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loloteheLa la la. Episode three. It's getting easier, but now that it's in the right format, I can really concentrate on getting the dramatic structure to work. It looks like each episode is about 30 minutes.
The toughest thing about this is converting a very visual story into an audio script. It's going to get harder, I know, because there's going to be a huge number of voices that sound similar. In the book, it's okay because there's a name attached to dialog, but that doesn't work easily when you're just hearing it. Even in a comic, it would be difficult because so many of the characters later on look similar.
Another difficult aspect of this is conveying the action correctly without getting too dependent on the narrator. In listening to some "Blake's Seven" audio plays (in which everyone is Welsh, I swear), there's no narrator at all. I also went back to listen to "The Hitchhicker's Guide to the Galaxy" and I don't think the voice of the book really counts. It's a good device to introduce something weird, but the descriptions are generally handled by character dialog. This leads me to believe that the use of a narrator is amateurish at best.
Now, can I change this by using a similar device like a diary? Maybe, but it feels very forced. It's unnatural for someone to think about what they're seeing by describing it, unless they're trying to figure out what it looks like. I'd like to avoid the, "My god! That ship is so huge! And look at the star-shaped rotating sections. There must be at least eleven of them!" It feels forced.
To be honest, I like the narrator as the passive observer. It also bridges the gap between audio play and audio book. I never intended it as an audio play when I first wrote it and it's showing (sadly). I think I'm doing okay on restricting the narrator to the start and end of a scene, but there are times when I need him in the middle of something. All the things being presented are so alien, I can't just get away with a sound. This isn't a 30s crime drama.
It's looking like three scripts for each section of the book. That means fifteen total, but maybe sixteen considering how some of the other sections play out. I'm also seeing the book had a very episodic nature to start, but that might have been how I was writing it. It's so juvenile, really. I think I'm breaking the scripts in the right places (the first one, I KNOW it was the right place) but it's going to get harder. I'm doing an almost direct transcription from the book and it's going to take more than that to make this work.
So! I need three Australians for Captain Wainwright and his two kids. Stella is Greek, but I might be able to fub that if need be. I have my Becca but I'm still looking for an Evie. Evie's going to be the twins, I think, so she gets to work two other voices. The translators and control systems I have covered. Max, Franz, and Gordon will be their own issue. Max is young, Franz is old, so maybe I can get the same actor for both. Cerberus is one voice, just read three different ways (see what I mean about this getting tricky?), so I need a kid or kid voice there. I've got a couple redhead lines in the last script and a blonde line.
If it was easy, everyone would do it.
The toughest thing about this is converting a very visual story into an audio script. It's going to get harder, I know, because there's going to be a huge number of voices that sound similar. In the book, it's okay because there's a name attached to dialog, but that doesn't work easily when you're just hearing it. Even in a comic, it would be difficult because so many of the characters later on look similar.
Another difficult aspect of this is conveying the action correctly without getting too dependent on the narrator. In listening to some "Blake's Seven" audio plays (in which everyone is Welsh, I swear), there's no narrator at all. I also went back to listen to "The Hitchhicker's Guide to the Galaxy" and I don't think the voice of the book really counts. It's a good device to introduce something weird, but the descriptions are generally handled by character dialog. This leads me to believe that the use of a narrator is amateurish at best.
Now, can I change this by using a similar device like a diary? Maybe, but it feels very forced. It's unnatural for someone to think about what they're seeing by describing it, unless they're trying to figure out what it looks like. I'd like to avoid the, "My god! That ship is so huge! And look at the star-shaped rotating sections. There must be at least eleven of them!" It feels forced.
To be honest, I like the narrator as the passive observer. It also bridges the gap between audio play and audio book. I never intended it as an audio play when I first wrote it and it's showing (sadly). I think I'm doing okay on restricting the narrator to the start and end of a scene, but there are times when I need him in the middle of something. All the things being presented are so alien, I can't just get away with a sound. This isn't a 30s crime drama.
It's looking like three scripts for each section of the book. That means fifteen total, but maybe sixteen considering how some of the other sections play out. I'm also seeing the book had a very episodic nature to start, but that might have been how I was writing it. It's so juvenile, really. I think I'm breaking the scripts in the right places (the first one, I KNOW it was the right place) but it's going to get harder. I'm doing an almost direct transcription from the book and it's going to take more than that to make this work.
So! I need three Australians for Captain Wainwright and his two kids. Stella is Greek, but I might be able to fub that if need be. I have my Becca but I'm still looking for an Evie. Evie's going to be the twins, I think, so she gets to work two other voices. The translators and control systems I have covered. Max, Franz, and Gordon will be their own issue. Max is young, Franz is old, so maybe I can get the same actor for both. Cerberus is one voice, just read three different ways (see what I mean about this getting tricky?), so I need a kid or kid voice there. I've got a couple redhead lines in the last script and a blonde line.
If it was easy, everyone would do it.
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no subject
Date: 2010-02-16 02:29 pm (UTC)You should check out how the BBC did the Third Man radio dramas:
http://www.archive.org/details/TheLivesOfHarryLime
no subject
Date: 2010-02-17 06:10 am (UTC)A narrator! http://www.archive.org/details/FantasticFour-10Episodes