✨️In celebration of the "HPCC Recording Archive" hitting half a year, here's a Community Shoutout & Celebration Post:
this entire repository/archive is so much more than just recordings, and the steps that we took along the way has made this a year to remember. Here's a timeline, and a sincere shoutout to the HPCC community for working together in making this niche of the HP fandom more vibrant. I didn't build this- you did.
We have now hit half a year of this project🌟 It started in Febuary and after a surgery I underwent- i was mindlessly scrolling when these exact words happened to pop up on my dash:
"i cant find a single recording for Cursed Child" anywhere..."
I literally did not give a singular fuck about this play until I started this project: I remember the script releasing right before I entered junior year, I thought it was trash, and never cared about it in the slightest. But upon finding that post, I learned these recordings existed in mass & were all run & gatekept by an underground community that often put a price tag on these illegally recorded shows. I scoured the tag of "hpcc" and realized the fanbase for it was quite active. Post after post was about not being able to afford travelling to see it, or not being able to pay the people holding these recordings.
And I felt that was super unfortunate; an entire community loving something, and the source material is behind an illegal paywall or displayed at a location 80% of the population can't get to. I didn't even like this play, but felt that this niche was just as important as the broader HP fandom, and that they deserved to see what they love.
So while my post-surgery meds kicked in & I lay bedridden, I thought "fuck that shit" and scoured for recordings. I found just 2 within a few hours, and I gave them free of charge, solely out of spite. Then as the week went on, I turned 25 & ended my decade long partnership- I needed a distraction: so I made this my mission.
I was gonna find every single fucking recording the underground theatre community catalogued on their site & take it away from their illegal paywall/ "by trade" only structure.
This was originally due to thinking their practises were woefully misguided, but then my archiving brain took over and I realized that while stuck in this structure, this play has a lesser chance of being fully archived in its exact form: theatre, though having a rich archiving community, is not accesible due to the trade being consistently threatened by reprecussions. This fact ties into the extra mile I still go to protect the community I continue to disagree with on many factors.
Weeks go by, I acquire recordings but they are all insanely low quality. I learn the underground theatre community's lingo, basis, structure. I learn whats paywalled, and whats by trade. Then April happens. I start to finally get my first paywalled recordings- ones I learn people are aching to see. I move away from drive, and start hosting a public folder on Mega. This folder lasts at most, two days:
Because I remember a vital fact: the underground theatre community went underground for a reason. I may be spiteful, but I've always recognized the uniqueness of such a niche within the broader "freemedia" community & appreciate the work they have done. So I start paying money to password protect the folder. And not only that- I create a regularly cycling system. This is the only way I can both try to keep the underground community safe, and provide the archive in a "semi-public" form.
✨️"The Directory" is now born✨️
I spend hours- I mean hours- checking file quality, cross-referencing dates, casts, years, noting file sizes- formatting. I make a disclaimer, explain file types, spend many more hours creating backups of a media that I feel is important to archive.
I start to get audio submissions after people attend the shows. I get people submitting visual recordings after finding out about the collection. It starts to grow, and fast: I find myself not being able to keep up with the constant messages.
I soon find someone has transcribed the unreleased, revised script after attending a showing: they allow their work into the repository. I then find someone has translated that transcription into Italian. They too allow their work into the repository.
I reach Tiktok. Which isn't a good thing, and I follow multiple traces to figure out exactly who is spreading my blog around. I get the comments taken down, and make a new disclaimer. I now regularly look in the tags on said app to make sure I'm not in them, solely so this archive, and the underground community it is built upon, can stay active.
Recordings continue to trickle in. Like an actual fucking miracle, I aquire a good quality recording of the play in Hamburg. This is the point I realize I have every single visual recording listed on the underground community's site, minus a few that are "NFT" forever.
The North American Tour starts gaining popularity. Someone (a godsend) buys the brand new recordings solely to put them into the repository. They last about a week in it, for I have a community member inform me of the importance of "NFT". A new standard enters the project: recordings will be available when they reach their NFT expiry, unless "NFT forever".
I'm getting multiple messages of confusion from non-English speakers. I consider translations, but want to avoid AI/spotty web translators. No one will take on the job across various forumns. After using web translators anyways, I make a post here and as of two days ago, it has offically been translated into Mandarin. The Françias one is also underway.
This project, after starting out of spite & a need to distract myself, has reached every continent, a high school acting class, a veteran HP fan who wanted to surprise her kids after they read the script, inspired multiple people to see it live, allowed those who never will be able to attend a live showing to see it, and has now undergone an offical translation by a native speaker.
To say I'm baffled this project grew to these lengths is an understatement. But I'm just the archivist- this is who made it all possible in the first place:
☀️To Everyone Who Has Contributed To This Project (including masters):
This repository only exists because of you. Not me. I just take care of compiling. This entire project is built by the community. Huge thanks to those who created translations of this directory (and who are currently working on them), the two people who contributed the (unreleased) revised script transcription & transcription translation, all the people who added recordings to this repository & bought them solely to make them accesbible, and of course:
✨️The Masters That Made This All Possible✨️
Though you and I have a difference of morals in regards to charging money for illegally recorded content/hard to archive media + keeping it in a "trade only" model, I, and everyone who has engaged with this project, wholeheartedly appreciate your time, risk, and work. YOU are the backbone of giving people across the world- who would never be able to see this play due to location- the ability to appreciate the art of theatre & view a beloved story come to life on stage.
This project started out of a mixture of spite & wanting to spread some joy and kindness to a niche community. And now a multitude of recordings which are rare to have archived in their exact form are compiled for public access. So thank you, to the masters, entire community, and my trusty Seagate HDD that almost exploded.
