Film School Graduates Finally Ready to Narrate Actual Play Podcasts

Rudy Mittner was one of the many film school graduates walking the stage last weekend at UCLA who are now ready to provide the best possible narration of a tabletop actual play podcast. Speaking after the ceremony, Mittner said, “It was a lot of work, it was a lot of debt, but I think I’m finally in a place where I can accurately describe the camera movements that would happen if podcasts were a visual medium. Tracking shots, Dutch angles, panning across, down, and up, it’s all vital to building an image in our listener’s minds.”

After four years of schooling, Mittner believes that a passing knowledge of cinema is not enough to properly run an actual podcast. “I never realized how much work goes on behind the scenes of a movie. My sessions are going to be better for the education I got. Especially now that I know that it’s not enough to prep the characters that the players will meet, but that I also have to account for the lighting crew, sound techs, and craft services. Maps have to have room for the camera to move around in, and outdoor scenes can’t have any birds or bugs that are going to be making too much noise. The amount of worldbuilding I’ve had to do to accommodate this massive fauna shift alone has been astronomical.”

We asked Mittner how film school was likely to color their GMing style. “Listen,” he said, “just because I’ve been mainlining student films for the past three semesters doesn’t mean I’ve lost touch with my roleplay roots. I’m definitely ready to sit down at the table and have each person take turns to introduce their characters by showing them wake up in the morning and tell us about themselves and their jaded worldviews through internal monologues.”