In indie audio drama, more often than not the showrunner is also the producer. When making a show for the first time, it can be daunting to not have a clear idea of all the tasks ahead of you. That’s where this article comes in! For the sake of clarity, I’m defining producer in the sense of “one who makes the show happen.” Not audio production, but the act of taking the show from concept to thing that exists in the world.
I’ll be breaking down what I do as producer for Someone Dies In This Elevator in this article.
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How do you tell these three apart for audio drama? Here’s how I do it, in case that’s helpful.
Picking Takes: Taking the raw recording from the actors and deciding what take to go with when multiple were recorded. This is often the director’s job, but it sometimes goes to the dialogue editor or showrunner (if those people are distinct from the director). Sometimes this involves opening a DAW and deleting the takes you don’t want, other times it involves listening through and providing your dialogue editor with written instructions of what take to cut in.
Dialogue Editing: Taking the selected takes and ordering it according to the script. The biggest thing a dialogue editor does is decide timing…
As a podcast creator and voice actor, I’ve made a few casting calls and auditioned for a lot more. I’ve seen folks ask if there exists a guide to making casting calls for audio fiction shows, but I’ve never seen one myself, so I decided to make one. This is a guide for what I think are best practices for making an audio drama casting call. I’m by no means a casting call expert, and these are merely guidelines, not rules — feel free to just incorporate what works for you.
Document Formatting
My favorite casting calls are written up in google…
This is a list of audio dramas I enjoyed listening to in 2020! Not a list of my favorite audio dramas. Not what I declare the best audio dramas of 2020. Not even a list of all the audio dramas I enjoyed listening to in 2020. It’s not a best of list. Just a list! I cannot possibly style myself a critic because so many of the shows I love are shows I am directly involved in. This will rapidly become apparent as you scroll down this list. Also know — I have personal preferences towards both fantasy stories and…
Welcome to the first installment of a series I am calling “Tal Does Things,” where I talk about how I do things in a more rambly, bloggy manner. Come peek into my process, but don’t judge me too hard. I’m trusting you here, dear reader.
So, I make a lot of podcasts. Right now I have 4 shows in active production, about 5 in passive production, and many, many more on the back-burner. This isn’t counting shows I don’t run and am just a part of, as a voice actor, sound designer, or writer. I’ve been asked multiple times how…
I haven’t seen any tools related to making and running a discord specifically to coordinate audio fiction production. I figured it out on my own over the course of running a few shows (as well as spying on the discord servers of shows I’ve joined), and here’s what I think works well. This article will assume some basic knowledge of how discord works, as I’ll be referring to specific features (ex: roles, channels, categories, bots) without explaining them.
Want to poke around in a discord server that matches what I’m talking about? I’ve made a template with all the channels…
How much does it cost to make an audio drama?
There’s not a lot of information about indie audio drama budgets. This article breaks down the cost of a typical Sidequesting episode .
Earlier this year, I ran an IGG campaign for S2 and asked for $800 (ending with $833 raised). $500 was marked for voice actors, $60 for a year of hosting, $80 for fees and physical perks, and $160 for myself.
Spoiler alert: I did not use the $160 for myself.
Throughout this year I’ve gotten about $50 per episode from Patrons. Let’s round the IGG funds to $65 per episode so that we can ignore hosting costs…
Here’s some general advice for you!
Before I get into this article, I want to post a disclaimer up front — this is just my experience, not the only way to do things! Take what I write with a grain of salt.
Write for sound.
If you’re coming to audio drama from another medium, some things don’t translate. This is especially true if you don’t have narration. For example, if you write “SFX: they pick up a mirror,” that’s not going to come across. How will the audience know it’s a mirror that has been picked up? (To answer my own question, it’ll probably have to be in the…
I produce Sidequesting by myself on a shoestring budget, so I’m always on the lookout for free software/websites that will help me make and promote my show! Here’s some of what I’ve used.
- Google Docs. You’ve probably heard of this one. I use it to write my scripts! It’s free (up to 15 GB, I think), and I like having an online backup of everything I write. When it comes time to send the script to actors, I just give them the google doc link. Actors can easily make a copy of the script to modify to their liking (changing…
I ran a poll asking audio drama creators how they fund their shows. I got 111 responses, and here’s the results.
Question 1: What is the main way you funded your show? Creators could only pick one option.
52% of shows are mainly self-funded. The next popular options are Crowdfunding and Subscription, tied at 13.5% each.
Of the 111 shows represented, 8 are made completely for free (including being hosted on a free platform). 7 are primarily funded by a sponsor (defined in the poll as “given significant money from a company or similar entity for the purpose of making the show”), and 4 were primarily funded by a grant. 2 shows are primarily funded by a benefactor (defined in the…
Tal Minear
Tal is a SoCal based podcaster who cannot be stopped from making things and will occasionally write about audio fiction.
