Praise to current generation of audio dramatists.

[panetta]

Hello All,

Angelo Panetta from the Radio Repertory Co of America. I’ve been listening to many of your audio dramas and I want to say what a pleasure it is to hear such great understanding for how to create drama in the audio format. When RRCA came on the scene in ’95 we were called, by some, the “comic book of radio drama” and that was not meant as a compliment. RRCA was interested in producing, fun, “movie like” entertainment for a new generation, unfortunately, for us, the new generation was 10 years away.

I’d love to hear about how you decided audio drama was your medium and why. Am I correct in assuming the debut of podcasts is how most of you got the bug?

[alexachipman]

I write nonfiction historical works, mostly because that is my passion and they are easier to get published. I'd ignored the fiction genre mainly because I saw it has having no prayer ever having one's work read. When I discovered Audio Dramas it was a way to vent my fiction writing and be heard and commented on all over the world. I never like writing things to collect dust on a shelf. This way someone somewhere will be listening.

Also, having worked in indy films, you are severely restrained by budget ie historical dramas are completely out of the question. In audio it costs the same to set it in modern day New York as to set it in a Middle Ages castle.

[panetta]

	Quote:	alexachipman
	Also, having worked in indy films, you are severely restrained by budget ie historical dramas are completely out of the question. In audio it costs the same to set it in modern day New York as to set it in a Middle Ages castle.

This is all very interesting for me. My Partner and I also started RRCA because, he as a writer and myself and a composer and sound designer, wanted to create drama that would cost millions to produce on film. Besides neither one of us has any interested in making movies, even though we both make our living from movies and TV.

[JulieH]

In some ways, I'm the same. I wrote a number of screenplays, but (since I'm not ambitious enough to spend all my time annoying Hollywood types) got bored of putting time into something that isn't very likely to get completed. I decided that a stack of screenplays was a less exciting body of work than a bunch of completed audio pieces that someone could actually enjoy. Needless to say, I, too have zero interest in being a filmmaker - I just want to write them.

Plus (since 19 Nocturne Boulevard is an anthology series), it gives me a chance to get some use out of all those ideas that just can't make it to feature length, no matter how much you try and pad them...

Equally important to me, though, is that I love to act, and in audio I can be a small child, a monster, Britt Ekland... even the occasional guy - and all without painful prosthetics and latex.

[Bill Hollweg]

This is a very interesting thread!

I stumbled onto this medium about 4 years ago while on a slow day at work and looking for information on Dr Who <which I had not seen since I was a kid> and stumbled onto Darker Projects and their wonderful incarnation of Dr Who <starring Mark Kalita> and was hooked- I then devoured most of the rest of their site and loved it... And started looking for more... And found all the beauty of OTR out there and available for DL from CBS radio Mystery Theatre to X-1 to the Zreo Hour and more...MAN...What an awakening...

And as I am an unpublished comic book artist/writer, and was burning myself out sending out resume's and the like to comic houses and drawing 24/7... The idea occurred to me that it might be fun to write a script for audio... And then someone pointed out to me that Audacity was out there... Free... And my mind wnet into overdrive... And then Paul Mannering, Mark Kalita, and David Sobkowiak all had the urge to start our own AD site... And now... I sleep not a wink- but am having the time of my life making Audio Dramas!


And now- I must say I prefer this medium both professional and non-professional <or I should say non-paid> more than I do the visual!

[Bill Hollweg]

Angelo- question... Are your Audios sold anywhere in retail outlets? Walmart, Hastings, what have you?

[Bill Hollweg]

Because I would love to get/listen to some of your work amigo!

[panetta]

from 95 to 2000 were were available in Barnes and Nobles, and other retail book stores, even today you can go to any book store and order our title with the ISBN code.

Book stores were taking 55%, distributor was taking 30% and for a title that was selling for 24.95 and cost 4.95 to manufacture we were left with .69 cents.

once paypal come along, we canceled our distribution deal and decided to go it along on line.

It also became too difficult to compete with the big book publishers. We had a deal with Borders to pay for an End Cap for the month. All the paperwork was delivered and we thought it was a done deal until we were notified that we had to have already sold 5000 units to qualify for an End Cap. Which was nowhere to be found it the End Cap application.

Besides why wait 6 weeks to get our title from a book store when you can get it immediately on line?

If you're interested in getting any of our titles, we prefer you can get them from us at www.rrca.com, but you can also get them from Audible.com or iTunes as downloads.

[Bill Hollweg]

	Quote:	panetta
	from 95 to 2000 were were available in Barnes and Nobles, and other retail book stores, even today you can go to any book store and order our title with the ISBN code. Book stores were taking 55%, distributor was taking 30% and for a title that was selling for 24.95 and cost 4.95 to manufacture we were left with .69 cents. once paypal come along, we canceled our distribution deal and decided to go it along on line. It also became too difficult to compete with the big book publishers. We had a deal with Borders to pay for an End Cap for the month. All the paperwork was delivered and we thought it was a done deal until we were notified that we had to have already sold 5000 units to qualify for an End Cap. Which was nowhere to be found it the End Cap application. Besides why wait 6 weeks to get our title from a book store when you can get it immediately on line? If you're interested in getting any of our titles, we prefer you can get them from us at www.rrca.com, but you can also get them from Audible.com or iTunes.

Thank you for the info amigo!

[UltraRob]

The advent of Podcasts definitely brought me in.

I used to love radioplays as a kid, but pretty much forgot entirely about them until I got my iPod about 3 years ago. Looking around on iTunes I found the only free thing was podcasts, so being somewhat poor at the time I decided to explore this resource. It didn't take me long to find Decoder Ring Theatre and and bunch of OTR podcasts, and after consuming a great number of them it occured to me that I didn't just want to be a listener, but a producer!

I'm pretty much in the same boat as Serendipity on the creative side, I've always enjoyed writing and had a pile of projects I wanted to do something with but which weren't moving forward for various reasons. Doing Audio Drama gave me the chance to let my creativity fly free, and it didn't take long for me to get addicted to producing as well. (Although my first love is writing.)

I'm thankful I have this chance, and it's let me get to know a lot of cool people, especially the ones here!

Rob