I Love It When Dimension 20 Does The Thing*

I love it when dimension 20 does the Thing*

(*nails a universal human experience in narrative e.g., the tendency to triumph in what you’re great at when people put faith in your abilities, don’t undermine your value, and give you the tools and support you need to succeed)

Is audio drama the only medium you've worked in? How does it compare to other mediums?

So I started out as a musician. When I was at university I used to busk with a bass and a loop pedal (an endeavour that got me quite far at one point) and this caught the attention of a couple of people in the filmmaking society, who asked if I wanted to make music for their short films. (One of these people is now my wife)

I worked in film as a sound recordist, sound designer and composer, sometimes all three at once. I really like film as a medium but, in my experience, on a set the sound recordist is often treated as an inconvienience (if the cinematographer says we need to go again, we go again, if the sound recordish says we need to go again, everyone groans) and after I while I found myself getting irritable about it, so I stopped.

I enjoy doing sound design and music for film, but I find it very limiting. To a certain extent you're stuck with what's on screen and you have to work within that, and so much of my job was fixing things rather than being creative ('we forgot to record this door closing, can you put it in?').

What I found liberating about audio drama is that you start with a blank space and you get to fill it with whatever you like, be that music or soundscapes or dialogues or monologues, and indie audio drama is still at the stage where a lot of things are still being worked out, which is exciting. I love talking to people about the idea of audio drama having its own musical vocabulary separate from film music and video game music.

It's not without its limits (money) but I agree with Ella when she says that audio drama is where comics used to be, and I think that's exciting!

Gundle getting ready to charge back into the Labyrinth and rescue his frescoes from those tasteless goblins

From Tuesday 16 July

Labyrinth Untold, a journey through the Labyrinth in 5 Acts

With beloved Labyrinth hits like the Bog Of Eternal Stench, Junk Ladies, friendly worms and False Alarms

And exciting new bits and bobs like:

Oops all Muppets (all our adventurers are Labyrinth dwellers, nary a human in sight!)

Genderbent Jareth aka Maledith the Goblin Queen, played by Natalie Winter

Wild topiary

Goblin puppet opera

We'll be playing Jim Henson's Labyrinth The Adventure Game by River Horse

Follow Merely Roleplayers here, in your podcast app or at foggyoutline.com for all the action!

Here’s an invaluable writing resource for you.