[Discussion/Debate] Audio dramas the new fan films?

This dates back to an old arguement I had, 'Would the Matrix have worked without the visuals?'

The Quick Answer: Yes. But people who don't have a good enough brain capacity probably won't like it.

The Best Example for this was probably 'The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy' (which is probably the best example for anything when it comes to Audio Dramas), which was enjoyed by a select crowd when it was released in 1977, however, after the release of the TV Series and the second Radio series, the popularity boosted, ten fold.

Why? Because TV Made it more popular.
The Random Public are'nt exactly avid 'Radio Four' listeners.

Audio Dramas are for a slightly more enlightened crowd, it's an easier way of story telling, just without all the visuals that most people rely on to get to grips with things.

They're pretty easy to make so long as you know what you're doing, you just have to work out the best way to tell your story properly,

For Example,
A lightsaber fight, In a Film, you'd have to Coreograph the whole thing, whereas in a Audio Drama, you'd have to work out Narration for the whole thing, WHILE making sure that the narration keeps up with the pace, there's nothing more annoying than stretching a lightsaber scene over ten minutes just to make sure that the audience knows what's going on.)

Anyway, Audio Dramas will not replace Fan Films, there will always be a market for Visual Effects and Lightsaber Fights.


Keith: Anyone think this is a good idea?

Yes... YES! OH GOD YES!
Although, other than Nathan, You and Myself, I can't really see any other main contenders.

 

I think it'd be a great idea ot have a fan-audio competition. Not only could there be audio sumbmissions, but categories for best script-- for script submissions fo rthose without the resources to do a drama, acting, etc...and it woudl take aconsiderable less to pull off than the fan film awards.

 

script submissions

I'm sure Nathan will be able to rant about this more than I will, but there is'nt really much market for that sort of thing.

Tremendous Shame and all.

 

Call it best writing then or Best story. Just something acknowledge teh creative foundation of fan-films and fan-audio.

 

I wasn't actually thinking of myself competing. hehe. I was more so thinking of the same guys who do smaller budget fan films, to take a wack at it and do a very short audio production.

It would be geared towards improving their skills in this area because most are so drawn to visual effects they forget all about the audio, or could care less once they've gotten their rotoscoping down.

A competition like this could help draw attention to audio in general, without taking so much time that they would be complaining they can't finish their own films. 1-2 minutes could go a long way...

Keith

 

Rogue428, are you working on an audio drama? i visited your site but didn't see anything off-hand that looked like you were. Just curious.

I think he's referring to his work as Jivs in Second Strike and Quinn in Dreamscape.

Although, other than Nathan, You and Myself, I can't really see any other main contenders.

Well, y'know, we still haven't actually heard anything of yours yet.

Actually, there are a few others out there. Smuggler's Run is being worked on, I know, and Alderman and company just finished Resurrection. (Granted, Resurrection isn't original, but an adaptation of a previously published Star Wars Tales story, but still.)

I think it'd be a great idea ot have a fan-audio competition. Not only could there be audio sumbmissions, but categories for best script-- for script submissions fo rthose without the resources to do a drama, acting, etc...and it woudl take aconsiderable less to pull off than the fan film awards.

As far as I know, that's being worked into the awards that will be coming once the new site is up and running.

As for competitions on TFN . . . just make sure people keep up with it. There's nothing quite as frustrating than ending up winning a TFN Fan Film contest by what's virtually a landslide, only to never have the winner announced or anything done about it because the people running it lose interest . . .

 

Well, Nate, you've heard SpaceTits, although that's not a great example.

 

Yeah, I was just thinking small scale. Nothing big right now. Just one of those contests of the month or something along those lines here on the tfn boards.

Keith

 

Hmm... a two minute audio thingy? Hell, I've got a couple of scenes and shorts written I could do in two minutes as audio pieces all by myself. And of course... a couple of short scene ideas come to mind...

1. The Interrogation of Leia Organa (A new Hope, later described as traumatizing by Leia in Foster's book, Splinter of the Mind's Eye...)

Umm... well, just one idea comes to mind that I haven't done up already... Also... one might consider contacting the authors of the fiction pieces over in the Fan Fictions section of theforce.net.

I know I've had a blast playing around with recording my own versions of Stephen King's shorter Stories, (Paranoid, A Chant, and Here There Be Tygers, and more ambitiously, Dolan's Cadillac) as well as Good Omens, by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. (Since it seems we'll NEVER get that movie.) Why couldn't I have a blast doing reads of some of the stuff here too?

-WinterRose

 

Actually, the interrogation of Leia was further explored in the original NPR Star Wars Radio Drama. You should take a listen to that if you haven't already.

Keith

 

The reason why Star Wars fan films are more appreciated than Star Wars audio dramas is that hearing a lightsaber doesn't do the same thing as seeing a lightsaber.

Any medium puts pressure on almost all people involved, from the director, to the producer, to the editor, to the actors, but in a video there's a bit less focus on the acting itself, especially the voice, although a piece of bad acting is instantly recognisable.

In an audio drama, you rely on the actors and a few sound effects to create the entire film, so if your actors aren't good, you're screwed.

Art of the Saber II - No voice, but nobody complained about the acting.
Duality - Very little voice "Lord Rive, this is...", people only complained about the storyline.
Stormtrooper Bob - voice only, funny, but underappreciated.

 

" The reason why Star Wars fan films are more appreciated than Star Wars audio dramas is that hearing a lightsaber doesn't do the same thing as seeing a lightsaber. "

I'd think that would be a perfect excuse to do a Saber-less character-driven story meant to inspire good actors to put out their very best work. I see so many films that people do being moaned about in reviews later. usually something along the lines of:

"The sabers looked pretty great. Too bad about the plot, which seemed to be a contrivance to getting to the saber duel. When do we get a fanfilm with a plat that doesn't revolve around a saber duel?"

Sound familiar?

-WinterRose

 

"I'd think that would be a perfect excuse to do a Saber-less character-driven story meant to inspire good actors to put out their very best work."

Precisely the point we had in going ahead with Second Strike as audio, and in doing Anthology (which, of six episodes I'm penning, will only have lightsabers in two, and then only briefly).

 

Sorry I haven't replied in this thread earlier...
Ummm, initially, while typing my last post here I had typed audio dramas were easier then it hit me...the audio drives the story.
When you have video, one can 'cheat' the audio somewhat taking the pressure off of mixing...that's what I found anyway.
Timing audio is more a slave to video...no real thought goes into 'when' something has to happen since most everything that is heard is seen on-screen so there's always visual cues making the mixing process pretty straight-forward...almost a no-brainer. In audio dramas you're constantly second guessing yourself 'Are the footsteps too close together? Does it sound rushed? Maybe te footfalls are too light and need to be heavier to make it sound like a larger person?'
Audio mixing custom sounds can be extremely taxing especially from the vantage point of saying 'this sound matches what I see...close enough.' as opposed to 'does this sound makes me think of [whatever I'm going for]?'
You see, the philosophy is somewhat different since one 'prevokes thought' while the other is more of a 'blending/marrying of the two mediums'. On that note, I couldn't honestly say that it was easier. More convenient...oh yes! No actors, or rain delays, no poor lighting...etc. Get the voice work and away you go, but the sounds got to be proper otherwise you might as well replace all your lightsabre sounds with loud reverberating flatulance!
Your drama has now turned into a comedy
Doing the audio drama made me realize how important and difficult sound is and how much I cheated it before with video. It made me realize how bad a mixer I truly am...
Hats off to you Nathan, you got the gift man.

 

Umm... well, just one idea comes to mind that I haven't done up already... Also... one might consider contacting the authors of the fiction pieces over in the Fan Fictions section of theforce.net.

Seriously, I really wish that every producer of a drama, whether fan film or audio, would consider doing this.

If you want a well-told story, the folks over there are practically devoting their lives to good SW writing. Just about every SW genre you could ever imagine is represented over there, and as fanfic is the black sheep of the SW universe, the folks over there I'm sure would love to contribute to something a little more respected and visible.

For those who excel in things like sound quality or visual effects, now you can concentrate on the thing YOU do best and hand over the things you don't do well to someone who likes doing it and can do a good job. If you want to write your own story, have somebody over there critique it for things like originality, dialogue, pacing ... that sort of thing. Of course, there are bad writers, just as there are bad actors/filmmakers/whatever, but it isn't that difficult to find the quality you want in the genre you want. Ask around, or just snoop around for a bit.

There is an enormous resource over there. It's just too bad it never gets used by the folks over here.

If the different "specialties" of SW fans worked together on these projects instead of independently, I bet we'd see a huge difference in the quality of fan produced work.

I'm just sorry our producer and director are signing off after RON is done. Two fine minds are going to be lost to the genre after this one ...