---
layout:          post
title:           "MAG100.5 - Assistants Round Table"
date:            2018-05-10 12:00:00 -0400
categories:      incomplete
tags:            []
episode_title:   'Assistants Round Table'
episode_number:  '100.5'
summary:         "Happy last week of hiatus! Join us behind-the-scenes as the familiar voices of the Magnus Institute's archival assistants break character to discuss their thoughts on performance, inspiration, and horror. As an added bonus, here is a short must-read (or play) list from Alex, Mike, and Lydia: <br/><br/>* Alien Isolation - Creative Assembly (not read but play!) <br/>* Blindsight - Peter Watts <br/>* Dracula - Bram Stoker <br/>* Swamp Thing - DC Comics (Alan Moore) <br/>* The Dunwich Horror - H.P. Lovecraft <br/>* The Shadow over Innsmouth - H.P. Lovecraft <br/><br/>Stay tuned for a shiny new Magnus episode next week!"
content_flags:   [Spoilers!, Gruesome horror prop discussion]
acast_url:       https://play.acast.com/s/themagnusarchives/mag100.5-assistantsroundtable
formats: 
official:        false
unofficial:      http://www.youtube.com/
unofficial_name: YouTube CC
unfinished:      true
wiki_url:        
---

hi everyone then here I'd just like to

take a moment to thank some of our

patrons Rob Sheridan Andrew bushel

Quinton Walker Dylan Parkhurst

Linda Jean neon gray Holly Atchinson

Andrea Roarke bat MoMA John Dondero

thank you all we really appreciate your

support if you'd like to join them go to

WWE tree on Comm forward slash rusty

quill and take a look at our rewards

Rustique will presents hello and welcome

to our assistant special of the magnus

archives we're in our season break at

the moment and we thought we would take

the time and catch up with some of the

assistants for the archive because we

all listen to a certain Jonathan Sims

rather a lot on Magnus archives so I

thought we might spend some time with

people other than Johnny with that in

mind who have I got with me today we got

Mike who plays Tim Stoker Lydia who

plays Melanie so first things first then

obviously you play Tim Mike you play

Melanie Lydia ton and I play Martin sort

of remembering good job there so what

you actually think about your own

characters I knew the heavy stuff was

gonna come out of this I'm happy to lead

the charge and say whilst Martin's

lovely I think he drive me completely up

for I'd be like no you're lovely

stopping them at stop stop doesn't just

go go visit pets at home and Stroke some

animals yeah but for the rest of you how

what your actual takeaways of the

characters that you play well gone then

I'll go next so my my character I've

always found a whelp since season two

I've found a bit of a struggle mostly

because he started off very

happy-go-lucky and sort of you know very

lively very chipper and then the well

without am I allowed to give spoilers

yeah amazing well towards the end of

season two everything kind of goes to

pot and Tim becomes horrendously

depressed to the point where my

character was the polar opposite of what

I was originally brought on to do

literally was the best which don't get

me wrong I enjoy it I do really enjoy it

it gives me a moment of quiet

contemplation so I can consider my life

decisions at least once a month but like

at the same time I if I were to meet Tim

I just slap him back hand as well

tempering her upping he's had a rough

time of it he's had a very

very rough time of it but come on

support network yeah lack thereof lack

thereof yeah I think that that is the

main problem is that there is no

predefined support network for Tim he

needs like something hold him out anyone

after that happens if that happens it

things will probably get better for Tim

but hate north to see ya hora podcast

I'm sure that getting a wonderful

support network yeah and the tools to

work through traumas and lots of hunts

and puppies is exactly what's gonna

happen well the thing is they'll be

readily available but never accessible

[Laughter]

well that's that's still brighter than

ours taking the tools to deal with your

problems in the Magnus universe

generally consists of some kind of book

or like a gun or a knife or fire fires a

good one yeah you know what so far yeah

completely oblivious there's your

solution yeah how about you Lydia

playing Melanie how have you been

finding it how do you what do you think

of your character I'd still want to know

why and how she was shot by one of us do

know johnny will not well i won't tell

me the only person who knows is johnny

and he has object Lee refused to tell us

is some is a little frustrating only a

major defining character moment that

drove you back towards the Magnus

archives exactly it's not like you need

to know what your motivations later than

you too and it came in I thought it was

probably gonna be for a one-off early on

and the only characteristic that I gave

her really it was the it was you know

how far is the rod upper us on any

particularly given day and since then

I've sort of developed that into it she

it's very important to her that she

seems competent and she has to lash out

the moment that she doesn't really know

what's going on or that she thinks other

people think she doesn't know what's

going on and so yeah that's the one way

you could hurt her the most probably

like yeah I think her ideal to it would

be something like the spiral where it's

like she's given a test and she hasn't

studied for potentially like IKEA

furniture when she's the only one and

doesn't have a hand but other people

doing it who do have all asked for it

exactly exactly

non-branded he-man is not just green

things smash right smash smash anger yes

mashing grrrrrr yeah so she still got

some cheer in her which is ridiculous I

think the last time I played her she was

inviting

mine to the pub yes there's actually

some some happiness which is obviously a

cruelty playing the character so we

obviously we know like what you think

about them and stuff like that but when

it comes to actually playing the

characters obviously like for all of us

these aren't us like they're really

really not yes as people I mean like you

would have absolutely no sympathy with

Alex in real life no kittens for Alex

but in all seriousness obviously like

you have to have an end you have

dominating for your character you have

to have a way to get in and actually

like portray that so I'm curious because

Mike starting with you you've had the

most change because you're in initially

when we were sort of going over

character stuff was very much yeah that

positivity and it was that it was almost

like if the Magnus archives needed to

have a PR face be Mike you know come

join the mangas are merged

most of the characterization for that

just consisted of raining it in a bit

yeah exactly

now that's kind of gone so wash you're

in now because I'd actually say that

you're getting really good at just

switching as a character

Tim on and off well I feel I mean this

is a horror podcast but I feel like

you're gonna bring the tone down now so

basically in the season one

stuff like you say it was very is very

easy for me because my my character

outside of the character is very I

filled it very lively and bubbly and if

you saw the Christmas livestream than

that that basically is who we are as you

know as people and having to make that

switch around season two was very very

difficult that was tough to the

beginning for the beginning of it

literally you know you guys probably

don't know who are listening but we have

show notes at the the in the middle and

at the end of everything that we do and

Alex sits through and takes us through a

couple of his thoughts and we discuss

ideas about how we could have played

that scene differently or better or

whatever it's almost like respecting

your actors but but not yeah exactly

yeah all almost like giving a helping

hand but it with the helping hand is

also a whoopee cushion so what we

actually what we ended up doing Alex and

I during the beginning few times was

that we'd sit down and Alex would be

like you have to be less of that yeah I

think you were thrown by just how hard a

change the character had to go because

at first it was very much like okay so

you want it still to be sort of like Tim

just maybe a little bit of things like

no no no this is like broken completely

broken

there is nothing Leno hope left about

anything and that in the beginning was

very difficult but now if going back to

the original question my in to getting

there is actually to think about

everything in my life that has gone

wrong and then that is how I hit the

tone of Tim when I come into the

recording studio that's because I mean

from Tim like the way we were discussing

as a character was like we only really

started making progress and I realized

it was best to just you are not playing

Tim anymore no you're playing another

person who is still called Tim almost

like because it was just yeah we had to

take it right back down to zero I mean

like you said it's very much a case of

we had to go back beyond zero I feel to

kind of get to where I am with Tim now

because I have to remove

everything from my mind that was what

Tim was in season one and know that that

character is still there underneath

everything else listens it feels like

there's still there's still like the

shape of the character there because

it's coming out now and very dry hue and

what's sort of clever about it is it's

not an empowered dry humor it's not a

I'm laughing at what's happening to me

it's just it's a really bitter dry humor

Lydia playing playing Melanie what's

your what's your in cuz again I think we

had a harder time with it at the star

but you've gotten really good similarly

it just of adopting that persona now so

I am NOT a voice actor I I've done quite

a lot of recorded stuff it has always

been me doing the work and I really

struggle with a lot of kinds of

performing because I essentially don't

have a poker face and I've worked quite

hard on a lot of things like improv

skills and presentation skills so like

you're very skilled speaker yeah that's

things I do as me and so it's actually

quite strange I haven't actually acted

as another character in terms of like

how the character themselves is I tend

to think of what is she doing work that

she's proud of right now so in the first

thing where they're in the the old

hospital oh yeah the frustration is her

job didn't work yes and she doesn't

understand why yeah and so she's old but

that's almost more of a problem than the

the fear mm-hmm I saw this thing and I

don't have the answer whereas like she's

she's the producer right like her whole

character is that she's a producer she

makes stuff happen and she makes stuff

work and she knows people and she gets

things too and then in quite a few other

things like all the things that have

happened since there was something spun

out and like where she went broke into

that train carriage it's all very

planned yeah he's a producer she works

that I had to do I had to go there there

was a lot of security but I found a way

in yeah yeah and then all spirals out of

control and so this is horrible for her

something that I actually think that she

quite enjoyed the time that she read the

statement of the guy in the bed because

there she's doing her job

at the end she's going through all the

finals and as you say what this is okay

this is a working day and you know sue

me I'm not gonna spoil it too

specifically but you know there's a lot

of things where there's a okay here's a

terrible threat to you that someone's

made a horrible threat what's the

obvious solution

I actually was bit annoyed that it was

done so clumsily well I mean if I was

Melanie which I sort of am because I

happen to know that what she's using

wouldn't really work you know you think

she's under a lot of pressure yeah so

and that's why I think you know it makes

sense for her to click with Becerra so

yeah when it comes to playing Martin

there's a bit of a weird juxtaposition

there because on the one hand I'd argue

that he's been used earlier for a lot of

the comedy like again he was he's a foil

he's a foil to the the dour archivist

but on the flip side that isn't enough

for a character so it meant that we've

had to sort of dial up things other than

just Oh Wacka Wacka Wacka how inept but

part of that means that when it comes to

playing Martin I basically looked back

picked all of the things about myself

that I left by the wayside in a younger

version and then just make that the

entire person to all of the worst bits

of Alex about ten years ago but

obviously the caring thing I mean that's

a weakness of you like that nervousness

[Music]

obsession with trying to make things

work and so on like I basically just

hunted down a bunch of negative yeah

Eric turistic yeah it's true that

needing to fix everyone is definitely

something that you oh it's something

that I so common and then you you do

genuinely have to kind of like sometimes

yeah Martin not everyone will like you

all of the time okay

Martin so very much an eighteen year old

like that's what Martin like I realized

the character is not good

an 18 year old where someone older comes

along goes listen one people are gonna

hate you yeah - that's okay and three

you can't fix everyone you know exactly

yeah blessed of intention yeah so I like

that's me just hunting down for all of

the hard lessons so can he genuinely

genuinely when I listen to Martin on the

Magnus archives I just want to give him

a hug and then I have to come in and

play a character I'm obliged to eat the

narrative gods require me to ruin your

life okay so how will you want us to

call you now someone you do everything

yeah twice so what were your favorite

character moments then so we've been

sort of discussing a few specific

examples in any type whether it was

horror just good acting funny whatever

for your character specifically what

would you say are the bits that you

actually like really enjoyed because

certainly from my perspective I find it

really hard to do that because for me

it's always I'm looking at the work so

I'm started going are could have done

that I probably should have tweaked that

I could improve that so I found it quite

difficult to home in on I really enjoyed

this production Wilson and well we

started with me a few times do you wanna

go first I'm happy to go first if it's

gonna say so there were few of mine that

I liked I liked doing big and because

doing the statements is a nice moment

where you can kind of lay aside the

character that you normally play and

play sort of someone else and I'm

especially been enjoying them recently

because I'm it's almost like I'm not

doing the statement I'm doing an

impression of how Johnny would perform

this

Bateman Ryan I see mm so there's an

added layer to that which makes it quite

fun and quite interesting and from like

from a comedy perspective it I know a

lot of people it's cringe humor and I

personally hate fringe you the was

improvised so whilst the statement like

we had a couple of bullet points to here

and one of them was that that she's

under the impression that she's gonna

get paid but pulling out money and

paying for it was just off the cuff and

I entire tape that we finally used was

basically lower II desperately trying to

not react out of character as she's

crying with laughter suppressing it cuz

it came from like completely left field

so that was good fun because we got a

great take literally on the other side

of the microphone is I have her biting

her lips so it's quite nice I enjoyed

that I can't wait if there's offcuts of

that kind of lie I did enjoy that a lot

so my favorite would be I can t remember

which episode was but the first time I

came in and had an argument with Johnny

on yes so at that point you were still

quite early on in oh yeah yeah and news

does according under blankets

yeah yeah yeah yeah and the fact that so

me and Johnny have known each other ten

years and from the beginning that was

through comedy theater at University and

but we just could not keep a straight

face and well over an hour I got a long

time like five minutes eh yeah I can

believe it but but I mean that actually

means that the energy in the thing is

people that are frustrated were not

really well known tapered and that's

because like we're both looking at each

other

daring each other to crack up I think

there was like by the end of it there

was just like the complex web of in

jokes about the fact because the the

light on the corridor as well so so we

will record

under a blanket in Martin Martin and

Sarah's corridor and the light in the

hallway was disco at disco light yeah so

you're under a blanket

shouting each other and then you can

take it off while alex is reviewing the

sound and working out how to direct your

next tape and you're like and then you

just start dancing each other and trying

to wind each other up in as different

characters while also winding each other

up as real people it's a total roller

coaster ride don't miss the disco

corridor I loved that corridor yeah all

the time

every take so what was yours laughter

there are a few there are a few that

stick out I think one of my favorite

scenes to shoot was the one where Martin

and Tim and the backstory to this was

the the recording that we were doing at

that point was in the corner of a room

and so it was Martin and Tim running

away from not Sasha and then having to

run down corridors by the layers and

then pant and be out of threat in a

corner for about eight takes and that

was before we set the audio running so

that we would actually be out of breath

by the time I got to shoot everyone

likes the exciting episodes you know

where a lot happens as a way of breaking

it up I cannot stress enough there is no

better way to feel like a complete

pretending to have fights or pretending

to run like recording combats the worst

yeah makes you feel such an idiot boys

be good fun sprinting at a wall over and

we were actually jogging on the spot as

well like to try and get ourselves in

the mind of the character I mean the the

production level like quality level on

the Magnus and gaming I like I can say

it's absurdly high because I don't do

any of the work like it's Alex and his

team of extraordinary editors that do

that but it means that like the stuff

that they end up demanding of us in

order to produce the right Foley or the

right kind of attitude or the right you

get some very bizarre asks finishing up

them with a last bit of like how what is

your relationship with horror so you as

a person know your characters let's not

get like really meta with it or anything

but for each of you how are you engaging

with horror

how are you interacting with it even if

it's just I hate horror which I don't

think is the case for either of you but

nonetheless like how do you engage with

it as a genre so I have no interest in

being upset scared by media sure but I

have a long relationship with horror as

a thing to make and a thing that is that

has an interesting kind of commentary on

the world yes but like we were talking

earlier actually today about like the

British horror tradition which from

vertigo and Alan Moore and Karen Berger

which I see the Magnus archives as being

but it fits very nicely within that

tradition because very it's politically

aware clever psychological horror there

is of its time and reflects kind of

ideas and fears of the current kind of

era so yeah so we near earlier but like

the arc of swamp thing where it starts

out so yeah I b-movie type guy turns

into a comp off in a place they get

blown up

and the wife dies because motivation

that's what we're good for guys turns

into a compost heap and then wants to

like avenge because that's where we are

and it's pretty b-movie it is a good

b-movie but then Alan Moore comes in and

it changes like there's this incredible

kind of shift as it becomes a

about identity and bodies and psychology

and your own connection to the earth and

it has all those weird LSD sex scenes

see I'm for that specifically I was

always fascinated with because it was

allemaal that really dove into it the

whole he's fine unless you're afraid and

then the fear like hurts so then he gets

like aggressive like that's that was a

lovely way of exploring a lot of stuff

absolutely because shocker people who

work on the Magnus archives are

interested in the fear as a mechanism

and yeah so yeah I love horror as a

mechanism to talk about interesting

scary things it's good lens yeah but

I've got absolutely no interest in

watching horror films and getting

freaked out you know I find I find that

really interesting actually because

coming on board with the Magnus archives

was a massive step change for me yeah

because I don't know about all the

awesome writers that you guys know about

and I'm sort of starting to learn about

it because I'm interested you know and

I'm interested in Johnny's motivations

and Alex and Lidz motivations and all

the other guys on the cast as well and

for me I used to deal with comedy you

know my youtube channel was a comedy

channel and coming into the Magnus

archives are than editing it and you

know playing a character in it was just

the polar opposite of everything but

I've never known I was used to because

like you Lydia I don't there is some

horror that I enjoy watching but I don't

really enjoy being scared inverted

commas by by media and what-have-you you

know there's enough of that in the world

already so I'm very much of the opinion

that I prefer things that aren't horror

so then playing the character in a

horror podcast for me gives me that that

perspective of what would happen if

someone came in and they didn't have the

first idea about any of this law or you

know but yeah I mean obviously I know

about things like the eldritch horror I

mean you've got stuff like that you know

I'm familiar with it I've listened to a

few of the audiobooks now that was

introduced to me by by a friend of mine

and his brother and that was my entry

into a lot of the things that you I

think you guys have been thinking about

for a while

and some of the the sort of stuff that's

sitting in the background and I'm

actually learning about this stuff as

I'm going through playing the character

listening to the stories listening back

to everyone's work and yeah that's yeah

where I pitch in see how many people

weird one when it comes to horror

so shocker teenage boy likes horror stop

the presses yeah how weird I wa I know

this has never happened before never so

I was shocker I was a little bit of an

obsessive kid in certain ways and one of

them is if you introduced me to an

author

I'll read every single thing they ever

read and then I'll move on to the next

door I mean every single thing they ever

read and move on and so on

yeah but for me with horror I'm a little

bit broken in that I've genuinely never

found any piece of horror media that's

really or very rarely at least found

anything that actually has an effect on

me I don't get that kind of emotional

response it just doesn't really work for

me yeah but I've engaged with horror or

lots both like writing myself or in

making like it's been a while like film

and so on but I'd say my main in has

been sort of cinema and so on but for a

lot of it comes down to horror is an

excellent technical example for working

in fiction oh yeah there's a reason that

if you are starting a new production

company or you're trying to break into

film yeah almost everyone makes horror

yeah and there's a reason for it and

it's that it has a lot of very very

clearly codified tropes trend and

techniques yeah you know if you want to

do horror oh is your character is your

character feeling psychologically

unbalanced chucking a Dutch angle in

there rotate the camera by about you

know 25 degrees and then maybe do a tilt

shift to mess around with like some

distances and so on but I think horror

is one of the genres more than any other

where it allows technique to shine

absolutely because if you are bad it

does not matter how good your monster is

or how good your conceit is your thing

will be garbage yeah exactly it's

peculiar in that everyone always goes to

horror because they know horror best but

it's also a lot of ways the least

forgiving I think comedy and horror

actually have quite a lot in common

yeah they're all about you you have to

be playing with the audience's energy

you have to be exactly aware of where

they are on any kind of park yeah yeah

break the tension at exactly the right

point so I think the father most of us

of the wider team knew each other

through comedy and we're trained in

comedy like comedy is the hard I think

is the hardest thing to do well yeah I

and to do really well and that means

that you're you and you I think in many

ways you have to lose your ego to be

good at it because you have to be

willing to mess up in the most

embarrassing ways like yeah yeah first

hundred five minutes and an open mic

night are going to be horrendous yep and

that allows you to then play with energy

and timing we've got a draw to a close I

think we've had a lot of discussion I

know we'd like to go into stuff in some

more detail but you know tight time is a

thing that we have to factor so what I

would ask then is what if you had to

recommend one piece of horror for

listeners not necessarily like you loved

the Magnus archives so you will like

this but something more like if you want

to know horror you should try this I

think already this podcast but reading

that early vertigo stuff that British

psychological horror twist and there's

only you you probably only need to get

through a bunch of like you know maybe

100 rather short comics it can be read

in a relatively short period of time and

you begin to see this you see this whole

world change and I think it's a really

interesting direction shift that changed

a lot of horror that came after it but

I'm not expert so it could well be that

other people be like no this other

writer came well before but reading

through the early Swamp Thing and then

how that exploded into Sandman and help

laser and a lot of other like related

characters was super valuable to me I

thought you might so from the way that

I've engaged with horror I guess they're

like Lydia said there are lots of

different styles and there are lots of

different elements but if you want a

pure in my opinion kind of

spective on different kinds of horror

that exist within one place or one

universe of one thing alien isolation is

a fantastic way to get into it because

having having a thing about other gaming

titles there are a lot of gaming titles

like dead space and things like that

which give you weaponry to be able to

deal with whatever threat is coming

after you know which is its horror but

it's a once removed kind of it because

you know that the threat is always at

arm's reach if you need it to be unless

that's taken away from you and in alien

isolation it is there is a constant

threat and it will never go away and it

follows you throughout the entire game

I'm generally too terrified by the very

concept to think about picking

examination of detention yeah well not

just tension though I'd say it's more

than that building on your point is that

it's tension but it's also the

subjugation of an individual within a

tense environment and there are points

where you have weaponry but you still

can't do anything to get rid of the main

threat so you know and then there are

other elements as well like you know

stealth bits and you know there's things

in the it's a really good example of

taking those those important bits that

we think in like Western horror

especially in horror sci-fi obviously

yeah obviously because it has to turn

them into mechanics yeah highlights them

in a really interesting way yeah so it

does like if you go into it with a

critical eye yeah like trying to like

engage yourself and learn you can learn

a lot just by playing that game by going

oh I see what you're doing with the

music yeah yeah look at how you've set

this space out to focus on I see yeah

it's a good demonstration if you choose

to interpret it that way and you know

what as well for those of you who aren't

aren't gamers and are listening to this

if you want a get in I would recommend

the film version of 2001 Space Odyssey

yeah definitely because well it has it

has a total removal of power that then

becomes horrifying but if you haven't

seen our won't spoil oh yeah it's been

it's been not that long since it was

originally released

so yeah I agree with you me I worked

really hard to make sure I read that in

the year 2000 basically a child when so

my recommendation is gonna be a bit

generic but it comes with an addendum

which is I recommend reading a random

selection of lovecraft but with a very

very key consideration which is ya love

crafted a lot for cosmic horror and so

on but the guy was really problematic

another really really problem for his

time as well yeah boy his tie is he was

a ticket for his tie is easy to read his

stuff and go well you know it's the past

I think no no no like even at the time

he was extremely problematic author but

what I would say is if you choose to

engage with it critically and again this

is me the soulless robot man who's

always concerned with the how if you

actually really dig into it and you want

to wrap your head around horror it's a

good way for you to read it and go I see

what should have been different there or

I see how this could be problematic and

there's a very important aspect with

horror that people forget especially on

the creation side which is when you make

something you are telling people

something you are not just telling a

story you are telling someone everything

everything that you make has a message

yeah and sometimes that message can

either be not what you thought or can be

the opposite yeah if you don't want to

tell a story about a strong female

character in bunny ears except at the

end of it all the audience thinks is Wow

that was a really flat one-dimensional

character congratulations your message

is almost certainly not what you hope to

know and love craft is a really great

one to dig into especially the Innsmouth

fish people one as one of the examples

where it's like interesting I get I get

the horror and I get why it's scary and

this bit side to take but it's a really

good example of something that you can

read and you can't just go oh yes that

was brilliant job done you have to

engage with it and you have to go okay

if you were wanting to make something as

horror as this yeah it's do you leave

behind what bits are not appropriate

what bits do not fit our modern world or

even let's be frank the world that is

but it's just it's very easy to read

passively and it's very easy to watch

something go

that was scary therefore it was good for

her I'm inclined to agree having very

recently been introduced to the actual

the written version and the audio

version of I think it was what's it the

Dunwich horror yes the don't which how

are ya the Dunwich horror I've recently

heard the audio version of that and

having listened to it for the first time

I totally agree yeah totally you can

literally see the point's where you can

go ah right yeah so I think we will wrap

up there yes we're gonna have to put a

reading list on these we will we will

put together a reading list so that it's

things that we think that you should

probably give a goat apart from that I

think that we're done here I think we've

covered the systems thanks for coming

and thanks so much for listening and

thanks for bearing with us over the

season break next week we should be

returning to our previously scheduled

programming exciting science I mean I'm

very much them I just decide to hold off

the cliffhanger for another six months

just really is yeah but yeah major angle

off of there so thanks for me and thanks

my for one else

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