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 The story is very out of date, even for the time, the production is a bit creaky and the script...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.
Sunday, 24 September 2017
Martin Hewitt, Investigator
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.
Tuesday, 19 September 2017
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.
Monday, 18 September 2017
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
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
Sunday, 17 September 2017
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!
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
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 |
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.
Saturday, 16 September 2017
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.
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.
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