The Official STAR WARS: SMUGGLER'S RUN Thread

Congratulations Michael! I know exactly how you're feeling. After the years of work it took on RoN and the endless mixing and listening sessions going over and over and over the same scenes again and again...I was glad when it was done. So very glad.

Now go take a nice big break. You've sure earned one. I'll be looking forward to hearing it when I get home this evening.

Keith

 

Back again... Hey Michael. I started off by listening to your behind the scenes stuff first. Those were really good. It sounded as though you put a lot of thought into what you wanted to say and it came off very well. Personally, I had a very hard time with my interview pieces. You made it sound so easy.

...onto Smuggler's Run...

The story was fairly basic, but needless to say when there are no Jedi...that's always a good thing as far as I'm concerned. I also enjoyed that you used the template from the original audio dramas.

Now, there were a lot of things that turned me off. The first thing certainly wasn't the audio quality because you had that well under control. But the opening narrative had too many long breaks between the narrative segments. What I would have suggested would have been to have a longer music intro and start the narrative dialogue later, so the segments tie together without the long awkward pauses.

The next thing that threw me was the acting. I just found it flat most of the way through. Monotone for the most part. The part that kind of made me chuckle was the running action sequence. You guys were out of breath but you were talking as though you were whispering so nobody could hear you recording in the next room. Perhaps this was because you didn't want to pop the audio by talking too loudly (almost yelling)? But realistically if you're running and having a conversation you're going to be talking a lot louder to compensate. The high soft pitch of the voice was just funny to me. I don't think the acting persay was bad. I just think you guys needed to do more with the pitch of your voices. In music, it's like staying in the same octive the whole way through. Kinda boring sounding. You just need to let your voices rise and fall naturally with the emotion of the moment.


You know how you mentioned that you wished the audio drama wouldn't have flew by so quickly? You really could have slowed it down a bit. The way to have done this would have been to manually create more pauses between each character's dialogue.

When an editor is cutting and pasting dialgoue, there's a bit of artistic freedom they have in developing the conversation. One can have a character cut off another person by answering while the other person is still talking, or one can have them take a long contemplative pause, etc.

I found SR's dialogue typically went by too quickly because the characters were answering each other without absorbing what the other had said. Basically, you needed more pauses between the alternating dialogue.

The only other thing I think could have been a major improvement were the use of footsteps. You just needed more of them. Especially during the action scenes. If you can't hear them running, it doesn't help create the sense that they are running. You have to take the visual and try and fully translate that to audio. Make sure you don't miss any effects that should be there. Granted, I don't know if they were there and I didn't hear them, but my guess is they weren't always there because it sounded like you had the audio mix down well enough.

My only suggestion would be to try and refine your techniques. Bring in a diverse crew next time to help critique your work before you're finished. The reason I say this is because it will help emensely if other people can point out potential flaws before it's presented. They are your first audience and they may be relentless on you, but you will learn from them. Now what you take to heart as good advice is completely up to you. There is a difference between objectivity and subjectivity as I sure know.

To end on a good note, your use of music I really enjoyed. Your overall sense of style I enjoyed and your committment I really admire.

Keith