so i says to myself, Self, do you wanna redo some podfic done three years ago with better voice-work, because i know you care about that and also you need a fucking project to keep the weather from driving you crazy?
and Self says, that sounds awesome. hey, do you remember that one from three years ago that's half an hour long, and two fics spliced together because they're closely related and also they're fully SFXed which means you had some extreme dynamic range to deal with when switching scenes and also there's a fucking air raid?
and i say, yeah. shit, that took a long time to do.
we should do that, says Self.
...
...
(Actually it turned out really lovely and I'm looking forward to making it live.)
If you want to see what i'm talking about?
So describing this thing... this is the display of the Digital Audio Workstation I use - those coloured blocks in the middle are visuals of the samples I was working with. Big controls are up in the toolbar overhead. Track specific controls are in that left column - the volume slider bar, for example, and that high-lighted M means the selected track is currently on mute. The bar on the bottom holds Play, Pause, Stop, and Record buttons, a timestamp, and a thumbnail of the project as a whole. Each white block in that thumbnail represents one of the coloured blocks you see on the main screen only all of it, everywhere, all at once.
Excessive sibillants, long sentences, technical language, unfamiliar words which must be looked up and practiced... yeah, whatever. I’ll get there.
One-to-three word sentences?
AGONY.
Five takes, six takes... Attempting to convey in some way the complex, devastating slew of emotions the writer was trying to convey in some key phrase spoken by a character, narrowed down to this single concentrated point... eight takes, nine takes...
Podfic Beta ing: Well, now I’m curious about what kind of beta style feedback @johnlocked4life (or @bagofthumbs, or @consultingsmartarse, or any other podfic maker/listener) would give for this scene.
This is the opening scene to Damage, Chapter 4, just under 5 minutes long. I’ve wrestled with it for ages, to the point that my editing is making it worse, and I am so close to a re-record, like arg. Usually I don’t record things again but this has been such a headache...
I could go through line by line and point out the problems, but my concern right now is whether my splicings are so bad that OTHER people find them jarring. So, what do you say, @johnlocked4life (or anyone else), does it need to be taking back into the study? Or are there just a few spots that need adjusting (timing, levels, maybe filtering)?
(here is a download link to the audio, cuz tumblr audio post don’t always work)
Text of the scene under the cut, for reference. I am pretty thick skinned about this stuff, so don’t be afraid to say “ew, no”.
text of the scene (written by @marsdaydream):
The voice on the end of the line curled around Sherlock with wicked tendrils of amusement. “Well, this is a surprise. What could you possibly want, Mr Sherlock Holmes? Need to break into an office? I could use another diamond.”
“Hello, Janine.” Sherlock let falsehood slip over him like a dressing gown. Lies were only convincing if he himself truly believed them. Taken aback, perhaps slightly hurt, he stuttered. “N-no, no. Just calling, you know. As a -- a friend.”
An incredulous giggle. “I thought I told you. Not really up for the ‘friend’ thing, or don’t you remember? You were a bit drugged up at the time.”
Sherlock let his hesitation linger into awkwardness.“I do remember.”
Janine softened. “No, fine. That’s fine. It’s been a while, we can give it a whirl. ‘Friend’ is a bit less cumbersome than ‘lying ex-fiancé.’”
“I’m happy with whichever term you prefer.”
“Let’s call it friends, on a trial basis.”
“Good. That’s good.”
“Is it? Well, my friend Sherl, why’ve you decided to grace me with that lovely voice of yours?”
Sherlock cleared his throat. Every word of this had to work, each tiny vocal inflection. “I wanted to thank you for coming to the funeral last month. I -- I know we didn’t have time to chat that day. I was a bit preoccupied.”
“Oh.” An unreadable mood: surprise, perhaps. “Oh. Of course, I mean. I wouldn’t have missed it. I know you were busy helping John.” A pause. “How is he holding up?”
“Yes, well. That’s the reason for my call.”
“Oh. Oh, damn.”
Sherlock coaxed vulnerability into his voice.“Yes, I -- well. I’ve been -- trying to find ways to help him. I thought I might talk to people who knew Mary better than I did, so I could learn a bit more about their life, you know, when I was -- away. And I don’t know Mary’s other friends particularly well.”
Hesitation. Not buying it, perhaps, but weighing the outcomes. “You want to... chat, is that all?”
“About Mary. I -- I fear I’ve not been particularly useful to John. I knew Mary less than a year.”
A catch in her voice: sympathy. Let it be sympathy. “I’m sure you’ve been fine, Sherlock.”
“No, well. This sort of stuff is not really my area. People, you know. And it was just so -- sudden.”
He could almost hear Janine’s mind putting it together, the chances that Sherlock was lying (he was) against the chance he was genuinely reaching out, fumbling for a way to relate to a devastated best mate. Given Mycroft’s latest intelligence from MI-6, it was highly unlikely Janine believed Mary died in a car crash. But Janine couldn’t blow him off here without seeming supremely insensitive. It was time to find out exactly how much she knew.
She crumbled, as he’d hoped she would. “You’re a good man, Sherl. I wish you hadn’t been such a damn liar.”
He wished he could appreciate the irony. “Unusual circumstances.”
“Fine, all right. What are you proposing? No pun intended, of course.”
Damn. Clever Janine. He liked her; that would make this far more difficult. Who would be so reprehensible as to attempt to manipulate her a second time?
It was a good thing Sherlock specialised in being reprehensible.
“I’d like to just... chat. Without John around, you know. Maybe meet for lunch, or. Or come over to your place. If that’s all right.”
She sighed. “I know you don’t eat lunch. Come over here, then. I’m free tomorrow afternoon. Two o’clock?”
“That would be lovely. Thank you.”
“I’m sorry he’s not doing well.” Janine paused. “It’ll be nice to see you.”
In response to @bagofthumbs post podfic musings, @iamjohnlocked4life said: There are lots of podfic fans who would be happy to beta podfic!!! *enthusiastically raises hand*
OK, I’m curious, @iamjohnlocked4life, what would you expect to do as a podfic beta?
I have actually had the good fortune to work with a beta some of the time. cryptic_answers was a generous podfic listener who came on as a beta during TQM and held my hand through the main 8 chapters of ACfB too. She was a great help picking up mispronounciations, accidents like repeated phrases, and letting me know when the listener might feel confused by an elided transition or poor character voice contrast. She also sharing excitement over specific scenes and favourite lines and was generally hugely encouraging. It helped a ton!
But there was another kind of feedback I was (and still am) craving that we never got to explore: interpretation and editing. I can spent twenty minutes trying to get two lines of dialogue to sounds natural, and at the end of that effort, my sense of “natural” is twisted out of shape. It would be amazing (and technically difficult) to say “Hey, listen to this. Does that sound in character/scene appropriate/humanly possible?”
I see videos of voice over work and the actor is always there with the engineer and some kind of director (or stand in). To work with someone who has the larger story arc in mind would also be amazing. One reason I do bajillion takes is to make sure I have some options to get the best intensity and affect for this section when I’m trying to get the whole podfic or chapter to build properly over time. I suppose some people take that role on themselves and mark up their scripts... yeah, it would be great to have that degree of forethought : )
Podfic Production: Interiorizing - the voice in the mind ie dealing with internal dialogue
Aha, those pesky italics interspersed through dialogue. Well not always italics, but any internal dialogue. I don't know about you but I certainly wrestled with distinguishing this from normal dialogue. Because it can be REALLY important:
"I hate you!"
But really I love you...
See what I mean?
But radio may have a good technique for this! Interiorizing!
Work in mic Position 1 (VERY CLOSE) or Position 2 (uh not so close)
TECHNIQUE - work in a neutral acoustic (ie not a big echoey hall)
Your acting skills are also needed a bit and you need to use your voice in a different way. Depending on the scene the voice in the mind is searching and revelatory, and their true emotion is being represented. Think about how stage actors do stage whispers to the audience. So for my above example, if the character is say scared about revealing their love, you could read the italic in a scared tone while dialogue is spoken angrily.
Just getting closer to the mic and how you read it could be enough to differentiate between the spoken dialogue and the voice in the mind.
Also for longer internal monologues, this is a chance for you to act your heart out to express how you interpret how the character is feeling inside.
Podfic Technique: Scene Boundaries cont - Music Bridge and FX / Atmos Bridge
Lets take a really detailed look at MUSIC BRIDGES (occasionally used in podfics) and FX/ATMOS BRIDGES (rarely used).
There are two types of music here:
Music in the story space - in the same acoustic as the scene. The theoretical term is 'diegetic' music.
Music outside the story space - not in the same acoustic as the scene - in best quality audio. This is the convention so the listeners know that the music does not 'belong' to the story space of the characters' dialogue. The music makes a comment on the story and the characters. The theoretical term is 'non-diegetic' music.
You can also treat the quality of the music and make a transition from the music in the story space (diegetic) into outside the story space (non-diegetic).
Examples:
Music in the story space
Scene location - teenager's bedroom in 1965
Music - Beatles' hit
Music introduced at the beginning of the scene in the acoustic of the teenager's bedroom. It is faded down and under the dialogue, but remains under. At the end of the scene, the music - still in the bedroom acoustic - is faded up under the last words of the scene and then further up, and then faded out, or straight cut. This is a convention in radio drama.
Music from inside the story space (diegetic) and then into outside (non-diegetic)
Same situation as above
Scene location - teenager's bedroom in 1965
Music - Beatles' hit
As before, the music is in the story space, under the dialogue. At the end of the scene, the music in the acoustic of the bedroom is faded up (as in the above example), but once the dialogue is finished, the music is treated, so that is changes its quality, and makes a transition into best quality audio.
This is also a convention in radio drama and tells the listeners that we are now in the scene boundary. The music will now comment (ironically? joyfully? mournfully?) on the scene and prepare us for the coming scene.
Music Bridge
Music, in best quality audio, is faded in under the dialogue at the end of the scene, brought up for the scene boundary, and then faded under the dialogue at the beginning of the new scene.
In the overall meaning of the play, the music could be a repeating motif of the same music choice, or from a music genre - such as standards of the 1960s (play about teenagers in that decade).
SFX (sound effect) bridge and Atmos bridge
This can be used in realist plays and the nonrealist.
Use in a realist play:
This indicates a lapse of time between two scenes. For example, in Rhys Adrian's play, 'The Clerks', the two tramps of the title keep up a dialogue spread across an evening and into the next day. The scene divisions are more to do with their conversation topics. Scene boundaries are indicated by the FX atmos faded up, and across the boundary, and then faded under but continued under the new scene dialogue. This convention lets us know that the location is ongoing, as the presence of the characters involved, but that there are transitions in the time scenario.
A SFX is also used as a bridge - in one case, a passing police car, and an ambulance in another. These SFXs are in the same acoustic and location as the scenes, but are faded up and then down to mark the scene boundary. They are faded up to a higher level than as an FX during the middle of a scene. We have the impression of the 'camera' focusing on the passing emergency vehicles and watching them speed away. We focus away from the characters and from this convention, we know that we are moving into a new scene.
You use them in different combinations. All relates to the overall rhythm and meaning of the play, and where you are with this sequence of scenes. And what mode (realism or not) and style are you working in?
If there is an exciting climax to a scene, a revelation or some action, you may decide to go to silence before the next scene, to allow your audience time to absorb the information and emotion, and to catch up.
END OF SCENE - (Revelation - 'He's your father!') Fade to silence OR Straight cut on the revelation
BETWEEN SCENES - 2 seconds silence
BEGINNING OF FOLLOWING SCENE - Fade in or straight cut in
Note: 'Archers' fade if you fade out to silence (2 seconds) and fade in the new scene
Or it may be better to keep up the pace. You are near the end of the play, and you are building to the most important final scene. You want to increase the excitement.
END OF SCENE - Straight cut
Nothing before the next scene
BEGINNING OF FOLLOWING SCENE - Straight cut into the new scene
This is very effective if the play is a police thriller. Let's say you are involved in a car chase near the end, and leading to the capture of the crook. Straight cut from the police and our heroine in their car, to the evil villain who has captured a child in the leading and speeding car.
Here is another example - the 'talking heads' play. This relies on dialogue for the most part. Your aesthetic as a director could well be standard production. And as has been said about standard production, the choice of an aesthetic suits the script. Many 'talking heads' plays have an acute ear for dialogue and atmosphere. Speech rhythms and psychologically acute acting, along with superb timing will realise in a ringingly alive and observant play.
While I think music bridges are more natural for us as podficcers to use, I can't help but be intrigued by the possibilities of atmos bridges.
I think that radio conventions have developed as a way of telling narratives through audio in a very intuitive way, so even if listeners are not familiar with radio drama, they are naturally understood and could really help us podficcers create a very polished product.
So what is known as scene boundaries in radio, the change from one scene to another, we can also consider as chapter changes in podfic.
Here are your options:
Straight CUT
FADE Into
FADE Out
CROSSFADE
`Archers FADE` (fade out to silence (2 seconds or more) and fade into new scene)
Music Bridge and music FX
FX bridge
Atmos Bridge
Montage
Non-realist `art` pieces
Which scene bridge you use will change the feel and mood of the scene.
CUT and FADE offer different rhythms to the overall podfic. This is used everywhere in radio plays. You can become skilled in the CREATIVE FADE.
CUT - excitement - abruptness - energy
CUT - 'STRAIGHT OUT OF' - a sudden change - lack of connection with the previous scene
CUT - 'STRAIGHT OUT OF' - a strong emphasis at the end of a scene
CUT - 'STRAIGHT INTO' - start a new scene with energy - activity - eagerness - plunging the listeners into the 'mise-en-scène' - representation of the podfic scene, locations, spaces and perspectives
FADE IN and FADE OUT need to suit the purposes of the dialogue, the characters and the situation.
Your recording, AND your work on this in post-production makes an editing comment on those vital elements - dialogue, characters, situation - and how they relate to each other.
MUSIC BRIDGE
Crossfade into MUSIC->Bring up MUSIC->Bring down MUSIC->Crossfade MUSIC into next scene
ATMOS BRIDGE
Crossfade into ATMOSPHERE->Bring up ATMOS->Bring down ATMOS->crossfade ATMOS into next scene
The ATMOS is like a gentle sloping hill between two scenes.
Questions to think about scene bridges:
1. How does this scene end and how does the new scene begin?
Does the new scene establish itself immediately - a 'hard' into? Or slowly - a 'soft' into?
RULE: If the new scene is a 'soft' into - then you nearly always do NOT have a silence between scenes. You have a crossfade. Try out alternatives - and you decide.
2. What is the design of the podfic and this sequence overall?
Am I building up the energy towards an exciting climax? Do I need to have a silence at a scene boundary?
RULE: You probably need a silence (fade to silence) after a scene.
Especially if you have brought something to a temporary conclusion. Or if something very significant and exciting has happened.
You want your audience to have a little rest before the new scene.
THINK - Would it be too much if you pushed on too swiftly? Your listeners need some little time to catch up.
It's your creative judgement and design - try out alternatives
3. Do I use a music bridge? It depends on the genre /style of the podfic.
You could try out witty and ironic music bridges. They are a great way of adding that entertaining extra.
Examples - (plot situation) after a date has gone wrong - 'It's raining men'.
If you use underscoring music, this could come to a climax at the end of a scene. The next scene is a 'hard' into.
Look at all these options we have for changing scenes! Experiment, get creative!
