afternoon, and evening working on the vocal tracks with him. What this means is this: On a typical episode, the team will record several takes of every line and then splice them together so that you get the best take of each line in an episode. "Live at the 25!" had a unique problem, as it was a live show recorded on three separate occasions. Because of this, the actual sound quality wavered from day to day, the actors were more enthusiastic on some days then others, and the audience reacted differently each and every time. So to actually combine such different versions of the same episode was going to be quite the undertaking... not only that, but shortening the 35 minutes of material we had into 25 minutes was going to be quite the task. So right off the bat a huge cut was made. The original show contained three skits: "Sam Maritan", "Young Guns Bonanza!", and "25 Years Later", not to mention a framework that involved Connie holding a party at Whit's End for their "Almost 25th Anniversary". The first two skits were originally heard in "Over the Airwaves" while the rest was all original content. So, the axe fell on "Sam Maritan" which was the weakest of the bunch. But that still wasn't enough as the show was still about 5 minutes too long, and so various other changes were made. In the original recording, the gang holding the party at Whit's End is waiting for George Barclay to show up from Pokenberry Falls. There's many lines referring to his absence, and just before Chris comes to wrap the show up... George finally arrives and there's a big celebration. Unfortunately, while great for long term fans, his scenes and any reference to him were entirely removed for the sake of time. You can still hear Chuck Bolte as the voice of Jeremy Cartwood... which brings me to a moment in the show that comes about by mistake. We were listening to music tracks from old shows, trying to find music that would fit well with the theme and we found a tune that worked perfect for a dramatic moment... when went to play back a scene, we didn't realize the musical track was longer than we expected and just before Jeremy says "Hello Father!", a "TADA!" sound was played. The three of us thought it was quite comical, and so we left it in the episode and added it to every occurence of "Hello Father!" in the episode. And one other cut was Bart Rathbone's commercial, which was shortened from 1:30 to 40 seconds. We finished up that night at around 9:00, with still a few more cuts that would need to be made later on.

Tuesday I spent the day finishing all of my auditions and putting them into the computer. I had been working on it steadily for the duration of my time there and so after putting everything in, I decided to expand the database and include more details about each of the actors involved. Meanwhile, Jonathan continued work on the "Live at the 25!" and Nathan and I poured over clips that Nathan could use for his "Inside the Studio" episode. In fact, many of the clips we discovered were included in the episode or appeared on the official Whit's End website (such as the original auditions for Paul Herlinger and Townsend Coleman), and the song that Will Ryan, Katie Leigh, Hal Smith and Walker Edmiston sing after a take is over.

On Wednesday we had a bit of an eventful day. To start off, John Fornof was looking for some inspiration for his upcoming episodes "American Revelation I & II" which needed to be written in a fairly short amount of time. We sat down and brainstormed many ideas and wrote them on the big board. We met with a man named Phil Williams he works in a different department of Focus on the Family, who had some great information about the American Revolution that I had never heard of... though I knew nothing about the American Revolution before hand, so that's not saying much! But we were all impressed with his knowledge and much of it found it's way into the episode... in fact he even has a few lines! We then met to discuss the upcoming casting that would need to be done for the new shows. I sat at the computer and loaded up the database I had been working on, and played various different people's auditions for Bob Hoose, Marshal, John, Chris, and Nathan. The new system turned out to be great, as it allowed the team to access certain people's auditions far faster and in a more organized way.

On Thursday I had a fairly quiet day in my cubicle, so I decided to make the most of it and take a tour of Focus on the Family... twice. I figured I had been working there for two and a half weeks and it would sure be nice to be able to know a bit more about the buildings. During the tour, it was quite clear that Adventures in Odyssey is a huge part of Focus on the Family's ministry, and since the guide knew I was working on the show, she directed all AIO related questions to me. It was great!

Then on the the Friday, Nathan and I returned to Jonathan Crowe's lair to see what he had come up with. The show was still too long, so Jonathan and Marshal had decided to make another cut. In the scene "25 Years Later", where Whit and Tom meet Connie and Melanie (Mandy's daughter), Jason Whittaker was also a part of the original skit. So we helped Jonathan remove all references to Jason and then listened to the final version. Though there was a problem... one of Whit's lines "The powder took care of that", sounded like "The potter took care of that". I knew what the line was supposed to be, but it sounded completey wrong to me... and not Nathan or Jonathan. So, Jonathan being the guy he is, decided to completey redo that section and took the line from a different recording and mixed it into the scene... a lot of work for a simple line that no one but me (and perhaps my Canadian ears) noticed, but I think it sounds great now!

On the Saturday, Nathan and I went hiking. Unfortunately, I hadn't been on a hike in so long that the altitude mixed with my asthma gave me a pretty hard time. But it was still fun and I got a lot of great pictures of the area.

That Sunday was my first opportunity to go to the Catholic church I wanted to visit. So I got up at 9:30 and intended to go to the 10:30 mass with a 45 minute walk in between. I arrived to the Holy Apostles Church at 10:25, only to find the church was filled with people already in the middle of a service. I looked at a sign that displayed the service times, and realized I still had another half hour before my service would begin. So I figured I'd get something to eat before mass. Unfortunately, I walked over to a little strip mall and discovered a very disturbing thing... the stores were closed! In Calgary, things don't close on Sunday... everything is open at all times, though on Sunday and Saturday they close a little earlier. So I had nothing to do but sit down against the wall and wipe the sweat from my brow... it was a very hot day, and I had had a very long walk.

At 10:55 I made my way back to the church and got ready for the service, after taking a look around. It was a nice church and there seemed to be a lot of happy people there. I found a pew and took my seat. But before the service was to begin, a man approached the podium in a wheel chair and wanted to welcome all the new comers to their Parish. He asked for people to raise their hands if they were new, and not wanting to be embarrassed, I decided not to raise my hand. A couple in the back did though and he asked where they were from. "Pittsburgh!" they shouted, and the congregation welcomed them warmly. Then a family from Denver was introduced, and again they welcomed them. So, deciding that if everyone was going to be treated as friendly as they were... I raised my hand as well. The man at the front, who apparently couldn't see me, said "Is there anyone else?" I raised my hand slightly higher, thinking he must see me now! but he didn't. "No one else? No one else here is new?" All of a sudden I felt rather embarrased... the people in the church all began motioning towards me, all attention was on me. I felt akward and stiff in my chair and probably turned a shade of red. Finally the man in the wheelchair noticed me and said "Oh hello! Where are you from?" I replied "Canada", and a murmer went through the crowd... as though they had never met a Canadian before. The man at the front chuckled and said "Well welcome!". Then a few moments later, an usher knelt down beside me. He asked which part of Canada I was from and I said "Calgary, Alberta". He said he had been there before and then gave me a coupon that would allow me to get free donuts and coffee after the service. I thanked him, and then focused my attention on the service that was about to begin. Afterward, I made my way into the basement of the church, had my donuts and coffee at a table all to myself. I thought about how the service must have been strange for any other outsider watching... the Priest wearing cloaks, the altar boys and girls wearing robes... the giving of the bread and wine. But for me, this was what I was used to. It was good to be back in familiar company.