Listening to a really good and (relatively for ADs) well known #AudioDrama and its only flaw, at least in the early episodes, is inserts of totally unnecessary narration. Single sentences, "Bill opens the briefcase", "Lucy is shocked" sort of thing. [rambly thread >] - ThreadSky

robinjohnson.bsky.social • 216 days ago

Listening to a really good and (relatively for ADs) well known #AudioDrama and its only flaw, at least in the early episodes, is inserts of totally unnecessary narration. Single sentences, "Bill opens the briefcase", "Lucy is shocked" sort of thing. [rambly thread >]

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robinjohnson.bsky.social•216 days ago

> I've no problem with narration and I know it's something people get snobby about, both for and against—I'm not trying to do that. I think it can be very effective in the right place, and that place varies according to the style of storytelling. >

robinjohnson.bsky.social•216 days ago

> Two of my favourite audio shows ever are Hitchhiker's Guide and Victoriocity, both of which make heavy use of narration when they effective switch into novel mode for worldbuilding stuff that would be extremely hard or impossible to do in diegetic audio (and completely impossible on screen!) >

robinjohnson.bsky.social•216 days ago

> My favourite narrators kinda bridge the space between the story-world and the listener. HHGG's "The Book", as narrator, does the same service for you as the Guide itself does for the heroes, and stays in character while doing so. You're temporarily de-"immersed", but it keeps your toe in the water

robinjohnson.bsky.social•216 days ago

> Victoriocity's narrator, while not a character as such, "lives" in the story-world through its voice and writing. It's easy to imagine it as some robo-Victorian news or propaganda service, or virtual guide. While it talks, you're there in Even Greater London, by its side as it points things out >

robinjohnson.bsky.social•216 days ago

> Then there are whole subgenres of found tapes, false podcasts and so on, some of which eventually slip into immersive full-cast mode with the listener barely noticing. And one-caster first-person narrated stories. They suit different styles of story, and writers tend to choose the right one. >

robinjohnson.bsky.social•215 days ago

>[effortless segue into shameless self-promo] with the @midnightpals.bsky.social podcast (listen on all good podcast sites/apps and YouTube!), we're in the happy position of being able to choose ANY character to be narrator of the week, or have a narratorless "Pals episode", or mix things up >

sedm0784.bsky.social•134 days ago

This sounds like watching a TV show with Audio Description switched on. (Which I can attest is a very odd experience if you do it accidentally.)

robinjohnson.bsky.social•134 days ago

Yeah, I wonder if it was drafted as a screenplay originally, but I don't know. (Audiodrama has a thing with people who want to be screenwriters and think audio is the easy version of that—I once went to an online 'masterclass' which turned out to be 90% How To Get Into TV and just felt timewasted.)

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