Category: Media (Page 12 of 45)

A Grand Actor- Chris Wiggins

February 25, 2017 / / 1 Comment

As a young lad just developing my love for Audio Drama, one of the fun CBC shows I listened to was Johnny Chase- Secret Agent of Space. It ran weekly for a time on Saturdays. Johnny fought all kinds of evils and even set a kind of Battlestar Galactica like fleet quest to look for a new Earth for humankind to settle on. But no hero is complete unto themselves and Johnny had Dante- his insufferably brilliant computer voiced by the incredible Chris Wiggins. Chris had the kind of singular voice most actors dream of. While voice acting was certainly a skill, it wasn’t his only. He also played the father in the Canadian series of Swiss Family Robinson in the seventies. Furthermore you might remember him in his later years in the Canadian X-files like series Friday the 13th.

Since Mr. Wiggins had settled in my old hometown of Fergus in his retirement, I tried through many channels and his personal email to arrange an interview for the Sonic Society to no avail. Apparently, his health has not been the best in the last ten years.

According to a recent post from Bloody Disgusting Mr. Wiggins passed yesterday at the age of 87. What a huge loss to Canada, and to drama. According to the article:

Of course, we’re barely scratching the surface of Chris Wiggins’ contributions to the entertainment industry by focusing on “Friday the 13th: The Series.” He has over 142 acting credits on his resume, appearing in countless television shows and TV movies dating back to 1956. Just a small handful of the shows Wiggins starred in and lent his voice to include “Mighty Thor,” “Spider-Man,” “Swiss Family Robinson,” “Star Wars: Droids,” “The Care Bears Family,” “The NeverEnding Story,” and even the animated series “Tales from the Cryptkeeper.”

Rest in Peace good sir, we barely knew you.

 

Power of the Podcast

February 22, 2017 / / 0 Comments

From copyblogger we get the incredible story of the growth of podcast.

If you asked us 13 years ago whether we believed this would happen, we would have told you absolutely. If you asked us seven years ago, we would have said “unfortunately not”. New Media takes a while to get going but when it does, it does!

The No Sleep Podcast Tour

February 8, 2017 / / 0 Comments

If you had an ear to the recent Sonic Society episode, our David was getting ready for his trip to North America and his new tour with the No Sleep Podcast team to head from city to city across the great United States to spread the power of live audio theatre. Along with the haunting music of Brandon Boone, go see David Cummings, Jessica McEvoy, Peter Lewis, Nicole Goodnight, and David Ault beginning the eighteenth of February all the way to the 12th of March from Houston to Seattle, Boston to Los Angeles and points between Time for No Sleep!

 

 

Jim French Productions Off The Air

February 3, 2017 / / 4 Comments

One of the great heartaches of growing older is seeing the end of things.

All things begin and all things must one day end, but it’s very bittersweet when its one of the great pillars of the Audio Drama community and that’s exactly what Jim French Productions is. For over two decades now, JFP has been making incredibly polished professional, stellar radio dramas and they are closing their doors at the end of March.

This February Newsletter has all the information:

Hello Jim French Productions fans.

In last month’s newsletter we told you that Jim had been hospitalized, had surgery and was on the mend. He is back home now, recovering and feeling better.

A few of you may know that Monday night we had our usual January live performance (a double length Sherlock and single length Harry Nile) at the Kirkland Performance Center. It was a sold out crowd and everyone had a good time, although a bittersweet time.

Monday night was our last live performance at Kirkland and it was also the scene for our announcement that, after almost 21 years producing Harry Nile, Sherlock Holmes, Kincaid and other series and single stories, Jim French Productions’ Imagination Theatre will be retiring from production and closing its doors at the end of March.

We’ll be broadcasting new shows up until the end of February and the website will stay open for sales until mid-March.

There are many “ends” that have to be tied up before we close so the office will remain open until the very last day, Friday, March 31, unless something changes.

If you wish to get our online catalog simply email us at jrfproductions@yahoo.com and put the word “catalog” in the subject line and we’ll email one off to you as soon as possible.

Thank you for your support through these 21 years.

The Crew at Jim French Productions, Inc. Imagination Theatre

Here at the Sonic Society and the entire larger radio drama community wish Jim and everyone at Jim French Productions a healthy and happy future. Thanks for so many wonderful memories and stories!

Snobbish Sonic

January 10, 2017 / / 4 Comments

Someone said to me recently that they felt that audio drama folks weren’t as snobby as podnovel folks.

That was a strange comment to make. Looking back, I do notice that Audio Drama has been seen as the ugly step-child of the podcast community somewhat. Through the years there’s even been some suggestions that audio dramatists could “graduate” to audio novelists if they were good writers. It made me wonder if there were similar ideas between stage playwrights and novelists. Or television writers and movie scriptwriter writers.

Is there a kind of hierarchy of writing and production?

When I think of it I have witnessed some strange behavior through the years. Now, I’m the first one to admit I’m a literary snob of some sort. I enjoy story beyond and above everything else. Good story, for me, is key to any writing in any genre.

I have heard some various forms of audio snobbery though from various quarters:

  • American audio drama is more valued than Canadian
  • British audio drama is more respected than American
  • New audio drama is accepted as better than Old Time Radio
  • Podficts is more edgy than audio drama
  • Heavy narration is worse than no narration
  • Lots of special effects (the “Every Blade of Grass” folks) is seen as modern compared to a limited soundscape
  • Horror and Comedy is more popular than drama
  • Podcast is better than radio, and streaming is better than podcasts
  • Social awareness trumps social commentary

These are the forms that come to mind for me. What snobbery do you see in the art form? Is it justified?

The Progression of Learning

January 5, 2017 / / 0 Comments

One of the benefits of being a teacher and introducing audio drama to my students, is to see how it engages them in ways that no other media does. Students in the 21st century are programmed to respond visually, but that often means not responding as critically or creatively.

Will Anderson from Central Michigan University uses his knowledge of creating radio drama to help audio drama kids with Autism. He’s not the only one. Craig Robotham from Weird World Studios has a long history of helping teachers with autistic students discover the world of radio drama.

Check out this CMU Public Radio News Article on the great things Professor Anderson is doing!

Casual Coral Saturdays

December 31, 2016 / / 1 Comment

Looking for some new audio to listen? One of the things Jeffrey Adams from Icebox Radio used to speak about was the casual way radio drama had an appointment with its listeners. With podcasting and other audio on demand, the days of must listening times have come to an end. Or have they? Sound Stages Radio and now Coral Island Adventures are some of the must listen radio for your ear. Get a chance to sneak in an episode of new Coral Island Adventures each Saturday at these locations.

Netflix of Spoken Word

December 28, 2016 / / 2 Comments

Whether you’re a fan of Moonlight Audio or Audioflix one thing is certain, audio plays and stories are on the rise. In this article from The Conversation, BBC has declared its intention to target the world as the new “netflix” of audio. The question is, who will eventually reign as king?

BBC Radio has declared its intention of targeting an international audience with a “Netflix of the spoken word” with the intention of finding ways to better exploit it’s vast archive of professionally produced audio.

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