A Free Fairy Tale for Knitters & Their Friends
First, a little sound bite…
Would you like to know what happens next? Listeners, right-click these links to download Miss Eiderdown's Stocking in mp3 format: Part One and Part Two. Readers, find Miss Eiderdown's Stocking in printable pdf here.
How Miss Eiderdown's Stocking Came to Audio
The audio production of Miss Eiderdown's Stocking began with the knitting up of a very real holiday stocking. Working on a flurry of snowball bobbles led this writer to wonder what would happen if a retired yarn shop owner sat down to make the project of her dreams—an infinitely elaborate stocking?
Row by row the tale grew into a holiday fable of second chances tentatively titled The Grand Project. A finished draft was shown around. Portions were read out loud and those readings led to a script, which led to consultations with friends who knew a great deal more about recording than the author. The friends signed on as crew. The author put on a producer's hat. Boxer Press Audio was born.
We went into the studio with voice actress, Andrea Snow that Spring. Sitting in the control booth were Sound Engineer Stephen Berke and Sound Advisor Dan Gleich along with Director Pat Jackson, who polished both the delivery and the final edit while I looked for a way to get the production out to listeners.
High on my list of possible sponsors was KnitPicks.com, a popular online yarn retailer and home to an enthusiastic fiber community. The folks at Knit Picks agreed to host Miss Eiderdown's Stocking as a two-part podcast on their website in December of 2009. By January 2010 we had reached over 7,000 listeners and to date over 8,000 have picked up our download! The Knit Picks episodes are still available via their iTunes stream. Look for podcasts numbers 24 and 26.
Since our debut, four more Eiderdown stories have been written. In today's economic climate there is no way to predict when (or in what form) they will be produced, but I would do audio again in a heartbeat just for the sheer joy of it all. I'm sure you'll see why after you download the audio files for yourself.
Press folks, right-click this link to download a press release in pdf.
Meet the Crew
Writer/Producer Kate Godfrey lives, writes, and designs in a tiny cottage on a hill in San Francisco. After dinner she puts on the headphones and settles in to knit with a story while the wind rattles the windows.
Voice Artist Andrea Snow lives on the other side of the hill from Kate. Andrea has been a principal actor with the San Francisco Mime Troupe where she sang, danced, and charmed her way into audiences’ hearts in leading roles including: Dragon Lady in The Dragon Lady's Revenge, Factperson in Factperson, and Olga in Hotel Universe. Andrea has written and directed for theater, including the PBS television series, You Can Choose. Off-stage she is a voice instructor, as well as a speech therapist working with young children with speech and language difficulties.
Director/Sound Editor Pat Jackson lives a few blocks from Andrea. Pat began her film career on Francis Ford Coppola's The Conversation. You’ll find her listed in the credit rolls on everything from Apocalypse Now to The English Patient (for which she was a 3-time Academy Award mentionee) to A Bug’s Life. Her extensive documentary picture editing includes Emiko Omori’s Rabbit in the Moon, which won a national Emmy for best historical documentary. Pat is also a tenured professor in cinema at San Francisco State University.
Sound Advisor Dan Gleich lives on the same hill as Kate, Andrea, and Pat. He has worked in film and television production for over 25 years, on projects ranging from national commercials to independent feature films, three of which have become Sundance Film Festival selections. Dan specializes in on-location audio. Two documentary projects he’s worked on have received Academy Award nominations, including The Times of Harvey Milk, which won in 1986. Also noteworthy is the currently ongoing PBS series Keeping Score: MTT on Music, featuring Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony.
Engineer Stephen Berke of BerkeSound, lives not far from the hill where everyone else lives—close enough that the group has declared him an honorary resident. Stephen was literally born into the recording business, naturally waiting until the session was finished to make his first appearance. He wears many hats in the studio, including recording, sound design and mixing. Stephen has engineered sessions for diverse range of clients including National Geographic, PBS, and Cisco. Stephen is also an independent filmmaker who specializes in short narratives.