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Internet-Created Free Audio Dramas?
fraser_joat asks: "The other day I finally took the time to watch Starship Exeter, previously reported on Slashdot. Coincidentally, I also revisited the BBC's excellent radio adaptation of The Lord Of The Rings, following the hype caused by the recent movies.
The two of these got me thinking: while _Exeter_ was clearly a huge effort, it looks like they had a lot of fun making it. In many ways they are scratching the same sort of itch that generates free software. So what about audio drama? The technology needed to produce it is freely available, things like Ardour and Csound. So is it possible to produce an audio drama based on free texts such as those from Project Gutenberg in a distributed fashion, with contributers from all across the Net, just like with software? Would they even be useful as an introduction to classic fiction or just as pure entertainment?"
It would need to be a real community effort - I fancy that I could produce a passable script adaptation of a book and help with the audio production and sound effects, but I'm no actor, nor do I have equipment at home that even approaches what would be required. What about it?"
"While the technology exists to cut a play together, I see several possible problems:
- High-quality audio recording equipment is expensive, and homes are not ideal environments. Can source material of sufficiently good quality be generated without professional facilities?
- Since the actors could be widely separated, can they act in isolation in a sufficiently convincing manner that they can be cut together later, in the same way that film actors must pretend that the special effects exist during shooting?
- Are there good (royalty-)free sound effect libraries available?
It would need to be a real community effort - I fancy that I could produce a passable script adaptation of a book and help with the audio production and sound effects, but I'm no actor, nor do I have equipment at home that even approaches what would be required. What about it?"
Aren't cartoons done in a segmented fashion? You don't get all of the actors in one room. Each one records there segment and then everything is spliced later on. Actually, there is no reason that you couldn't do exactly like you suggest and find somebody who is willing to do some low end computer animation.
A few years ago, I ran into an audio series on the Internet, although it was originally on NPR Playhouse. Apparently it was one of there most popular series of all time. Its a wonderful, campy radio drama. I wish these guys would do more. Highly worth checking out.
o we en99/hayward_sanitarium/hayward.html
Check on Google, but ther RA files can be found here:
http://www.cincinnatisoftball.com/specials/hall
Perhaps a less ambitious and more realistic starting point would be to produce "books on tape" of some of the Project Gutenberg works. One person could produce a work with minimal effort and no sound effects.
I watched Exeter, and it was a good effort. In fact, I think its safe to say that it was a pretty darn good effort, and that from a prop and production sense, it was very similar to the original Star Trek.
But, SOMETHING was missing, and I don't know what it is. Maybe it was the director, perhaps it was the acting. I mean, could Bill, Leanord and DeForrest have made it better, with everything else the same?
Voice actors have the same issue. It's very difficult to be convincing over audio when all you have is some pages and are locked into a silent recording booth.
My favorite audio play is "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas". The production on this CD is absolutely amazing, from the actors, the sounds, the music, everything. Simply incredible. (it's funny as hell too)
So, while we may have the technical means to produce "cheap audio", there's still a human factor involved that is difficult to quantify.
More and more universities are offering their students high quality audio equipment for free use. One place I know of is Johns Hopkins, where a number of people I know have produced professional sounding recordings simply by taking a quick class in how to use the equipment offered by the university.
Possibly other places, like libraries might do the same for out of school people. The equipment's there, there just needs to be the time and the money.
I don't know about the legal issues with use, though, such as students using the equipment to bootleg concerts, etc. Other issues might include people renting the equipment to make "home videos".
Back in the eighties I had a lot of friends who produced public cable access TV shows. You can borrow the cameras and use the studios and editing facilities. Depends on the city, but in Portland Oregon all you had to pay for was tape. Most of the shows were on the level of two people sitting in the studio with a fake potted plant between them. But there were some scripted stories shot on location with local actors, or at least acting students. Very amateurish but occasionally interesting and sometimes actually good.
My point is that people who want to do these things are already doing them. There's nothing holding back anybody from producing audio drama and throwing it on Live365 etc.
The "good" news here is that copyright holders end up over-complicating things and hurting each other. On the commentary for The Emperor's New Groove* they mentioned that John Goodman had to sign something so they could use the scat that he made up in the one scene. Similarly, the reason Beavis and Butthead releases are without videos is that while MTV had broadcast rights, they don't have distribution rights to the videos, even though the majority are snippets. Whether they are unwilling to try for them, or they failed, I don't know. The irony here being B&B is where I usually learned about new music I ended up liking. Whoever chose the videos tended to be way more eclectic than the standard playlists of the day.
* - Yes, discussing a Disney movie in a copyright context will probably provoke numerous cries of "Foul!" However, I think that while the movie industry has a number of faults, other than the encryption issues many DVD's are good deals. Not much more than CDs, but hours more use. Especially considering many CDs have less then 15 minutes worth of good stuff on them. If we could just convince the MPAA that they should have a campaign to go after street corner vendors and leave home users alone. After all, those are where they actually lose sales.
R: That voice. Where have I heard that voice before? B: In about 365 other episodes. But I don't know who it is either.
Rather than complicated, multi-part dramas (though those would be nice, too), what I would like to find is a collection of audiobooks in the same style as Project Gutenberg. That is, a competent reader, clearly recorded, reading works with unambiguous copyright clearance.
;))
I've recorded myself reading a few snippets from books on Project Gutenberg, and will spare anyone else from every listening to the results, so I can rule myself out as "a competent reader" for such a project, but there are a lot of folks with better voices.
(Ditto language learning materials! I'd like to be able to practice German, or learn some Spanish, by popping a CD of compressed files into a car player as I drive place to place. Eventually, those compressed files would be Ogg, but for now, I'd settle for MP3
timothy
jrnl: http://tinyurl.com/c2l8yr / foes: http://tinyurl.com/ckjno5
For decades the radio was "the" medium for performance art. Spoken word was king and it ruled the airwaves.
~ ey/audio.html
w mp3.h tml
Imagine hearing Orson Welles doing the Third Man every week or The Goon Shows when they were brand spanking new. There were some hits (Johhny Dollar, Mercury Theater, The Goon Show, The Great Gildersleve, XMinusOne, Dimmension X, etc) and some real duds (the plethora of soaps, the cheesy hard boiled detectives, the paper thin comedys)
Its hard to imagine but at one time folks would rush home at night to be able hear these shows, for those who are nowcentric that would be like preTivo TV watching.
Over the last few years there have been several groups activley preserving these gems in digital formats. Its amazing how much has been passed on and can be gotten.
If you want to listen to some these gems there are a mass of sites that have the shows. Some good starting places are
http://www.wayback.net/
http://users2.ev1.net/
For the Goon Shows try
http://www.alphalink.com.au/~robertd/GoonSho
For all the Jean Shepherd broadcasts you can devours head on over to
http://shep-archives.com/
Poor little clams! Snap! Snap! Snap! Poor little clams! Snap! Snap! Snap! Poor little clams! Snap! Snap! Snap!
Plus, it must be mentioned that you should wear headphones while listening to this amazing show. It really is some of the best cyberpunk media I have ever encountered.
Down with hollywood! Up with kids who build star trek sets in their parents basements!
Although if the Exiter people keep on churning out good stuff, they could *accidently* produce a major hit, like the blair witch project...