Lost Opportunity

Lost Opportunities


I was reading Jeff Adams's blog about Shadow Falls,
(radiojeff.blogspot.com), so I headed out to find the shows and give them a listen myself. When I arrived at
shadowfalls.podshow.com/ I was disappointed to find there was no sane way to just download the program and put it on my mp3 player. You see, I didn't have the time right then to listen, and the computer I was using is just old enough that it doesn't stream audio and do other things at the same time.

At the Podcast Academy II in Boston this year the point was very clearly made that for many podcast more downloads are manually initiated by users as opposed to being subscribed to. Doug Kaye, a principle presenter at the Academy went on to stress that in today's world "podcast" should be thought of as an audio program that is downloaded over the internet by any means, not just an RSS subscription program. If you want your content to be heard by the most number of listeners, then you must make it available not only as an rss feed but easily downloadable right now.

There are several reasons for this manual download demand. The first is that the concept of subscribing, while becoming easier each day, is still a mystery to many. Second, not every potential listener may be using modern, to cutting edge computers. (My own statistics for the www.audiotheater.com web page shows I still have at least one user running on Windows 3.1 ) A third reason is that some of us like to sample a program before we bother to subscribe to anything. This instant sample is important.

While we all would like to capture listeners and listener data for ever, the fact is we may loose more than we gain if we make it too difficult to sample our wares.
Alternatively, we may serve up a lot of downloads that never get listened to because the first show was a turn off but the subscriber doesn't get around to
unsubscribing for some time.

Make it easy to sample and make it easy to find the buttons.

[I was going to inquire of the website if I was missing something, but it appears I have to be logged in to even ask a question so I'll just pass this one by.]

Without the words

I just finished listening to two episodes of a series inspired by a well known film series. It borrowed the music from that film, much of the world and it’s characters. While listening I got the feeling that I was listening to the film soundtrack. This was good because the lack of dialog left me to fall back on the film for my images. The pace was slow. The sound design was good, I think,
because without the dialog cues I could only imagine what was supposed to be happening.

I mention all this to pose the question, why create an elaborate production with so much borrowed content that it could not be used anywhere except for personal entertainment. It also demonstrates one of the most common failures of today's productions. Unlike film that provides it’s own visual content, audiotheater depends on dialog to tell the story supported by sound effects and music. Without the dialog, there are sound effects that rarely tell the story.

Those that have been around me know my favorite bit, I put up with actors to have an outline to hang my sound design on. The sound environment is what I like best, but I will be the first to say, it won’t stand on it’s own for very long. Without the story it’s all just a bunch of noise.

Interactive Radio Drama

I’ve just been through a very concentrated period of listening to lots of radio drama. It ranged from very good to why did they bother to do this kind of stuff?
I came away with one very strong overall impression. Too many of these programs were interactive. What do I mean? I mean I had to keep interacting with the volume control to protect my ears and hear what was going on.

Now in the movie theatre or even in the control room I certainly enjoy a dramatic use of dynamics. It keeps the energy flowing. It stimulates the ear and the mind. But when I’m walking with head phones or driving or listening in other than an pristine acoustic environment, wide dynamic swings make it difficult if not painful to listen. Now some of this dynamic range was intentional, some of it was overlooked and some I am sure was from ignorance of how to produce.

When watching a movie, bits of dialog that are covered by sfx is usually ok.
The picture usually carries the scene and makes up for the missed words. In audio theatre though, missed dialog because the words are covered by a loud sfx can leave a hole in the flow. It is particularly annoying when the effect is appropriate but does not require being all over the scene. It may be that the effect was mono while the dialog was slightly panned. It might also be that the effect just happened to occupy the same part of the bandwidth that the dialog was in. What ever the reason, did anyone ever go back and really listen to the mix with a fresh ear toward the story?

Having to allow for a less than perfect listening environment can be frustrating when designing the sound of the program, but then where will most of the listeners be when they hear the show?

Hi Tech Class reverts to the past.

"CSUMB's TAT program is known for its advanced instruction of storytelling...but...Students were forced to create a piece that relied solely on the equipment that was used during the popular radio broadcasts during the early half of the 20th century."

An interesting article found at:
www.montereyherald.com/mld/montereyherald/living/14479276.htm

It's an intresting art form

Audio Theater - what some call Radio Drama. An art form that struggles to find it's place.

It's been called mind moves, XM Radio says the pictures are better in your head. It needs your imagination to fully be enjoyed. With Radio Drama having lost it's primary stage, the radio, the art form lives on in many different forms and formats. While occasionally heard on radio, you find this delightful mind stretcher on cassette and CDs. You will also find it on the internet for sale, for download and now as podcast. It won't die. It just keeps recreating itself.