A friend of mine told me about a podcast that was debating the quality of a CRT show vs. another company. Interesting, even though the hosts of this podcast didn't quite have all the correct information. They mentioned that we always record with the actors in the same room, which will deliver better performances.
Not true.
Although I prefer to record that way, it is not always the case. In many of our shows (especially the Father Brown series), we have actors from all over the world record their lines and send them to us. In fact, there is one Father Brown episode where J.T. and I were the only people recording in studio (out of a cast of nine)
They went on to say that this other company does it for the love of radio drama, which would indicate we do it for money. While money is a good thing, that is not an entirely true observation;
I've been producing radio plays for 20 years (starting with a version of A Christmas Carol in 1988, on 4 track tape). I did close to 200 shows for nothing but love. When we decided to produce the shows for sale, in 1995 - it was still for the love of it.
If you don't love what you do in this business, you're in the wrong business; and the shows will sound that way.
They were discussing our new production of THE HALLOWEEN TREE, and it's funny they picked that as an example, because the narrator, and my role as well, Moundshroud, were recorded at differnt sessions over the course of a year and a half; so even with that show, we were not reading all the lines off each other.
Just wanted to clear that up.
Our holiday special, THE COLONIAL RADIO CHRISTMAS SPECIAL is doing well in downloads, and will be airing on a station in Colorada as well - I'll post the info for those of you in Colorado who may like to check it out.
THe special will also be airing on Sirius/XM, but I don't know any dates yet.
Busy week ahead, writing three episodes of TICONDEROGA for next Monday, Recording PERRY MASON tonight, and I'll be in NYC on Wed. and Thurs. Cheers for now.
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5 comments:
It is a credit to your directorial skills that you can get the performance you have in your head out of actors all over the globe and integrate them into the music and sound effects you hear to form the CRT finished programs, so that people think everyone is in the studio at the same time. It is pretty cool and kinda magic, too!
Was this on a podcast? I recall seeing blippets of it on the Modern Audio Drama Yahoo Group.
I thought it was kind of an academic argument -- no one was saying one was particularly bad or good, and who cares how it's recorded if you capture the sound you want for a particular production?
Let the story do the dictating...
Best,
Fred
Radio Drama Revival
FinalRune Productions
Yes, I heard it on the SFF (sp)podcast tat was sent to me by a friend; I didnt see any of the posts on the Modern Radio Drama list, as I havent looked at that for quite a while. They were not saying one was better than the other, but they made comments on how they thought we produced our shows, which was not accurate, and that is what I wanted to address; my comments were not meant to be bitter, nor did I think theirs were - I just wanted to give my side of it, since it was my company they were talking about, and thought I could throw some light on the situation. cheers ~Jerry
Sharon, actually the credit goes to the actors, not my directing. The several voice actors who we work with always have a good grasp on the story and script, and their inserts are for the most part, flawless with the in studio actors. There have only been a couple of times when I asked for retakes.
The rest of the credit goes to our team of editors, led by the incredible Chris Snyder. Up until summer of 2006, I edited every show that CRT released; the last being back-to-back post production of our CAPTAIN BLOOD and DANDELION WINE. These days, I' more or less a supervisor of production, although I still write a fair amount of our programs. But still - thanks for the compliments! Cheer ~J
Jerry, it is always good to set the record straight. CRT is very creative as to how its programs are produced and the business model employed to obtain distribution and revenue. Most folks looking in can only guess how it is done...often wrongly.
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