HPR Script THEATER OF THE IMAGINATION -- PART 4 by lostnbronx ========== (MUSIC-HPR-INTRO, holds a bit, then crossfades with MUSIC-01-INTRO) (MUSIC-01-INTRO holds a bit, then out) Hello, this is lostnbronx. Welcome to Part 4 of "Theater of the Imagination", my rambling HPR series on dramatic audio media, past and present. It's also a narrative about my own exploration and creation of this rich artistic medium. Or, I should say, media, since there are many forms of this stuff, ranging from from full-blown audioplays, to widely popular podiobooks. You know, I never intended to turn this thing into a series, and, as such, I never thought in terms of any kind of structure for it. That's changing with this episode. Here are my proposed episode sections: * First, an Intro like this one, giving updates and news on the series, if there are any. * Next, a segment on the technical aspect of my own endeavors, wherein I'll go over the hardware, the software, and my evolving methodology. This will also include an on-going overview of resources available on the Interwebs and elsewhere. * Next, a segment covering a particular show from the great Old Time Radio days that I believe is worth a look-see, including my opinion OF it, and where, exactly you can find it on the Internet for your own dancing and dining pleasure. Now, keep in mind that this whole show is more-or-less for educational purposes, and, as such, some of the OTR mentions will be examples of what NOT to do. Remember, like any great era of anything, they produced far more crap during he OTR days than they did gold. We can learn from those shows too. * Next, a segment on a modern show or content producer of note. This will get the same treatment as the OTR stuff, though I'll focus more on the good stuff, unless there's a particular lesson to learn. * Finally, I'll do an Outro that will essentially be a personal opinion piece or rant; you know, a small place where I can bitch and moan, or shake the tambourine, or whatever. If I get any feedback worth sharing, I'll cover that there as well. And that's it. The new format. Actually the FIRST format, since the other episodes, while scripted, were streams of consciousness. I dunno, I guess that makes THEM the first format after all. Anyway, on with the show... (MUSIC-02-INTERLUDE) Okay, I want to go over what I used to make my first piece of dramatic fiction. My equipment list has changed a bit since then, but that'll be fodder for another episode. My initial foray into this world was a science-fiction drama called "Blue Heaven". Essentially, in format, it is/was a short story with music and sound effects added. This episode, I'm going to talk about the microphone I used. Now, for audiocasts in the past, I a used cheap little thrift-store microphone, with a 1/4 inch jack on it, which I plugged directly into my computer. If you go back and listen to older HPR episodes, you'll hear the difference. For dramatic audio, though, I knew that wouldn't be enough. As I said in the last episode of this series, audio quality DOES matter in the dramatic audio arena. Thusly, I used a CAD Brand -- that's C-A-D -- microphone, which is a cheap Asian knockoff of a doubtlessly-better one, the manufacturer and and model of which I'm utterly ignorant. This is an XLR microphone, meaning it uses one of those fat black cables with the three prongs on the end. It says on the box it's a condenser mic, meaning that, as I understand it, I could shout into the thing, and it would automatically reduce my voice volume down to an acceptable level for that shout only. Now, I'm not yet knowledgeable enough about this stuff to know if it only does this magical thing in conjunction with some sort of hardware compressor device hooked into the line somewhere, or if it's supposed to do it on its own; all I can tell you is that, at least as it stands, it most certainly DOESN'T do this on it's own. Maybe somebody listening can write in and tell me why that is, and if so, I'll relate it to all of you, my gentle listeners. Right now, all I can figure is that it's just a cheap copycat design, and I likely got what I paid for. What it DOES do well, though, is capture my voice. I'm using it right now for this thing. Not too bad, right? Better than most USB mics out there, or those little quarter-inch jack mics that plug directly into the computer -- which, as I said, is what I've used in the past. I paid about seventy bucks for this thing on eBay, direct from Hong Kong. Took forever to get here, but I think I saved fifty dollars or so over an equivalent one made in the West. Don't quote me on the price, though: it's been a while. Okay, this is a kind of microphone which requires something called "phantom power". In this case, 24 Volts. I didn't understand what that meant when I bought it. What that means is that this microphone requires a separate power supply, independent of the computer or sound card it's plugged into, in order to function. This voltage, though, comes to it through that same XLR cable that the sound is ALSO going through. I didn't know about phantom power, though, when I bought this thing, and so...it didn't work. No sound, whatsoever. And I knew that it was either broken out of the box, or I just didn't know what I was doing; and in matters that are unfamiliar, the latter has, historically, been the most likely scenario to be true. (MUSIC-03-KLAATU-GUEST fade up) Enter here, that pillar of Free and Open Source Software advocacy, that bastion of community support, that star of oggcast and festival...KLAATU! (SFX-01-AUDIENCE-CHEERING) (MUSIC and SFX hold a bit, then out) No, he's not actually a guest today. But he deserves an intro like that in ANY story, I think. He also has an extensive multimedia background, and a quick conversation with him revealed to me the depths of my ignorance, as well as my next logical step -- namely, picking up a phantom power supply. In my particular case, I bought a weenie little metal box with an even weenier power adapter that plugs into it. The power adapter then plugs into the wall socket, see? On top of the not-as-weenie box are two sockets for XLR cables -- in and out. They do make much BIGGER phantom power supplies -- some that can handle a whole bunch of XLR inputs and outputs at once, but, it's just me, here: just MY voice, with no other simultaneous music or voices or anything. I had no reason NOT to go the cheap route for this thing. I think I spent about thirty or thirty-five bucks with shipping for this phantom power supply of mine. Now, cheap as it is, this microphone came with a few cool things: a nearly incomprehensible instruction book written in Google Translate-quality English; a sweet little fake leather zipper bag for the mic; and one of those funky shockmounts, designed to absorb small bumps and vibrations and such. You've seen these things before, if only in the movies: a couple of metal rings, with wires and springs on them in a complicated fashion. If you had a really skinny wrist, and you put it on, you'd look like a super-villain with cool zappy powers! (SFX-02-ZAP) (SFX-03-SCREAMING-PEOPLE up) (Maniacal voice) Ha-ha-ha! The world is mine! Ha-ha-ha! (SFX-02-ZAP) (SFX-03-SCREAMING-PEOPLE out) Sorry, couldn't resist. Anyway, this thing is designed to screw on to a microphone stand. I don't HAVE a mic stand though, and I didn't want to spring for one, because I'm a cheapskate, so what I did was put a bunch of metal L-brackets and screws together, and built a very crude, but effective, clamp for the edge of my desk, which I can put on and take off easily for recording work. The mic then sits in the shockmount with this makeshift clamp thingie attached, and...there you have it. Now, sitting in front of the mic, I have a pop-filter. This is a screen, made of mesh or cloth, designed to stop a certain kind of sound that comes from everyone's mouth when they speak from hitting the microphone. In-keeping with my miserly nature, the one I have is home made, and I put it together from a pair of trimmed pantyhose and a small wooden needlepoint ring clamped around them. People also use coat hangers, and other things. Just do a search for "home-made pop-filter", and you'll get more info than you need. And speaking of need, you absolutely NEED a pop-filter. Let me give you an example: With the filter in place: Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. And without the filter: (Remove filter) Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. (Return filter) Same distance from the mic, same direction of my mouth, and same emphasis in both cases. I think the difference there is obvious. Now, there's a certain school of thought about these things, to the effect that, if you train yourself to speak across the mic in a certain fashion, you can avoid making all those poppy-sounding consonants into the microphone to begin with. Those sounds are called "plosives" in linguistic circles, by the way. Now, I think that's an IMPERFECT skill at best, and MOST applicable to those situations where a pop-filter is unavailable to you. Maybe if you can hang your microphone so that it comes down from above you, and you aren't breathing at it AT ALL when you speak those plosives, then you likely DON'T need one. Everyone else? Buy or make a pop-filter, and USE it. Next episode, I'll cover the external sound card I used on "Blue Heaven", and exactly why it was needed. (MUSIC-02-INTERLUDE up, holds a bit, then crossfades with MUSIC-04-JOHNNY-DOLLAR-INTRO) In January of 1949, an otherwise unexceptional detective show aired on CBS radio, a show which would go on to some rather distinguished heights in the 811 episodes that followed. All told, "Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar" ran for twelve years, survived no less than five different actors as leading man; survived changes in production and writing staff; changes in the physical location of the recording studios -- from New York to LA and back again; changes in the episodic format it used; and changes in recording and radio technology. What it COULDN'T survive, though, were the changes in the times. By the end of the show, in September of 1962, television was king, and Old Time Radio was a thing of memory. Ah, but WHAT a memory... "Johnny Dollar" has the distinction of being one of two regularly-broadcast American radio dramas that ushered OUT the OTR era -- the other being the anthology thriller show "Suspense" -- and both shows aired their final episodes upon the same night. During its run, "Johnny Dollar" made use of some of the finest talent in the industry at that time, who, collectively, had the accumulated benefit of decades of professional research and experience in this art form. Obviously, "Johnny Dollar" deserves far more time and attention than I'm devoting to it here. For many, myself included, the best "Johnny" was an actor by the name of Bob Bailey; and the best episodes of his run fell into a daily 15 minute format. Broadcast in this fashion, Monday through Friday, the artistic success of this format was lost on many listeners, since, trying to follow the ins and outs of a sometimes-complicated mystery plot, in such tiny bites, doubtlessly proved a little frustrating. I mean, speaking for myself, it would have been IMPOSSIBLE to follow like that. Listening to them NOW, however, with all the episodes for a particular plot line running back-to-back, these same 15 minute installments, making up a single 75 minute story, are some of the best Old Time Radio ever recorded. They are available now at the Internet Archive, and I'll have a link to that page in the shownotes. If you really get into it, there are enough freely-available episodes of this show to keep you entertained in the evenings for the next several months. And ANYONE looking to create dramatic audio of ANY kind, should consider it a requirement to check out "Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar". (MUSIC-05-JOHNNY-DOLLAR-OUTRO up, holds, then crossfades with MUSIC-06-HMS-LYDIA-INTRO) A more modern, and, quite honestly, more original show is "HMS Lydia", which was a dramatic audio production of a couple years back. Really, it was a series of dramatized stories like "Blue Heaven", as opposed to a full-cast show like "Johnny Dollar". "Lydia", distributed on the Internet via RSS like any other podcast, ran for twenty episodes, and portrayed the alien encounters of a British sloop during the Napoleonic Wars. Yes, aliens. From outer space. In the early 1800's. And it works very, very well. "HMS Lydia" has that elusive quality which seemed to come so naturally to the people and makers of the media of another era: namely, charm. Do NOT underestimate that quality. It is in short supply, and getting rarer all the time. In fact, go ahead and point to a MODERN example of charm. Okay, now point to another. It's harder, right? In a hundred years it will be all but impossible. And if what I'm referring to here is already a little mysterious to you, then I heartily recommend that you check out the link I'll have in the shownotes for the IMMENSELY charming sword-and-sail, science-fiction-on-the-high-seas, dramatized story series, "HMS Lydia". You'll find the site a real pain to navigate, but trust your ol' buddy, LnB, it's worth the effort. (MUSIC-07-HMS-LYDIA-OUTRO crossfades with MUSIC-02-INTERLUDE) Let me ask you a question: what's your favorite kind of story? What kind of movies do you like? What kind of television shows? What kind of books? Okay, that's four questions. Let's do THIS one: what are you into? Dramatic audio can be anything you want it to be. I mean...anything. A touching romance; a swashbuckling space opera; new renditions of classical drama -- Shakespeare and the like. Anything you can see in your head, can be recorded, and placed into someone else's. Not EXACTLY as you saw it -- no, no, this is better: other people see it how THEY want to see it. How they automatically and spontaneously CREATE it to look in their minds. In this fashion, dramatic audio media are far more like the various print media. I mean, you read a great book, and it just comes to life for you -- you see it in your head. Then, when you watch a movie or television show based on it, and you spend half the time comparing notes with yourself, about how this or that is the same or different as what you envisioned when you read the story. I mean, film and television drama are passive media. They are showing you what THEY want you to see, and you accept it. You HAVE to. That's the only way it works. Audio is different, though: they tell you what's HAPPENING, but then you see whatever you WANT to see. Good production values, good acting and writing -- these things have an influence -- but they don't dictate. You still see something cool in your head. Something YOU made up. In this sense, it is interactive fiction at it's finest: not because you can choose what happens, but because you can choose how it looks. To you. In your imagination. The scope of it. The textures, the colors, the beauty or ugliness of the people involved...even the smells! All through the element of sound. What story do YOU want to tell? Do you want to do something set in your favorite fictional world -- "Star Wars" or "Dr. Who" or something? That's fan fiction, and quite popular. You'll find a ready audience for stuff like that. Do you want to write and record your autobiography, and release it to the world? You can. You probably SHOULD. We ALL probably should: the autobiographies of non-celebrities are usually the most compelling and honest. Do you have a novel in mind, or better yet, on paper? If so, I think you ought to seriously consider recording it as a podiobook, or even adapting it to audio drama. You say you're a poor speaker? You have a weak voice? There are other people who aren't and who don't, and they'd be happy to record your work for you. Takes a little digging, perhaps, but they're out there. What I'm saying here is, consider your story. You have one. Everyone has one. And people want to hear it. They want something to listen to when they're driving, or jogging, or doing the dishes, or any one of a million other things, up to and including, sitting on the couch, staring into space, seeing a different world other than the one around them -- a world you drew, but that they colored in. This is the power of audio. (MUSIC-08-OUTRO up, holds a bit, then dips) You have been listening to "Theater Of The Imagination -- Part 4". You can find links to the things I spoke of in this episode, as well as the credits for the music and sound effects used, in the shownotes, which can be found at hackerpublicradio.org. I encourage you to leave any comments or corrections there, so that others can enjoy them too. You CAN also contact me, though, at lostnbronx@gmail.com, that's (SPELL IT). And you can check out my site at "info-underground.net/lnb". This has been lostnbronx. Thank you for listening. Take care. (MUSIC-08-OUTRO up, holds a bit, then crossfades with MUSIC-HPR-OUTRO) =========== http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yours_Truly,_Johnny_Dollar http://www.archive.org/details/OTRR_Certified_Yours_Truly_Johnny_Dollar http://imaginationlane.net/backroads/?cat=4 http://info-underground.net/lnb