Community Event / Creation Elite voiceover demo
- Thread starter bitsixteen
- Start date
Ha ha. Like the briefcase in Pulp Fiction, the ominous crate was a plot device, but unlike Tarantino, I'm now working on what's in the crate so I can perhaps reveal it in a later demo. ;-)
Brilliant work there bitsixteen, brilliant work.
Um? I'm just thinking of another angle to this as well. There are a load of books being written currently, as you more than likely know. I'm wondering what the possibility might be for these incoming books to be made into audiobooks?
Audible.com sells some great audio dramatisation conversions of books, these a great for long distant drives/travelling and such. Personally, I'd happily buy the book versions and audio versions done to such a quality as this.
I'm curious, does anyone know what it takes to get books produced in an audible fashion? Theres a huge sci-fi market on audible.com, if these books are as good as they "should be", they'd make a killing being sold there in audio format as well ... AND possibly start a whole new sci-fi following of the Elite universe storyline?
Your thoughts bitsixteen, peoples?
Um? I'm just thinking of another angle to this as well. There are a load of books being written currently, as you more than likely know. I'm wondering what the possibility might be for these incoming books to be made into audiobooks?
Audible.com sells some great audio dramatisation conversions of books, these a great for long distant drives/travelling and such. Personally, I'd happily buy the book versions and audio versions done to such a quality as this.
I'm curious, does anyone know what it takes to get books produced in an audible fashion? Theres a huge sci-fi market on audible.com, if these books are as good as they "should be", they'd make a killing being sold there in audio format as well ... AND possibly start a whole new sci-fi following of the Elite universe storyline?
Your thoughts bitsixteen, peoples?
Hi PacalB,
The quick and simple answer to this is: yes! They could be made into audio books and I'd be interested. I'm actually talking to an author (non-Elite-related) at the moment about doing such work. It *is* however a *lot* of work and I'm hearing that you can sink about 60 hours into producing an audio book, from first reading it to delivering the final master.
But here's a question: I saw a few Frontier developer diaries with Michael Brookes talking about fiction. What is the situation here? Are Frontier just encouraging people to write their own fiction and selling it themselves, or are they compiling stories that will somehow be included with the game? If not either, then are Frontier planning to commercially sell these stories and pay royalties? I'd just like to know what's goinig on there and how it works.
I would love nothing better than to produce audio books for some of these stories. I have loved Elite since I first heard about it in the school yard back around 1984/1985. It's been everything I've ever wanted in a space-related game and I always loved the attention to detail, including legends of gamers spotting ships that probably never existed in early versions, such as the factory ships and space dredgers. This is why when I decided to produce gaming demos to show developers I could do this type of work, I started with Elite. After all the Elite demos are complete, I'll be doing others for different genres, such as fantasy-fiction, war, present-day cops, etc. Another point worth mentioning is that I'm on Skype, so authors could Skype into sessions and help direct the sessions if they chose. When I recorded that Elite demo, Susan recorded her lines and Mark Skype'd in, feeding her his lines. Then a few weeks later, Mark visited the studio to record his lines and Susan Skype'd in to feed her lines. Just thought that was worth a mention.
So thanks for bringing it up, PacalB. I would definitely be interested in this.
Cheers,
Paul
The quick and simple answer to this is: yes! They could be made into audio books and I'd be interested. I'm actually talking to an author (non-Elite-related) at the moment about doing such work. It *is* however a *lot* of work and I'm hearing that you can sink about 60 hours into producing an audio book, from first reading it to delivering the final master.
But here's a question: I saw a few Frontier developer diaries with Michael Brookes talking about fiction. What is the situation here? Are Frontier just encouraging people to write their own fiction and selling it themselves, or are they compiling stories that will somehow be included with the game? If not either, then are Frontier planning to commercially sell these stories and pay royalties? I'd just like to know what's goinig on there and how it works.
I would love nothing better than to produce audio books for some of these stories. I have loved Elite since I first heard about it in the school yard back around 1984/1985. It's been everything I've ever wanted in a space-related game and I always loved the attention to detail, including legends of gamers spotting ships that probably never existed in early versions, such as the factory ships and space dredgers. This is why when I decided to produce gaming demos to show developers I could do this type of work, I started with Elite. After all the Elite demos are complete, I'll be doing others for different genres, such as fantasy-fiction, war, present-day cops, etc. Another point worth mentioning is that I'm on Skype, so authors could Skype into sessions and help direct the sessions if they chose. When I recorded that Elite demo, Susan recorded her lines and Mark Skype'd in, feeding her his lines. Then a few weeks later, Mark visited the studio to record his lines and Susan Skype'd in to feed her lines. Just thought that was worth a mention.
So thanks for bringing it up, PacalB. I would definitely be interested in this.
Cheers,
Paul
@The Lone Gunman, class! No pressure now at all, though. ;-)
Some people bought the license to write official fiction that ties in with the game's launch in April next year. Michael's fiction diaries are primarily about them and the book he himself is penning.
Fan fiction is recognised outwith the "official" work and is appreciated (e.g. Lave Radio, Escape Velocity and whatever else anyone wants to do) but isn't included as something that Frontier will offer direct help with but will (if it's really good) comment about it.
I know that 'And Here the Wheel' wants to raise more money to create an audiobook..
If you offer your services there, then maybe money can be saved and end results kept to a high level..
Im wondering if Lave Revolutions will be an audiobook created by Lave Radio... that could be a laugh!
If you offer your services there, then maybe money can be saved and end results kept to a high level..
Im wondering if Lave Revolutions will be an audiobook created by Lave Radio... that could be a laugh!
Thanks for explaining the fiction end of things, Selezen. So I'd need to contact some of those licence-holders to make it viable then.
Psykokow, thanks for the pointer. I'll see if I can have a chat with some of them there and see if we could come to some agreement. Sounds very interesting, but cost would all depend on how many characters were involved and then how many VOs could play more than one or two chars without it being too obvious.
Lots to think about!
Thanks,
Paul
Psykokow, thanks for the pointer. I'll see if I can have a chat with some of them there and see if we could come to some agreement. Sounds very interesting, but cost would all depend on how many characters were involved and then how many VOs could play more than one or two chars without it being too obvious.
Lots to think about!
Thanks,
Paul
I know Kate Russell got the money together to do an audiobook version of her piece of fiction. I don't think anyone else had specific plans in that direction. As you say, it costs quite a bit. Us Tales from the Frontier guys would doubtless be delighted to have an audiobook of our short stories, but I'm pretty sure that would be even more work than a straight novel.
Hi Darren, I suppose the cost depends on how much production and VOs a given piece requires. You can have just one person read the whole thing and 'put on' voices for characters in a story-telling way (Jackanory?), like someone would tell you a story and 'play' all the character parts. The other end is having a character for each part (or the main the parts anyway) and then adding sound-effects and even music. The latter would be a very big process.
I suppose doing lots of short fiction could be more work in that you'd almost definitely be using different VOs for each story. Other than that, it's not a major problem unless you want to employ sound effects and music. Is this what you were getting at?
Thanks,
Paul
I suppose doing lots of short fiction could be more work in that you'd almost definitely be using different VOs for each story. Other than that, it's not a major problem unless you want to employ sound effects and music. Is this what you were getting at?
Thanks,
Paul
I was thinking the numerous VOs needed would be very hard. There's less time for them to get into their characters too.
Well the first thing would be to draw up a list of characters and divide that list into main characters and minor characters. Then assign characters to voiceover artists and try to avoid any overlap so that no VO ends up talking to themselves! Not that this can't be done, it's just that it might sound more obvious that it's the same VO when their two characters' lines are 'back to back'. After that, all VOs would have to read the story so they knew the characters they were playing. Any questions regarding characters' moods/tones/etc. can be answered by the authors. It's a fair bit of work, but do-able.
The authors are licensed by means of a kickstarter reward pledge tier: "The right to write one piece of written fiction set in the Elite: Dangerous world, and (subject to reasonable approval of the content) release it commercially, without paying Frontier further royalties, independently of the game."
I do not know if that includes translating the book into audio - FD would know for sure.
Drop Michael Brooks an email as he's heading up the author section on the forum
(FWIW - I don't read much fiction as I don't really have time but audiobooks - would get my investment
)
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Hi Liqua, hmmm... excellent idea. I'm so new to the forum that I didn't even know Michael directly contributed. I really have earned that rating of 'Harmless'. :-/ Anyway, I found him and I've sent him a direct message asking him about licence holders' rights to have an audio book of their work produced.
And I'm extremely encouraged to know that you'd prefer audio books over traditional text versions. Obviously, I think there's a place for both, but nice to know that people would like to pop an audio book into their car stereo or onto their MP3 players whilst going about their daily lives.
Thanks for that!
Paul
And I'm extremely encouraged to know that you'd prefer audio books over traditional text versions. Obviously, I think there's a place for both, but nice to know that people would like to pop an audio book into their car stereo or onto their MP3 players whilst going about their daily lives.
Thanks for that!
Paul
Actually quite a few of the authors have Audio versions attached to their projects. These are permitted as they are part of the same fiction piece. I am doing an Audio version, as are others.
Like I said, I think you should chat to Holdmykidney who produces EV. He has some plans to expand his work in the next few months and I think you two would have a lot to chat about in terms of production methods, quality, all sorts really.
Chris hasn't been on the forum much at the moment as he has flu/chest infection.
You could, pop along to LAVECON and spend a few hours over a pint chatting it through.
Like I said, I think you should chat to Holdmykidney who produces EV. He has some plans to expand his work in the next few months and I think you two would have a lot to chat about in terms of production methods, quality, all sorts really.
Chris hasn't been on the forum much at the moment as he has flu/chest infection.
You could, pop along to LAVECON and spend a few hours over a pint chatting it through.
I sit corrected Allen - Admittedly I was not following the author campaigns, only really helping Boz last minute with a huge pledge to get him over the line.
Still, speak to FD anyway as they may have some pointers / guidelines, and depending upon what the authors want they may throw some work your way
I'd actually suggest speaking to the authors first, since they are responsible for the content of their license, including any audio adaptations. They would then take any concepts or issues to FD/Michael for discussion.Still, speak to FD anyway as they may have some pointers / guidelines, and depending upon what the authors want they may throw some work your way
@Allen, thanks for that and forgive my ignorance, but what's EV? I'm familiar with Lave Radio, but that's about it.