Tonight Jack and David close off Halloween month with “Rites of Autumn” from John Ballentine and Campfire Radio Theater as well as a new podfict A New Winter. It’s AUDIODRAMA TIME!
Author: Jack (Page 93 of 179)
Born to Teachers and Amateur Audio Enthusiasts in the small rural community of Belwood, Jack's first love was stories- writing, reading, telling, and singing. He developed his acting skills through High School, University, and through film and community theatre.
Jack writes the lion's share of Sonic Cinema Production's (previously Electric Vicuna) Audio Drama scripts and has his own writing site at www.jackjward.com. Jack also is the middle of book writing, screenplay production, and is the CEO of the Mutual Audio Network- where he and the best people in the world Listen & Imagine, Together!.
He's thrilled to co-host the Sonic Society with his wonderful, talented, friend David Ault as they enter their second decade in the medium!
I’m going to have to call myself a Futurist. Thirty years ago I had the insight that in the future, there wouldn’t be anymore actors on television. We’d get to a point in our computer animation and voice work that we could take the very best actors from the past, and using 3d modeling create entirely new virtual movies with new plots. Imagine new comedies starring Marilyn Monroe or Jack Lemmon, or a new dystopic science fiction thriller starring Charlton Heston and Raquel Welch. I saw “live” or “studio” recordings to be relegated as part of the art school, and most actors who wanted to express their craft would have to go back to a kind of vaudeville act on stage.
In my original assessment the visuals would come first, maybe beginning with the actors voicing their own lines like they do in animation. But according to TwistedSifter Adobe Audition project VoCo has just leaped in front with text-to-voice capabilities. How capable this technology is yet, it hard to tell. But in the demonstration, the editor can type text and create brand new audio the speaker never said. Admittedly, these would be short pieces, but long will it be before those expand to full scripts?
So what does that mean? Imagine scanning the recordings of William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, Deforest Kelley, and James Doohan. Suddenly the classic stories of Trek go on long past the lives of the original actors. And who owns the voice that never recorded these recordings? One could argue someone’s image can’t be used without their permission, but how can you legally argue someone’s voice that is manufactured electronically can’t become the lead in brand new audio dramas? And don’t get me even started on the possibilities of slash fiction.
It appears we’re entering not just a new age of technology, but a new age that questions the very uniqueness of one of our most personal attributes. Our voices.
Brave New Worlds indeed!
Paul Sating’s Diary of the Madman joins us for some more horror and John Bell’s Bell’s in the Batfry episode #155 Halloween edition for some horrific fun rounds off this week’s show. Jack hosts with David and explains why he’s been a little spotty as hosting the past couple months.
His name is Bob Goyetche and back in 2008, my co-host and I ventured to Kingston, Ontario to the Podcasters Across Boarders conference. If memory serves I spoke at either that one or the next or both. I remember that I had convinced the crowd I was British. My accent was decent enough that someone told me later I sounded passably Canadian. Bob and Mark Blevis were our connection to a series of other podcasters back then. It was our first conference of podcasters in Canada. We didn’t end up going to all the PAB conferences, but we really had a good time when we went. It was with sadness that I learned that Bob passed away November 10th. Bob was a loving father, a loyal friend, and of course, a forerunner podcaster.
To all of Robert Goyetche’s family and friends, from all of us at the Sonic Society our best wishes through this difficult time.
Tonight David presents our feature show from 11th Hour Audio Productions and . The exciting new psycho-thriller “Heavenly Deception” kicks off AUDIO DRAMA TIME!
Long time listeners of the Sonic Society will know that I’m a fan of many writers, but specific writers have always driven me to be a better writer- Rod Serling, Robert E. Howard, J. Michael Straczynski, Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, David Milch, Chuck Dixon, Steven Moffat, Alan Dean Foster, Dash Hammett as just some that come to mind. I have to give props to The Truth podcast. Jonathan Mitchell keeps producing what I adore- anthology tales that are full audio dramas. In this article from The Sarah Awards he details the process of going through and taking a Phillip K. Dick public domain story “Upon the Dull Earth” and adapting it.
In a world of story, it’s wonderful to hear the masters speak again through new voices. There’s a reason why Ray Bradbury felt that Colonial Radio Theatre’s adaptations of his work were the BEST done in any medium. In short, Jerry Robbins has an excellent ear for audio on the page, and assembles an incredible team, but also, as Jonathan could attest, audio is the best place for story.
A stellar evening of post-Halloween audio drama as David introduces the remake of “Clay Pigeon Shooting” from Electric Vicuna Productions starring John Bell from Bells in the Batfry and Cayenne Chris Conroy from Teknikal Diffikulties, and two grand shorts from Richard Summers (AKA Captain Radio) with “The Weeping Tree” and “The Witch and the Air Traffic Controller”!
Oscar Isaac is starring in Homecoming, a new six-episode series that is described as a “psychological thriller that takes place at an experimental facility.” according to this Nerdist article. Isaac’s character is a soldier struggles with finding his place off the battlefield. Podficts are becoming common fair in the podcasting world, and while not technically radio dramas, they take on the trappings through fictional tales in a straight forward documentary or “reality TV” style.
One of our fan favourite shows has a new listener. Laurence Raw reviews One by One in his Radio Drama Review site.
Darker Musings Anthology, 30 October 2012This disturbing tale, with more than a distinct echo of Orson Welles’ War of the Worlds, concerned Dan Cummings (John Bell), the self-styled ‘Old-Tmey Man’ of a local Canadian radio station, who is about to retire after having spent a long career in broadcasting, and built up a loyal following.One Hallowe’en night be begins his nightly programme as usual by exchanging platitudes with a caller, even though it becomes slightly embarrassing when that caller refers to his wife. However the entertainment is abruptly interrupted by a newsflash: an accidental crash in the locality of Halifax, Nova Scotia has caused widespread panic. Cummings tries his best to make light of the news, and introduces an archive broadcast of a 1980s radio classic of horror, especially for the occasion.Despite his valiant attempts to create a nostalgic – and perhaps comforting ambience – painful reality keeps intruding. The broadcast keeps being interrupted by worse and worse news; eventually leading to panic and violent death.One by One is a consciously intertextual piece, designed to remind listeners that horror stories are not just for pleasure; they can intrude in our lives. We have to be vigilant and guard against complacency so as to protect ourselves. John Bell gave a chilling performance as the elderly host, whose smooth-as-molasses voice gradually became more and more panicky as he discovered the reality of what was happening around him. The director/ writer was Jack J. Ward.
The indomitable Richard Summers (aka Captain Radio) posted an awesome link in Facebook the other day.
Global Map of Accents is a huge project that has audio recordings of people from various parts of the world so that audio voice actors can get a feel for the accent of the region. This is a phenomenal tool for those of us trying to inhabit a place in their characters. Try it out!