Tuesday 11 June 2013

Steak And Trumpet Blowing Day (Part 2)

Ok, so times have moved on a little since the last blog post. But finally, here's the concluding part. 

MISFITS AUDIO
STAR RABBIT TRACKS: WHERE NOTHING HAS GONE BEFORE

http://misfitsaudio.com/comments/archives/737

I accidentally stumbled into the world of Star Rabbit Tracks when Cap'n John Tadrzak advertised for artists. I thought he wanted writers, he did and he offered me Star Rabbit Tracks. After a couple of episodes in which I was finding my feet and the characters. This is an episode that I managed to put the words that I wanted, the tone that I wanted and the jokes that I wanted into the whole package.

The thing about my work at Misfits, was that I was forced, (not in the plank and cutless kind of way) to accept who I was, that everything on that page was mine, instead of hiding behind a pseudonym I had to take on the chin every inch of criticism and every inch of praise. Because of this I was quite shocked to find out that putting my name out there meant that when praise was given, it made me very very happy.



MISFITS AUDIO
STAR RABBIT TRACKS: RETURN OF THE DEADEYE

http://misfitsaudio.com/comments/archives/1049

Sometimes you get a perfect combination of script, performance and production. This episode is exactly that. H Keith Lyons was hand picked to play the role of Deadeye, a grizzled old space Fagin and he is magnificent. Every comedy beat is hit with perfection by H Keith and David Maciver, the great lost double act of internet radio.

Also hidden away in the subplot of this episode was the start of a narrative thread which leads up to the season finale.


IN THE LINE OF DUTY: WINTER APPOINTMENT

http://vanguarddivision.libsyn.com/winter-appointment

Let me tell you a little something about the series "In The Line Of Duty", firstly and incredibly importantly, it was all his idea. His characters, his plotlines, his ideas and his plans. I'm just going to ride on his coat tails and take all the credit, Hahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!

If only I could ;-). When I first offered my services to help, Ben Reed has his plans for a military tale, near future thriller. What I threw into the batter was a mix of fantastical and paranoia, a whole list of what ifs. What if the President isn't running the Government but his security chief is? What if the mysterious man responsible for hijacking a nuclear convoy was doing it as a rouse, a whim, a flex of technological muscle?   What if we rename that character Alistair Stewart in a veiled Doctor Who homage? Luckily, he believed me :-) and the series took shape and when first writing it together we hit upon a great dynamic, he'd write the all action explosive bits and I'd write the emotional, human angle bits.

What's the best thing you can do in Audio drama? Yes that's right an episode full of Sound effects and very little dialogue that only features on character talking to himself. Good thing that the character is voiced by David Ault, a highly thought of member of the audio drama community.


IN THE LINE OF DUTY: THE VANGUARD ARCHIVE

http://vanguarddivision.libsyn.com/the-vanguard-archive

So, here it is. Possibly the maddest audio drama episode I've ever done. It's so mad that it's about to become the accepted format for future episodes of In The Line Of Duty. This particular episode has everything you could wish for in a glimpse into damaged and dangerous souls and was produced with a mixture of existing recordings and new material. The intention was to complete everything that was outstanding because of the show going on hiatus. In a strange quirk, this closing of a chapter has inadvertently led to the opening of another and the In The Line Of Duty engine has started to chug.

So that's what I would consider my best bits... Maybe you think differently, maybe you don't. But one things for sure, there's more to come, bigger and hopefully better.