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Episode: 721
Title: HPR0721: THEATER OF THE IMAGINATION -- PART 03
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr0721/hpr0721.mp3
Transcribed: 2025-10-08 01:28:57
---
Hello, this is Lost in Bronx.
Welcome to Part 3 of Theater of the Imagination.
This is my series on dramatic audio fiction past and present, and especially how I and
a whole lot of other people are putting their own and a whole lot of other people's
stories into the audio format.
As I progress in this application, I fully expect to learn a thing or two, and assuming I do,
I'll pass said things on to you, my gentle listeners.
I'll be using my own works and that of others as examples in order to talk about things
I've experienced or have come to believe.
So with your kind collective indulgence, I will proceed.
Ah, before I do though, I want to point out that this series is not a how-to type thing,
at least for the most part.
I'm generally bad on fine details, so if anything, it'll be a how-not-to series, and
thusly, I encourage you to check out some of the examples I use so that you can decide
for yourselves how full of crap I may or may not be.
Okay, since my last episode, I have completed most of the work on a new audio fiction project
called Driving with Eddie.
It's a short form audio comedy with a couple of different voiced characters, sound effects
and music.
So basically, this makes it a thing called an audio drama, despite not being a drama.
And if you want to understand why that is, you can check out part two of this series,
HPR 0677.
I know it's a little confusing how a comedy can be called a drama, but in short, well that's
just the way it is.
Now Driving with Eddie is my second foray into the medium in general.
And in some ways, it was easier to make than last time, while in other ways not.
First off, it's shorter.
Overall less time involved, that's on the easier side.
Secondly, my previous dramatic audio media project was basically a short story drama.
Real drama, this time not a fake drama, nomenclature thing, to which I added music and sound
effects.
It was just me in a story narrated in first person singular present tense.
No multiple voices, except for some sound effects, and it was done in a rather stylized narrative
form.
But essentially, all I had to do was read the thing straight through, no must, no fuss.
It wasn't that simple, of course, nothing ever is, mostly due to technical problems that
needed finessing, but it was a different animal entirely from this latest one, which took
more work per minute of finished content to plan and put together than the previous
project did.
Driving with Eddie has two characters with speaking parts in it.
Normally this sort of thing would be done by two different actors.
In this case, I did them both myself, so in fact, the process is similar to one used by
most dramatic audio media producers in this day and age, in that you'll have people in far
flung places around the globe, whom you've cast in your show and whose voices you must
cut together in the editing process.
In most respects, save one, this is considerably easier when doing it yourself.
It's much faster and more efficient, you're not waiting on anybody.
The save one, of course, is a biggie.
Different characters have different voices, and this generally requires different people
to produce them.
Depending upon your skill set, this can be a trade-off.
In my case, I felt comfortable enough doing both voices that I thought I could pull it
off.
This versus my people skills management and networking, which are a wolf will at best.
Now this certainly isn't the answer for every project.
I'm not Mel Blank, I can't do a thousand distinct voices.
Actually, I could argue that he couldn't either, but my point is that this approach doesn't
always work, and may not, in fact, work most of the time.
Nonetheless, the prospect of my artistic endeavors relying upon the efforts of others,
who will almost certainly be strangers, I've never laid eyes upon, fills me with a kind
of horror, plain and simple.
Now this is territory that's probably better approached in an episode dedicated just
to acting and actors, so I'll drop it here for now.
In any way, my opinions are subject to change as I gain experience in dramatic audio
media production myself.
Okay, believe it or not, all of that was just a kind of intro.
What we're really going to do here is start at the very beginning of the process, and
since we're talking about fiction, the beginning of the process is in the writing.
It all begins with the written word.
It is exactly like the foundation of a building.
Everything else to come rests upon it, and if it is weak, so will the finished construction
be.
No matter how talented the voice acting is, no matter how expensive the equipment used
or level of maturity of the software involved, no matter the skills of the producer.
If the writing is poor, the show will be weaker than it could be, and if it's really bad,
nothing can save it.
Good writing gives the actors more to work with, which at least in theory gets better performances
out of them.
Good writing even allows for a somewhat easier editing process.
Granted that good or bad writing are subjective things, we're not talking about a standard
of quality that everyone everywhere will agree upon.
No, the standard that matters is yours.
Assuming we're talking about you producing your own work.
If you know that there's more, which needs to be done on the script, then you have to
do it.
Deadlines be damned, and I'm not talking about numeratically tweaking the punctuation
or obsessively worrying a bothersome passage.
As consuming as they can be, if you can't get past these kinds of niggling problems,
then you're never going to be done.
No, I'm talking about plot, character, and dialogue.
This will only be the barest of considerations of this rather huge subject.
There are audio casts, online and real life writing groups, how-to websites, and books
by the thousands all dedicated to the craft of fiction writing.
And make no mistake, it is the craft that matters.
Talent and skill can both be honed, but only skill can be learned.
Some people have talent, no argument, but no one can choose the level of talent they
are born with.
Everyone and anyone, however, can choose their own skill level.
It comes solely from study and practice, and mostly practice.
In this case, that means putting words to paper or screen.
Can you write?
Yes, you can.
Can you write well?
Yes, you can.
Do you write well?
Ah, no, there's the question.
Because the answer is malleable.
Work at it, and the honest answer to that question will be different in a year.
That's true for everyone.
So you're sufficiently motivated, raw, raw, go team.
And you have a story or audio script that you think is halfway decent.
What do you do next?
Or let me even back up a half step.
How do you get your script into a proper format?
Is there a standard, generally accepted format for audio plays, the way there are for
stage plays and television and movie scripts?
You know what?
I don't know.
And I don't care.
And neither should you.
So long as it's understandable to both you and anyone else who needs to read it, such
as other actors, what difference could it make if you write the character's names followed
by a colon of space and then their lines, or if you indent their names to the middle of
the page and then put their dialogue on the following lines?
There likely is, or at least once was, a standard industry format for these things back when
there was an industry, but that's another world, long gone.
You won't be paying too many bills doing this.
It won't be your job.
It's all supposed to be for fun and self expression.
And I don't know about you, but sweating the details of audio script formatting doesn't
sound like fun to me.
If it ain't your bread and butter and people can read it, who cares?
The script's format is not the story you want to tell.
It's the means of telling the story.
Put it all down in as sensible a way as you see fit and get on with it.
Okay, you have a script of some kind at last.
The next thing you want to do is line up your various elements.
And by that, I mean your readers, slash actors, your music and your sound effects.
If it's an audiobook or the like that you've written and you intend to record yourself
reading it, then that's the first thing on the list taken care of immediately.
Next, you might want to line up music.
If you're a musician yourself, that's two elements down right there.
If you're not, like I'm not, then there are as many sources for music out on the nets
as you could ever want, but I strongly believe you need to stick with creative commons.
I won't even say public domain.
I used to like public domain, but I don't anymore.
I don't trust it.
If you want to know why, take a look at what Nina Paley went through over the public domain
music she used in her animated film, Ceta sings the blues of Frick and Nightmare.
No, creative commons tells you upfront what you can and can't do with a recording.
Now another approach, if you find a piece of music that you like that either has an incompatible
license to how you want to eventually release your dramatic audio media or no license statement
of any kind that you can find, then contact the artist directly, email, Facebook, Twitter,
Identica, something.
A lot of times they'll give you special permission to use a piece and then everything is hunky
dory.
In fact, it might be good to contact the artist or artists directly anyway.
They generally like to know if their stuff is being used and maybe they'll mention it
on their own blogs and such that can only be good for you.
Personally, I scourccmixter.org and the internet archive.
Lots of good creative commons stuff is there.
But there's also gemendo and magnatoon and podsafe audio and tons more.
The creative commons.org website has a nice list of places to check and I'll have that
link in the show notes.
Decide what type of music you want, be a little flexible and look around.
You'll be sure to find something really good and appropriate for your work.
Okay, sound effects.
If you're recording an ebook you probably don't need or want any.
Some and only some ebooks have a little sound effects, usually done solely for a special
emphasis or drama in a particular place and usually only once or twice in the entire novel.
That's pretty rigid these days.
Go to podiobooks.com, download a few books and I think you'll see what I mean.
I don't necessarily like or agree with this trend but it is well entrenched now and you
do your eventual popularity a favor by respecting it.
My own popularity gets no respect because I am an artist see and I do what I want but
there is a price to be paid for personal whim.
If after all your hard work, obscurity is fine with you then by all means do whatever
the hell you want.
I mean you're not going to make money either way but finding listeners may be the only
reward you get for this and if you produce art in a non-standard way you may find it challenging
to gain distribution outlets and therefore listeners.
For instance I have no interest in iTunes but the fact is if you aren't there you aren't
being heard much.
Now that's all got little to do with sound effects but my point is the closer to established
formats that you remain the more people will tend to like you.
That may seem shallow and I won't argue but it is true nonetheless.
At some point I'll do an episode specifically on distribution and promotions whenever
the hell I figure out how to do it myself.
Now sources of sound effects are also all over the internet.
I tend to stick with two sources mostly freesound.org and me.
Now freesound.org is big and awesome check it out you'll very often find at least something
like what you want and if you don't try my second source me or rather you fully half
if not more of my sound effects I have created myself it's not hard it's fun in fact try
it.
In blue heaven I had several variations on a huge metal door opening and closing.
Well I don't have access to a military grade blast door or a rusty old bank vault but
I do have a propane tank and a barbecue grill and a cast iron fry pan on my stove top and
those are what I used to create those sounds.
Remember it's fantasy imagination.
You say it's a door make a squeak and people hear a door.
Listen to the sounds of the ordinary objects around you and you'll begin to hear possibilities
all over the place.
And anyway sound effects you make yourself can't possibly give you license issues so they're
attractive on that front too.
Alright I'm rambling have been since the start in fact that's okay like I said this is
no tutorial rather it's meant as nothing more than food for thought and because it is here's
one last thing to think about.
How many of you out there have had an idea for a great TV show or movie?
These had one at some point or other right?
Now what are the chances that you'll ever in your life see your script come to the big
or small screen?
I'd put better odds on being struck by lightning out of a clear blue sky but you can do it
in audio.
You can make a dramatic audio fiction piece out of your idea that's just as thrilling
or interesting or moving if not more so than anything Hollywood puts out.
It's work yes but it's also fun and you can start right now you don't need a budget
you don't need expensive equipment not really anyway and you don't need anyone's approval
but your own.
A microphone and words to read that's it and you're often running transporting your listeners
to any world of your choosing.
This has been Lost in Bronx with Theatre of the Imagination Part 3.
Take care.
Thank you for listening to H.P.R. sponsored by Carol.net so head on over to C.A.R.O.N.E.