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I checked out SABLE this week since I'd seen a few recommendations. The first few episodes seem to set up an interesting world and a couple of main characters. There's some skipping around to other characters, and more bits of world building... Then it sort of falls off into ultraviolence and erases all the established characters. I think the writer needs a beta reader or something, because it seems like his setting has potential if he could keep a protagonist alive/sane for more than a few episodes.
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Jul 8, 2016 13:27
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I'm about five episodes in on Bright Sessions and the actress for Dr. Bright is distractingly bad. Does she eventually get any better or is this what to expect? I'm digging the concept so far, it just feels like it's brought down by a main character sounding like she's reading a script rather than having an actual conversation.
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Jul 8, 2016 19:27
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Hobo Clown posted:I'm about five episodes in on Bright Sessions and the actress for Dr. Bright is distractingly bad. Does she eventually get any better or is this what to expect? I'm digging the concept so far, it just feels like it's brought down by a main character sounding like she's reading a script rather than having an actual conversation. I don't know why you would say that- I think Julia does a great job. Her character does get developed more over time and she has opportunities to show more range.
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Jul 8, 2016 19:50
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The performance just feels very wooden, like she's reading off the page as she speaks. It's more noticeable when she's opposite Lauren Shippen, who obviously is much more familiar with the material. As I said though I'm still pretty early in, so maybe it gets better.
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Jul 8, 2016 20:55
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Hobo Clown posted:The performance just feels very wooden, like she's reading off the page as she speaks. It's more noticeable when she's opposite Lauren Shippen, who obviously is much more familiar with the material. Well, Lauren asked Julia to be the star because they had worked together in the past and she really liked her work. I'd say what you're hearing is a deliberate choice because the character is a professional dealing with potentially dangerous people, and she keeps very stiff to stay in control of the conversation. It seems authentic to how therapy works, IMO. One could argue therapy is scripted by its nature, as many doctors have prepared responses for different situations. Later, when she interacts with more aggressive characters like Damien and Green, she's forced on the defensive and her wall drops, and you see a lot more humanity.
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Jul 9, 2016 03:22
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Hobo Clown posted:The performance just feels very wooden, like she's reading off the page as she speaks. It's more noticeable when she's opposite Lauren Shippen, who obviously is much more familiar with the material. She sounds like a clinical therapist, or at least like the few we had in the group homes. She's pretty spot on I think.
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Jul 9, 2016 08:05
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Well I think I'm out of podcasts. That's what I get for working a 9 hour a day job lol. Here's what I've though of each so far. 1.) Limetown Limetown was the first "Audio Drama" podcast I had ever listened too. I'm glad I started here, because nothing really matches the quality, execution, or wonder that I felt when I listened too it. This series was gripping, and without spoiling too much the way they ended it really blew me away. It's an amazing series, and I recommend everyone go pick it up. Of course, it's also one of the most popular Audio Drama podcasts, so... You probably have already heard of it, and want more. Limetown is seriously good, it's serious, and while a bit predictable, the journey it takes you on is by and large the most temestuous, in a good way though. 2.) The Bright Sessions The premise on this one is what really grabbed me, Dr. Bright is a psychologist for people with super-powers who are trying to live normal day to day lives. It had the kind of wholesome "X-Men" feel you got from the comic books, when they were practicing how to control their powers. Dr. Bright has an extremely believable performance that blew me away. I really enjoyed it. The series also benefits from having a Psychologist on set to make sure that both the characters and interactions were on point, the series shined immensely from it, and I was extremely impressed with the attention to detail. 3.) Wolf 359 I'm like... 2 episodes into this out of 43, but the first thing I think of when I listen to this is "Red Dwarf," like every time I hear Doug Eiffel, and Renee Minkowski talk, I can't stop thinking of Arnold and Dave. It's played more straight the Red Dwarf, but it's still got that quirky comedic vibe going that helps me get through my soul crushing job. They've also got some cool science stuff as well. I'm not as far into the series, so not as many words. 4.) Archive 81 I liked Archive 81 for the mystery it unfolds. It presents itself via recordings of recordings, and it plays with the medium a lot. I love Archive 81 and the way you get bits and pieces of the same story from different points is one of those writing tools that I personally enjoy a lot. (Pulp fiction is one of my favorite movies for this very reason!) The voice acting isn't the best, but the guy really grows into it the more he tries at it, so I'd recommend sticking with it! This is all about a guy taking tapes and digitizing them, about a place where mysteries happen. Vague because I want to avoid spoilers. 5.) Scoop Hound Scoop Hound was sold to me as, "Welcome to Night Vale, played straight." It hits the notes very well, and I feel like the guy spent the first episode or two trying to ape Welcome to Night Vale's style, by the third or fourth, he's managed to seriously evolve it into it's own thing. One that I actually find preferable to Welcome to Night Vale. It was a huge surprise to me and I didn't really realize it until I numbered my list, but I think Scoop Hound capture's Night Vale's style better then Night Vale did, and by playing it straight, manages to create a deeper sense of dread and adventure. 6.) Alice isn't dead This is from the same guy who did Welcome to Night Vale. It's also really good, but it's played straighter, while lightly brushing up against the super natural, instead of bathing whole hog in it. I found this podcast lacking some character growth and sustenance, but it was still awesome enough to keep me listening. I liked listening to the character fighting with her sense of loss and loneliness, and it spoke to me a lot. It's pretty great! 7.) Welcome to Night Vale I didn't really expect to see this so low on my list! Everyone has probably heard of Welcome to Night Vale, it's weird, catchy, and comedic, all while played extremely straight. It's not so much dark, as whacky with a bit of edge. I enjoy Night Vale for what it is, a weekly radio broadcast from a small town that deals with Lovecraftian horrors. Without the racism. There's about 20 episodes in the 90 episode series, that revolve heavily around a gay partnership. This bothers some people a lot. If you are not one of those people, I think you'll enjoy this one. It's very random, not in a "Lol monkey cheese" way, but it does try very hard to mix up your expectations about things. I would definitely recommend giving the first few episodes a try to see if your part of it's extremely wide audience. 8.) Within the Wires This is 30 minute poetry sessions with very tiny bits of story sprinkled in, at the absolute most random times. I no longer play these at work, because it's really easy to miss the substantial stuff. It seems like the creator of Alice isn't Dead, and Welcome to Night Vale is trying something extremely experimental, and we'll have to wait for a few more episodes to see if it shakes out as something good, but I do find it very fun to sit and listen and try to piece the puzzle together, between the weird poetic bits. So that's what I think of the last 8 podcasts I listened too, do you guys have any comments? Or even better, suggestions for new ones to listen too?
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Jul 9, 2016 08:51
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Well, you sold me on Scoop Hound, I'll be adding that to my list. Wolf 359 turns down the comic edge a bit and goes a bit more dramatic, but still keeps the characters interactions really on-point. Personally, I think my favorite character is Hera, but I like snarky AIs. The ones you don't have on your list that I've been listening to are: Ars Paradoxica - It follows the accidental inventor of time travel after she ends up on the bridge of the USS Eldridge during the Philadelphia Experiment and is shanghaied into working for the US government in the dawn of the nuclear age. The banter is really funny and all the characters are really interesting. It does have a sort of darker tone as it goes on and they're always pretty well behind the 8 ball, but I really like how they treat time travel and paradoxes. Definitely one of the stronger ones out of the ones the thread's discussed. A New Winter - I'm still not sure what I think of this one. I like it, but it hasn't really hooked me like Ars Paradoxica and The Bright Sessions have. It's the story of a series of mysterious murders and the narrator's investigation into what happened, told from memory. It's all one person narrating the entire time, so more of a prose feel than a lot of other ones like Archive 81 or even Night Vale. Definitely more in common with Alice Isn't Dead.
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Jul 10, 2016 03:42
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Our fair city doesn't get enough love. If you like the night vale comedy but want an audio drama, this is the one.
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Jul 10, 2016 14:39
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If I can self-promote, Strange N Unusual. I've been voice acting here for a while and just joined the writing team. The flagship story, Friend of the Family, is a horror-comedy about monster hunting, family, and hating your coworker. There's also the Dark Files, a Twilight Zone-esque series of stand alone episodes we do once a month, and Letters to Asmodeus, an advice segment featuring a character from Friend of the Family. We're in our second season and having a lot of fun.
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Jul 16, 2016 07:36
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If you're not listening to Within the Wires yet, you may want to start. Today's episode is where what's going on is starting to come into focus and it's really cool.
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Jul 19, 2016 19:26
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List of 30 audio drama podcasts many of which you probably already follow. Full disclosure: I didn't post this, but my show is featured.
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Jul 22, 2016 16:28
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I listened to Archive 81 and overall, I liked it, but there's one thing that bugs me , in one of the episodes, the main character, Dan, found and befriended a mouse. The sound effect that they used for the mouse is so fake and comical. I hope this is deliberate because maybe down the line it's reveled that it was never a mouse, and it's just a squeaky toy that Dan found and started to talk to, showing his gradual mental deterioration . Because, yikes, otherwise.
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Jul 24, 2016 12:14
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That bugs me too, yeah. Same thing with the door opening/closing in The Bright Sessions, which is just so obviously a sfx it drives me nuts.
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Jul 24, 2016 14:45
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Yeah, sfx can make or break the atmosphere, IMO. I listened to Return Home linked from the list that psychopomp posted, and the sfx that they used for creatures and voices is the cheesiest and stock that you can use and I am not even sure if this podcast is meant to be horror comedy or simply a badly-acted horror podcast because of it.
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Jul 25, 2016 06:35
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Scoop Hound reminds me of a short story I read. I don't remember the name but it was in a book about stories after a lovecraftian apocalypse. The story was about these smiling men that had taken over a city and watched everyone occasionally doing things like giving them guns in their ration boxes just to see what happens.
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Jul 26, 2016 02:08
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Scoop hound has pretty much lost me. King falls and night vale explore the space so much better.
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Jul 26, 2016 03:14
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I recently binged through The Magnus Archives. The Magnus Institute tracks paranormal incidents. Each episode is a stand-alone ghost/horror story, though a larger and more connected plot emerges. The narrator sounds like a 15 year old from Pittsburgh trying to sound like a 50 from London, but aside from that, it's good.
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Aug 3, 2016 19:43
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I don't know why the Black Tapes is trying SO HARD to avoid telling the story it's obviously telling. Maybe they don't want to tell it, which I guess I can understand. They may have accidentally written a story about a demon wanting to end the world with a song, but wanted to have a different thing where you weren't supposed to pick up on the profane rituals being performed and instead be always wondering what exactly is going on. But fuckin' poo poo, like... okay: You're whispering a goddamn demon's name in your sleep, you HEAR someone you know speak incantations into a baby's ear and then when someone tells you about "awakening the children" or whatever you can't fuckin' put two and goddamn two together what the gently caress and I'm left wondering if the hosts are being willfully stupid or if they just can't actually bring themselves to write out the story they're clearly making. Grondoth fucked around with this message at 04:02 on Aug 4, 2016 |
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Aug 3, 2016 20:52
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Simple: open ended podcasts suck and get run into the ground. Everything should have a story, tell it and move on. It's why I can really respect SAYER.
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Aug 4, 2016 04:30
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One of the reasons we chose an anthology format. Our vocal talent are all working actors with other gigs and obligations, so we record each season's audio up front over a few weekends, and cannot guarantee that any individual will be returning for the next season. One story, broken up into 8-12 episodes, then done.
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Aug 4, 2016 13:28
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I think "trying hard not to tell the story" sums it up well. They keep saying it's an investigation of Strand, but every time Alex asks him an uncomfortable question it's "Please leave." "Okay." On a different note, I've been binge listening to King Falls AM and it's great. More lighthearted than Night Vale, like the other side of the Coast-to-Coast-AM-parody coin. Still has some decent drama, and the 2 main characters have good rapport to keep things interesting. I just wish episodes were longer! Also, Within the Wires is really picking up with the story and some world-building. Looking forward to finding out where it goes.
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Aug 4, 2016 13:30
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Amateur Sketch posted:I think "trying hard not to tell the story" sums it up well. They keep saying it's an investigation of Strand, but every time Alex asks him an uncomfortable question it's "Please leave." "Okay." King Falls is my favorite for the past few months, though it's starting to wear on me. I really do like how short most of the episodes are and how they're non-traditional in their episodic nature. (Most have no resolution or falling-action since each is just a single night radio.) I hope the current story arc goes somewhere but it just seems to be ironically less focused once they added it than before. quote:I recently binged through The Magnus Archives. Doing these now and they're ok but not great yet. I do like the small glimpses in the more connected plot, but given that it's usually just a 30-60 second epilogue it's not quite enough. I also don't know about this whole "Publish weekly" thing. They've released 30 episodes in 19 weeks. It just doesn't seem sustainable for any amount of quality. It seems only improv shows do that now not scripted, and most improv suck 90% of the time.
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Aug 4, 2016 17:37
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Yeah I dropped TANIS and The Black Tapes maybe a month ago.  Not having them in my queue.
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Aug 4, 2016 22:36
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Tanis and the Black Tapes had two very different problems. In Tanis, it's unbearable because Nick is a loving idiot who seems like he should barely be able to function in daily life, let alone investigate something. Also the twist they stuffed into season one sucked. Black Tapes just can't decide if it wants to be a Monster of the Week show or not. For what it's worth, I really liked most of season one when it was actually just a monster of the week show.
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Aug 8, 2016 11:31
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Even in season 1 it was fairly obvious that all of the monsters of the week were the same sort of shadow people.
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Aug 8, 2016 11:50
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Terrible Opinions posted:Even in season 1 it was fairly obvious that all of the monsters of the week were the same sort of shadow people. I did it all at once, so the thing that made me really love the Black Tapes was seeing all those things come together and realizing how everything was connected. It was some real "oh poo poo" moments for me when I started seeing connections to stuff and putting together the overarching story. But they seem just unwilling to tell that story.
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Aug 8, 2016 18:49
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King Falls AM is pretty amusing. It's got a good cast of characters.
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Aug 8, 2016 20:09
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Slamhound posted:King Falls AM is pretty amusing. It's got a good cast of characters. Yeah I'm working my way through this. Enjoying the short format and I really like that there are quite a few different characters. The two old fishermen are the best.
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Aug 9, 2016 01:17
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It's possible to have a monster of the week show and join the stories together. The Black Tapes isn't really sure if it wants to dot that though and is adding way too many elements for me to keep straight, especially on a biweekly update schedule. "I looked at the photo. It was [character from 6 months ago whom I've forgotten how they fit into the story]. *spooky music*
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Aug 9, 2016 17:06
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calandryll posted:Yeah I'm working my way through this. Enjoying the short format and I really like that there are quite a few different characters. The two old fishermen are the best.
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Aug 9, 2016 20:19
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peter banana posted:It's possible to have a monster of the week show and join the stories together. The Black Tapes isn't really sure if it wants to dot that though and is adding way too many elements for me to keep straight, especially on a biweekly update schedule. And then it turns out it was related to the face thief bit from early season one. Like, continuity is great, but yeah, it's a lot to ask people to keep track of for a biweekly show.
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Aug 9, 2016 21:47
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The 2016 Parsec Awards finalists are up:
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Aug 13, 2016 19:05
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peter banana posted:It's possible to have a monster of the week show and join the stories together. The Black Tapes isn't really sure if it wants to dot that though and is adding way too many elements for me to keep straight, especially on a biweekly update schedule. I found TANIS way worse than TBT on this for some reason. After only a few episodes I had totally lost the plot. I feel like TBT has a more solid core that it's magnetised to, even if it strays for a good chunk of season 2. That said, the season 2 finale of TBT is looking promising - it feels like the story has some actual momentum again.
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Aug 13, 2016 22:23
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psychopomp posted:The 2016 Parsec Awards finalists are up: Nice going to have to add some of those. Sad for no king falls am
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Aug 13, 2016 23:37
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I hope it's okay that I cross-post from the Pimp Your Podcast Megathread, but the podcast my girlfriend and I are working on fits into this niche. The Spoony Bard's Aural Theatre I'm a big fan of old fashioned radio dramas and other things that rely on audio as its only medium. I live in Oregon and in Portland they have this radio show called Livewire; it's kind of just a variety show, but I've been in the audience many times. I grew up listening to the Firesign Theatre and that sort of thing. Anyway, I work a graveyard custodial job at OSU and thus I have eight hours a night to kill with nothing else to do, so I devour podcasts like it was air. I sometimes like to listen to audiobooks of books I've already read; something about revisiting those books via another medium is really appealing to me. Anyway, one night I was listening to Watch Out For Fireballs, a podcast in which two guys talk about a single game for like ninety minutes. They don't just talk about the game; they walk each other through every step of the way, and I was listening to their three-part episode of Final Fantasy VII and I remembered how wonderful that game was when I was like twelve or whatever. I never played it since, but I remembered loving it and hearing the WOFF guys talk about it made me appreciate the story all over again. So then it gave me this idea. A lot of video games have a really great story, many rival or even best the best works of literature or film. But it's its own niche medium, sort of -- I know that more people play video games than ever now, but I feel like a huge chunk of those people are Call of Duty or Counterstrike people, the kind of people that play games for the action and not a very long, drawn-out story. I was thinking back to old games, how so much story was told through these really simple graphics, tinny synthesized sounds, and odd, often terrible translations. I thought it would be really neat to listen to a kind of radio drama / audiobook retelling of these classic games. I got on the phone with my girlfriend. She's a dramaturg with two Masters degrees in Shakespearean theatre. Her job primarily is to do research and make sure the production of whatever they're doing is accurate. She also re-adapts scripts to fit a specific need. For instance, recently she adapted the old Greek play Lisistrata to fit something like a 60s Motown feel. She's also a huge geek and is all kinds of excited to work on this project with me. She's acted and directed and has a lot of experience in theatre. I don't. I like theatre and I have experienced much of it, but I've never acted. She's also never done any technical work when it comes to sound and stuff. I've only ever edited sound on a small scale for old Flash animations I used to do. But we gave it a shot. She picked the game Final Fantasy IV because she has a lot of nostalgia for it. I only remembered a little bit of it, but I recalled liking it. The most important thing about it was that it had a long story that could be narrated and had no voice actors so as that we could do that ourselves. And oh, of course, we named our podcast after a weird translation from the game. That's the gist of it. We intend to do many games, but right now we're doing Final Fantasy IV. We're using the translation that was found in the Playstation 1 "Chronicles" release as opposed to the original US release (called "Final Fantasy II" here because we didn't get the original II or III) because that version is all kinds of weird and so badly translated that, while entertaining, it would completely diminish the story, which is really good. The only dialogue we're adding is the narration, provided by Girlfriend. Otherwise, all the lines spoken are exactly as they were written in-game. We're using all the music and sound effects from the game, too. We've only got one episode up so far. It's forty-five minutes long. We are going to try to release it every other week. The next episode should be out on the 23rd of this month. It takes a stupid amount of editing to get this working, and like I said, neither of us have any experience with sound editing or podcasting. If anyone here listens to it, please leave us some feedback and tell your friends! We want to develop a listener base -- but more importantly, we want this to be competent. There will be some things that must develop with time; for instance, it's only her and I doing all the work. Later on we hope to bring in some other voice actors, but we're both new to this town and don't know many people, and the people we do know sure aren't familiar with Final Fantasy IV. She already has a lot of connections with the local theatre; perhaps one day we can perform an entire game live with live foley work and many actors and who knows. Well, that's a dream, anyway. Maybe one day. Anyway, here's the link: http://thespoonybardpodcast.com/ Thanks, guys. credburn fucked around with this message at 10:39 on Aug 14, 2016 |
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Aug 14, 2016 10:37
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Slamhound posted:I recently binged through The Magnus Archives. I've started in on this one and it's good so far. I like the X-files ish theme of "We're the organization that needs to investigate these spooky reports" as well as the hints of bigger things (and cursing of the previous librarian's incompetence for not bringing them up sooner). It's also pretty cool that most of the reports are dated from the last 5-10 years so there's a modern context to them. It's nice to have short self-contained horror stories that I can listen to a few at a time.
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Aug 14, 2016 14:36
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Wolf 359 is ok but does anyone know of something in space, but less zany? I feel like this is too much of both (horror and comedy) but not enough of either. I'm looking for something more serious.
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Aug 15, 2016 20:07
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I love the idea of this a LOT, but you guys really need a bigger cast. I know you said you're working on it and that's understandable, but yeah. If you're going to be acting out entire games in this style having a full (or at least moderately-sized) cast would go a huge way.
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Aug 16, 2016 03:12
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SamuraiFoochs posted:I love the idea of this a LOT, but you guys really need a bigger cast. I know you said you're working on it and that's understandable, but yeah. If you're going to be acting out entire games in this style having a full (or at least moderately-sized) cast would go a huge way. The initial idea for this was not actually a dramatization, but rather an audiobook. Most audiobooks are done by a single person doing all the voice work, narration, men and women, and that's fine. The idea is to convey the game's story...but we want this to evolve into a real radio drama-esque production and I would love to broaden our cast. Maybe for our next game we'll enlist some goons to fill in the other characters.
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Aug 16, 2016 06:56
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