Recording some stories AKA Let’s make a bloomin’ Radio Drama

[Bosch]

Hey everyone I’m pretty into a podcast called the Dunesteef Audio Fiction Magazine which is basically an audio fiction show. They record themselves performing stories they receive and make a podcast out of that. It’s pretty good and the level of quality they have is very high.

I was thinking we could do something similar and hopefully get our writing out there to wider audiences while also giving other members of the community into music or art a chance to display their work.

I know some of you have the dream of getting paid for your work and before we get too excited that’s not what this is. It’s just a few people messing around and having some fun. Although who knows it may catch someone’s eye and gets authors names out there.

We could find a podcast hosting site and do the podcast thing or make a youtube channel. I like the podcast idea because people could listen while on the go, However I like the Youtube idea because we have some awesome artists on the site.
I put together a demo featuring the first half of one of my stories called Old Fashioned Police Work. It’s really just me messing around and trying to understand how it would work but if you would like a proof of concept I can upload it.

Sadly my reading voice isn’t that awesome so we’d need actors etc but I feel we could make this happen, we’re a smart creative bunch right?

[VindicatedPurpose]

Reviving this, because it sounds pretty cool.

I feel we could make this multi-media, as in youtube and podcasts. And I would love to do some voice acting, it could get my name out there. :D

So you've got my interest.

[VindicatedPurpose]

http://www.digitaltrends.com/how-to/how ... a-podcast/ - I think this outlines what you might need to get this show on the road, er net.

[Bosch]

Thanks for the interest man, I wish I still had the time to make this happen, it's just not on the cards at the moment. I might be able to do a few one offs at some stage though.

[Bosch]

At the time I was imagining doing short stories in this way but the more I thought about it I decided doing an actual RP like this would be be awesome.

By that I mean adapting a completed RP into a script and recording it. With voice actors etc. RPs tend to be dialogue heavy which would work pretty well with the method. The trouble as RPs are so collaborative you would need everyone's ok to make it happen.

For a while I toyed with the Idea of running a first person RP for this exact purpose as a kind of experiment.

[VindicatedPurpose]

Have you thought about it for any of your RPs thus far?

And we could definitely take requests from people and make this a site-wide collaboration. Imagine it, Podcasts by RPG.

[Bosch]

I’m not sure any of my RPs would really work in this format. You know Haven it’s more long form and less dialogue heavy. If I had to chose one it would probably be Haven. White Group has too much back story and my other attempts did get completed.

Yeah a site wide collaboration would be awesome but gathering RPers is akin to herding cats. They all want to do their own thing and nobody really wants to coordinate. It’s a too many Indians not enough Chiefs type situation.

[VindicatedPurpose]

Well, granted you can't really have a radio drama with just dialogue alone. Back then they had narrators (with baritone and bass voices) who took care of the gaps in between dialogue. Or in this case, if we were to convert it into script form, the descriptive sections.

What I meant by site-wide was that we could take requests. Podcasts by RPG is something that is open to anyone who wishes to convert their story into a radio drama form. All we really need though is a production group, perhaps composed of users on the site, to get the ball rolling. Although, I think the crew will most likely be composed of staff members, and maybe dependable and active users.

And I think ours could very much be like Dunesteef, but perhaps exclusive to RPs, and written works of fiction from the Creative Realm at RPG.

In fact we could add in sections like Poetry, Comedy, and even Music in there too, as like breaks in between. RPG users can contribute to each of these if they want to.

[Bosch]

Yeah that's true I suppose an RP like Haven could work, do you have any RPs in mind or would you maybe be interested in writing a script together?

I see, I agree the writing board would be an awesome place to start. For as long as I've been here it's astounded me that some stories exist only here. This could be a way to get a larger audience for some of them.

That would be awesome to have a format similar to to Dunesteef. Story straight away then a discussion about the tale, followed by say a poetry section etc. you mentioned before that youtube might be a good idea. That way we could also get art work or if we were really good illustrated stories. Like have a bunch of artists do a single drawing for each scene of a long story?

[VindicatedPurpose]

At the moment, there are many RPs that I've seen that are really good. We would need consent on their part. And I'd enjoy writing a script, sure.

Yeah, we can put an announcement out for everyone. I think we've also had multiple writing contests here at RPG, so in subsequent contests, we can offer the winner's story like a prime spot on the show.

Again, we just take requests, whoever wants their work to reach a wider audience is free to do so.

Story, discussion, a non-story section, then the occasional soap commercial.

Youtube is definitely a good idea for the artists as well.

The first part though is to put the announcement out and see if any brave soul wishes to join the collective.

[.Kyrian]

I'd like to help, VidicatedPurpose and I are kewlbeans so he can vouch for me :D

[Bosch]

Hi Kyrian. We’re still kind of knocking around ideas so any input you can offer would be most appreciated.

I reckon we’re in a position to start getting more people involved. I agree with Vin that we need a “production team” of sorts.

The way the Dunesteef does it is the two hosts receive scripts which they then accept or decline and pass onto other teams to be produced. I don’t know if that’s going to be feasible for us and we might have to produce most of the early stuff ourselves.

Way I see it we need.

Producers- Editors, Musicians, Artists and Writers. (How cool would it be to have a jingle?)

Voice Actors.

The producers will be the important ones as I get the feeling a lot of people will be interested in voice acting. The main barrier to entry for Voice acting will probably be microphone quality. I use a headset mic and from experience I know it picks up a lot of noise. After that acting ability comes into play.
I reckon to begin with we should focus on shorter stories, around 5000 words or less. That way we can get episodes done quickly. If it works we can get moving on larger stories or maybe even a multi parter.

The best part about all this is Audacity is free to download so getting quality recording software shouldn’t be a problem. Most computers these days even come with a built in movie editor of sorts and because we’re audio focused the video doesn’t even have to be that fancy.

[VindicatedPurpose]

You want to run this by any of the admins and see what their opinions are on this?

We could make this an independent project, or one that's backed by the admins and site creator Remaeus and sort of integrated with the site itself.

[Bosch]

I think it might be best to try a couple of stories just as a proof of concept before we start getting too many people involved. I reckon we'd be in a better way if we had something to show rather than just telling them what what we're planning. I guess you could call it a pilot.

[VindicatedPurpose]

Agreed. We'd still need a decent group.

One idea I thought about in my sleep was if we started creating short stories that are related to a larger universe. These short stories will serve to build up this single world/universe. Instead of starting out with the universe itself, we build in reverse and gradually add to it with the short stories. I don't know if that would work though.

I got the idea from EVE Chronicles. EVE Online, if you've never heard of it, is an MMO RPG taking place within a science fiction universe. And the EVE Chronicles are little short stories (they've got a massive collection), that takes place within the EVE Online universe. Some of the stories fit into the greater scheme of things, but there are others that add to the little nuances of the world.