Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Drama without words

Some of you may have heard me bang on about Andrew Sachs (yes, Manuel from Fawlty Towers)'s 1979 radio drama without words, "Revenge". An experiment never again repeated. Or so I thought.

This is a short French piece called "Enlevé". You can find it, and much, much more on http://www.arteradio.com. I think it works...


Is this the audio equivalent of silent films?
Is that too pretentious for words?
Do I care?

Friday, January 26, 2007

Unlikely interviews

A presenter based at BBC Oxford called Tim Bearder has sent me details of some interviews he's done with local bands. I'm sure Tim would appreciate ideas for even more unorthodox locations...


Sunday, January 21, 2007

More content

Here's some more stuff you might find interesting: the first of a series of very short dramas starring computer-generated voices. The series is called An Error Has Occurred and it's entirely created by Susanne Weber, whose day job is studio manager at the BBC World Service. I think the dialogue and music are fantastic and I'm really glad that BBC7 have picked it up. The first episode is currently on air and on the Website. You can hit the Play button below to hear it.



Listen out for another 10 episodes over the coming weeks.

Saturday, January 20, 2007

A La Web 2.0

As I've got the Odeo player working I thought I'd stick in a short excerpt from something I was involved with a while ago. The whole thing is a bit longer than most of the things I'll be putting on The Audiotheque but you might find it useful to know that it was made without trained actors or a script, and recorded onto minidisc over a couple of evenings.



powered by ODEO

Monday, January 15, 2007

FAQs

I thought I'd better stick this up now rather than when the 1st newsletter comes out as I've been fielding a few questions. I hope it helps. Please do comment if your questions aren't answered.

WHAT WILL BE ON THE SITE?
Creative audio. This means anything from drama to sci-fi to horror to features to experimental soundscapes. As long as it has impact and an original voice and is different from the kind of thing you can already hear on the radio.

HOW LONG DO YOU WANT THE PIECES TO BE?
Short is good! You can pack a lot into a minute. The maximum would be around 10 minutes but if it's really good work and it warrants more time then that's fine.

WHAT DO I GET OUT OF IT?
Only the best work makes it onto the site so you'll know that your piece makes the grade if it's featured. You'll get the kudos of appearing on a BBC Wehsite and know that your work is being heard by BBC producers. I'll be organising regular competitions on the site where the winner will be commissioned to make something for one of the national BBC radio networks (eg BBC7, 1Xtra, Radio 4, Radio 3, World Service).

SO WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME?
I want you, your team and your listeners to send me your audio creations! Unfortunately we can't afford to pay you, but if you win a competition and are commissioned to make work for one of the networks you will get paid. If you don't have anything created but are interested anyway please let me know! A really important part of this project is the creation of a new community of audio enthusiasts. If you email me I'll put you on my mailing list. You'll be one of the first people to receive the Audiotheque newsletter. I want to kick-start debate and discussion about creative audio via this site and, in the meantime, via my blog: http://audiodrama.blogspot.com. So spread the word!

Monday, January 01, 2007

Tell me what you think

If you're reading this then you've probably been subjected to one of my mailouts. Hello. I'd be very interested to know what you think and what sort of stuff you'd like to see on The Audiotheque. I've characterised the audio as "anything from drama to sci-fi to horror to features to experimental soundscapes. As long as it has impact and an original voice and is different from the kind of thing you can already hear on the radio." What do you think? All comments gratefully received.

Happy New Year!