Thinking In Sound, Not Space

I've been making theatre for nearly twenty years. I got quite good at it.  Still lots I want to do, still much to learn, but, by and large, I know what makes theatre tick.  It is a known thing.
I think in theatre.  I think in terms of space and entrances, in light and movement, sound and text.  My move to audio has taken about four years, and has taken this long partly because I still think in theatre.  I've been adapting my stage works, creating things that live somewhere between the theatre and audio universe.  Comedy was good for that.  A live audience for recording, I could do that.
But now I'm, by and large, no longer making theatre.  Theatre is the great love of my life, but it's slightly killing me.  Theatre has rarely loved me back.  Now that I've made that decision to stop actively making theatre (I expect I'll do one proper show a year, plus any live audio recordings I need for the podcast) I'm starting to think ahead, thinking about projects and how they work in this medium.  And I do mean thinking.  Actively sitting and thinking about sound, noises, shapes, waveforms, text, Foley, music, not music, soundscape - the range of possible universes that audio wants.  Can I do something exciting and new and different?  I'm learning to think in terms of sound, not space - which is ironic, as a do want to write a sci-fi series set partly in space.
At the moment I'm doing new versions of old projects and well as readings of other peoples stories - this is partly because it's fun, but also to buy me some thinking time.  And a little time to look at the competition - to see what I like and what I don't.  I already know radio, I've been listening to the BBC all my life, but the new wave of podcasts is a different world.  A wild west of invention and also cliche.  I'm hearing a lot of very similar work, similar quirks of sound, similar design.  Partly this is because these podcasts are of a theme - horror, science fiction, comedy - and that's what they do.  And many do it well.  But my podcast platform is not that.  It's different each week (most weeks), it's shaped around how I think, which is to never do the same thing twice, where possible.  I suspect this is probably why I never make any money.  But what can you do?  This is who I am. 
And I'm happy.  I can create different worlds, no questions asked, no marketing policy, no issues, no drama (beyond the drama I create) - and move on if it doesn't work.  And move on even if it does.
Audio, so far, hasn't tried to kill me.  We shall see.
Visit 'The Worlds of Robert Crighton' by searching it in itunes or whatever podcast app you use - or subscribe by visiting... here.

My work couldn't happen without the support of my patrons - if you think you could contribute to the work I create, go to www.patreon.com/robertcrighton and see if you can help - you get to listen to my new work before anyone else.  It's like audible, just cheaper and with no control over the content of your next listen. But you can download and keep my work forever.
Also, as there's a lot being planned at the moment, if you want to keep up to speed, why not join my mailing list.  I know, so last century. 

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September Audio Round Up

This month from The Worlds of Robert Crighton I've created for you, all this audio.

The Shakespeare Delusion

The Wheel of Shame 

Metal Harvest


& for my patrons
Martin Hewitt, Investigator - The Lenton Croft Robberies by Arthur Morrison
Which will be released online soon.

Four new audio podcasts all for the fantastic price of nothing.  Of course, this could not happen without the support of my patrons - my silent backers and those who use patreon.  Starting at just $1 a month, or less if you have a sympathetic exchange ratio, there are a whole host of rewards for your support.  From getting all these audios in a first release before everyone else, getting the audio to download and keep for all time, plus there will be bonus free audio coming soon as well.
Go on, become a patron - the more you give, the more diverse my creations will become.

My work couldn't happen without the support of my patrons - if you think you could contribute to the work I create, go to www.patreon.com/robertcrighton and see if you can help - you get to listen to my new work before anyone else.  It's like audible, just cheaper and with no control over the content of your next listen. But you can download and keep my work forever.
Also, as there's a lot being planned at the moment, if you want to keep up to speed, why not join my mailing list.  I know, so last century. 

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Metal Harvest - New Audio Drops Today!

“This is the story of a shell...” 
The wait is over, one of my favourite works has now landed and everyone can listen.  Enjoy!
Next week: Martin Hewitt, Investigator by Arthur Morrison - the first of seven Victorian detective stories (complete release schedule tba).


Metal Harvest

Written & performed by Robert Crighton

With Music by Richard Fawcett

“This is the story of a shell...” Throughout the First World War the armaments created passed through many hands – from those in the mines and factories who made them, to those who transported the boxes and those who fired the guns.  This is the story of one shell, the story of those who touched it and whose lives were changed by it.  Told in words, music, image and song, Metal Harvest is the latest work from award-winning theatre producer Robert Crighton, made in collaboration with musician Richard Fawcett.

My work couldn't happen without the support of my patrons - if you think you could contribute to the work I create, go to www.patreon.com/robertcrighton and see if you can help - you get to listen to my new work before anyone else.
Also, as there's a lot being planned at the moment, if you want to keep up to speed, why not join my mailing list.  I know, so last century. 

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More Electric Dreams

It's been a week since my last post about the Channel Four series Electric Dreams and I've thought a bit more about that whole anthology series thing and how they are received.  Electric Dreams seemed to get a rough ride last week - my damning praise of the opening credits aside - and that brings us back to Out of the Unknown.
I mentioned Out of the Unknown last week, a science fiction anthology series from the 1960's on BBC 2.  What survives, because often little survives, are clusters of episodes from the four series - including their choice of an episode one.  With the nature of filming schedules, the turn around of episodes and the general timing of things, their choice of the first episode was more constrained than maybe Electric Dreams was.  Far fewer episodes were complete prior to transmission, so the choice was more predetermined, in theory.  There was some disagreement about which episode should lead the series.  But, to some degree, a dud was less their fault, more that of their schedule.
And Out of the Unknown chose a bit of a dud.  No Place Like Earth based on the John Wyndham story isn't great.  I have a fondness for most episodes, barring the final series which is pretty vile, but even I can't help but smile at the first episode and say... bless.  The story is very out of date, even for the time, the production is a bit creaky and the script... often not the best.  But there were Martian space dogs (actual dogs with extra furry costumes - one for the RSPCA) so it wasn't all bad.
Out of the Unknown grew to be a well respected series - a bit too adult and serious to be properly mainstream, but well liked.  The first episode, however, was gently savaged.
The reason I ramble on about this is because Electric Dreams got a rather mixed response to its first episode.  On twitter the reactions veered from hate to love and back again.  The papers were largely... snooty I think is the best word.  Not enough like Black Mirror, not quite up to date enough, too much money spent making it look grim etc.  I thought it had a lot going for it, but I can't say it set my world on fire - why else would I write a blog about the opening credits?
My questions prior to watching the next episode tonight are:
Was The Hoodmaker indicative of the quality of the whole series or is this first episode a one off?
Will the rest of the series be written off, or will the modern fast moving world allow it time to grow?
Was Twitter right, and it's both terrible and amazing at the same time?

We'll have some clues shortly, as, with the anthology series, you're only ever as good as your next episode.

Martin Hewitt, Investigator

Many years ago I did readings of the complete canon of Sherlock Holmes - the whole lot - as a series of readings during the last proper winter we had in the UK.  It didn't stop snowing during the run, and it hasn't really snowed since, so I can only conclude that climate change is connected with incidence of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.  Or massive amounts of industrial pollution.  One of the two.
Anyway, I've not done anything similar since, but I've had a hankering to do more - though not Mr Holmes as he's a trademark and I refuse to pay money for work that is in the public domain.
That meant looking for a similarly dead, suitably dead, author - and Arthur Morrison sprung up before me.  Of the same sort of time and similar genre, he created two rather good detective characters, Martin Hewitt and Dorrington.  I would rather have started with Dorrington, a wonderfully psychopathic creation, but the narrator is Australian and that's a little beyond me at present.  I've put him to one side for a while and I think I might do a full cast audio adaptation of his stories later instead.  Suggestions on a postcard.  Martin Hewitt is much more suited to what I need at the moment, a good set of stories for performance that I can get cracking on straight away.  I intend to blog about each story as I release them, as there are lots of interesting things that emerge from this late Victorian world - little questions and quirks of language and phrasing that tickle my curiosity bone.
If you're a patron then you'll get the first story from Martin Hewitt, Investigator on Wednesday (if not, you'll have to wait, but it's easy to sign up for here).  It's called The Lenton Croft Robberies and features the mysterious appearance of burnt matches.  I've already recorded the second mystery, but I don't know when I will release that quite yet.

My work couldn't happen without the support of my patrons - if you think you could contribute to the work I create, go to www.patreon.com/robertcrighton and see if you can help - you get to listen to my new work before anyone else.  It's like audible, just cheaper and with no control over the content of your next listen. But you can download and keep my work forever.
Also, as there's a lot being planned at the moment, if you want to keep up to speed, why not join my mailing list.  I know, so last century. 

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The Wheel of Shame - Available Now!

The Wheel of Shame has dropped this morning - listen to it now for free in the player below. Enjoy!

Of course my patrons have had it for a week now, and as a download that can be kept.
Which is another way of saying, become a patron - it's great.  For only $1 a month (and that's my ideal, preferred amount) you'll get a new audio every week, to download and keep, before everyone else - and there will be special bonus audio drops every month or so.  If I didn't have the support of my patrons, visible and invisible (i.e. those who use the patreon site and those who don't - I don't mean magical creatures), then I wouldn't be able to share my work with the rest of the world.  Do give it a look.

This week: The Wheel of Shame or, The Noises of the Hamster in the Night-time
Classic comic ghost story for everyone who's ever brutally murdered their hamster as a child.  Out now.  For those who listen to audio via a video platform, here's the same on YouTube.


Next week (or tomorrow, if you're a patron!):  Metal Harvest - a reimagined version of the stage show, mixing live and studio recordings for the podcast.

Metal Harvest

Written & performed by Robert Crighton

With Music by Richard Fawcett

“This is the story of a shell...” Throughout the First World War the armaments created passed through many hands – from those in the mines and factories who made them, to those who transported the boxes and those who fired the guns.  This is the story of one shell, the story of those who touched it and whose lives were changed by it.  Told in words, music, image and song, Metal Harvest is the latest work from award-winning theatre producer Robert Crighton, made in collaboration with musician Richard Fawcett.  

My work couldn't happen without the support of my patrons - if you think you could contribute to the work I create, go to www.patreon.com/robertcrighton and see if you can help - you get to listen to my new work before anyone else.
Also, as there's a lot being planned at the moment, if you want to keep up to speed, why not join my mailing list.  I know, so last century. 

Subscribe to my mailing list

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Question or Nominate

Nominate us - go on! Please, please, please...
If you could, take a moment to nominate an audio play I'm rather pleased with - it's a solo play The Project After and features two great performers, but we're hoping for a general production nomination.  Below are the details - it takes literally thirty seconds if you're a fast typer. Obviously, I wouldn't want you to nominate something without listening to it first, so here it is in the player below.  If you like it then follow the instructions underneath.  Any questions, tweet me @RobertCrighton


How to nominate us...
1. Go to - www.audioverseawards.net/site/nominate
2. Enter your name/details
3. Enter nomination for PRODUCTION
4. Click next
5. Add the show name - The Project After
6. Put in the full link - https://audioboom.com/posts/6144050-the-project-after-by-robert-crighton
7. Submit for one lonely episode
8. That it's over twenty minutes
9. That there are no more than 6 actors
10. That it's a Drama
11. And that, Yes, it's new

Do Opening Credits Have Electric Dreams?

Visually I thought the first episode of Electric Dreams (Channel Four) was excellent - not so much because the aesthetic was particularly original* (hints of Blade Runner with a fair dash of High Rise etc) but because the visual world told the background to the story.  Yes, there were the odd clunky lines about violence in the city kicking off sometime, but that happens when you're cramming so much information into a one off.  But they didn't need to say much more than the detail that was vital to the plot - the background of the world, the green rain, the general decay etc was a complete world and didn't need more words.  Good on them.
Money was spent, money was well spent, intelligently spent.
Until we come to the opening credits.
Money was spent.  But it's a bit of a mess.
But.
I don't think it was ever going to be any other way, because this is an anthology series and anthology series have weird, largely unsatisfactory, opening credits - and so Electric Dreams is part of a long and noble tradition.
Take some of the earliest science fiction anthology series - Out of this World (ITV) and Out of the Unknown (BBC).  Credits were montages of science shots, faces looking strained, falling bodies, anything that looked odd - mixed together into a weird mush.  Electric Dreams had more to go on in terms of theme, so there was some unity to the images picked, but it might as well have been a deliberate homage to these earlier shows.  It probably wasn't, but it didn't half look it to me.  Except that the earlier shows (and there are countless other examples from other genres - Scorpion Tales is my personal favourite) were working on no money and spliced film, and so retain some inventive charm, the montages of Electric Dreams just bounce off one as another not quite good enough CGI blob.
I understand it's difficult to create a good credit sequence for a show that is different every week.  The best solution is the Inside No.9 or Black Mirror route - a brief ident, a sting, cut.  But I can bet the makers of Electric Dreams didn't want to look like they were influenced by Black Mirror at all.  Especially as they would argue, strongly, that Black Mirror was more influenced by PKD than the other way round.
One day I will write the definite guide to the art of the credits sequence in British science fiction - there will be an entire chapter on the effective use of tympani in theme tunes - but till then, let this serve as an introduction.

*As if being original really matter, execution people!

Metal Harvest in the Edit

This weekend has been all about the edit of Metal Harvest.  That isn't quite true, I've done some other stuff - recorded some audio for the Martin Hewitt, Investigator releases/watched season two of The Expanse/drank some coffee/wrote an outline for a new possible sci-fi show - but Metal Harvest is the main thing.  I've got audio from the live show, I've got a studio record and a mix for the music.  I've so far done a rough cut of the first third of the show.  By the time the day is over the rough edit should be done, the foley and re-records (for some reason I said entirely the wrong word in the first record - doh!) will be in the can, and tomorrow I can do the finishing touches and the mix.
Metal Harvest isn't perfect as audio - I have got video recordings of the show, but that edit will be a long time in coming - but it should still be rather good.  It lived naturally on stage, but there is a lot of cross over.  It was originally slated for production in 2014, when I pitched the idea to a musician friend Richard Fawcett.  In the end we had a good six months to work on it on and off, premiering it in 2015 - and I have to say it came out well.  Well enough to take it out again in 2016, which is when we recorded the live show.
This version will mix the best of the live show, with the moments that are best from the studio.  It'll be out to my patrons via patreon on Tuesday, will get a lo-fi stream on Saturday, and be released generally a week Wednesday.  To get the download and keep version, become a patron - it's easy to do and really makes a difference.  I can't create this work without your support - and every little helps.

Richard Fawcett & me, during my favourite part of the show

Metal Harvest

Written & performed by Robert Crighton

With Music by Richard Fawcett

“This is the story of a shell...” Throughout the First World War the armaments created passed through many hands – from those in the mines and factories who made them, to those who transported the boxes and those who fired the guns.  This is the story of one shell, the story of those who touched it and whose lives were changed by it.  Told in words, music, image and song, Metal Harvest is the latest work from award-winning theatre producer Robert Crighton, made in collaboration with musician Richard Fawcett.

My work couldn't happen without the support of my patrons - if you think you could contribute to the work I create, go to www.patreon.com/robertcrighton and see if you can help - you get to listen to my new work before anyone else.
Also, as there's a lot being planned at the moment, if you want to keep up to speed, why not join my mailing list.  I know, so last century. 

Subscribe to my mailing list

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What I've Been Training For - Possibly

Some people spend their lives training to be fighter pilots, to be doctors or to do other such useful things.  In theory I've spent my life training to be a writer and performer, which I have, to some degree.  I've mostly produced theatre, and I've mostly done quite well.
But I suspect this is not what I've actually spent my life training to do.  I suspect my life has been heading in one direction since I was a child.  Yes, I have finally decided to embrace my destiny.
I'm going to write and produce a science fiction series.  It was inevitable.
Now, I'd love to say I've been handed a budget and a platform to do this, but I haven't.  It'll be on my own time and will, one day, be a podcast.  But it will happen.  Because I was born this way.
I first started my training in science fiction as a child.  I worked my way through all the basic courses - Doctor Who, Star Trek, Star Wars etc. - the low hanging fruit, sci-fi, rather than SF.  I took intermediate courses in SF with the classics - HG Wells, Asimov, Clarke etc. - and second module work on the television sci-fi of higher plains.  I took special courses in the radio dramas, the comedy, the odd.  I still have a lot of catching up to do with modern SF, but, hey, it's a journey, we all take different paths.
I served my apprenticeship in various theatre works, half and half sci-fi shows that hid their colours within other genres.  Theatre and science fiction are slightly uneasy bedfellows.  I was fairly pleased with my version of The Time Machine, but it wasn't without issues.
But now I'm working in audio, full time, and the reasons not to do science fiction disappear.  I want to write something that touches on the influences that matter to me.  Journey into Space, Hitchhikers Guide, Earthsearch, The Foundation Trilogy - all BBC, all radio.  All made a fair while ago now.
So, I made the first step.  I've started my project.  It's stupidly complex, and long.  Actually, I have no idea if there is an end point.  I'm universe building, and it's fun.
And, because good titles can be lost from under you before production begins, I'll declare the title now - even though this show won't happen for a while.

Welcome to The Overnight Empire.

What is 'The Worlds of Robert Crighton' and where can I get one?

What is 'The Worlds of Robert Crighton' and where can I get one?
I'm glad you asked that question.  Many people do.  (At least in my head.  I like the things my head says, so much nicer than the things other heads say.  Though I did get a nice comment below the line on something I posted this morning, which is rare.  Recently I've mostly had either silence or untranslatable nonsense that could be an insult against me, my mother... or canals.)

'The Worlds of Robert Crighton' is my podcasting umbrella title - now that I've moved away from full time theatre production I'm producing new audio every week.  Yes, you read correctly, every week.  Not all of it will be my new work, some of it will be readings of classic texts, and the odd random thing, but it will be stuff that interests me, stuff that orbits the sun of my enormous ego.
I think this simile is running away from me.
The point is that there's a lot of new audio coming your way.  Some of the planned projects were announced earlier in the year, many of them have come to fruition, some will take longer than originally planned - and there's a whole host of new stuff coming your way.
To get this material, you can subscribe to 'The Worlds of Robert Crighton' via any good podcast outlet/app/thing (just type it into the search engine) or you can go to my Audioboom page, my website or my YouTube channel (even though it's audio, some people like audio on video, don't ask).
But - if you do it that way then you can only stream the material.  If you become a patron then, not only do you help pay for all this content (ensuring it continues to happen) but you get if earlier than the rest of the universe and you get access to a downloadable and keepable copy of the podcast.  And that's just for those who give $1 a month, give more and there are more returns for your money.  All you need to do is go to my patreon page and become a patron - it's easy and it makes a huge difference to my work.

Here's my planned weekly 'broadcast' timetable: It will get disrupted as we go along, but that's the basic pattern of activity.
Wednesday - New podcast released to patrons on Patreon
Saturday at 1pm - The podcast 'live' streamed online via Facebook Live (I'm currently using the Live Video app, it's not perfect, I'm waiting for the Live Audio app - one day!)
Tuesday - Podcast then released to general internet platforms
REPEAT

So, what's coming up?
This Week: Saturday live stream of the audio that's already dropped for my patrons - The Wheel of Shame or, the Noises of the Hamster in the Night-time - a storytelling piece that I've been performing for about six years now, a comic ghost story featuring Molly, who appeared in the story Bink!
Next Week: Metal Harvest - based on my stage show, a mix of live and studio recording, featuring the music of Richard Fawcett.  The story of a shell from the First World War, from manufacture to detonation and beyond.
The Weeks Beyond: Martin Hewitt, Investigator by Arthur Morrison.  These are detective mysteries from a contemporary of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - seven readings of this first collection of mysteries.  I may not release one every week, I may break them up with some new material, but I don't know yet.

The Wheel of Shame - Patron drop

This week the new audio is The Wheel of Shame, a story I created about six years ago.  It premiered during an evening of comic ghost stories and it has done good serve as a live event.  It now lives on in audio and can be listened to, downloaded and kept, by my patrons, now.  One day early too!  But for everyone else, you'll have to wait until the end of the week, and then only to stream.
Which is another way of saying, become a patron - it's great.  For only $1 a month (and that's my ideal, preferred amount) you'll get a new audio every week, to download and keep, before everyone else.  If I didn't have the support of my patrons, visible and invisible (i.e. those who use the patreon site and those who don't - I don't mean magical creatures), then I wouldn't be able to share my work with the rest of the world.  Do give it a look.
This week: The Wheel of Shame or, The Noises of the Hamster in the Night-time
Classic comic ghost story for everyone who's ever brutally murdered their hamster as a child.  Out now.

Next week:  Metal Harvest - a reimagined version of the stage show, mixing live and studio recordings for the podcast.

Metal Harvest

Written & performed by Robert Crighton

With Music by Richard Fawcett

“This is the story of a shell...” Throughout the First World War the armaments created passed through many hands – from those in the mines and factories who made them, to those who transported the boxes and those who fired the guns.  This is the story of one shell, the story of those who touched it and whose lives were changed by it.  Told in words, music, image and song, Metal Harvest is the latest work from award-winning theatre producer Robert Crighton, made in collaboration with musician Richard Fawcett.  

My work couldn't happen without the support of my patrons - if you think you could contribute to the work I create, go to www.patreon.com/robertcrighton and see if you can help - you get to listen to my new work before anyone else.
Also, as there's a lot being planned at the moment, if you want to keep up to speed, why not join my mailing list.  I know, so last century. 

Subscribe to my mailing list

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First Name

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New Audio - The Shakespeare Delusion

New Audio drops today - The Shakespeare Delusion - a reimagining of my stage play for audio.  You can listen to it below, or you can search for The Worlds of Robert Crighton in your podcast provider, where all my audio lives.
Happy Saturday.

The Shakespeare Delusion

Written and performed by Robert Crighton

Professor Ashborn invites you to share in his latest discoveries and lead you through the terrible secrets behind the man people call Shakespeare.  Did he really write the plays?  Was he really bald?  Did he really like cheese?  Using recently uncovered documentation Professor Ashborn can finally tell the true and completely true, truly true, utterly true, true, true story of the truth behind the Shakespeare delusion! 

Audience Comments for The Shakespeare Delusion (2014):  “Fabulous production... Just recovering from high octane performance of @RobertCrighton The Shakespeare Delusion #immense...  I SO knew where The Shakespeare Delusion was going - & I was SO wrong!!! Chekhov meets Berkoff as  performed by Stephen Fry.”

Next Up: The Wheel of Shame or, The Noises of the Hamster in the Night-time
Classic comic ghost story for everyone who's ever brutally murdered their hamster as a child.  Should drop sometime on Thursday.

My work couldn't happen without the support of my patrons - if you think you could contribute to the work I create, go to www.patreon.com/robertcrighton and see if you can help - you get to listen to my new work before anyone else.
Also, as there's a lot being planned at the moment, if you want to keep up to speed, why not join my mailing list.  I know, so last century. 

Subscribe to our mailing list

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