Episode 6 Joan and the Savvy Podcaster: Technical

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 6 gives an overview of the Technical needs of a show.

Below you will find the transcript 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. It is not an opus or the be all and end all of how to create an Audio Drama. But, 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 6:  TECHNICAL
Hey y'all, welcome back to: Joan and the savvy podcaster. Episode 6: The technical. 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/
In this episode I’m going to talk about the technical aspects of creating the Podcast including the hardware, software and the sound effects elements.

All artists have their tools and their space where they create the work, and they also have their methods or their own individual process. So be flexible when your putting together your studio. I come from a theater background, so I’m very used to having technical rehearsals. Which is where the cast walks through the show line for line to build the sound and light cues.  So consider this part kind of like your audio department pre-technical rehearsal. Everyone has their scripts and their marching orders on how they’re going to record their scenes. Before you sit down for the arduous task of editing/creating this show make sure you’ve got everything you’re going to need and you’ve got your mind right for it.
In episode 2, I was talking about the background research you need to do for preproduction planning. In episode 4 I listed the BBC writer’s room website to help you format the script. But here in episode 6 I want to get more into listing the technical aspects of the tools you will need to put together our example 12-part series, “Betty’s day out” that is recorded remotely. I can’t very well put in links to the podcast but in the blog, I’ve put in links for some of the various hardware and software I use. Some of those links are affiliate links, and only one place out of the many places you can purchase the specific tools. I haven’t linked random microphone sites and reviews for kickbacks, just the items I use or have used and worked for me in the remote recording production. 

My workstation includes my computer, printer, an external hard-drive, several thumb drives, and a couple SD cards. Some people may use a “cloud” for backing up their work. There’s a saying I’ll add here, ‘if it’s not saved in 3 separate places, it’s not saved.’
Once upon a time I would have put in the hardware list to have a sound mixer but unless you are using a live recording format for your Audio Drama, I don’t know why you’d have one. I add it here only so you know they exist. And if we were doing a live show they would be, obviously, a must have.
I use over the ear headphones, because I get the best sound editing values out of them instead of the in-ear headphones.
Also, I have a Zoom H-2 Handy Recorder. It is both a field recorder and my sometimes microphone. A Shure 58 with a signal adaptor (I already had the 58 but I just bought a signal adaptor for it) and an Audio-Technica mic. The Zoom Handy tool is invaluable to me because I do a lot of my own Foley work. Room tones, doors opening and closing, footsteps, cars passing by/ outdoor/ inside a moving car ambiance sounds, washing dishes, putting dishes away, dropping things, shuffling paper, phone sounds, keyboard typing sounds, all that and more. I don’t have to because as I’ll go over later there are sound effects downloads you can use as well, I just really like doing it. I wanted to capture the sound of a car door shutting on a 1972 rust bucket of a car so I asked a neighbor who has a rust bucket if I could record a few of the opening and closing doors. I record the sound effects on SD memory cards in the Zoom, download the effect into my editing suite and clean it up then upload it on my sound effects thumb-drive, and the external memory drive in a sound effects file. 3 places, safe and sound. You can also use the Zoom as a microphone for yourself when and if you record your own Show intro’s and out-tro’s and credits. I think doing some of my own SFX foley work helps get me in the right mindset for building a show. I also have a mic stand that holds my pop filter as well. And that’s it for the hardware. Before you get into the production phase just make sure everything works together as it should, like if you have to but an analogue to digital converter make sure the bit and sample rate match the audio software bit and sample rate.
In order to send the audio files back and forth with the actors you might need a file sharing app. Google drive, dropbox, one drive, icloud; there are plenty of free zip and file sharing apps. Coordinate with your cast members on which file sharing apps they use and accommodate their knowledge base. If the actor/s have a wide range of technical ability on this then by all means ask them to use whatever app you use. You could also just set up a gmail account and drive that your actors have access to as well. So they can load up there sides, and then you can download them on your end. Just be aware of the megabyte limits to any app software. It might be easier to have the actors compress their sides into an mp3 and when you upload it into your editing software convert it into a WAV.
Just a quick tip for the Actors when recording I will probably mention again in the editing episode:
When they record themselves ask them to identify themselves and their character and what scene and which pages they are recording. And in the first take ask them to give you about 5 seconds of silent recording. You’re doing that so you can record their room tone which will come in handy later when you are editing.

Editing Suites, Digital Audio Workstation (DAW), Audio Editing Software, whatever you want to call it, they all should basically do the same thing. Recently I’ve seen some podcasting hosts offer editing services. Which would be great if you were recording yourself reading or talking with another person and you could splice it up and add some intro music, but the editing capabilities you need to make an Audio Drama are greater than that. There’s high end to low end and easy to use to difficult to use and everything in between now for Audio Editing Software. Guess which one I use? Audacity is a free open source software. Audacity does have some glitches. However, they are quick to help out and because it’s open sourced there are 100’s maybe by now 1000’s of users who have tips and tricks. Have you heard that Audacity crashes? It has on me, but because I back up and stay organized it’s not a problem. But I have used Adobe before and it crashed as well, that’s where I learned to stay organized and backing up my work. I’ve only used Avid many years ago to edit film so I can’t speak to it’s sound software. Audacity also has 3 different help/learning tools; The quick help guide, the online manual, and the forum. There are also countless You Tube tutorial videos to help level out that steep learning curve associated with any audio engineering program.

All podcasts hosts ask for CoverArt when you upload your website. These are invariably in jpg or png format. Dimension and Specs have to be on point so before you design and/or pay for software to design the CoverArt, click on over to the 3 main podcast distributors: Apple, Google, and Spotify and look at the requirements. 1400x1400 under 500k or whatever and make sure your design is going to look good in the size requirements.

Other elements of the Audio Drama include the sound effects, music, and ambiance or tones. There are plenty of places to find free sound effects. The sound effects bible and freesound.org, among many more. Just type into a browser for free sound effects. Or if you’ve got a field recorder like a Zoom Handy you can make some quality effects on your own. It can also help break up the tedium of searching for just the right effect. For several scenes in Arc of Joan I did the outdoor atmospherics and the footfalls through grass among other things with the field recorder. You have to be careful with downloading free sound effects there are a lot of corrupted ones or they could be carrying a software virus, so do be careful when downloading free stuff.

MUSIC:
But music for your scene changes or intro or background is a whole other beast. You must not use copyrighted music in your podcast unless you pay for it. If you don’t know whether it is copyrighted, or not, then don’t use it. There are plenty of places to find free music. So there’s no sense in pinching off someone’s hard work for free. One resource that I think gets overlooked is the library of congress. Go to LOC.gov and click on audio recordings in their drop-down menu. 

This is from their webpage:
“This page features items from the Library's digital collections that are free to use and reuse. The Library believes that this content is either in the public domain, has no known copyright, or has been cleared by the copyright owner for public use. Each set of content is based on a theme and is first featured on the Library’s home page”
But again, credit your source.

Also you can go to Creative Commons.org. Like Audacity, Creative Commons is a sharing platform and I full on support their mission. Go to their website and click on the What We Do and then on the About CC licenses and then follow the license permissions.

The main thing is that you credit the place or people where you’ve gotten your free download. Credit them in your closing or opening credit’s, credit them in your meta-data, or show notes, on your website, on your blog, where-ever it’s appropriate. They gave you their work for free, give them credit.
I imagine if you’re a super organized person, which I am not, you could create a spread-sheet that lists files of the sound effect and/or music, the source credit, where you keep it, and other organizy-file-y information. And keep it with your editing script. That way you’d have a super-fast way to not lose any information or be like me with a wall filled with yellow sticky notes and enter into the cyclical world of losing stuff and finding stuff and losing it again and finding it stuck to the bottom of your shoe. Yeah, I’ve done that.
That’s the technical hardware and software and effects you’ll need for the show. I will go over the podcasting host websites in episode 9.

Before you get into the editing I hope you will heed these words: Every hour you edit, get up and stretch your legs. Walk around, go get something to drink, roll your head around, shrug your shoulders, focus your eye’s on a point in the distance. Personally, I find the act of sitting and focusing on these little wav lines to be physically exhausting so every time I get up from my work editing station, I stretch it out or something. Your body thanks you.

That’s it for now. Next weeks episode will go through the first part of editing the podcast together.
And if you haven’t been told yet, I hope you have a great rest of your day!
 

Episode 5 Joan and the Savvy Podcaster: Casting

 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 5 covers the casting and people wrangling for an Audio Drama.

Below you will find the transcript 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. It is not an opus or the be all and end all of how to create an Audio Drama. But, 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

 

Hey y'all, welcome back to: Joan and the savvy podcaster. Episode 5: Casting and People Wrangling. 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/

Depending on how you intend to record the podcast plays a huge role in your casting. Do you intend on going old school and recording in a theatre or a studio with all the actors standing around playing their parts? Cool. I actually would love to that like with a studio audience someday. I think recording that way is more along the lines of casting a live action play, but that’s not what I’m covering here.
At the time of writing this in the midst of yet another Covid wave raging through the world a lot of us might be remotely recording for a while. Which is cool too because you can actually get people from around the world together and record over a computer meeting, the most known one I think is probably Zoom. But look around and see what meets your needs and works best with your budget. Doing it over a Zoom type call can preserve some of the extra Je ne sais quoi you get when actors react to one another in person. The other way and probably the easiest as far as scheduling is just to have actors recording remotely from their closet. Excuse me, I mean home studio. But I would do at least one read through together either live or on a zoom type call. This can also help with answer any questions the actors have on the outset of the production.

I could start off my giving you the same ideas about casting your podcast that are in all the other websites about how to podcast; like asking the local amateur theatrical groups, family, friends, etc. which of course are all great ideas. Every time I start a new podcast everyone scatters like I’ve asked them to do the dishes after dinner or something. Or… Here’s a thought. If you are someone who wants to break into voice acting, you might want to introduce yourself to some audio fiction podcasters. Do you have the 3 R’s that podcasters look for? Reliable, reasonable, and remote. (as in you can record remotely?) It really doesn’t always matter that you can do a Glasgow, American Southeastern, and a Boston accent. Find some audio fiction podcasts you like and listen to regularly and open a dialogue with the producer. Don’t send an mp3 file without introducing yourself first though. Just send an email saying you like their other podcast and can you send them a mp3 file so they can hear your voice. But then put together an audio mp3 file: “Hi Saylor. My name is Beth and I’m a fan of your show Betty’s Day Out. I live in Ottawa, and I have this type of recording equipment, which I am recording on now so I can record remotely. I work an office 9-5 job but have plenty of time in the evenings and weekends to record. If you have any spots open in future episodes or shows I’d love to be a part of it. Here is my contact information if you have any auditions coming open. Blah Blah blah”
Tell the producer in exchange for your work you’d like some clips or your sides to help make a voice over audition tape.
And producers! This goes for you too. “Hi Beth, this is Saylor from Betty’s Day Out and Arc of Joan. I just heard you in the show “Yada, yada.” I really liked what you did and I have a part in preproduction right now that I’d like to offer you. It’s a small but essential role. We are recording the show remotely so it would be essential you have your own microphone and computer. As compensation I have some beans and a 10-dollar amazon card. But I can help you put together a voice over file for yourself and pull out and give you your sides from the finished show. If you’re at all interested please contact me next week sometime and I’ll send over the script, here’s my contact info…”

A COUPLE OF DO NOT DO THIS'S:

If you are reaching out to an actor for a show, unless this is for a paid role, do-not-ask-them-to-audition. You either want them or not. You just need to know if they can record remotely. And it doesn’t leave the actor thinking “oh boy I just got an audition!” Mostly they walk away thinking, “Hang on, you reached out to me, to do this recording audition work for a possible chance to work on a show I have no idea about for some dried beans and an amazon card? No thank you.
I put reasonable in the 3 r’s because when you’re sending files back and forth with 5 different actors, and the actors are sending files back and forth remotely it is possible that somewhere you or the actor is going to miss something. It is completely reasonable that it could happen. Or for whatever reason “Kelly” in scene 3 file got corrupted. Ug now you have to email or text Kelly, I hope she’s not annoyed…Stupid stuff happens on occasion, roll with it.

And the thing about working with people and asking people to contribute is that the minute you “invite” or “ask” for help with something you immediately are on someone else’s schedule.  When you set deadlines for getting their recordings to you by Wednesday, a great collaborator will send it to your in-box the prior Friday morning, a good collaborator will send it on Wednesday sometime, and then there are the others who will say “oh, you meant THIS Wednesday?” Or ghost you until Friday night after the Wednesday deadline and say “Sorry, this is late, I’m an awful person. Don’t hate me! Wink wink.” And that last one is exactly one of the reasons why you need to work a month ahead if you’re working remotely. When you record remotely communication between you and the actors is so essential. Try to make it a good habit when you get an email from an actor, even if you can’t answer it right away, just to acknowledge you got the email and as soon as you get back to your desk, you’ll answer them.

LEARNING MOMENT:
I work regularly with someone who didn’t get her recordings in on time, which was weird because she’s a great collaborator, and when I reached out to her with texting and emails I didn’t hear back and my first thought was, Uh oh, something is definitely wrong.  And unfortunately I was right, she had had a sudden death in the family. It was awful for her, and I wasn’t sure it would be appropriate for her to go on, but we finally talked for a bit and I asked her what I could do for her and then what she wanted to do about going forward in the show because maybe she wanted to drop out, which would have been understandable and fine. But she didn’t want to leave the show so I worked around her as long as I could hold out as we were now publishing the episodes weekly. And in the very end she got her sides in before the episodes publishing date and I ended up working some late night editing but we got it done. Honestly, I wouldn’t have blamed her for dropping out and she’s such a great collaborator who really enjoys acting in the show, so I didn’t want to like punish someone further who is just going through an awful time. So you just figure out a way to compromise. You know that race game when you were kids where you tie your legs together and one of you ends up dragging the other across the finish line? That’s a good metaphor for collaborations. “Eventually one of us is going to get dragged across the finish line.” 

Some actors what to chat about every episode, they’ve got questions, or ideas and as the creator and producer you need to make time for them. The more comfortable your actors are with you and your reactions to their acting the better their acting is going to come across. And when you get entangled with a “Oh you meant this Wednesday” people.  Just do that smile and nod your head while backing away slowly thing. There is nothing you can do and you are not going to change them. Just find a good place to stop using that character, say thank you for your work, and end the collaboration. The fact that they continue to ignore the deadline or if they constantly record in the middle of a tiled bathroom even though you ask them to find a quieter place is them telling you they absolutely don’t care your stupid podcast. Don’t fight or frustrate yourself or talk about them to the other cast about what a pain they are. Do. Not. Do. That. Just end it in the friendliest way possible and keep moving forward. Change the character’s name, write a replacement character, or just simply replace them. Juggling people is hard no matter what, this is your show that is populated by people, so you need to find ways to juggle and still serve the story.

COMPENSATING THE CONTRIBUTORS:
If, in the near or distant future, you end up covering your costs of the show you wrote, produced, and edited by yourself and it makes 5 dollars or 5000 dollars you must share this with everyone who worked on your show. The actors and or musician’s especially. I’m not an entertainment or a copyright lawyer or a union rep or anything of that nature so if you need to seek that type of advice, please do.
All I can say is two things: One, pay yourself last. And second, you must be open and honest with everyone who is working on the show. What you are asking of them, who has royalty rights to the show and what you can offer in return for their labors. If you literally cleared 5 dollars in royalties and you’ve had 7 actors in the 12 episodes 3 people were in all 12 episodes and 2 people were in 4 episodes and 2 people where in 1 episode than you have a math word problem to figure out. Do you need to draw up legally binding contracts or release statements, probably not. But I would make sure everyone gets the same information regarding the compensation and intentions of the show, like in an email to everyone. Just make sure everyone is on the same page as you. An email that even just says thank you to everyone who contributes to Betty’s Day Out, none of us are getting paid and your time is precious to me. I’m going to make the show available for free downloads to as many podcatchers as I can and I will try to sell ads for it so if we get more than 100,000 downloads I will be compensating everyone through shares of the show.
If you are easy to work with and by that I mean show your appreciation by saying thank you, treat them with respect and be reliable and reasonable then that is really well over half the battle. Give them good feedback on their acting and/or actionable feedback. “Hey Actor, this one is great and on the next part can you move back a little from your mic so you sound like your standing behind everyone?” If you are 3000 miles away from them you could still send them a funny meme of a you laughing at your computer about one of their lines they delivered on point. Because the Arc of Joan is a comedy at the end of the shows I started tagging on their outtakes and bloopers after the end of the show. And it became a fun “thing.” Kind of an inside joke I had with the actors and something people who listened finally cottoned on to and loved it.  

In the publishing phase the cast is still with you. Whether through their social media and they post themselves in their recording area or sending you their bio for the show notes. You’ll be on the hook to send them their files back with their sides so most definitely hold up your end of the bargain there. So as far as casting your show for remote recording you can absolutely take the route of family and friends, or you can reach out to people whose work you’ve enjoyed however far away, you can even hire your whole crew if you’ve got the funds. But in the end whoever you get onboard need to serve the story. And you’re roll as captain is to keep them moving through the pre-production casting and read through’s, the recording, and the publishing.

That’s it for now. Next weeks episode will go through all the technical aspects of putting together the podcast including hardware, software, and all the sound effects elements.
And if you haven’t been told yet, I hope you have a great rest of your day!
 

Episode 4 Joan and the Savvy Podcaster: Writing 2EPISODE 4 WRITING PART 2

 EPISODE 4 WRITING PART 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 4 covers the pre-production writing for the actors script, editing script, and editing spreadsheet.

Below you will find the transcript 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. It is not an opus or the be all and end all of how to create an Audio Drama. But, 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

 

Hey y'all, welcome back to: Joan and the savvy podcaster. Episode 4: Writing Part 2. 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/
In this episode I’m going to talk about formatting your actors scripts, the editing script and the editing spreadsheet.

Like I said in episode 3, I always have two scripts of the same episode. The actors script and the editing script the goal of both is to keep things moving while you’re in production.  Obviously, the actors script is pretty straight forward with dialogue and situation explanations for the actors. But the editing script is a whole other story. But if you take the time to do an editing script in pre-production it will save you much needed time when you are editing. So to explain the acting script I would send you to the BBC again. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel here, if you want to learn from the best go to the source and that would be the BBC. The website for how to format a radio drama script is at BBC Writers Room website, here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/resources/medium-and-format/
and you’ll click on the “radio drama without audience” link. They have literally and consistently been producing audio fiction for 100 years. The end. Good luck and good night.
Just kidding. 

Script formatting is basically universal for most mediums, film or TV or radio. It has to be clear and concise. I said this in Episode 3 Writing 1 but in case you’ve skipped down here I’m going to repeat myself. The actors need to know more than just the lines on the page. Where are they in this scene? What are they doing? Walking outside? Sitting in a café? Here’s what I said before: I try to write the first one in as clear a way for the actors as I can including “stage directions” like (whispers), (talking loud over party and dance music), or (while walking). This will give the actors the audio ques they need to alter their speech. You can’t have two characters who are supposed to be jogging giving their lines as if they are sitting in a quiet café.  Also related both to scripts and editing; I always start with sound then voices. It’s almost like giving a clue to where you are and what’s going to happen.” I think this also helps the actors understand audibly what is happening. The only thing different I do is I number the lines so: 

Scene 1 – INT CHURCH – YM’S OFFICE – TUESDAY MORNING
                                       (YM, MURIEL)
1. MUSIC: PROGRAM THEME MUSIC UP and FADE OUT
2. SFX: FOOTSTEPS
3. SFX: DOOR KNOCKS

4. YM:       Muriel! It’s good to see you back, thanks for stopping by.

I number the lines is because we’re recording in isolation and if I need someone to rerecord a line and get it back to me it saves any confusion. I can just drop “Muriel” an email asking her to rerecord Page 1 Scene 1 Lines 9, 11, 13. And why I need theme done, whether it’s a problem with the line reading, or I lost the mp3 file, or the file was corrupted, whatever. Also, I always put under the Scene number the characters in the scene. I realized it’s a lot easier for the actors so they don’t miss recording any scenes.

Please don’t go out and buy a script writing program. Yet. Don’t get me wrong there are some great ones and very useful ones to be had.  And that’s fine they are fancy and can do a multitude of fancy things like pulling all the lines from one character and charting things and they make those fancy digital index cards. Some people love these programs and good for reason! And some are super useful if you’ve got a writing partner or it’s a group writing thing. But for me I ask myself why do I need this? Sometimes I’ll send over a script to an old writing pal and she marks it up the script with a different color, tells me I’m a hack and we’re done with it. You may find a writing program an absolute must have to get your thoughts organized and plot points mapped out. But I feel like they can be an obstacle to my ultimate goal. Because I will have to take time to learn how to use the writing program and really for the podcast you’re basically just putting in tabs on your word document. For me, it’s just a bit of overkill for the purpose, it’s like buying a gas leaf blower to clean up the leaves from a single tree.

Now for the script you’ll use for your editing.  Same script, different format. Basically you’re going to squeeze all your tabs in a bit and make your dialogue very narrow. I always print this one out and keep it separate from everything else until I start to edit. Whereas the Actors script is basically a pre-production script this is your production script. One of the constant truisms of editing a fictional podcast is keeping everything organized, think of this as your junk drawer. (It’s messy but it’s where the spare keys and everything else useful lives.) You keep the script narrow because it’s where you write out the sound effects, time codes, notes, ideas, etc. I try to keep time codes, settings, filters used, file names, stitching notes on the left side and on the other side notes, ideas, and which take from the actors side I want to keep.  
Everybody, everybody, every single person who has edited on computers has an editing program crash story or a computer crash story. It’s just inevitable that it will happen, but the severity of the crash varies. Picture this: It’s 1 am, you’ve been editing for about 4 hours, your neck hurts, but you’re on the last 3 pages of the script. Do you stop for the night or hang on; It doesn’t matter because the program just crashed. You work for 20 minutes to get it back up and running and you realize the whole episode is lost. So, just in case of a massive crash where you absolutely have to start over this is like your last line of defense. Even though you’ve saved everything in three separate places, like you should, how are you going to remember you lowered Muriel’s voice in scene 1 line 9 and gave it the effect of her entering the room? Or that you fixed a problem with the Fade In for whatever sound effect with this or that filter? Because it’s on the left-hand side with a time code and on the right you have the sound effect that you used for that line. This is why you have an editing script that looks like a junk drawer.

This is part of the preproduction writing but it could go in the editing episode as well but while you’re working on the scripts always do a Scene spread sheets that I print out and keep with the editing script. On the top is a row labeled:

 Characters  –         Sound FX           – Music –              Notes.                (Then below that is:)

SCENE 1
INTRO MUSIC FADES:                                                 SCNECHG.WAV
YM                    INT office AMB                                    YMAMB1.MP3
Muriel                foot steps                                               CARPFTSTP.MP3
                      RAPID SOFT KNOCKS                           OFCKNKS.MP3
YM                                                                                   YMfile1.mp3

SCENE 2                                    Scene change music     SCENECHG2.WAV

YM: Screams                                                                       YMfile2.mp3

This is so when I’m assembling the elements of the episode together to load into the software I know what I’ll need (as in sound effects), where it is, the file name, etc. Because I use the same sound effect file for Actor #1 front door throughout all the episodes. And that door sound effect is different that Y.M.’s office door. I use like 6 different car door opening and closing sound effects but I always use the same sound effect that is assigned to that actor. For example: I have 5 actors and all of them have a front door sound effect assigned to them. I find that so much easier and it gives an audio clue to the audience. I also use the same Ambient sounds, room tones or Atmospheres. Joan’s office sounds different than Y.M.’s and Muriel’s. Joan’s office is closer to the front door so in the background you’ll hear mumbling, door shutting. She also has the biggest office so there’s a higher ceiling. Listening to people talking in Muriel’s office is a bit claustrophobic. Flat, and absolutely no reverb. Outside Beth’s house there are always crickets. It’s these kind of touches that gives your audience the audible touchstone’s that’ll register in their subconscious so they don’t have to consciously think, “ok, where am I?” which will pull their attention away. I’ll repeat this and go into more detail in the editing episode but for now this is the pre-production reason why it’s important and how to do it.
So for every script you’ll have the Actors and the Editing script, as well as a Scene Spread Sheet for the editing.

As a general reference the scripts are about 1 page per minute. I usually do about 8 to 10 scenes per episode which translates to about 25 pages. I keep saying generally and about because it really does depend on how you format the scripts, how long your intro and outro are, and how many sound effects are used. For people who are using a Plot A and Plot B structure, where you have Plot A running throughout your series and you use the Plot B as the single story structure then I usually pepper the Plot A plot points about two-thirds through the first few episodes and let  the amount of scenes dedicated to Plot A number up until I have reversed the structure.

That’s it for now. Next weeks episode will go through the casting processes and people wrangling.
And if you haven’t been told yet, I hope you have a great rest of your day!

Episode 3 Joan and the Savvy podcaster. Writing Part 1

 

Episode 3: Joan and the Savvy Podcaster: Writing Part 1 (Pre-production)

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 3 covers the pre-production writing for an Audio Drama.

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. It is not an opus or the be all and end all of how to create an Audio Drama. But, 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 3: Writing Part 1
Hey y'all, welcome back to: Joan and the savvy podcaster. Episode 3: Writing Part 1. 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/ 

In this episode I’m going to talk about preproduction writing.

Remembering Betty’s Day Out example; a 12-part series with 30-minute episodes from Episode 2? I’m going to just carry that over as an example here. First off let me just put in a disclaimer here: I cannot teach you to write a compelling character driven audio drama with a crazy twist ending that will get the whole world talking. But what I can do is tell you what has worked for me and what my writing process is like. If you’ve already got your series plotted out and all the character’s roles done, then you might want to skip over this and go to Writing part 2 where I get into the technical parts of writing the audio script.
Still here? Good, ‘cause I’ve got some plot tricks you can use for writing for audio. I’m just going to brush over some subjects here and if you need to you can stop and do a deeper dive on something with a quick web search, because there are some really great sites that’ll teach you to write a script. But experience really is the best teacher. 

If you’re just starting to get together a story idea and you’ve not written anything before then just write. Write again and write more. Carry a small notebook with you and when an idea hits you write it down. I have about 6 notebooks. In the car, in my backpack, in the kitchen, my office, back porch and the napkins and envelopes I inevitably collect with weird dialogue and character sayings and thought vomit scrawled on them are tucked unceremoniously in a pile under my computer keyboard. I think most fiction writers have a secret fear that someday someone is going to find our notebook “stashes” and look through our computer search history and think we are absolutely stark raving mad. “Why would you search: can you kill someone with frozen butter?” and “who says thought vomit?” ew. There is a little bit of a loosening on that tight rope with reality, that as a writer, you have to release to write in different character’s voices. It can seem like a fob off to tell someone to just write. “It’s easy just write.” That’s a bit annoying, isn’t it? But what people are saying is for you to find your writing voice as opposed to the stories voice. You can also always tell the difference between the writing of say, Wes Anderson and Diablo Cody.  
Also, you can give yourself writing exercises. If you are just really stuck and have no idea how to begin or you are really unhappy with how your script is turning out then another trick would be to find a story online that you like and think, I want my story to be like that - then dissect it. Just write that other story out as you listen to it. Stop and start. This might sound like a waste of time but it’s not. It’s how a lot of musicians have learned their instrument. Like Steve Martin learned how to play the banjo by listening to a record and repeating the chords. It can be a very effective teaching tool.
Let’s say for another example using our Betty, for a writing exercise put Betty in a pharmacy. What happens? From her point of view what does she see? Who does she talk to? Is it someone who she secretly hates? Or secretly admires and wants to get closer to? When you’re preparing to write your 30-minute scripts you don’t have time to do a character exploration. So when your flushing out the story that’s your time to write and explore the characters. When you start writing your scripts and before you commit to formatting them that’s when your writing looks a bit more like this: Betty walks in (the door-bell tinkles), she knocks over a display, she looks for the cough drops and grabs a bag, she ducks down when she catches sight of her ex-husband. And so on. Or if you’re not used to writing dialogue you can put Betty in situations with another character. How does she speak when she’s with her boss? Her child? Her partner? Her brother? And write them with the same goal like she has to deliver bad news? Or she wants to gloat about winning a prize.
One of my favorite two character scenes to write is when they absolutely hate each other either outwardly or they have a seething hatred inwardly for the other character and then put them in a situation where they have to work together to both move the plot forward and achieve something together.
Before you get too far into the script writing, you’ll also want to decide some things like what view point is your story. Will you have a lead character with whose point of view the story will unfold? Like a Detective story. Or is it an ensemble? How many characters per episode do you think you’ll need? Remember, you absolutely don’t have to stick with any of these choices but it’s all a starting point. But you’ll want to keep a wary eye out for how many characters you are writing into the episode.  
There are certain universal truths to fiction writing. The story arc, the 3 acts, Point of View, the roles of protagonist and antagonist. Sure, they get shifted around a bit and there are always twists and turns but it’s all just basic story-telling, even in audio drama.

In order to avoid over exposition in your dialogue, your sound effects should always tell the where, when, of the story and possibly the how. (like in a car or walking) The voices will be the who. And the action that occurs is the what, again possibly the how, and why. When you break down your scripts this way, it becomes a lot easier to get Betty from A to Z in your scripts. But you can’t get there until you flush out that story and the character’s obstacles first, which is where that constant writing comes in.
You have a lot, A LOT, of choices on how you’ll write your series. I’ll let you dig deeper into plot structures on your own but don’t get trapped into a simple story structure. Like an episodic series. What I mean by that is like a television sit-com where each episode could simple stand on its own and not connected to other episodes or running plot lines. It’s fine, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that but I have listened to some audio fiction’s that just fall flat using that story structure. Sometimes in the middle of your series it’s good to insert a single plot structure. Like you know how in some series they’ll have a Holiday themed episode? They’re timely and fun but it’s weird to listen to one in the middle of the summer. Because these are podcasts, people may discover your show anytime. Doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use them, I just mean be aware of any type of topical themed plot lines. Except for Halloween plot lines, honestly, those are always fun and you can plop one of them down in February and they’re still fun.
Once you’ve got all your character’s voice’s down pretty pat and what your story is basically going to be it’s time to start an outline of the episodes. It can be as simple as this: Ep. 1 Betty goes to the pharmacy. Ep. 2 Betty goes to work. Ep. 10 Betty gets a pedicure.
I never write my last two episodes until I’m half way through recording the series. And the reason is because when I write a character I only can “hear” my voice saying the words. When you add the element of an actor acting the words something different happens. Suddenly, the character is no longer your voice and for better or worse it is “live”. The actor may have a certain timber to their voice that makes delivering good news seem ridiculous or a shrill to it that makes something that should be sad seem really funny. And I find so many more possibilities for the characters will come to me once I hear them read aloud. I might originally write that in Ep. 11 Betty goes for a walk and Ep. 12 Betty finds a rock. Then after I hear someone else playing Betty I will think in Ep 11 Betty should stroll and then in Ep 12 Betty doesn’t find a rock she IS a rock and she’s been in someone’s pocket this whole time! Plot twist! Whatever, you get my point. That being said, and I always encourage the trying and testing new things, but still remember that the you, the actors, the sound effects, everything is in service to the story being told. Don’t get too wrapped up in anything that doesn’t move the story forward.

When you are in pre-production and you’re outlining and writing the episodes the only thing I leave written in stone are the first 2 episodes. Those are the ones where you’re still establishing the characters and the plot lines. The other 10 get more flexible as I go so that when I’m in production I can be more flexible in the story telling. But once I’ve gotten the outline for the series and the first 2 episodes written I invite everyone for a table read. Because I want the other actors to know how to react to what is being said and by whom? I send over the scripts about a week before hand as well as any notes to each actor I think they may need for the characters. I always write a back story for the characters, who they are, what they want, where they come from, their favorite color and why. Just a whole page of backstory information on this person. Now, the actors may not ask for this or even know to ask for it but just in case I even need it I have it to give. This is especially necessary, I think, when you’re recording in isolation; that is if the actors are recording from home and sending you files.  I’ll get more into all that in the casting episode. Obviously, the last series “The Arc of Joan” was done virtually and the table read was done over Zoom. Anyway, moving on with the script writing. After the table read, I finish writing the next 2 scripts. So before I even go into production I have a whole series outlined and the first 4 scripts finished.
In Episode 4, Writing Part 2 I’m going to go over the technical aspects of your script formatting. But for right now, I always have 2 separate scripts of the same episode. I try to write the first one in as clear a way for the actors as I can including “stage directions” like (whispers), (talking loud over party and dance music), or (while walking). This will give them the audio ques they need to alter their speech. You can’t have two characters who are supposed to be jogging giving their lines as if they are sitting in a quiet café.  Also related both to scripts and editing; I always start with sound then voices. It’s almost like giving a clue to where you are and what’s going to happen. Like the two people jogging example, I would start with an outdoor atmospheric then the pounding of jogging feet sound effect then add some heavy breathing for just a beat then Person X speaks. So when you write out the Actors script you’d give them the audio ques of where they are, what they’re doing and then their lines. This will also keep you, as you write, from adding the dreaded exposition. Another little trick to use, is to use a question. So instead of a character saying, “Look at that tiny dog that very large man is carrying.” The character can say, “Where is Big Nick taking that chihuahua?” Exposition is an annoying and drab necessity in audio drama, so it’s best to dress it up and hide it as best you can.

Also, as a side note here, all the pre-writing you did before you start churning out the scripts needs to be saved. Do not throw out those scraps of paper tucked under your keyboard. Because when you are in the publishing phase you are going to have to come up with things like titles, and summaries, and one sentence break downs. You don’t just upload your file here. You have to come up with hashtags and subtitles and discovery keywords and show notes. It would be a good practice for you, after you finish your script, to write out all the actors and who they play, a one sentence summary, a one paragraph summary and the working title. These might change they might not but at least you’ll have it done because once you get to the publishing phase you just really can run out of words. 

That’s it for now. Next weeks episode will go through the formatting your actors scripts, the editing script and the editing spreadsheet.
And if you haven’t been told yet, I hope you have a great rest of your day!