We're Alive Fan-Made Tribute Audio Drama!

[Litmaster]

It was fun to act in too. I'll get you all the sounds you need soon. The chaos hasn't calmed down here.

Just some insight for those of you who have never tried to make an audio drama: I' ve got well over a dozen hours sunk into the editing of this one 45 minute piece, and it STILL sounds like shit compared to the original episodes. And this doesn't even count all the hours I put into writing the script, arranging casting, recording lines, background bed, foley sounds, rooting around online for certain sounds, bugging Kc for his old stuff, etc, etc...

So yeah... Kc and Grayson are both masochistic, clinically insane individuals.

[LiamKerrington]

Just some insight for those of you who have never tried to make an audio drama: I' ve got well over a dozen hours sunk into the editing of this one 45 minute piece, and it STILL sounds like shit compared to the original episodes. And this doesn't even count all the hours I put into writing the script, arranging casting, recording lines, background bed, foley sounds, rooting around online for certain sounds, bugging Kc for his old stuff, etc, etc...

So yeah... Kc and Grayson are both masochistic, clinically insane individuals.

Now you, too. And if only for this single challenge.
But I guess that your recording suffers from the lack of a studio-recording, right? I could imagine that your recordings require a lot more care then any recording in a studio.

And I wonder: did you record several takes with your cast? Or is it the Clint-Eastwood-approach - first take taken?

Best wishes!
Liam

[Kc]

Just some insight for those of you who have never tried to make an audio drama: I' ve got well over a dozen hours sunk into the editing of this one 45 minute piece, and it STILL sounds like shit compared to the original episodes. And this doesn't even count all the hours I put into writing the script, arranging casting, recording lines, background bed, foley sounds, rooting around online for certain sounds, bugging Kc for his old stuff, etc, etc...

So yeah... Kc and Grayson are both masochistic, clinically insane individuals.

Yup! We are crazy. Now add on, Artwork coordination, Website and Forum maintenance, podcast feed maintenance, social media managing, online store inventory-design-budgeting, royalties and contracts, account and finance management, and of course future projects.

There's still more, but you get the picture. We be NUTS.

[Litmaster]

Yup! We are crazy. Now add on, Artwork coordination, Website and Forum maintenance, podcast feed maintenance, social media managing, online store inventory-design-budgeting, royalties and contracts, account and finance management, and of course future projects.

There's still more, but you get the picture. We be NUTS.

Delegate, delegate, delegate... Wayland Productions has got to be more than just Kc Wayland, man.
Seriously, you're gonna have a stroke before you're 40 and we're all gonna get fucked out of some great storytelling...

But I guess that your recording suffers from the lack of a studio-recording, right? I could imagine that your recordings require a lot more care then any recording in a studio.

And I wonder: did you record several takes with your cast? Or is it the Clint-Eastwood-approach - first take taken?

Well, the lack of an available studio is a bit of an impediment with the voices, for sure. Not so much for the background sounds, as a lot of those were field recordings done in a realistic setting (e.g., in a car). This would have been more of a problem if, say, I were recording a Game of Thrones audio drama, where any unwanted traffic noise would really fuck up the 'realism' of a piece set in a fictional world without automobiles.

Most of the voice recordings were done in our hotel room on the Saturday morning of the WA finale event. It was fairly quiet, except for some damn cleaning lady that kept running her vacuum down the hall, so we had to grab takes every time she turned it off and was switching rooms! Some of the cast voices you hear were emailed to me (great individuals, for sure), some with multiple takes of each line, some were done live the night of the finale event, and one was done over the phone just this morning. However, the final scene of my audio play was recorded in the actual We're Alive studio, so at least with that part I had ideal conditions to work with.

So the technique I'm using isn't the same as what Kc does in the original: most of the voice tracks for mine were done individually and at different times from the other actors, as opposed to having everyone together in the same studio at the same time. I can actually see what an advantage that can be, as it engenders much more realism in the performances. It's an impediment to not be able to hear HOW someone else is reading their lines before you read your own; I found myself having to correct a lot of the performances that came out with a different kind of energy or inflection than what I was looking for.

I also learned from this experience just how many ways there can be to interpret a line. You write the script and have an inner dialogue in your head for how the characters sound when they speak to each other. Then when the actors read their lines, you often find a quite different interpretation of the words you wrote for them to say. I'd say about half of the time the reading is fine, 30% of the time it is off and needs to be corrected, and maybe 20% of the time I actually get pleasantly surprised when an actor reads a line in a way that sounds much better than what I was imagining in my head. I wonder how many times Kc had this experience over the past years...

So yep, I've got a total of 10 cast members participating in this project, not including Kc. I won't say who yet because I want people to smile when they recognize a familiar voice. It's just chock-full of We're Alive references. I hope the fans enjoy it...

[Kc]

Delegate, delegate, delegate... Wayland Productions has got to be more than just Kc Wayland, man.
Seriously, you're gonna have a stroke before you're 40 and we're all gonna get fucked out of some great storytelling...

Well, between Gman and I, we have our areas we focus on. I don't even touch the store any more, which is HUGE amounts of stress. And we have zinterns as well that help out tremendously. There's a bit of some training involved with that stuff too as you can see here. This video is only available via link, and we try to keep this in house, but you can check it out.

I also learned from this experience just how many ways there can be to interpret a line. You write the script and have an inner dialogue in your head for how the characters sound when they speak to each other. Then when the actors read their lines, you often find a quite different interpretation of the words you wrote for them to say. I'd say about half of the time the reading is fine, 30% of the time it is off and needs to be corrected, and maybe 20% of the time I actually get pleasantly surprised when an actor reads a line in a way that sounds much better than what I was imagining in my head. I wonder how many times Kc had this experience over the past years...

It's all about direction. The director's job is to make it all consistent and work. It was very important especially when you record someone separately like Michael. Also, it helps to have multiple takes to pick which match the next character.