Showing You Something You Canât See
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Hello travelers!! Julian here.
Maybe the most common question that podcast writers get is: "How is writing a podcast different than writing for film, or for TV?"The phrasing will change, but this is often what people who are interested in storytelling want to know. It's not a poorly considered question, either, and fans should never be afraid to ask it. But I thought I would write up a little something on the subject, as I understand it, because I have written dead-ended projects in several different media. I've written comic scripts; plays; a feature-length screenplay in college, in lieu of a senior thesis; and now, scripts for several podcast projects. Podcasting has been a fantastic, challenging medium to tackle, and relies on different things to be effective in communicating drama.
In theory, writing audiodrama should feel like writing for the screen; you're creating scenes that play out in real(ish) time, for actors to bring to life. A director has to steer how the actors interpret the script, and then the actors have to make the roles feel genuine.
(The Room - w. & d. Tommy Wiseau, 2003)
In practice, audiodrama writing feels the most like writing a comic, albeit one intended for dramatic fan readings. Comic writers exist in a close partnership with their artist(s), most likely a team of 2-6 others who render pencils, inks, colors, and lettering. The interpretation is deliberately stylistic, to establish tone and texture. However, when actually writing an episode of an audiodrama, my moment-to-moment process is quite similar to how I write for the screen: imagine myself in the setting, with the characters, trying to catch a whiff of what they really feel and report it accurately.Â
The primary difference is: if what I've written even partly relies on a visual element for the scene's impact to land, I go back into the scene and try something else.
(Pretty Deadly - w. Kelly Sue Deconnick, a. Emma Rios)
Audiodrama is amazing, because in the hands of an audio designer with a strong style and design sense -- a sorcerer of sound synthesis i.e. Mischa Stanton -- creating the world you hear in your mind makes it that much easier to internalize. What's more, what you see in your mind is never limited by something as mundane as a budget. By and large, audiodrama fans are amazing, sensitive people who understand the value of accepting one's experiences as a part of them. They are often wise, and hungry for freedom but open to guidance.
Film is celebrated as a "transportive" medium; you can see and hear a world potentially nothing like our own, the tech being what it is now. I would argue it is no more "transportive" than the best books, but we are extremely visual beings. "Seeing is believing" and so on.Listening to an audiodrama is not limited by venue, or time of day. The times you spend with us - listening to StarTripper!! - are yours, Â selected by you. A lot of those times are private ones you carve out around the rest of a busy day, and I know how valuable those times are. We can age as much as we like, but do we ever let go of the instinct to pretend? The instinct to imagine?
It will not come as a shock to listeners of this show that I spent a lot of time as a kid reading Calvin & Hobbes. I still remember the angle of the sun through my bedroom windows on the day I first read Something Under The Bed Is Drooling. I was probably reading it to avoid doing something I actually should have been doing, but it was my first C&H book. I couldn't tear myself away.Â
I hold those times close, because they are part of the genesis myself as a creator. I saw imagination and creative process visualized in black and white, reflected through a kid who really didn't have it all together just yet.Â
As ever, thank you for flying with us
