h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Mmmmm, yes, that'll do. Actually I was a tad tiffed that I probably won't do the "voice" of the Balrog. I'm serious! I make this really weird snarl/growl/scream, and if you were to take it down a couple of octaves in post production... There's really nothing like it that I've heard before, and I don't know how I do it. The closest thing I can think that it sounds like is the Ice Monster in 'Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine'. (Don't know the title? Ask around... someone should be able to tell you how horrible it sounded.) Except they did it digitally-- somehow. Is there some way to put wave files on our personal pages? You wouldn't believe me otherwise...

I heard that Ian Holm is feeling favourably about this production-- he said something to the effect of that it's gonna run circles around Star Wars. If the actors feel good enough about it to make free little comments like that, they're usually not too far off. I was a renaissance faire coordinator (read: minstreless, construction worker, prop collector, set designer, backdrop painter, seamstress, etc.) at my school for two years straight, and me and the rest of the girls could tell you what things were looking like in the different areas, good and bad, and if we thought something was going to ROCK, we told everyone about it.

Well, if you really want to post your snarl/growl thing, You can set the .WAV file up on some other online storage space, then use HTML to insert it's URL into your homepage. Same way you insert images, but slightly different tags.

Yeah, I've alrady talked it over with my dad (who owns FishInKona.com). It'll probably something like FishInKona.com/maryann or /growl, but don't go there yet... we'll probably set it up in a few days, and only leave it up for a week. (I'm just a tad worried that someone from The Guide will run across the link and steal the .wav and use it somewhere without my permission, so that's why it'll only be up for a week or so. Hey! I don't know anyone else that can do this! It's something of a commodity!)

In fact, when I do give you the go-ahead, I'll probably leave it up until you reply. Please, just listen to it and don't download the file.

Yeah, sure. I hardly ever keep sound files anyway.

You probably wouldn't want to keep this one, anyway... unless you were sick in the head.

I'll try and set it up tonight.

Wait a second... who's Zeb?

BBC Radiophonics workshop all is forgiven...

Okay, folks, here it is: [Unsuitable link removed by Moderator]
The recording came out a little soft, though, so be sure to turn your speakers up a bit.

Oh my GOD! Wow, I think I'm going to have nightmares now! If you don't mind me asking, what on Earth posessed you to try making that sound the first time, before you knew you could?

I had a sore throat one time when I was twelve or so, and that's how I talked for a week. (It didn't sound like THAT of course, just raspy and weird.) Later, I was trying to be funny and use that voice, and I forget when I tried to yell/scream in it, but I built up the volume little by little.

I hadn't really heard it until I recorded myself. I'm already a bit high-strung, but when I heard that, I jumped a foot in the air, then went into a fetal position, wimpering. My dad said that it was an avarage one, and a little distorted, at that.

I think I utilize whatever that noise is people make when they snore, but other than that, I don't know and couldn't fathom the mechanics.

AHHHHH! DEMONIC THROAT-CLEARING!! AHHH! AHHH!

Man, I've made some similar noises, but nothing actually frightening like that. As far as doing the voice of the balrog, it would have to be edited and made quite a bit deeper. Also, I think most professional sound-guys would want to combine it with other noises, so that it produces a whole range of roars for the balrog, not just a single sound repeated over and over (Like the old godzilla).

But forget the balrog! You don't have to make that thing any deeper to make the perfect base-sound for a tyranid (Tyranids are a race of insectile space-monsters from Warhammer 40k). I'm thinking one of the big guys, like a Warrior, or Lictor...okay, I'm off on a tangent now.

Oh yeah, Zarquon? Zeb is just one of these cartoon characters I've created for other things, and I'm using him as a vehicle for any H2G2 'roleplaying' I might be tempted to do (he's already joining STUMPED). I didn't want to ruin the meager amount of identity I've gained for myself here, so instead of creating a whole new character or anything, I just pretend he's a split personality that I channel through a shrew-shaped hand-puppet (think Scarface, the Batman villain). He won't be saying anything on these 'serious' discussion, just any "World of H2G2" stuff I might want to contribute. I now explain it all on my personal page. Currently, though, there's really not much there about him that I haven't told you here.

Oops. Sorry Zarquon. That was Cenchrea who asked about Zeb. I really should read these postings more carefully.

...And you should answer things like that in a more timely fasion-- I just posed the same question to you again on the Deja Vu board, thinking that you ignored it the first time. Oh well....

But about the growl, I can make a whole range of noises like that. Musical and rumbley (but still distinctly evil sounding), high and chokey, deep and soft (sounds like a 500-foot kitten, evil, of course), and quite a few varients on what you guys heard. I can even make comprehensible speech like that, but not as loud. If I were to do that for a game or movie or something, I could supply a whole range of sounds, but only that loud shriek has the same ear-piercing effect. (By the way, I took two years of voice lessons too, and have a rather nice singing voice. Go figure.)

So everyone's heard it? Can I take it off now?

ARRGHH! I ANSWERED that puppet question at the Deja-Vu board! See what I mean about my not reading these things carefully enough? At least it wasn't as long as the answer I gave here. I would've answered you the FIRST time, but I was gone all of Saturday and most of Sunday, off canoeing/camping. And I've got the sunburn and bruises from the rocks on the riverbottom to prove it.

Oh, and by all means, take that sound file down. Maybe it won't haunt me so much.

Okay, I thought I was being ignored. I'll be taking the file off the site soon, so the link will still be there, but it will be broken. Haunted? You must've REALLY turned it up.

Anyway, back to the main topic... what shall we argue about next? Costumes? Gollum? The repoted absence of Tom from the film?

No Tom? NO TOM BOMBADIL?! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooo...*gasp*...OOOOOOOOOO!



Man, he seems to be a popular guy to cut. I once listened to a radio drama of the trilogy on tape, and that didn't include him either.

I would have cut him too, sorry to say. If I were making the movie, I'd hate for the reviews to be marred by critic's lack of understanding of Bombadil's place in the mess. He doesn't contribute to the plot in any real way (other than saving them from the willow, which doesn't really have to happen, either) so I think people would be confused, and go out wondering "so, what ever happened to the funny guy in the boots?"

I, for one, sort of expected him to come back somewhere in the end and do something, and when he didn't, I started flipping back to see if he had done ANYTHING. It was so weird to have such a chunk of the book devoted to a character that never shows up again, in any plot, shape or form! At least they could have run into Goldberry (or a bit about her) somewhere along the way! (She confused me, too. What was she to him? Bombadil and Goldberry all alone in that cabin... they're not blood relatives... they're singing all the time... I know that isn't what Tolkien meant, but it would be interpreted that way today.

Yeah, he's not all that important. But he DOES play a critical role in the whole barrow-wight scene. And while the wight scene doesn't contribute to the plot either, I always thought it was cool.

Uuugh, Barrow Wrights are COOL. <---Bad text-based impression of Butt-Head

Hmmm, I guess he did. Maybe I should try to read the books again...? (I tried just a few weeks ago, and failed miserably. I got to Bombadil, and just couldn't pick it back up again.)