I've had, for whatever reason, a HUGE amount of interest from Australian voice actors. I can't use people with very recognizable non-American accents though. It doesn't suit the characters. I've got one Australian doing a nanobot swarm and it sounds GREAT, but too many and I'd have to change the story, heh.
I've had, for whatever reason, a HUGE amount of interest from Australian voice actors. I can't use people with very recognizable non-Amerina accents though. It doesn't suit the characters. I've got one Australian doing a nanobot swarm and it sounds GREAT, but too many and I'd have to change the story, heh.
I can sound more Californian than Victor does at the drop of a hat, and a few different English accents well enough that English people don't notice. When you've got a distinct accent, learning how to change it like a costume is an essential skill.
And I'd say the reason for that is that there's a lot of Australian amateur voice actors, and very few local roles. Narrows it down even further for the people who can't do accents, because there's so few roles where anyone WANTS an Australian accent - and half the time when they do, they just get an American to fake it. But top marks for grabbing at least one Aussie, every little bit helps.
Don't worry about it, though. I'll keep my eye on the show, and if anything comes up again, we'll see how we go with that one.
Actually Churba, the way my lead has been lagging on responding to scripts/revisions, I may need to get a new one, so I may hit you up and see if you're still interested if that happens.
Victor, here are ALL of the bear's lines. It's a short part.
CHEERFUL ANIMATRONIC TEDDY BEAR: Hello Roget!
ROGET: (inhales sharply)
CHEERFUL ANIMATRONIC TEDDY BEAR: Welcome to Build-A-Bear Workshop! I see this is your first visit to our Faneuil Hall Marketplace location. Thanks for stopping by! Will Cadence be shopping with you today?
ROGET: (half to himself) Cadence… she’s missing. I’ve lost her.
CHEERFUL ANIMATRONIC TEDDY BEAR: (cheerfully) Oh my, well! I can help you with that! Please just wait a moment!
AMBIENT: muzak fades slightly up, then down
CHEERFUL ANIMATRONIC TEDDY BEAR: (apologetically, but cheerfully) I’m sorry, Roget. It doesn’t seem as though Cadence is online. If you’re experiencing an emergency, please contact your local authorities! Is there anything else I can help you with today?
I'm mostly worried about a good delivery and inflection. I can do all of the effects myself. If you do send a track with effects, send me the unfiltered audio, too, please?
Just lacking end credits, and I'm told some levels are still off. I mixed through headphones, which I guess is a no no? Anyway I don't really have speakers to vet this through, but don't people usually listen to podcasts through headphones anyway..?
Sounds good to me! Some things are a bit quiet or loud compared to the average, but it's not too bad. Overall I really enjoyed it.
Do you want to hear a major deal-breaking complaint I have about it, one that will stop me from listening to another episode, and one that will stop me from recommending anyone listen to podcast?
FUCKING COMMERCIALS? YOU PUT IN FCKING COMMEROERNECCILALLS`?????!?
Why the fucking fuck?
Do you realize that most people do everything they can to NOT see, watch, or listen to commercials? If you needed a commercial to help pay for the production of the podcast, it might be understandable. But this is a fake commercial. It's not even a funny commercial. It's not even clever, as I knew what the punchline was going to be from the opening clip. And that's even after I skipped to the end of it without listening to it all the way through.
Then I thought the commercial might have something to do with the action or story. But nope! It has nothing to do with it, and worse, it feels as though it's from a different science fiction world. Like it's from a dark dystopia, rather than a post apocalypse world.
As I was listening on Soundclound, I could see the wave form and skip past the commercial breaks precisely. If I had been listening on my iPod or iPhone this wouldn't have been an option, and I would have stopped listening during or after the second break.
Most importantly, it kills any drama. And tone. It kills the tone too. As soon as the voice pops up again, it's screaming at me "NONE OF THIS IS REAL, IDIOT!!!! IT'S JUST FUCKING FICTION!" in a way that makes it impossible for me to suspend disbelief. Why do you think it is a good idea to get in the way of immersing me in your world, when the main strength of this audiodrama is that it feels so immersive?
Don't reply to any of my comments, as I know I'm right. And I know why you put the commercial breaks in, so you don't need to explain it. But you're wrong. Respect your art.
Well, I understand your whole post except precluding replies. That's kinda lame.
Anyhow, sure, I understand your take. I think you're off about why the commercials are there. They're not really supposed to be THAT funny. They're more there to ape an old style of radio program.
Also an intentional break from the darkness of the podcast itself (which next episode, gets even darker, and the one after that, pretty fucking dark.)
I completely respect your opinion and understand it. I was expecting you to say something I would totally not understand or agree with, but yeah, OK, I get it. Fair point.
I appreciate your frankness. A LOT. Seriously. Frankness is hard to get. Not so much the "LALALA I CAN'T HEAR YOU" at the end, even though I'm sensitive to why you wouldn't want to have a discussion about why I'm right for, in your eyes, ruining the whole thing. :-)
I think you're off about why the commercials are there... They're more there to ape an old style of radio program.
I know. This is the reason I knew you would state, and this is what you are wrong about. Nothing you are doing has any relation to old style radio programming. If you think you are making a dark science fiction audiodrama for old style radio fans, you are doing it wrong.
People who want good (and/or dark) science fiction audio drama don't care about old style radio commercial breaks. By including them, you are only making people skip them, endure them, or stop listening. And this is at the expense of making a consistent product.
People who are fans of old style radio may or may not want dark science fiction.
You are making something that will only be good for a subset of a tiny minority (old time radio fans who may like a science fiction story). Why not instead make something suitable for everyone?
After I got there, I felt like I could have skipped the first 3 minutes of the current show. All that music? Great! Leading in to that commercial break? All tone and drama gone! Into the show proper? All that time and music wasted.
You are wrong about this subject. I am right about it. I already knew the reason you would state. I was right about it when you confirmed it, and I'm right about the artistic choices you mistakenly made.
A suggestion beyond removing the commercials entirely:
If you feel you need to break the tension with something light, do it with something in story context. And make sure that it pays off before the end of the first episode. Have a clip from a new show set in that world, before whatever happened happened, but that hint at things to come. Have a commercial, but have it from THAT world, not some other world filtered through 1950's nostalgia. Your story is about the internet and virtual worlds, so old time radio should have nothing to do with it.
Or do what the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy does, and have readings from an encyclopaedia, or history book, or some official guide to using some important modern technology. Make the comedic break into a useful info dump. Anything but old time radio commercial!
You're very confident in your opinion and I respect that, and I also respect your frankness. You may be right that I'm carving out a tiny niche by combining some disparate stuff. I can understand that point. I'm going to shop this around and see if I get any similar feedback, because you've given me something to think about.
The world before this was pretty self-indulgent, lacking self awareness, and loaded with hubris, and might have presented commercials pretty similar to the one from this episode (ok, maybe slightly less goofy and laden with cheesy references), and I already had the idea of having the commercials be from the world before. The breaks that made it into the episode were influenced by that idea, but I admit I opted for more goofy than credible.
I've been promising my VAs a release as we're almost a month behind our original intended schedule, but I'm definitely considering this feedback. Even though you're the only one to say it, I agree with it to some degree.
EDIT - I think an example of what I'm trying to pull off is in the Bioshock series. That series is god damned dark and serious, man. I mean really. INCREDIBLY dark. And yeah, it's a game, but it's a drama, too.
The ads, both audio and visual, though, are old timey and ridiculous. RIDICULOUS.
Sure there's differences between the way Bioshock does it and what I'm doing. For one, Bioshock is set in an alternate time period where that form of advertisement is contemporary. For another, their ads are more obviously in-universe than mine. I'm still on the fence about whether it works in this episode, or could work.
I got a mixed response from the crew so far. Some say keep 'em, some say yeah it'll probably be tighter without 'em. I edited a new version with the commercials cut out and just the bare announcer at the beginning and very end. It does flow better. I still think I like the cheesy humor, but I may insert these into the backdrop in a later episode instead of interrupting the show with them.
I hope the VA who did like 8 takes of those commercials isn't going to be too sore, because he's also my lead. :P
I worry that the intro music is also about 3 times as long as it probably ought to be, but I can't decide where a good place to cut it is, and the guy who composed it specifically for the show spent like 2 weeks on it.
Kill your darlings! It's almost the definition of being an artist.
The good thing about digital entertainment is that none of this has to be final right now. Once you finish the whole project, in 7 more episodes, you'll be able to string it all together into one story, and one download. At that point, to show the original endings of one episode and the start of the next, it would be good to have a proper break. A commercial spot there would be good, as by the end of an entire episode, the world would be established enough so it doesn't break the world.
As it is, starting with too long music and then hitting a commercial is the single biggest reason I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.
The Bioshock influence is fine, but that has so much more than audio to help create the world. You have just the audio. By default we view science fiction as something in OUR universe, unless explicitly stated (or unmistakenably shown) it is an alternative timeline. With these commercials you are splitting our attention between three worlds. The one of the story, the one of the commercial, and by making me switch between both, the real world of now. Get my experience down to one world!
With commercials in place, so sorry, Luke. Your feedback was super appreciated though, and we really examined where we wanted to go with this. I spent some time talking with a friend and mentor of 20 years who really enjoyed the show with the included sidetracks, and he and a few others talked me into not cutting stuff out. If we alienate some listeners: oh well. I'll take my lumps. I think doing it this way sets us apart from the field, for good or for ill.
We did shorten the intro music considerably (the full theme plays at the end and can be skipped) and tightened up another thing or two.
Now I've got to figure out how to add album art to an RSS feed and the million other meta tags that iTunes wants your feed to have in order to work properly. It's already on FeedBurner, but, does anybody even use FeedBurner anymore? Beats me.
In case anybody is interested, our second episode's been out a week. We have around 250 listeners who heard ep 1 and followed through to ep 2, so... for being out less than a month and having done no advertising beyond posts on forums.... that's... that seems pretty good! :-)
Comments
Buying expensive markers doesn't make you any better at coloring...
And I'd say the reason for that is that there's a lot of Australian amateur voice actors, and very few local roles. Narrows it down even further for the people who can't do accents, because there's so few roles where anyone WANTS an Australian accent - and half the time when they do, they just get an American to fake it. But top marks for grabbing at least one Aussie, every little bit helps.
Don't worry about it, though. I'll keep my eye on the show, and if anything comes up again, we'll see how we go with that one. As hilarious as it would be, I think I might decline.
CHEERFUL ANIMATRONIC TEDDY BEAR: Hello Roget!
ROGET: (inhales sharply)
CHEERFUL ANIMATRONIC TEDDY BEAR: Welcome to Build-A-Bear Workshop! I see this is your first visit to our Faneuil Hall Marketplace location. Thanks for stopping by! Will Cadence be shopping with you today?
ROGET: (half to himself) Cadence… she’s missing. I’ve lost her.
CHEERFUL ANIMATRONIC TEDDY BEAR: (cheerfully) Oh my, well! I can help you with that! Please just wait a moment!
AMBIENT: muzak fades slightly up, then down
CHEERFUL ANIMATRONIC TEDDY BEAR: (apologetically, but cheerfully) I’m sorry, Roget. It doesn’t seem as though Cadence is online. If you’re experiencing an emergency, please contact your local authorities! Is there anything else I can help you with today?
And thanks!!!!
Just lacking end credits, and I'm told some levels are still off. I mixed through headphones, which I guess is a no no? Anyway I don't really have speakers to vet this through, but don't people usually listen to podcasts through headphones anyway..?
Do you want to hear a major deal-breaking complaint I have about it, one that will stop me from listening to another episode, and one that will stop me from recommending anyone listen to podcast?
Why the fucking fuck?
Do you realize that most people do everything they can to NOT see, watch, or listen to commercials? If you needed a commercial to help pay for the production of the podcast, it might be understandable. But this is a fake commercial. It's not even a funny commercial. It's not even clever, as I knew what the punchline was going to be from the opening clip. And that's even after I skipped to the end of it without listening to it all the way through.
Then I thought the commercial might have something to do with the action or story. But nope! It has nothing to do with it, and worse, it feels as though it's from a different science fiction world. Like it's from a dark dystopia, rather than a post apocalypse world.
As I was listening on Soundclound, I could see the wave form and skip past the commercial breaks precisely. If I had been listening on my iPod or iPhone this wouldn't have been an option, and I would have stopped listening during or after the second break.
Most importantly, it kills any drama. And tone. It kills the tone too. As soon as the voice pops up again, it's screaming at me "NONE OF THIS IS REAL, IDIOT!!!! IT'S JUST FUCKING FICTION!" in a way that makes it impossible for me to suspend disbelief. Why do you think it is a good idea to get in the way of immersing me in your world, when the main strength of this audiodrama is that it feels so immersive?
Don't reply to any of my comments, as I know I'm right. And I know why you put the commercial breaks in, so you don't need to explain it. But you're wrong. Respect your art.
Anyhow, sure, I understand your take. I think you're off about why the commercials are there. They're not really supposed to be THAT funny. They're more there to ape an old style of radio program.
Also an intentional break from the darkness of the podcast itself (which next episode, gets even darker, and the one after that, pretty fucking dark.)
I completely respect your opinion and understand it. I was expecting you to say something I would totally not understand or agree with, but yeah, OK, I get it. Fair point.
I appreciate your frankness. A LOT. Seriously. Frankness is hard to get. Not so much the "LALALA I CAN'T HEAR YOU" at the end, even though I'm sensitive to why you wouldn't want to have a discussion about why I'm right for, in your eyes, ruining the whole thing. :-)
People who want good (and/or dark) science fiction audio drama don't care about old style radio commercial breaks. By including them, you are only making people skip them, endure them, or stop listening. And this is at the expense of making a consistent product.
People who are fans of old style radio may or may not want dark science fiction.
You are making something that will only be good for a subset of a tiny minority (old time radio fans who may like a science fiction story). Why not instead make something suitable for everyone?
After I got there, I felt like I could have skipped the first 3 minutes of the current show. All that music? Great! Leading in to that commercial break? All tone and drama gone! Into the show proper? All that time and music wasted.
You are wrong about this subject. I am right about it. I already knew the reason you would state. I was right about it when you confirmed it, and I'm right about the artistic choices you mistakenly made.
A suggestion beyond removing the commercials entirely:
If you feel you need to break the tension with something light, do it with something in story context. And make sure that it pays off before the end of the first episode. Have a clip from a new show set in that world, before whatever happened happened, but that hint at things to come. Have a commercial, but have it from THAT world, not some other world filtered through 1950's nostalgia. Your story is about the internet and virtual worlds, so old time radio should have nothing to do with it.
Or do what the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy does, and have readings from an encyclopaedia, or history book, or some official guide to using some important modern technology. Make the comedic break into a useful info dump. Anything but old time radio commercial!
The world before this was pretty self-indulgent, lacking self awareness, and loaded with hubris, and might have presented commercials pretty similar to the one from this episode (ok, maybe slightly less goofy and laden with cheesy references), and I already had the idea of having the commercials be from the world before. The breaks that made it into the episode were influenced by that idea, but I admit I opted for more goofy than credible.
I've been promising my VAs a release as we're almost a month behind our original intended schedule, but I'm definitely considering this feedback. Even though you're the only one to say it, I agree with it to some degree.
EDIT - I think an example of what I'm trying to pull off is in the Bioshock series. That series is god damned dark and serious, man. I mean really. INCREDIBLY dark. And yeah, it's a game, but it's a drama, too.
The ads, both audio and visual, though, are old timey and ridiculous. RIDICULOUS.
Sure there's differences between the way Bioshock does it and what I'm doing. For one, Bioshock is set in an alternate time period where that form of advertisement is contemporary. For another, their ads are more obviously in-universe than mine. I'm still on the fence about whether it works in this episode, or could work.
I hope the VA who did like 8 takes of those commercials isn't going to be too sore, because he's also my lead. :P
I worry that the intro music is also about 3 times as long as it probably ought to be, but I can't decide where a good place to cut it is, and the guy who composed it specifically for the show spent like 2 weeks on it.
The good thing about digital entertainment is that none of this has to be final right now. Once you finish the whole project, in 7 more episodes, you'll be able to string it all together into one story, and one download. At that point, to show the original endings of one episode and the start of the next, it would be good to have a proper break. A commercial spot there would be good, as by the end of an entire episode, the world would be established enough so it doesn't break the world.
As it is, starting with too long music and then hitting a commercial is the single biggest reason I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.
The Bioshock influence is fine, but that has so much more than audio to help create the world. You have just the audio. By default we view science fiction as something in OUR universe, unless explicitly stated (or unmistakenably shown) it is an alternative timeline. With these commercials you are splitting our attention between three worlds. The one of the story, the one of the commercial, and by making me switch between both, the real world of now. Get my experience down to one world!
http://www.mindsofterminus.com/2014/01/31/terminus-episode-one-rose/
With commercials in place, so sorry, Luke. Your feedback was super appreciated though, and we really examined where we wanted to go with this. I spent some time talking with a friend and mentor of 20 years who really enjoyed the show with the included sidetracks, and he and a few others talked me into not cutting stuff out. If we alienate some listeners: oh well. I'll take my lumps. I think doing it this way sets us apart from the field, for good or for ill.
We did shorten the intro music considerably (the full theme plays at the end and can be skipped) and tightened up another thing or two.
Now I've got to figure out how to add album art to an RSS feed and the million other meta tags that iTunes wants your feed to have in order to work properly. It's already on FeedBurner, but, does anybody even use FeedBurner anymore? Beats me.
RSS feed: http://www.mindsofterminus.com/category/podcasts/feed/
http://www.mindsofterminus.com/2014/02/16/episode-two-seekers-now-available/