2018 New York Comic Con
Day 2 (October 5, 2018)
At this year’s New York Comic Con, we got a chance to speak with LORE‘s narrator (and podcast creator upon which the show is based), Aaron Mahnke, and one of its executive producers, Howard T. Owens. LORE‘s second season premieres on Amazon Prime streaming on October 19.
Aaron and Howard spoke on a range of issues including the challenges to adapting the podcast to TV, changes for Season 2 in their storytelling focus, and their favorite stories being told in Season 2.
“We want the TV show to be a unique organism that people love.” ~ Howard T. Owens.
After the jump, check out transcribed excerpts from our interview with Aaron and Howard, as well as video of the full interview!
On changes in approach to storytelling for Season 2 …
Aaron: “I think we realized early on that while its noble to want to take a successful podcast and just how can we do exactly what its doing in the video format. That some changes need to be made. To connect better with viewers, some changes need to be made … I should have realized this before I filmed Season 1 but the main character of the podcast is me. And I don’t mean that in an egotistical way but I’m the voice you hear in every episode. Right, so everything else that you’re learning is secondary contextual stuff. My voice is the main character. But in the TV show, when you throw on Burke and Hare, they’re the main characters of the episode. And so, when you throw me in the mix or you throw in a two minute animation sequence … those things pull you out of the moment of connecting with the character. And so we want to keep that consistent from podcast to TV. You’re connected with the character in the podcast because I’m there; you’re connected with the characters in the TV show because its more character focused and letting those scenes play out.
On working to make tone and the show’s feel consistent across the episodes in Season 2 …
Howard: “So in Season 2, we’ve simplified the stories. We’ve taken the best story, the best characters from Aaron’s podcast, from each episode and we’ve kind of condensed those stories … it’s still excellent and rich. We have a great beginning, middle and end. And we also have this great consistency of tone.”
On the biggest challenge adapting the podcast to TV …
Howard: “The biggest challenge is to take one of the most successful podcasts in history. That is THE podcast in the horror genre. And to maintain an allegiance and a credibility to that without being so handcuffed that you’re not making something unique in itself. We want the TV show to be a unique organism that people love.”