Thanks for downloading and reading Series 2.
Series 2 of The Arc of Joan takes a non-fiction detour. I am "playing" a dry witted narrator for an audio tour guide into creating podcast fiction in this 10 part series. This series gives independent producers a step by step guide and a few important hacks to help develop and create their own audio drama series. Episode 1 is an introduction to Audio Drama's and your dry witted Narrator.
Below you will find the script to this podcast. There will be a test afterward. Jay Kay. This tour is a basic overview of the steps involved with creating an Audio Drama Series, whether it be a comedy or drama or horror show. Hopefully it will help give someone a general idea of what they are getting into before they start creating and producing.
This podcast was created on Audacity software, using the helpful resources from freesound.org and freemusicarchive.org and John Bartmann did the music from JohnBartmann.com
EPISODE 1: INTRODUCTION
Hey y’all! Welcome to: Joan and the savvy podcaster. Episode 1: An introduction.
My name is Saylor Billings and I created the Audio Sitcom, The Arc of Joan. But this next 10-part series is dedicated to creating and producing Audio Drama Podcasts without breaking the bank. The blog associated with this podcast is located at: https://thearcofjoan.blogspot.com/
I created and produced my first audio drama podcast, The O Line Mysteries, back in 2007. Now, when I think back to that time, I really wished I had someone to just talk me through what I was getting into which is why I decided to do this series. There are plenty of excellent tutorials, websites, and blogs that are dedicated to the technical how to and ins and outs of producing podcasts. But in this series I hope to kind of pull it all together specifically for people who want to expand out into the format of Audio Drama Series.
SOME BACKGROUND ON ME:
The O Line Mysteries is a buddy mystery slash comedy, set on an island in the San Francisco Bay, the 2 buddies hung around their island town and solved neighborhood mysteries. It was a little Scooby Doo vibe and a little Murder, She Wrote. We did 50; half hour episodes in 2 years and it was such hard work that it almost broke me. I really had no idea the amount of work that was in store for me but the podcast format was in its infancy and I saw it as a really cool opportunity to learn a new story telling format. And it was mainly well received with a mention in The Guardian from the UK (and to be honest any mention coming from the home of audio drama sent me over the moon with joy) but then “Nancy” from Poughkeepsie left a review saying it was worse than a high school play. Which is very unfair to high school drama departments every-where. But we’ll talk a little about poor ol’ suffering Nancy a little later. I’m going to do a whole episode here about the 2007 series and the lengths I went through to get it out in the ether, which should just be a whole comedy routine in itself. The second audio drama is a comedy podcast “The Arc of Joan” -about a small-town pastor who rises to the fiscal and spiritual needs of her town but really wants to be the next Tammy Faye Baker and break the internet. We did 10 episodes recording remotely during the Covid lockdown in 2020. And the 3rd podcast which is in production now is a 10 -episode comedic rundown on Feminist heroes. I haven’t yet named it, but I might name it Her-man-ists.
I almost didn’t do this “how to” series, but I’ll be honest with you, somewhere in this world there is a 14-year-old, or an 80-year-old, with a really good story idea. And they’re thinking that they can’t put their story out in the world because they don’t know how or it’s overwhelming to even think of how to start so they quit. And that kinda breaks my heart a little. You know that thing where people say “Looking back, what advice would you give your younger self?” Well this is going to be the thing I wish I had read in 2007. Because of the Coronavirus pandemic the fictional podcasting has exploded. Which is great for the medium but the thing I love about listening to the Audio Drama’s since 2007 is the independent voices you got to hear and now I’m hearing a lot of how to be an expert podcaster to get your story out there, and you don’t really have to be an expert. So hopefully this will help independent actors, writers, or whoever just kind of color in the “how to” websites and blogs.
What I mean by that is there are so many blogs and website’s dedicated to writing, or editing suites, or how to – whatever, use a microphone or which editing suite to buy. But no one talks about the middle parts, the rabbit holes you can go down, the bumps you have to maneuver over when planning a series, or how much is this going to cost? Trust me, it adds up. But if you break it down to small bits and forgive yourself the mistakes so you can keep moving forward you can finally get to the finish line and have a product you can be proud of and share your story. And that idea, even the idea of only one person being given the benefit of knowledge and another persons prior experience so that they can keep moving forward to a finished product and put it out in the world, well that makes me very happy. But make no mistake, I don’t claim to be an audio or podcast-expert and I make no claims to this being the be all and end all of how to do audio fiction. Also, this is not a “How to become a professional podcaster, get “discovered” and make millions without leaving your couch blog or podcast.” But hopefully this will benefit someone tell a good story get their podcast over the finish line. It might actually be a good idea to use this blog/podcast alongside one of the more traditional how to blogs because I’m less about what I learned in school and more about what I learned from my real-world experiences.
With the first audio drama podcast, “O Line”, we did without digital anything. It was so early in the digital world we had to use Shure 57’s analogue microphones and digitized the output. Facebook had just started out and there weren’t really many Fiction Podcasts. There were some new science fiction podcasts, some podcasts of people reading books, and there was a lot of old-time radio shows that had been put into podcast episodes. Actually, now that I think back on it the big thing back then was to find novels that were out of copyright and read them aloud and boom you had a podcast. Our second podcast “Arc of Joan” the one where we did it entirely remotely during the Covid lockdown, we met only once on a zoom call for a read through of the first episode. Then after that it was me talking with people individually, making acting notes in the scripts and a lot of file downloading. So obviously I am writing this from the creating a series experience. I’m not trying to sell a brand of microphone or a specific editing suite that’s all personal and a financial choice. I can’t teach you how to write a script or edit it all together, because that’s all from experience. But I can tell you what I use, what process has worked for me, and how to juggle between writing and editing and publishing in one day and keeping it all together without losing your mind. I think fiction podcasting is a brilliant medium for acting, directing, editing, and writing experience but it’s hard work. I think the frustration and the sheer the enormity of the task in front of you can keep creative people from reaching the finishing line. So hopefully these episodes can be that small beacon of light in the distance for people in the middle of a 3 am editing session as they stitch in the voice audio into the sound scape or someone with a great idea but that doesn’t even know where to start. I’ve created a blog based on this podcast as well so when I refer to formatting the scripts or visuals you can have a reference of how it should look.
Episode 2 is going to be about where and how to start. And the answer is not at the beginning. Also, after you’ve read or listened to this whole thing do yourself a very big favor. Once you’ve got all your equipment and scripts together and you think you’re ready to start, don’t. Do this instead: take a couple of pages (like about 3 minutes worth) of your script and record yourself playing the parts. Then load it into your audio editor software and edit it together. Do the whole thing, soundscape, vocal edits, master it, put it into mp3 form and listen back to the finished product. Every minute you put into this little exercise is going to save you hours and hours of work time and frustration.
PERFECT OR FINISHED?
We have been trained to expect shows and podcasts etc. to be technically proficient, produced within an inch of its life and that’s maybe what “professional” means. I agree with technically proficient part but I disagree with this whole concept of what is professional. Recently I listened to a fictional podcast that, honestly, sounds like they recorded it in a garage with no sound baffels. I can hear the dog shuffling by and I don’t care because it’s a great story. It’s funny and the people acting are really into it. I really hope that it somehow gets picked up by a network or industry insider and developed more. But I’m one of those people who just cannot watch another police or political procedural or hospital romance, I’m always looking for something different. So that’s where I’m coming from, your show has to be listenable but you and I don’t have a network industry backing to make a “professional” podcast. And there are so, so, so many companies who want to sell you a 300 dollar “professional” microphone that the “professionals” use for their “professional” show. Don’t fall for this marketing ploy. Don’t be the person who doesn’t get started because they say “I can’t get started because I don’t have this item or that item that is “professional”. Just don’t get hooked into that world of buying expensive products in that marketing “Be a Pro” world.
Also, the way the internet and social media algorithms are set up are enough to send someone over the edge of sanity. The more episodes you publish, the more “eyes” you get. That’s madness. Don’t give in to it. You will get burnout so pace yourself. The show you are creating will be a building block into someone else’s podcast host or distributor platform, which is fine, but it won’t benefit you or your show. I will get more into that in Episode 9. Do your show, do the amount of episodes that make sense for you and take a break, pat yourself on the back. Calling people a Hobbiest VS. professional is a sales tool and a marketing way of denigrating and delineating people.
NANCY FROM POUGHKEEPSIE
People are awful. Not all people, but enough of them are. It was only about 150 years ago or so in this country when people used to pack up a lunch and go watch someone get hanged. It is no wonder that when people get a new anonymous way to be awful, discouraging, and worse that they’re all over it. In other words, don’t set yourself up for disappointment. If you have to, turn off your comments. There’s this thing where some people like to cause controversy to get eyes and clicks, as just another way to get attention, it’s pathetic. Don’t play the algorithms game, or the comments game. Play your game. Be reasonable, put it on your social media’s if you have them, tell your cast and friends, get listed in the congregators, all that but don’t buy into the other game; the marketing ploy of building some other company’s platform or paying to get “top billing” on a platform. Those are such time wasters. The “more episodes you do the more eyes you get and the more clicks and in 2 years you could earn $50” and people fall for it every day, it’s so disheartening. So many of the how to forum websites will tell you to engage with others and to get listed on their forum with like-minded people. And you know what, you might find someone who you actually have something in common with and can share tips and ideas. Sure, that could happen.
And lastly there is always going to be a “Nancy from Poughkeepsie or Detroit or wherever” who has a negative opinion or hates you and your story and want’s to add their voice and just know these comments and opinion’s always say so much more about themselves than you or your show. There’s a lot of lonely and/or angry people in the world who need to be heard. Don’t engage, just give them the internet version of smiling and nodding your head as you back away slowly.
HOW TO USE THIS PODCAST
So moving on, each of the future episodes is going to be a bit of a deep dive into a specific topic relating to making a fictional podcast. I’ll break each subject like writing, casting, editing; down into Pre-production planning, Production, and Publishing. Logistics for each step, tips, and tricks. And without overwhelming you with information, I’ll try to pack each episode with what has worked for me, what hasn’t, what I’ve read works but also know is complete bunk, ways to make it easy on yourself and others, how to execute and tackle each step of a podcast production. That’s it for now. Next weeks episode will look into the background research and preproduction planning for a series podcast. And if you haven’t been told yet, I hope you have a great rest of your day!
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