19th Annual Audie® Awards ...and things that seize up in the night!

Phew! Perhaps some of you who are of a tweeting disposition might already know that at something like 11.30 last night, producer Neil Gardner and I finished recording Tim Waggoner's final Nekropolis novel, Dark War.

I briefly alluded to the technical challenge of recording these books in the last update a few days ago; allow me now to elucidate. Each of the three books, Nekropolis, Dead Streets and Dark War are about 400 pages in length and each was scheduled to be recorded in three four-hour sessions. That's a recording average of 130 + pages per four-hour session. To put that into perspective, a regular Big Finish script usually comes in at around 180 pages and takes sixteen hours to record over a two day period. Because of a computer glitch on Monday, we lost a bit of time, which meant that yesterday, instead of 130 pages, we actually had to record 152 - yikes!

The most I've ever managed to record is 200 pages over seven hours, which apparently is also the most Neil has ever managed to record - what a team! So, anyway, as you can imagine, we had our work cut out. As usual, I'd done quite a bit of preparation for these books so that when I went into the studio, I'd know exactly what I was doing, where the story was going and who the various characters were. I also usually give each character a different highlight colour so that my eye/brain can assimilate who's to be played next as the narration progresses - with 130 + pages to record in four hours, it's not a bad idea to have done a bit of homework!

With a regular novel, there might be a handful of central characters and a few more peripheral characters; maybe ten or so altogether. So, no problem there, just come up with ten different voices, easily remembered and off you go. As an aid, I also note down any details I might need to refer to about each character on a 'crib sheet', which I can have a quick look at if necessary. However, so many characters appear in these novels, that my crib sheet ran to 8 sides of A4 - eight sides!!! Excluding the minor players, I've made notes on 87 recurring characters, each of which, in theory, has a unique, distinctive and identifiable voice!!!

Now just in case you're tempted to think I'm overstating the trickiness and mind bending complexity of this, let me also throw into the mix the fact that only a very few of these characters are actually human; the vast majority are aliens of the most varied and bizarre kind, some without mouths, some without heads and many of them are 'shape-shifters', so each of the 87 might also have a number of 'guises', which racks up the character count considerably. An extreme example of such a character is Lord Amon, who appears in book one of the trilogy, Nekropolis.

For anyone planning to read or listen to these stories, here's a 'SPOILER ALERT' !

Still with me? Ok, so, as I was saying, Lord Amon - a Darklord and shape-shifter supreme - here's a resume of his various character 'guises':
1) a giant were-rabbit 2) a 'British' sounding man in fox-hunting attire 3) Frank Buck - a Big Game Hunter with a gravelly American voice 4) a 'Daniel Boone' type character with a Kentucky accent 5) an African Tribesman 6) a Native American 7) a Caveman 8) a "a beer-gutted, flannel-shirted, John Deere-capped, shotgun-toting hunter" 9) a Large Grey Wolf 10) a Grizzly Bear 11) a Blurry Amoeba and 12) a Giant Serpent - oh, and underlying all of that, he is also a Lycanthrope - naturally.

By 10.30 last night, my voice was fine, but my cheek/face muscles were really starting to ache and almost 24 hours later, they still do - it feels like I've had a thorough work out at the dentist. I mention all this to you now, because I'm just happy to have survived!

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And so, to round off today's posting, it has come as a very pleasant surprise indeed to discover the audio anthology Thirteen which I took part in recording last autumn, has been nominated for a 2104 Audie Award in the category Original Work. The Audies are apparently the audio equivalent of the Oscars, so a nomination is in itself a tremendous honour. My congratulations to all involved in the project and big thanks to Neil for asking me to record Dan Abnett's story.

Here are the details:

 19th Annual Audie® Awards

The Audies, sponsored by the Audio Publishers Association (APA), is the premier awards program in the United States recognizing distinction in audio-books and spoken word entertainment.

Winners will be recognized at the Audies Gala in New York City on May 29, 2014. 

  Hidden Track (part 1) by Scott Harrison read by Barnaby Edwards
  Dead Space  by  George Mann read by Greg Wise
  A Girl, Sitting  by  Mark Morris read by Jilly Bond
  Finding The Path  by  Kaaron Warren read by Trevor White
  The Hairstyle of the Devil  by  Martin Day read by Arthur Darvill
  Down  by  Gary McMahon read by Stephen Rashbrook
  Visions  by  Cavan Scott read by Michael Maloney
  Half Life  by  Dan Abnett read by John Banks
  Hidden Track (part 2) by Scott Harrison read by Barnaby Edwards
  With Her In Spirit  by  Stephen Gallagher read by Frances Barber
  Tabula Rasa  by  Alasdair Stuart read by Lalla Ward
 One Hit Wanda  by  Kim Newman read by Samuel West
  A Glass of Water  by  Mark Wright read by Gemma Arterton
 Ghost Pit  by  Simon Clark read by Jeff Harding
 I Wish  by  Johnny Mains read by Steven Cree
  Hidden Track (part 3) by Scott Harrison read by Barnaby Edwards

Edited by Scott Harrison

Produced by Neil Gardner

 ...all for now, more just as soon as my face muscles have recovered!

Dark War

More of a news bulletin than a fully fledged post, but just to say that after a short hiatus, I'm back in the studio this week to record Dark War, the final book in Tim Waggoner's Nekropolis trilogy. I'm looking forward to cracking on with this book, although I must admit to a slight sense of trepidation in terms of being able to remember some of the recurring character voices.

When recording is completed on these books, I will post more about them, particularly as they represent the most difficult technical challenge I've ever encountered with any audio book; hopefully, when I explain more, you'll see what I mean!

To round off for now, here's some more great 'fan created' artwork by Silver for the two Dr Who Short Trips stories Only Connect and Breadcrumbs.

More soon!

BBC Radio 4 Extra: Graceless

A very quick update just to say that Series I of Simon Guerrier's brilliantly original Graceless stories is being repeated on BBC Radio 4 Extra starting today at 6pm. Series II, which I'm involved in, begins on Thursday and each episode is repeated at other times in the broadcast schedule.

Ciara Janson as Abby   Laura Doddington as Zara   Fraser James as Marek 

Susan Brown   Michael Cochrane   Derek Griffiths   Joanna van Gyseghem   Daisy Ashford

John Banks   Joseph Kloska

Abby and her sister Zara are not real people. They were created by pan-dimensional beings to help save space and time.

They’ve been blessed with special powers. They can see into people’s heads, even influence their thoughts. And, so long as they’re together, they can go anywhere or when.

But the universe is dangerous, unpredictable. Abby and Zara have made mistakes – and many thousands have died. They know they’ve done wrong, that they have made enemies, who scour all of history to find them.

So they keeping moving on, trying to make amends, trying to help people. And not to do any more harm…

Written by Simon Guerrier
Directed by Lisa Bowerman 

Berlin, The Sleeping City and the Art of the Fan

And so, while I'm still catching up on recent Big Finish releases, which include the first series of The Avengers, The Ordeals of Sherlock Holmes box set, Dr Who: The King of Sontar and the two subscriber specials, Dr Who Short Trips: Methuselah and Tweaker, there's more to look forward to this month with the release of Dr Who: The Sleeping City, which was recorded in December 2012.

As it was such a while ago, I've forgotten almost everything about the story and I'm therefore really looking forward to catching up with it again. However, I do remember what a pleasure it was to be working with William Russell again, especially as there were only two of us in the story and we could really work together quite intensively.

Here are some details from Big Finish: 

After travelling with the Doctor through time and space, Ian Chesterton is back in his own time. But the mystery of how he and Barbara Wright disappeared in the year 1963 has alerted the authorities – and both are suspected of being enemy agents in the Cold War.

Ian protests his innocence. He has a story to tell about travelling through time and space.

And one adventure in particular – a visit to the city of Hisk…

William Russell Ian Chesterton     John Banks Gerrard

Written by Ian Potter
Directed by Lisa Bowerman 

23rd February:-  

The Sleeping City - Red Rocket Rising review link

 

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As I mentioned last month and have referred to above, the final two Dr Who Short Trips adventures, Methuselah and Tweaker, are now available to Big Finish subscribers. None of these 'freebie' editions come packaged or with the usual BF artwork because they are only available as downloads. However, that seems to have inspired a couple of BF fans to create their own - and what a fine job they've done! Taken from the BF Forum, here are the 'covers' for each of the four Short Trips stories; the first two are by 'bulldogjones' and the second two by 'Silver'. Interesting that Lalla Ward is depicted on the cover of Breadcrumbs; when I was recording the story, I'd imagined myself 'playing' Mary Tamm as the original Romana.

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Just to round off this update, I wanted to briefly mention the film I did a voice over for back in November. Hopefully at some point, I'll get to see it; I'm intrigued by the 'teaser trailer' for it which is posted here. The film has been entered for this year's Berlin International Film Festival, so fingers crossed that it makes a good impression and the hard work of Director Henry Vought and Producer Marie Favre at Deadfox Films Ltd is suitably rewarded - hals und beinbruch!