The Magnus Archives - MAG 80.2 - Season 2 Q+A Part 2

Episode Date: October 4, 2017

Jonny and Alex continue to answer your questions about Season 2! You can really help us out by filling out the survey linked below, which will allow us to have more relevant ads attached to the Magnus archives (so maybe you'll hear about things you're actually interested in). http://acast.us3.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=4d0eef25de91974d288d73537&id=88556789ba&e=0ec8818b19 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the first radio ad you can smell. The new Cinnabon pull-apart only at Wendy's. It's ooey, gooey, and just five bucks for the small coffee all day long. Taxes extra at participating Wendy's until May 5th. Terms and conditions apply. Hi everyone, Alex here. Just a reminder that this is part two of our season two Q&A episode, so if you haven't listened to part one, you should probably go back and listen to that first. Assuming you have, we'll be picking up exactly where we left off. Thanks again for your patience. And then another question, final one from Steve Brad. The series does really well to avoid a lot of the worst horror cliches

with a smart if little overly curious protagonists. What are our most hated horror tropes and do we find it hard to avoid them? I'll dive in straight off the bat. I hate stupid protagonistsists i don't mean like a misunderstanding here you say that but john's made some very poor choices ah but a bad choice isn't stupid i mean i mean genuinely like there is a roar and there is a scratching behind the door and blood is seeping out so what do you do you open the door don't open the door no one would open don't open the door that's stupid that's a stupid protagonist um mine is using sexual violence as a source of horror certain stories i have heard generally generally by survivors do actually

use horror very effectively as a means of exploring and coming to terms with that sort of thing but crucially they never it's never the horror like it really leaves a horror like a really nasty taste in my mouth when that sort of thing is equated to ghosts and you know ghosts and mummies and all this sort of stuff and what's the difference between trauma and horror. Yeah, absolutely. And I just really hate it. It just, it really bothers me. So this next one is from OperaGhost21. Ooh, OperaGhost. Although I do wonder what happened to OperaGhosts 1 through 20.

I mean, there's more than 20 operas. Ah, fair, fair. Word is, Gertrude and Jürgen were played by Johnny's parents. Fun fact. Word is correct. Yes. So the question for Johnny is, how much of the characters and dialogue were initially written with them in mind?

And what was it like working with your parents? Initially, none of it, because it was never planned in that sort of sense. Like we never had a sit down meeting in episode one going, Johnny, I need a vehicle for the entire Sims family. How do we make this happen? Yeah, no, it was very much we were looking for an actress to play gertrude um and at some point i realized that a lot of the lines i've been writing i'd kind of been reading in my mother's voice in my head uh and so i suggested it to alex and he said don't be stupid uh and i said I said, all right, fine, we'll give it a go, sure.

And then I listened to it and it was amazing. From a meta-narrative sense, it's quite pleasing because of the role Gertrude plays in the story. And so that was how my mother got involved. And Jürgen, I mean, to be honest we we just really struggled casting Jürgen and then I found out that your dad had a voice that like matches Christopher Lee and you kept that under your hat I like I'd forgotten because my mother does uh does do some sort of uh reading stuff here and there I might I'd used to do some theater stuff but uh it just wasn't in my mind as much

um and when we were casting around for someone to play Jürgen, I sent him a couple of lines and I was like, oh, yeah, no, bring him in too. And the second part of this, which was, and what was it like working with your parents? I'm going to answer for you. They're lovely. They are the loveliest people to work with.

It was brilliant. Also, in real time, I got to listen to Gertrude telling the archivist, you misspelt that, correct your grammar. It's fine. She's an English teacher. She has exacting standards. So this next question. It's fine working with your parents.

It was great. I loved it. So next one's from ethereal87. While reading a script or writing an episode, what were some of the episodes that creeped you out whilst reading them and would you say you have a different answer after listening to a finished episode so was something upsetting when writing and not when listening and vice versa absolutely it's different after listening because after listening uh they're not scary to

me at all because i don't particularly enjoy the sound of my own voice recorded because, I mean, no one does. So I find listening back, I can't really get into it the same way I can when writing it because my own voice is a bit distracting to me. So strap in for this one. Serious question. Right. Rohrim 36. Right.

If all of the employees of the Magus Archives, John, Tim, Martin, Elias, Sasha, and let's say not Sasha for good measure, were tossed into a Friday the 13th movie. Oh, right, all right. Which one is the last one alive? Oh, the last one. I have a strong opinion on this one. Do you?

I think not Sasha because that's the interesting story movie. I mean, yeah, but the Friday the 13th movie is not an interesting story. Oh, I may have missed the point there. I think you have. I mean, I think either Sasha or Martin. Next one's from Prid via Reddit. Sure, sure. Do we record on a weekly basis or a block at a time?

Fortnightly chunk of episodes. A lot of it depends on how guest actors' schedules line up. And previously, whenever we had a multicast recording, it was a logistical nightmare and we had to do binge recordings. But now... What's happened, Alex? We're in our big, shiny, new Patreon-funded studio, which allows us to do multicast recordings whenever we want.

I'm stroking the soundproof walls at the moment, but you can't hear because they're soundproof. We're not under a duvet. It's brilliant. I love it. Miss the duvet. When's brilliant. I love it. That's the duvet. When the archivist isn't battling the forces of evil, what does he do for fun? I think he reads a lot of non-fiction,

watches documentaries. The idea that John has any fun whatsoever. This is probably before all this started. He's something of a workaholic. I think he probably collects something. I'm not sure. I don't think it would be stamps or coins or anything quite that cliche but i think he probably collects something just a little bit weird and the final one from prid i'm gonna answer this one for you

is there any chance of a two hour long christmas special yes definitely we're writing one right now i've got it's i, I mean, what? So the answer is... Alex is saying no. This is the first time hearing of this. Yes, of course we'd love to. No. A two-hour Christmas special might actually kill our editors. Definitely, definitely a two-hour special. Don't listen to Alex. It's definitely going to happen.

Next question is from Mglottlstop. Oh, it's for me. How much input do I have in performing characters compared to Johnny's text? Not as much input as you have in whether or not we get to do our Christmas special. So in general, when you're getting down to the individual episode level,

so my role when it comes to the scripts is I help on the really, really big picture because I'm a story editor and part of that is like, move this protagonist here, this thing isn't going to work necessarily. So I help in the sort of really big broad strokes and then right down into the dialogue.

So I don't really touch Johnny's statements, any of the big prose, it's not my bag. When it comes to the dialogue, I think I have a lot more input and certainly I'd say with Martin i think i have a lot more input and certainly i'd say with martin there's been a few times where i've probably suggested a more martin way of oh yeah like i think you get an input on a lot of the characters when it comes to the dialogue this next one again from emberlot will stop and it's for you specifically in writing and steering

the magnus archives have you ever been inspired by performance of the cast to try and push their boundaries further? Can we give an example of a time when a voice actor's performance has impacted the writing specifically? It's less that it will impact the writing and more that often we'll have a character who's intended as a one-shot and then they'll come in, they'll give their performance

and they'll leave their performance and they'll leave and me and alex will look at each other and be like that character's coming back you can just tell so it tends to be that uh rather than changing how a character is it'll make us make the character more important if we really like how their voice acted okay this next one's from undeclared milk excellent name via reddit is there any chance we'll ever get to hear Johnny sing? I mean, there's a chance. We're not going to do a musical episode, but I mean, who knows what might happen.

This next one's from Christiana, Reddit. The Magnus Archives doesn't pretend to be real like other shows like the Black Tapes do, but have we ever considered any sort of ARG element to the series? Considered, yes. ARGs, that's the thing, very resource intensive. And the sort of resources that, to be honest, I'm much more inclined to put our time towards making the show as good as it can be.

Yeah. Again, it's a thing. It's exactly the kind of thing that I would normally be all over. I'd love it if we had the time. I'd rather put the energy, like you say, into the show itself. Next one's from Gulbasaur via Reddit. Do we have a planning process for pacing the episodes? Is there a big spreadsheet somewhere with Jane Prentiss,

spiders, one-shot table written down the side for tracking and things like that? Yes, there is. There is exactly that table. And it is currently being filled out for season three and hidden don't go looking obviously you won't find it i mean it's mine this next one's from crystal requiem via reddit as someone who dabbles in writing i find i have trouble creating a wide array of distinct characters and personalities but you seem to develop a new one every episode how do you develop so many distinct personalities uh generally i will take a single aspect that

really interests me either from somebody i know or often just from me a particular aspect of my personality and then i will extrapolate it and i find like coming up with the voice is the the key and once i've got the first few lines if i've got the first few lines right i find the rest of the character flows quite naturally sure have we ever had to change a statement because it was too similar to something that's come out previously we've had to change what we were going to do like it's the sort of thing where when we're planning it uh i might throw out an idea and alex will say oh actually we've done quite a lot of that sort of story maybe try it in from a different angle we've never reached the point where we had to change it but then again i think it's both a thing that we're really quite careful of so it's not really come up like that yeah i've

certainly never turned up to a recording with a script uh only to have alex say this is too similar let's change it and finally from crystal requiem as opposed to the statements everything caught on tape at the archives is acted rather than narrated sure what sort of strategies do we use to help the audience understand what they're hearing that's a really really good question and it's really difficult to answer because we had a lot of talks about it at the start of this series of how we were going to make it work. The short answer is think about it a lot beforehand

and discuss it at length. There are all sorts of dodges and kind of cheats that radio especially has um historically used for this find that there are some great books on uh radio writing and uh writing for audio that i strongly advise everyone who listens to this to go out and listen it's in the public domain and it's called this gun in my right hand is loaded yeah um it is a it a comedy radio piece where they do everything that you should not do in order to help teach people, you know, how to not do it, basically.

Listen to that. What we do is the exact opposite of that. But it's a great laugh to listen to. But yeah, a lot of it is finding ways to really signpost and telegraph to an audience what's going on and to contextualize things in such a way that not even natural not even that a way that it's invisible just that people will accept you know so it'd be little things like um john mentioning that he was

carrying a pipe everyone's aware that god the the the number of iterations we had to go through to get that one sounding even remotely natural. Well, again, otherwise you end up with, I am carrying a pipe in my hand. Like, yeah. But again, audiences realise sometimes when you're trying to do it and they play the game with you. Yeah, audiences are very forgiving for that sort of thing.

Next one's from HybridTheorist12 in Reddit. Is the entity calling itself Michael inspired by the manga Uzumaki? Oh, that's a very good question. The answer is not directly. I'm a big fan of Junji Ito's works especially and Uzumaki is one that I really like

because the idea of malicious concepts really appeals to me. Something about the... I'd never have guessed. The idea of a spiral deciding to hate you and mess with your life that that tickles me so while michael is not directly uh inspired by uh uzumaki i would definitely cite it as an influence next question's from fuchs fuchs couldn't on reddit fuxcutton, who is Martin's favourite poet? Oh, that's a very good question.

I think he's probably, I mean, words worth keeping. I think he probably less has a favourite poet and more really has a favourite poetry collections. He strikes me as someone whose poetry is much more based on the anthologies he's read than uh diving deep into the work of any specific poet that's poetry for beginners that kind of thing the dragon book of poetry that sort of thing um that said i think he probably has a soft spot for wordsworth and keats and that lot okay another one from fix couldn't what happens if you ask michael when is a door not a door he

undoes you how much of what's been revealed in season two was planned from the beginning obviously gr bookworm 1818 must have been but how about characters like lightner i mean lightness specifically was absolutely uh planned from the beginning we were talking about lightner at day one really oh absolutely but things like the exact manner of his reveal, that has changed slightly from what was originally planned. The superstructure of the plot has been 100% set from day one, but a lot of the individual stuff, while they are planned in advance,

what they end up becoming and where they end up connecting often changes in the writing and how the story naturally develops the way i always think of it is the bigger the detail the more likely it is to have been thought of at the start and then the more fine the more nuanced it gets more likely it's probably had a bit of a more winding path to get and we have a lot of very important floating story elements yeah that will definitely come to fruition, but the exact details of when and where they're going to land are going to depend on a lot of other factors.

How come the Jürgen Leitner is said to be Norwegian when his name seems to be German? Because of multiple apparently inaccurate lists of Norwegian baby names. Pears or apples? Personally, I prefer an apple. Because you're correct. That's the objective.

Although I will say I prefer apple juice to an apple. You're mad. Because, I mean, it's just a lot of chewing. It's a lot of work eating an apple. That's why it's so rewarding. No. Just eat the first half. You get the same vitamins.

You don't need to be chewing like a goat all the time. It's good for you. Right. Next one's from Cardvark on Reddit. Are certain episodes of the Magnus Archives inspired by your own deep-set fears and phobias? And if so, what are they? I know we've answered this one before. Yes, most of them.

I'm scared all the time. I keep discovering new ones thanks to this show. Yeah. Specifically, trypophobia and... I forgot what it's called. Fear of abysses. Oh, I mean, you're welcome in both cases. Oh, thanks.

Next one. Pyong-ye. I like that name. On Reddit. Do any of the statements that we feature have a perfectly reasonable explanation behind them? No. There are plenty of statements in the Magnus Institute that do,

but they are not the ones you are hearing next one's from bobble woo via reddit again right all the statements that involve people with jobs like sailor or antiquities dealer seem really well detailed have you worked a lot of jobs do a lot of research or do you just make stuff up good oh while i would love to have had a life of a diver and antiquities dealer and a garbage man and an abattoir worker. Well, maybe not garbage man, but a lot of research, a lot of research and lots of obscure forums. And I guess a certain degree of making stuff up good. If you couldn't make stuff up good, we wouldn't be here.

Yeah, true enough. This next one's from purple top over i read it do tim martin and john ever hang out or interact outside of work hours uh they used to uh not so much since series two started not uh not a lot beforehand but i mean they would occasionally have had like a work a work function, I think. Possibly a curry night around Christmas, that sort of thing. It wasn't fun for John, I suspect. Oh, no, John... Yeah, John went.

Martin had a great time. Oh, yeah. If Leitner didn't make the books, will you ever reveal who did? Or is every book unique in how it was created and there are multiple authors? You are assuming that a book needs to be written. Who does the archivist consider his best friend? Does he think of any of the people he knows as friends? At this stage, I'm not sure that the archivist has many friends, but I guess we'll see, won't we? If all of the eldritch forces have different origins and different allegiances,

does that mean there are some who might have a reason to actually help John as opposed to going after him? Oh, I mean, I suppose theoretically. That would be quite a narratively rich vein to explore, don't you think, Alex? What would I know? What would I i know i just asked the questions but it's all very unlikely are the writer and actor jonathan sims and the archivist jonathan sims at all alike or do the similarities end in the shared name or voice i mean i don't think they're super alike um like a lot of his a lot of his aspects are small aspects of my own personality turned up to 11. I just think you mind the bits of yourself that you don't particularly like.

I mean, yeah. And then just built a personality around them. No, I mind the bits of myself that are useful in a horror protagonist. Now, the last one. Last question we've got. Do we have favourite episodes and or moments from season two? Yes. Cool.

So thanks for listening. Yes. No, I'm just thinking through season two. I really liked how the Michael stuff came out. Yeah, the Michael stuff has come out really nicely. When we originally were doing Michael, I had an instinct that it might really grab people if we handled it right

and spent a long, long time trying to get Michael right, you know, with the laugh and with the way he is with the doors and again, with all of the sort of direction side, nevermind the writing side, which obviously was in your hands. So I'd probably say the Michael bits have been my favourite just because I said that sometimes

writing these big sprawling things and working on them is like playing a game. I feel like that was a really nice trick shot where I hoped it would come together and it did and people engaged with it and it came out as so much more than it could have been for me a lot of it comes down to when a voice actor really nails what i felt the character was about so um imogen who played uh helen richardson in the michael episode um car, who played Mary Key. Carrie's terrifying.

Yeah, she's so scary. She's the scariest person I've ever met in the best way possible. I also really enjoyed, actually, The Tale of a Field Hospital was quite fun because I genuinely really enjoy going through old, weird, obscure books, especially if they're not overtly creepy, and just seeing which bits can be reinterpreted as sinister because the majority of the stuff in that episode was taken directly from that book um and also fatigue because i just i stayed up really really late um didn't sleep for

a long time and then i wrote it with a a deadline? Yeah. Why would it need editing? I wrote it on zero sleep and it's about not having any sleep. So I think that's everything. I think that's all of the questions. Wow. So as always, thank you so much to everyone who has been engaging on the forums, engaging on Reddit, everyone who's been um basically throwing us money via patreon you are literally facilitating this moving forward i'm i'm sat in a studio with johnny

that never would have happened it's thanks to you guys we are generating extra content we are looking at expanding and it's all very much thanks to that support thanks to everyone who's been sharing it via social media twitter facebook obviously get involved yeah um but mostly just thanks for spreading the word like i mean keep doing it yeah no don't don't stop please don't stop but thank you for doing what you've done so far because it genuinely the scale of this is directly determined by what support people have been giving yeah and the more support we get the more we just increase the scale of what we get to do and i i like that and as an additional thing if you have the time um we currently have a questionnaire set up on the website and so on

where basically if you take the time to go on there provide us with just some anonymized information it allows us to basically better target our ads and lets us keep this thing free and it just helps pay the bills basically so if you are able to do that please do head to the website and just fill in the questionnaire it is anonymous but that would really help us out but i think that's us done thank you again as always for coming along johnny go have a rest no. No problem at all. I mean, go get married maybe. Do you mean go obsessively write content for season three? That's what I said. Yeah. Cool.

So until then, I guess we'll see you all later. Okay. See you in season three. Bye, guys. To be continued... of heart-racing, bone-chilling, and mind-bending stories, Audible has everything you need. Audible is the leader in audiobooks, so you'll always find the best and freshest selection of mysteries and thrillers to choose from. Sometimes you just want to get lost in a classic whodunit, and sometimes you want to get wrapped up in a twisted new mystery where the tension is high, and you just can't stop listening until you find out what happens next. Audible can take you places only you can imagine

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