The Studio

Most of this is well outside the capablities of amateur audio drama enthusiasts. He notes that European studios are purpose built for the production of audio drama with space and sound effect equipment built in while most American studios are designed for talk radio and are often little more than a box with a mirophone inside.
In terms of available sounds in the studio he lists such items as different outdoor scene sounds (dirt, gravel, and rock); surfaces to simulate kitchen,living room, bedroom, car, carriage, garage, office, etc.; wood, concrete, and metal stairs; footfall surfaces such as hardwood, squeaky wood, marble, concrete, tile, etc.; Shuttered and draped window to open and close; a variety of doors of various surfaces and wieghts; a 3 foot deep tub of water for creating water noises. In an ideal world there would be the capacity to use partitions and removable walls and flooring to approximate the sonic overtones of various interiors.
Mr Rasovsky points out the following as the typical gear required in a recording studio; microphone, patch bay (to minimise the amount of plugging and unplugging that occurs, console or mixing board, computer for storage, playback for pre-recorded musicand sound, sound processors (noise reduction systems, preamplifiers, outboard equalizer, compresor for automatically regulating volume, reverb unit, de-esser, etc). As a non-technical person with no sound engineering training or knowledge I find this list fairly intimidating.

The Process

The process of audio production is fairly stable and well understood and proceeds as follows…

1. Writing, preproduction – planning and preparation, final script editing, casting, production meetings, scheduling, preliminary paperwork, preparation of sound effects, renting or buying special equipment, scoring or sourcing music, readthroughs and rehearsals.
2. Capturing or Mastering – recording the performance (and in some cases rehearsing with the equipment).
3. Post-production – layering in of further sound,editing, and massaging the master-tracks into their final form, adding in context specific announcements, and preparing final paper work (in fact anything that occurs after mastering is included in post-production).

Personnel

We then look at the personnel required for the production of audio-drama.
We begin with the executive producer (or boss) who hires the team, finds the money, is responsible for general administration, marketing, and distribution. This is someone with administrative/managerial expertise who takes care of the admnistrative load.
The Production team includes the producer (who tracks time and money expenditure, supervises the staff, troubleshoots, takes responsibility for production design, and supervises post-production and packaging), the director (often the same person, responsible for the development of the script, casting, guiding actors through taping, selection of takes etc.), floor director (in the room with the actors providing silent instructions during performance and verbal instructions between takes), the writer (for re-writes and consultation about the script), casting director (who knows the local talent and their agents and can find the right actor for each role), musical director (often the composer, responsible for conducting, contracting musicians, and arranging the music required), music producer (responsible for recording the music), talent (actors, narrators, sound fx people, walla (extras), announcers etc.), Studio manager or chief engineer (the technical person responsible for the sound mixing, and sound engineering of the work from production through post-production), the Production Assistant (the indispensible right hand person assisting producer and director – to whom many jobs can be delegated), and finally the dramaturg (the individual or committee tasked with sorting through the reams of potential material available in order to identify good plays to produce).

Theatre Types

When dealing with audio theatre types, Mr Rasovsky has a preference, unsurprisingly, for dealing with the most professional people available. Community and recreational theatre is his least favourite, while little theatre (amateur theatre with a professional work ethic), and professional theatre are his preferences.
Looking over these explanations it is clear that serious production of audio drama is a singularly complex and difficult endeavour requiring a good deal of cooperation and professional competencies. As a fan of old time radio (produced live and broadcast directly into the ether) I wonder how much this is essential and what sacrifices one must make to streamline the requirements?

Don’t forget to check out our dinner party script products in the products section of our site. You can check out samples of each title and our full scripts are always available for purchase. Next time: more reflections on what I am learning from Mr Rasovsky’s book.

The post Learning from Yuri Rasovsky – Part 2 – An Overview of Audio Drama Production appeared first on Host Your Own Old Time Radio Drama.

Hi folks, This week I’m starting a new series looking at the advice provided by Yuri Rasovsky in his “The Well-Tempered Audio Dramatist”.  In his introduction he talks briefly about the freedom and constraint found in audio drama and the skill set he believes is necessary for its effective production and direction.

Mr Rasovsky begins by pointing out that thematically and in terms of plain content, Audio Drama has no limits.  It can be set on far planets, worlds that do not or could not possibly exist, and can involve events that the laws of physics would never permit to occur in the real world.  The wedding of the listener’s imagination to the delivery of audio drama  guarantees an immersiveness  that few other media can approach.

He also points out that as an art form it developed a grammar that, while practical, is admittedly cheesy… “For instance, few homes on radio were carpeted (you can’t hear anyone walking on a carpet). All women wore high heels (to distinguish female from male footfalls). Nobody’s clothes rustled. All enclosures were sound proof – once you shut the door, all outside noise evaporated. Most galloping horses had only three legs (too difficult to make the sound of four-legged horses with coconut shells). All cars needed new mufflers etc.”

His excellent book “The Well-Tempered Audio Dramatist” (originally issued online for free until his death) concerns itself primarily with the work of the producer and director of Audio drama, a different focus to that of our last featured author (Mr Erik Barnouwe).

To produce and/or direct audio drama, Mr Rasovsky suggests as a  requirement that it is essential to have “A FIRM FOUNDATION IN THE LIVE THEATRE”.

This naturally puts a writer like myself at a disadvantage… but since this man actually made a living in Audio Drama long after the medium was supposed to have died (in fact right up to his own death), I would be foolish not to pay attention.

He further suggests the following as very useful…

1. a thorough knowledge of dramatic literature, the  humanities and the history of radio drama;
2. a smattering of music theory;
3. work experience in television and film;
4. broad immersion in the world at large, particularly of cultures and modes of living that differ from or are diametrically opposed to the familiar;
5. a thick skin (which, unfortunately, I don’t have);
6. tenacity, and
7. a willingness to take risks (sometimes aptly called foolishness).

If I honestly assess myself against this list, it is probably 3 and 5 that are my weakest areas (particularly 5).

He concludes his introductory comments by talking about the importance of being fully prepared and organised if you wish to create audio drama.

So far, so interesting.

Don’t forget to check out our dinner party script products in the products section of our site, you can check out samples of each title and our full scripts are always available for purchase. Next  time: more reflections on what I am learning from Mr Rasovsky’s book.

The post Learning from Yuri Rasovsky – Part 1 appeared first on Host Your Own Old Time Radio Drama.