Audio fiction, though a niche subset of the broader podcasting industry, is currently enjoying massive growth in listenership and production.
A term like “renaissance” or “rebirth” is perhaps more fitting; audio fiction in the States, though popular during the early days of radio, languished in slumber for 30 to 40 years before the advent of the internet and streaming made audio more accessible and available than ever before.
As an audiobook producer with significant exposure to the methods of theater and film sound design through my studies, I find myself increasingly drawn to the exciting potential of audio fiction (or audio drama).
I’ve taken it upon myself to make a foray into the audio fiction world, and I would like to document here the process of producing my first short drama.
First, a note about the differences inherent in producing for audio without a visual element. The lack of visuals to pair with audio brings a unique set of challenges to the medium. True, much of the work involved is simplified: without visuals, there’s no need to meticulously align sound design elements to a screen, a process that is oftentimes monotonous and requires more sounds in the form of foley to cover every movement and object interaction than one requires for an audio-only environment.
On the other hand, the lack of a screen dictates different requirements: how do you describe an environment through sound, or how do you describe an action between two characters in such a way as to prevent any ambiguity of sound to confuse the listener?
In my self-education in audio drama production, I happened across the personal site of audio dramatist Fred Greenhalgh, a producer/writer/director of audio fiction whose credits include Locke & Key and The X-Files, both of which were created for Audible Studios.
His personal site (www.FinalRune.com) contains a great many resources for those learning audio fiction production, including a free video course on the production process. A particularly helpful resource of his are some of his scripts, which are short and free for anyone to download and use for educational purposes, so long as you give attribution and are released non-commercially.
I chose a short, five-page script, A Drink Before the Dark, as my first project. The script calls for three characters, and so the first and arguably the most difficult step involved is to find voice actors. One may guess that, for your average independent producer with little or no budget, finding willing actors would be difficult.
While it is true that it may feel awkward asking an actor for a free performance, what is equally true is that the world is filled with aspiring, amateur, and/or part-time actors who either are happy to lend a hand in your production for credit, or just enjoy acting for fun. This is not to encourage taking advantage of people like this, but to recognize that, if treated respectfully and given proper credit, many actors are happy to lend their talents to your project.
I used two online resources to find actors: a subreddit on Reddit called r/RecordThisForFree and a Facebook group called Audio Drama Auditions. There are of course more places one can find actors, but I received plenty of auditions through these two.
It’s important, if not for the risk of having your post removed by the moderators, to pay close attention to the format of and information provided for the casting call, as you will see more success in securing auditions by presenting yourself professionally and respectfully.
For my casting call for three parts, I received a total of sixteen auditions. Outside of the actors I chose, I made sure to respond to every audition, personalizing each as much as I could by stating what I liked (or a very mild constructive criticism) about his or her audition. Many responded with appreciation for the feedback, an affirmation of the truth that being respectful and professional helps your reputation as a producer.
Following securing actors and lines, the bulk of my time was spent on production within my digital audio workstation. Before bringing in actors’ lines and beginning the sound design, however, I marked up my script with any elements of sound design and music. This made it easier to collect the sounds I needed before beginning my sound design.
There are a number of resources online for free sound effects/foley and music. Some, like www.freesound.org, feature recordings under a Creative Commons license, which allows for freedom of use for projects under the stipulation that credit is attributed to the creator of the recording. Others come from actual sound effects and design licensing services, some of which will offer free versions of a few of their sound effects and music packs. I like these because of their high quality and usual lack of attribution requirement.
I broke down the sound design and mixing process into separate processes:
- First, I organized actors’ lines. Actors will usually include several takes of each line, so I chose the line that best fit, making sure to keep alternate takes on separate tracks in case I needed to refer back to them.
- Next, I made markers for sound design, after which I began adding my sound effects. Utilizing markers made it easier and quicker when it came to adding effects.
- Some sound design and foley elements I could not find suitable recordings for online, so I chose to record my own. After recording and inserting my own recorded sounds, my sound design stage was completed.
- Following the sound design stage, I focused on adding music. There are a number of resources for finding music online, including the methods I used to find my sound effects. I happened to record my own music elements for this project.
- The next stage of production for me involved mixing. Other than setting very general levels for my tracks, I tried not to focus on mixing during the sound design stages. Levels, panning, automation, and effects such as EQ, compression, and reverb take up the bulk of this stage.
- The final stage I focused on was mastering for distribution. For my purposes, mastering is simply preparing the drama for release by making sure the final mix conforms to podcast industry loudness standards. I won’t go into detail on this here, but I’ll include one of many tutorials online for this here.
Not every speaker system will present the mix in the same way; for some, the dialogue may be too quiet, while for others, the bass may be too loud. I made sure to test my mix on multiple systems, such as cheap earphones, the car stereo, and my laptop speakers.
Once I had finalized my drama, I focused on distribution. There are an ever-growing amount of podcast hosts in the market, each with varying price levels and comparable features. I went with Spreaker for my distribution, as they have a free tier that was perfect for my needs for this short drama. Spreaker, like other podcast hosts, allows for distribution to a number of the most popular podcast distributors, including Apple, Spotify, and Google.
This project, though combining various aspects of my past experiences in spoken word audio and sound design, proved to be a stimulating new experience in the world of audio fiction. I aim to continue my journey into the scripted audio world with more involved projects; in the meantime, I hope to have provided a thorough overview of my production process.
You may listen to A Drink Before the Dark here.