McTricky
09-11-2009, 11:23 PM
McTricky's Guide On Radioplays & Mixing
So I was bored, and I made this. I'm not really one for making tutorials, but I felt that I knew enough about this topic to make a guide on it. So let's start.
So, you wanna make a radioplay but you have NO idea where to start. Well this guide is to give you a few pointers on what a radioplay is and how to effectively make one.
What is a Radioplay?
Stupid question. Everybody knows what a radioplay is, right? For the very small, and probably virtually non-existent few people who don't know what a radioplay is, I'll explain. To make explaining easier, another word for a radioplay is "audiodrama". Now if you break that up into "audio" and "drama" you pretty much get the definition. A drama that only consists of audio and no visuals.
Writing a Radioplay
So you are writing an original story and you wanna adapt it to a radioplay? No problem, however I find that there could be some limits. Creating a radioplay (as well as making sense of one) usually requires vivid imagination, as you would have to picture everything that's happening in your mind. It gives you the opportunity to see what YOU wanna see, instead of what you would see on a screen. However, you couldn't exactly recreate Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children into a radioplay. It's just too epic. Unless you make drastic changes. The point is, radioplays have limits as to how much you want the listener to percieve. It's up to you, the producer/mixer/writer to ensure that you do your best to create a solid image in the listener's mind. I hope I'm making sense...
Quick Tips:
- When writing a script for a radioplay it's important to take into account the fact that there won't be any visuals so you must describe what would be seen in your script.
- Related to the previous one, have your characters voice things that can't be seen. I know I've done this before, so I'll give an example. There's a scene where three people are looking for someone. When they find him, he's severely injured on the floor. But then I had one character go something like: "Who did this do him?" See? Now your mind would be like wondering "Who did WHAT to him?".
- Direction. Direct your cast through the script. Mention little actions that happen throughout the scene so they know what's going on. Make notes to the cast saying: "This person's brother has just died, so adjust your tones to fit this sad situation" or "In this scene there is powerful wind blowing everywhere, so speak forcefully as if you're in the midst of a tornado." Stuff like that can REALLY help your cast understand what you want.
So you have a story and a well written script. All you need now are tools voice actors to make it come to life. If it's your first time making starting up a radioplay then I suggest you set up an audition thread. That way you can get to a hear a lot of voices which you can keep in mind for any future projects. Scouting will be hard if you have no idea what anyone sound like. However, if a person has a demo reel you can listen to that. If you hear a voice in there that you like, drop him/her a message informing that person of a project you're starting up, say that you listened to that person's demo reel and liked a certain voice and ask if that person would like to take part in your project. Now I'm not gonna through the whole audition process, that's not what this guide is for. You can find about those here: http://voiceactingalliance.com/board/showthread.php?t=36556
I Have My Voice Actors! What now?
Great, so now you have voice actors willing to work with you on your project. You've sent them the script, and after a couple of weeks, you recieved the lines back in. Now you're ready to do some mixing. I personally find Adobe Audition the best program to use for audio editing and mixing. However that may be more than your wallet can chew. In which case Audacity will work just fine. Now...
Quick Tips:
- This is one of my principles of radioplay mixing: "Always make what you would see, heard." This doesn't neccessarily mean EVERYTHING but you get the idea. If you have a scene where there's two people talking on the street. I don't JUST wanna hear the characters' voices and nothing else. That'd be boring. I wanna know where the hell they are, what the place looks like so I can create a clear image in my head. You get what I'm saying? For a street scene, some simple street ambience would do good. Like the occasional passing of cars, people talking (but not distracting away from the main conversaition), some light wind, that kinda thing.
- Music. Make it fit. Please. I don't want a Metallica song playing when someone's crying at the death of his wife. Surely you would know what kind of music to put in a scene. Read this topic for more enlightenment: http://voiceactingalliance.com/board/showthread.php?t=43097
- As for looking for music there's two sources that have great music. Those are: freeplaymusic.com and McTricky (me xD).
- Fight-scenes. Apparently I specialize in them. In real fact, I just enjoy mixing them. Why? Because it gives the chance for the listener to have their own imagination wonder about what is happening in their own way. I can't exactly have a voice actor go: "YAAHH! And now I will slash you with my sword from above! Dammit, you dodged! Argh!! I've been counter-attacked!!" You know that's just stupid. Fight-scenes are left for the listener's interpretations. I'll talk about this more later.
- Levels. By this I mean audio levels. Whilst listening over to your work, think about a few things? Does the music overpower the voices? Are there any odd differences in each VA's volume levels? Is that sound effect too loud making it out of place? Be sure to level things out to make it a smooth and natural listen.
- Redos. There are times where your cast members will need to redo lines. It may sound perfect on it's own. But when you are mixing it'll probably sound of place with the others. They you will need to ask for redos. Now I will admit now that I am guilty of this but, don't be afraid to ask for redos. Voice actors wanna ensure that they do their best for a project, so if a redo needs doing, then they'll do it. If the person's annoying ego kicks in and the person's like: "But that line's perfect! Just keep it, foo'!" Then...you know what to do.
Effective Fight Scenes
There's gonna be some shameless plugging in this section but it's for the benefit of you understanding where I'm going with this. Now, to make an effective fight-scene you must first have a CLEAR image/video of how you want the fight scene to go in your mind. You will need certain sound effects to pull this off well. If it's a sword-fighting scene, you're gonna need some GOOD sword sounds. We don't want' a fight scene that sounds like they're fighting with spoons. No. GOOD SFX. So, clear image in your mind. Now with your new-found mad mixing skillz, apply them to making this fight-scene. Have your cast record some battle grunts, shouts and whatnot so you can further enhance the strength of the scene. Now for examples here are two very short samples of fight-scenes I've done. I will also tell you what my vision was for these scenes.
Sample #1: http://voiceactingalliance.com/board/showthread.php?t=45467
Zenith being the first voice you hear shout's "Prepare yourself!". He has the voice of an old person, so I used some epic classical music from Crisis Core so it would fit. He ambushes Emerson with a sword attack. After blocking it Emerson flips backwards and catches his breath. Zenith them hit's him with a magical earth and thunder attack which sends Emerson flying and hitting the floor. After getting back up Emerson charges towards Zenith and after a few clashes, Zentith uses his magic to form knives that appear from nowhere and aiming them at Emerson. When Zenith says "Now!" all the knives (or sharp objects) act like projectiles and fire at Emerson. Emerson deflects all of them. Afterwards Emerson charges at Zenith for a final time unleashing a final Fire Sword attack, but the attack fails.
Sample #2: http://voiceactingalliance.com/board/showthread.php?t=46290
When David says his first line you hear him cocking his gun. This has made it clear that he is weilding a gun. So the fight starts off with Amalia charging at David. Stupid mistake. David shoots her and Amalia defends but is pushed back by the force. As she flips backwards she's running around avoid all the bullets from David's rapid-fire gun attack. When David says: "Let's bump this up a notch!" you hear some sort of charging sound, and then the sound of something being fire. That's a missile launcher (yeah my imagination went wild here), during that time I wanted to make an audio bullet-time effect. That's pretty hard to achieve with just audio. That's why there's a delay between the fire and the blast. Amalia is almost hit but is still injured. But with that resolve she still picks up her sword. David is shocked that she can still stand. Amalia uses her special attack and well...yeah.
Now you might have had something completely different in your mind but somewhat close to what I've written. If it was close then I've achieved my goal. You want a fight to have a purpose. You want a fight to be unique. You want a fight to sound like a convinving one. So make everything you would see in a fight scene, heard.
Conclusion
I believe I have covered everything I can teach. Um, I hope I've made sense in this. I also hope I've answered any questions you had or helped you out in anyway. If there's anything you feel I've missed or still have a question about don't hesitate to post on this thread or send me a PM. Thanks for reading.
So I was bored, and I made this. I'm not really one for making tutorials, but I felt that I knew enough about this topic to make a guide on it. So let's start.
So, you wanna make a radioplay but you have NO idea where to start. Well this guide is to give you a few pointers on what a radioplay is and how to effectively make one.
What is a Radioplay?
Stupid question. Everybody knows what a radioplay is, right? For the very small, and probably virtually non-existent few people who don't know what a radioplay is, I'll explain. To make explaining easier, another word for a radioplay is "audiodrama". Now if you break that up into "audio" and "drama" you pretty much get the definition. A drama that only consists of audio and no visuals.
Writing a Radioplay
So you are writing an original story and you wanna adapt it to a radioplay? No problem, however I find that there could be some limits. Creating a radioplay (as well as making sense of one) usually requires vivid imagination, as you would have to picture everything that's happening in your mind. It gives you the opportunity to see what YOU wanna see, instead of what you would see on a screen. However, you couldn't exactly recreate Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children into a radioplay. It's just too epic. Unless you make drastic changes. The point is, radioplays have limits as to how much you want the listener to percieve. It's up to you, the producer/mixer/writer to ensure that you do your best to create a solid image in the listener's mind. I hope I'm making sense...
Quick Tips:
- When writing a script for a radioplay it's important to take into account the fact that there won't be any visuals so you must describe what would be seen in your script.
- Related to the previous one, have your characters voice things that can't be seen. I know I've done this before, so I'll give an example. There's a scene where three people are looking for someone. When they find him, he's severely injured on the floor. But then I had one character go something like: "Who did this do him?" See? Now your mind would be like wondering "Who did WHAT to him?".
- Direction. Direct your cast through the script. Mention little actions that happen throughout the scene so they know what's going on. Make notes to the cast saying: "This person's brother has just died, so adjust your tones to fit this sad situation" or "In this scene there is powerful wind blowing everywhere, so speak forcefully as if you're in the midst of a tornado." Stuff like that can REALLY help your cast understand what you want.
So you have a story and a well written script. All you need now are tools voice actors to make it come to life. If it's your first time making starting up a radioplay then I suggest you set up an audition thread. That way you can get to a hear a lot of voices which you can keep in mind for any future projects. Scouting will be hard if you have no idea what anyone sound like. However, if a person has a demo reel you can listen to that. If you hear a voice in there that you like, drop him/her a message informing that person of a project you're starting up, say that you listened to that person's demo reel and liked a certain voice and ask if that person would like to take part in your project. Now I'm not gonna through the whole audition process, that's not what this guide is for. You can find about those here: http://voiceactingalliance.com/board/showthread.php?t=36556
I Have My Voice Actors! What now?
Great, so now you have voice actors willing to work with you on your project. You've sent them the script, and after a couple of weeks, you recieved the lines back in. Now you're ready to do some mixing. I personally find Adobe Audition the best program to use for audio editing and mixing. However that may be more than your wallet can chew. In which case Audacity will work just fine. Now...
Quick Tips:
- This is one of my principles of radioplay mixing: "Always make what you would see, heard." This doesn't neccessarily mean EVERYTHING but you get the idea. If you have a scene where there's two people talking on the street. I don't JUST wanna hear the characters' voices and nothing else. That'd be boring. I wanna know where the hell they are, what the place looks like so I can create a clear image in my head. You get what I'm saying? For a street scene, some simple street ambience would do good. Like the occasional passing of cars, people talking (but not distracting away from the main conversaition), some light wind, that kinda thing.
- Music. Make it fit. Please. I don't want a Metallica song playing when someone's crying at the death of his wife. Surely you would know what kind of music to put in a scene. Read this topic for more enlightenment: http://voiceactingalliance.com/board/showthread.php?t=43097
- As for looking for music there's two sources that have great music. Those are: freeplaymusic.com and McTricky (me xD).
- Fight-scenes. Apparently I specialize in them. In real fact, I just enjoy mixing them. Why? Because it gives the chance for the listener to have their own imagination wonder about what is happening in their own way. I can't exactly have a voice actor go: "YAAHH! And now I will slash you with my sword from above! Dammit, you dodged! Argh!! I've been counter-attacked!!" You know that's just stupid. Fight-scenes are left for the listener's interpretations. I'll talk about this more later.
- Levels. By this I mean audio levels. Whilst listening over to your work, think about a few things? Does the music overpower the voices? Are there any odd differences in each VA's volume levels? Is that sound effect too loud making it out of place? Be sure to level things out to make it a smooth and natural listen.
- Redos. There are times where your cast members will need to redo lines. It may sound perfect on it's own. But when you are mixing it'll probably sound of place with the others. They you will need to ask for redos. Now I will admit now that I am guilty of this but, don't be afraid to ask for redos. Voice actors wanna ensure that they do their best for a project, so if a redo needs doing, then they'll do it. If the person's annoying ego kicks in and the person's like: "But that line's perfect! Just keep it, foo'!" Then...you know what to do.
Effective Fight Scenes
There's gonna be some shameless plugging in this section but it's for the benefit of you understanding where I'm going with this. Now, to make an effective fight-scene you must first have a CLEAR image/video of how you want the fight scene to go in your mind. You will need certain sound effects to pull this off well. If it's a sword-fighting scene, you're gonna need some GOOD sword sounds. We don't want' a fight scene that sounds like they're fighting with spoons. No. GOOD SFX. So, clear image in your mind. Now with your new-found mad mixing skillz, apply them to making this fight-scene. Have your cast record some battle grunts, shouts and whatnot so you can further enhance the strength of the scene. Now for examples here are two very short samples of fight-scenes I've done. I will also tell you what my vision was for these scenes.
Sample #1: http://voiceactingalliance.com/board/showthread.php?t=45467
Zenith being the first voice you hear shout's "Prepare yourself!". He has the voice of an old person, so I used some epic classical music from Crisis Core so it would fit. He ambushes Emerson with a sword attack. After blocking it Emerson flips backwards and catches his breath. Zenith them hit's him with a magical earth and thunder attack which sends Emerson flying and hitting the floor. After getting back up Emerson charges towards Zenith and after a few clashes, Zentith uses his magic to form knives that appear from nowhere and aiming them at Emerson. When Zenith says "Now!" all the knives (or sharp objects) act like projectiles and fire at Emerson. Emerson deflects all of them. Afterwards Emerson charges at Zenith for a final time unleashing a final Fire Sword attack, but the attack fails.
Sample #2: http://voiceactingalliance.com/board/showthread.php?t=46290
When David says his first line you hear him cocking his gun. This has made it clear that he is weilding a gun. So the fight starts off with Amalia charging at David. Stupid mistake. David shoots her and Amalia defends but is pushed back by the force. As she flips backwards she's running around avoid all the bullets from David's rapid-fire gun attack. When David says: "Let's bump this up a notch!" you hear some sort of charging sound, and then the sound of something being fire. That's a missile launcher (yeah my imagination went wild here), during that time I wanted to make an audio bullet-time effect. That's pretty hard to achieve with just audio. That's why there's a delay between the fire and the blast. Amalia is almost hit but is still injured. But with that resolve she still picks up her sword. David is shocked that she can still stand. Amalia uses her special attack and well...yeah.
Now you might have had something completely different in your mind but somewhat close to what I've written. If it was close then I've achieved my goal. You want a fight to have a purpose. You want a fight to be unique. You want a fight to sound like a convinving one. So make everything you would see in a fight scene, heard.
Conclusion
I believe I have covered everything I can teach. Um, I hope I've made sense in this. I also hope I've answered any questions you had or helped you out in anyway. If there's anything you feel I've missed or still have a question about don't hesitate to post on this thread or send me a PM. Thanks for reading.