Other Audio Dramas?

[Zombiphobe]

Also darker projects have a habit of not finishing their audio dramas.

Yeah, I remember being intrigued by their "Generation 1" show. They I realized they only ever produced two episodes. :-(

[GeneTwo]

http://theaudiodramadirectory.com/

The website has a large list of radio/podcast dramas. We're Alive is in the Horror section.

[Osiris]

Been listening to a lot of X-Minus One lately. Old school, son. Old school.

[finalrune]

Hey Litmaster, Zombiphobe (and earlier, Mudpuppy) - Thanks for the shout! Guess I should have moseyed over here sooner. I don't do a lot of forum'ing but I've been following We're Alive since Sept 2009. I got an email for Kc where he introduced the show as a zombie show "not like the many others I have heard out there" and boy was he right I have had the pleasure of discovering some incredible work in my role auditioning new material for http://www.radiodramarevival.com/ and a whole hell of a lot of duds as well.

Most of the top dramas I recommend are already mentioned here: Wormwood, Leviathan Chronicles, Mask of Innana all come at the top as serialized podcasts in this category. My 'mentor,' so to speak, is the great Roger Gregg who was the one who introduced me to on-location recording. He has done some remarkable work, check any of it out you will love it: http://www.radiodramarevival.com/cat...heater/page/3/ (that'll get you to "The Last Harbinger," a great satirical post-apocalyptic esque story with overtones of Dostovesky's Grand Inquistor). Dirk Maggs is splendid, he did the new Hitchhiker's Guide stories, Tom Lopez who I'm featuring now has dozens of stories with strange humor immersive sound design and space music and then there's John Dryden, a BBC reporter turned dramatist who makes gripping, location recorded shows in exotic places across the globe. Seriously, there are over 200 hours in Radio Drama Revival's archives and most of it holds up pretty well.

OK, on to the stuff on my new series.

I have been wanting to do a series for awhile now, I must cite We're Alive as a big inspiration as I used to do 30 or 60 minute one-off shows but seeing what they were able to do with ongoing characters, a dramatic story arc, etc. made me really feel that a serialized podcast is the way to do something bigger that actually attracts an audience that sticks around. The Cleansed is a story that has haunted me for awhile, and so it was a perfect match for this format.

It's a post-apocalyptic tale, but it's not about zombies, or at least, not in the epidemic sense. It posits a world not-so-far-from-now where SHTF after we run out of oil. A bunch of preppers takes over Bangor, Maine and all hell breaks loose. There is more than a gentle nod to Stephen King. In fact, we aired the pilot on his radio station and even had him OK the use of his likeness in the script. The Kc reference - Kc is not actually in the drama but I had him look over the script and give me feedback on all of the soldier stuff, so he helped work on the dialogue for the radio transmissions, the realism of the soldier's reactions to the catastrophe, etc.

While the first Ep is all about the SHTF / TEOTWAWKI moment, really the story picks up 15 years later. The terrible times of "The Breaking," are behind us, and we're introduced to a bucolic, off-grid refuge in the woods of Maine. They've scratched out a living through farming, low power tech with solar panels, wind, etc... but things will soon go awry. A ghost from the past appears, pleading for help overthrowing a new enemy. The village elders don't believe him, but we soon learn of the countercurrent. In the ashes of what used to be New York, a dark man creeps in the alleys, killing for sport and manipulating those with guns and influence to come around to his way of thinking. Elsewhere, there is a man crying out, preaching that it is the End of Days, that Christ is coming and the ultimate battle will soon be here. The dark man smiles. An ultimate battle. That will be fun.

And so the show begins, with two youths in the woods of Maine spirited off by a dream of adventure, with no idea of the chaos that awaits them.

One thing I share with the WA producers is a total commitment to realism in the drama. I do not want you to hit a little story inaccuracy that pulls you out of the story and makes you think that the writer was half-baked (though some of the characters are...). To push this realism even further we record our productions on location, meaning we go out in the world with our microphone and recorder kit and record our actors running around in live spaces - we have been at an airport, a house, woods, stream, farm, and an abandoned textile mill with deep dark catacombs so far in recording this show.

Season 1 of The Cleansed is now podcasting with a new installment each week, around 8 minutes. They are released on Friday and Season 1 builds to a climax around Halloween 2012. We are also releasing the episodes ahead of time in an uncut version 30 minutes long, available for a small fee.

The show has over 40 actors, an original score, unique episode art each week. There will be 3 seasons only in this story, the ending is already written, we go into a small dormant period from Nov-Feb this year and kick up Season 2 next March. So, if this stuff interests you, I'd appreciate you giving a listen. We are just getting going now (week 6) but initial reviews have been very positive.

Sorry for the dissertation, but as you may be able to tell this stuff fires me up!

- Fred

Writer/Producer/Director
FinalRune Productions
Radio Drama Revival
The Cleansed

Second the motion on "The Cleansed."

Fred has come out with Season One, so it looks like it's going to be a good one. Jury's still out yet on how it will compare to WA, but if you want to jump on board a new one from the very beginning, then check out "The Cleansed" at:

http://www.finalrune.com/category/au.../the-cleansed/

[COsurvivor]

www.podiobooks.com has MANY audiobooks read by the authors...

I recommend Dead Mech it is great!

[Coo]

Also in agreement with other posters, I enjoy most of Scott Sigler's audio books - Nocturnal and the GFL trilogy (neither are horror tho), Fried Green Zombies - laughed at this one all the way through, Underwood and Flinch has just had it's last episode and I was sorry to see it end.
I liked The Falcon Banner, Byron Chronicles, Alive Inside but agree they do have the tendency to just stop and move onto another podcast which is a shame. Decoder Ring Theatre is one of the best - BJJ and Trixie rules.

There was a good audiobook called Blood Witness on Itunes (sorry I can't remember the author) had a strange mix of Jehovas's Witness and vampires but it actually worked.

[Litmaster]

Hey Guys,

Yap Audio Productions is now on their 3rd episode of "Aftermath", another post-apocalyptic story set in Scotland. No zombies, but there are people gone lunatic via a mysterious green-haze as well as good quality sound and decent acting. Check out their facebook page at:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Yap-Au...81722121907378

You can also download the "Aftermath" episodes from iTunes.

Here is another link, where they apparently had a little interview a few months ago with none other than our KC Wayland, who had been making the audiophile rounds quite a bit as of late...

http://soundcloud.com/yapaudio

[COsurvivor]

YAP - Yap Audio Production (http://www.yapaudio.co.uk/)

Seems interesting at the early stages thou...

[Coo]

www.podiobooks.com has MANY audiobooks read by the authors...

I recommend Dead Mech it is great!

In the process of downloading now - thanks for the recommendation.

[podcastlover]

I like The New York Crimes
http://thenycrimes.com

and

The Truth
http://thetruthapm.com

The Truth has really great production values. Kind of like This American Life, but fictional. They do a new story each episode, some really great sound design.
The New York Crimes is kind of like a radio drama version of that tv show Bored to Death. It's going to for a detective noir style, but its main characters are modern day hipsters.