Making Audio Drama - Tumblr Posts
I needed this guide today and it was there for me! Posting it so it can be there for you too if and when you need it
6 table reads done and 1 whole ep recorded and ready for dialogue edit! Not bad for a day's work
Table reads for I Need A Miracle start today! Actual voice actors are going to say the words I wrote! I know from previous theatre stuff that this will end up being massively exhilarating, it always is – getting other artists' takes on the material, finding new meanings I didn't consciously put there, it's energising, it fills you up. But right now in the few hours before we get started, I've never had less confidence in these scripts 😂 The brain gremlin chorus is in agreement that every actor will ask questions I don't know the answer to and I will look foolish and amateurish in front of accomplished artists and creative professionals, and that they will all point out irreconcilable flaws in the characters and story that I am simply too blind to see
Anyway, I'm off to distract myself by casting my vote for Mayor of London and the Greater London Authority – my own little appeal to earthly powers for change I'm too small to enact myself, before the cast and the Wireless team and I start this next stage of producing a series all about appealing for divine intervention when the thing you want is simply too big to make happen yourself.
One thing that I love/hate about creating an audio drama is the process that takes you from recording lines to holy shit I made a world. Record lines - "God, I hate this" Editing vocals - "Is this really what I sound like?" Arranging vocals - "The most boring shit I've ever heard" Adding a little audio panning - "Sounds more real-ish, still boring" Adding sound effects - "This might actually maybe sound kinda cool a little" Adding music - "Are we actually gettin' somewhere? Is this really happening?" Finally sitting down in the backyard and sipping whiskey and listening to Desert Skies - "holy shit I made a world"
hey writers, did you know,
when you get other people involved and start properly taking your audio drama from page to airwaves,
that you get to talk to those other people about your world and your characters and your ideas all the time?
that all the cool people you got involved because you think their work is brilliant will ask you to tell them about those things?
and that you don't have to worry "am I being tedious/dominating the conversation by talking about my writing", because all these cool people whose work you admire literally need you to talk about your writing so they can do their jobs?
All right, luvvies, what do you want to know?
Audio drama ask meme: Creator edition
The last one was extremely fun, but I want this one to help people help promo their wonderful shows!
1. What stage of production is the most fun for you?
2. What’s a role in a different show you’ve heard one of your cast members in and just been absolutely blown away by?
3. Show us an excerpt of script you’re extremely proud of.
4. Is there a specific episode that was especially fun to work on?
5. Be honest, which is your favourite character to write lines for?
6. You have to turn your podcast into a different type of media: what do you go for?
7. Tag a show you think would make a great crossover with your own (and maybe make it happen, who knows 👀)
8. Pick a character from your show and put together an outfit you think they’d wear.
9. If your show was a different genre what genre would it be and how would the plot change?
10. Recommend a couple of other shows for people who like your own!
11. Share a fun bts fact people might not know.
12. Share something about a future episode that will mean nothing right now but will one day.
13. What’s your favourite portion of sound design from the show?
14. Share a show meme.
15. Are you working on anything else outside of this show?
16. Briefly outline your process for making a season happen.
17. What’s something that inspired your show?
18. What’s something you’d like the audience to take away from your show?
19. Do you have any playlists/music you listen to while working on production?
20. What’s a moment from the show that just absolutely took your breath away when you heard it come together for the first time?
As always, please reblog, share, and enjoy! No need to send asks!
Bring back etiquette manuals. What's expected of me as a writer at a dialogue recording session? Should I speak only when spoken to? Bring biscuits for the cast and crew? Consult Debrett's!
I Need A Miracle:
Recording day 1
Pulled my usual stunt: gave myself way too much contingency travel time and got to the studio (or the nearest tube, anyway) over an hour early. Currently sitting in a cafe between the tube and the studio consuming black coffees and distracting myself by blogging and by thinking about topics I could speak about that would be useful or interesting to small business owners (an ask from Dad). Oh ever-growing to-do list, you are a boon in times like these of twiddling thumbs and tapping toes.
I like the ceiling roses in this cafe. Wonder what the building was before?
I Need A Miracle:
Recording day 2
Today's schedule was much more packed, so I didn't take as many photos. Basically just this one
I know writers with cohesive aesthetics and they're all cowards
But Sarah at Wireless was thankfully much more on the ball
Anti-AI Voice Actors Needed!
A computer science student - @anotherdayanotherobsession - is heading into her final year of university and looking to build a tool (similar to the visual art world's Glaze) to prevent the use of AI voice cloning in voice acting and similar industries.
Feedback on her technology and general involvement in the project from voice actors themselves would be immensely beneficial for her research, so we've set up a Discord server for interested VAs to gather and be updated throughout the project.
With the rise of AI concerns, work like this is beyond valuable to creatives, so I hope y'all will encourage & support her throughout this process!
You can join the server here.
The thing I get most in my head about, reliably, is asking people for things. More especially asking people to do things for me.
It'll be an annoyance.
Even if it's nothing major. Even if it's something they've happily done a hundred times before.
It'll be an imposition.
Even if I know they love me. Even if it would make me happy if they asked the same thing of me.
It's kind of exploitation if you think about it.
Even if it's a work thing, and they're being paid to do it and I'm being paid to ask them to do it.
I can anticipate the spiral, and I build in time to navigate the spiral before the thing needs doing, and I can reliably break out of the spiral once I'm in it, but the spiral still always happens.
I think that's why I wrote I Need A Miracle.
It wasn't an intention I set out with consciously: to get into character as a variety of people who want and who find it in themselves to ask, even when the things they want are vast and life-changing; when they are, unquestioningly, imposing. But looking back at the finished scripts now, as casting gets under way and I start to think about how I launch and talk about the show later this year, I can see more clearly why, out of all the possibilities, this was the concept that bubbled to the top and demanded to be written first.
Every character in I Need A Miracle does nothing but want. That's the concept: every episode is a prayer, a plea to a higher power for divine intervention. We never hear anything beyond these pleas, these prayers. Anyone who doesn't want anything won't pray for anything, so we'll never hear their voice.
There's an idea that all characters in drama must want something. Here, though, the wanting is front and centre. It's not just what's driving their decisions and actions. It's the reason they're speaking to us. They're all forced to articulate what they want – and not only that but justify why they deserve to get it, because not all prayers are granted.
That ought to have been hard to write, for someone like me who's embarrassed to want things, and who's shy about making those desires someone else's problem or responsibility.
But it wasn't hard. When it's someone else's desire, it's easy! Of course they deserve it. It's not even that big an ask. Anyone would be happy to oblige.
That's the quickest, most effective way I've found to break out of the spiral. Think: if someone else asked this of me, would I think it was rude, or an imposition, or overstepping the mark? Nine times out of ten the answer is: no, I'd actually be stoked to be asked.
I am curious what the viewership is like for The Silt Verses if that is something you are willing to share? It is so fucking good, and I tell all my friends to listen to it, but none of them have yet. :/
I know some get crazy popular like TMA or Night Vale, but unfortunately, most fiction podcasts don’t seem to have a huge audience. That or maybe I just don’t know where to look to see a super widespread and active listener community. I just hope to hear that The Silt Verses is bringing in the viewers and that you’ll be able to make another story after if that’s what you want to do. On that note, have you shared anything or do you know anything about what comes next for you as far as future stories? Totally fine as well if you’re just focusing on finishing this before even thinking about something new though :).
We're doing OK, thank you! About 2 million total downloads since we started, around 50-90,000 listens per month in S3.
That's not A-tier huge, but it's enough to pay our cast a decent rate and help support me working on the production, which as you say is unfortunately rare for the majority of indie audiodramas. We're a weird and in some ways a demanding show that sits between genres, so I'm realistic about how much bigger we could have got and really happy with the success we have (and I am quietly putting some money aside for cast and production costs on our next show, ideas for which we have discussed here).
The cast and crew reveals have begun!!
(they're all listed on the website already if you want to fill your boots, or you can follow @inyourbenevolence and get them with details and commentary, or both!)
I Need A Miracle is produced and edited by Sarah Golding
Sarah is an award winning versatile voice actor, director, writer, producer, podfest organiser. Also pod host of the writing how-to pod ADWIT, (with Lindsay Harris Friel) and sole host of Audio Fiction interview pod INDIE AF.
@merelymatt says, you've probably heard Sarah's voice in The Silt Verses among other productions, but did you know she makes audio drama happen as well as being in it?? Sarah's a huge fan of monologues, which I did kind of know when I pitched I Need A Miracle to Wireless, but I definitely didn't know to what extent. She's produced the mum-themed Mummylogues and now the dad-themed Daddylogues to get more monologues out there for your ears, and that made her the number 1 correct person to make I Need A Miracle everything it can possibly be!
Questions about I Need A Miracle that temporarily stumped me
When you, a writer, bring in a production company to produce an audio drama you wrote, members of that company will ask you questions about that audio drama.
Some of those questions will stump you.
That's the first step of the piece becoming a collaboration instead of a solo work. Because those questions will make you see your writing through someone else's eyes. And coming up with answers changes the finished thing into something you couldn't have made alone.
When @wirelesstheatre agreed to work on I Need A Miracle, I was ready to take my hands off the wheel. Didn't want to be the overly precious writer dictating how other people interpret the scripts! But mostly I just really enjoy learning other people's takes on stuff I've written. I thought I'd sit back and enjoy watching them all cook.
A thing I've learned: when you're the one funding the project, the people involved want to know your opinion and that you're happy with the direction things are going 😅
So I found myself in meetings being consulted on things I hadn't prepared myself to have opinions about. Questions like...
Who'd be your dream cast?
My first response to this one was just to give them names of people I know (the usual @merelyroleplayers suspects – once a theatre luvvie...)
When Sarah and Fiona pushed, I started naming audio drama podcast luminaries, your @woodenovercoats people, your @thesiltverses people.
And then someone in the meeting threw out a name as a possibility, which made me realise we were operating on different definitions of "dream casting". I'd made assumptions about what our budget could comfortably accommodate and unusually, those assumptions were overly modest.
This is one arena where, after offering some names because Fiona asked so nicely, I did end up just stepping back and letting Fiona do her thing. And look at the incredible cast we put together thanks to her!
What's the vibe?
This one came from composer Katie. There was a point where I was seriously considering not using music in I Need A Miracle at all (past Matt, what were you thinking?), so I hadn't given it a lot of thought.
We talked melody versus ambience/vibes. We talked moods. We talked instruments and influences. It was a lens I hadn't seen the story through before and it was so damn much fun.
And motifs! Each character in I Need A Miracle is one and done, so they don't get themes, but that led Katie to ask what does recur between different episodes. Are there realisations or turning points that multiple characters experience? What moments echo through the series and how can the score make those moments resonate?
It wasn't until Katie asked the question that I consciously thought, wait, yes, there are parallels and correspondences and themes running through the series (and like, of course there are, but you don't plan that stuff out when writing). And that got me excited to hear the music lifting those moments!
What's the tech level?
Final one, from sound designer Sarah Buchynski (Polarity Audio Works).
There's a specific bit of scene-setting in the series finale that I'd kind of thrown in there for funsies but which raised some (it turns out) interesting questions about technology in a miracle-powered world.
Miracles are magic, so are we talking fantasy? Or sci-fantasy, with sufficiently advanced technology indistinguishable from magic? Steampunk, electropunk, or some other -punk?
My job is the characters, and the bits of worldbuilding that inform them, their wants and needs. Everything else is fill-in-the-blanks. But then Sarah asked the question, and I had a fun old time coming up with basically just enough of an answer to make her job more fun.
Make it up as you go along
Did you think I was going to end this by advising audio drama writers to have answers ready to questions like these? No! Experience the thrill of discovery as I did! Answer whatever questions you need to answer to write the thing, then make up the rest as and when people ask you. That way you never waste imagination juice answering a question no one ever asks. It's foolproof!
I Need A Miracle is directed by Robert Valentine
Rob is a writer, director and producer, mostly working in the wonderful world of audio drama. His work frequently combines secret or hidden histories, adventure and a dash of the fantastic – be that magic, horror, the paranormal or science fiction.
@merelymatt says, as soon as I saw Big Finish Doctor Who, Dead London and Murmurs in Rob's portfolio, I knew the high concept genre-straddler that is I Need A Miracle would be in safe hands. He got such a strong handle on the material right from the start that it was like he'd written it himself, and he had just as much determination to make it brilliant!
These reveals simply cannot stop keeping on coming!!!
Sound design for I Need A Miracle is by Sarah Buchynski
Sarah is the power behind Polarity Audio Works: a post-production house that understands the power of audio storytelling and is passionate about creating immersive stories.
You might recognise Sarah and Polarity from such illustrious credits as Kalila Stormfire's Economical Magick Services, Counterbalance, White Vault: Artifact and White Vault: Acquisition.
@merelymatt says, this show creates its setting in glimpses and snapshots, but with Sarah on board, every out-of-focus glimpse and passing scene is a fully realised world with depth you can sink into. Listen out for how her design subtly and simply sets the rules – and more importantly, the feel – of a world where the miraculous is mundane.
Music for I Need A Miracle is by Katharine Seaton
Katharine works with Rusty Quill as sound designer and composer, and made her BBC Radio 4 debut on Easter Day 2023, as composer for the radio adaptation of Ian McEwan’s novel Enduring Love.
@merelymatt says, once upon a time, my plan was not to have music in I Need A Miracle. That would have been a sad, flat world. Katie got me thinking about the vibe of the series, and its themes, motifs and recurring moments and moods, in a way I never would have without a composer on board – and then translated those raw thoughts perfectly into sound. Her music is the first thing you hear in each episode, and it acts like the best teasers and trailers – giving you just a sense of what you're in for, calibrating your receptors ready for the episode to activate your emotions (yes all of them, all at once).
I apologise to all my fans for using the word immersive in the press release I'm writing for I Need A Miracle. I know. I know! But that's the pass-phrase that gets the bouncer to unbolt the door to Coverage just now. I'll do my penance (3 recitations of Jenny Nicholson's bit about "immersion" as a marketing term as relates to the failure of the Star Wars Hotel)
I Need A Miracle is produced with broadcast assistance from Teresa Milewski
Teresa Milewski is a firm favourite at @wirelesstheatre, and has been a dedicated and highly organised broadcast assistant on many of the company's most popular Audible Originals, and Wireless Original production Peace and War.
@merelymatt says, Teresa lit up our recording days, keeping on top of a technical job I won't pretend to understand while also being friendly and encouraging to everyone who entered the space.
Do any audio drama folks here have experience of monetizing with Apollo? I approached through the contact form on their website, where it says they try to get back in 2-3 days; been a couple of weeks and nothing back yet. Just trying to get a sense of how worthwhile it'll be to chase them up (and whether slow responses/not delivering on what they say they'll do is normal or unusual)