Would There Ever Be a Possibility...?

[alatar]

Originally Posted by MatthewM

I wanted to know if anybody knew the first thing about how we would go about doing a radio project, if one was to start. For I have no clue.

With the ready access to digital technology, you shouldn't have a hard time creating something. Spend more time researching script writing. Plan out what you want to do, and chop it into smaller bites to get you going (that 'eating a mumakil' thing).

Record a small scene doing a few voices yourself. Add some sound effects. Play it for friends to hook them into the project.

[Nerwen]

I think you should all know that good animation software is expensive and takes ages to master. And you're talking about animating an epic story with battles and such. Despite what some people will tell you, it's not just a matter of pressing the "Make Dragon" button and letting it all take care of itself.

If I were you I'd go with a purely audio version. (Not that that's easy to do well either.)

[Eönwë]

I'm sure I posted here earlier post deletion/malfunction

Yes, I think the radio series is a good idea.

[Azaelia of Willowbottom]

This sounds like a great idea, and I'd love to be involved in whatever capacity I can be. I'd love to help out!

However, I'm another Downer who doesn't really live within reasonable distance of anyone (that I know of), and a college theater student which equates to very little money or free time during the school year.

I think making a movie as a community would be an awesome experience, but it would be really hard--we're all over the world, so getting everyone involved in the same place would be difficult, what with some of the great distances that separate us, and the wide variety of schedules and living situations.

I think that it might be more practical to go with the radio drama suggestion. It would be far less expensive than trying to get everyone in the same place at the same time, costumed, fed, with a place to stay, and so on. The bonus is that Downers everywhere could participate if they wanted to. It's easy enough to find (or borrow) a microphone to plug into the computer, and upload files to the internet. We wouldn't have to deal with conflicting schedules and long travel distances.

As for where to start? Probably the same place one would start planning a movie. Outlining. Deciding what's in and what's cut, and what path the story ought to take (chronological order or the order in which it was written). After that would come drafting and editing a script, then casting, and then recording, sound effects, editing, and putting it up somewhere in its final complete form.

Edit: Apologies if this isn't particularly coherent. I'm getting over a very bad cold, and my brain isn't quite 100%.

[Eönwë]

Originally Posted by Azaelia of Willowbottom

Deciding what's in and what's cut

If we're actually doing this, can I have one request. Please keep Tom Bombadil this time! I'm sure we can have some fun with that.
edit: anyway, we have to include our namesake, the Barrow Downs.

[MatthewM]

Originally Posted by Eönwë

If we're actually doing this, can I have one request. Please keep Tom Bombadil this time! I'm sure we can have some fun with that.
edit: anyway, we have to include our namesake, the Barrow Downs.

Oh yes - Tom would stay in if we decided to do that part of the story. But I am thinking, would it perhaps be easier to do a seperate Book (ex: Book II) rather than the story as a whole? For fans like us, we would not be "lost" as to what happened prior, and anybody who will be listening to our project would already be familiar with LotR. So it might be easier to work on just one of the Book's.

Azaelia - good outline.

[Macalaure]

I think the great advantage of a project like this is, that we need to abide to less restrictions than a commercial radio adaptation would have to. We can, for example, take as much time as we like to, or afford to worry less about characters that might not seem credible to a non-reader. There is no real reason to cut anything - unless there is something which turns out to simply not fit into the whole.

This is probably a stupid question, but I guess it should better be cleared early on: Could there be any copyright problems for this?

[Gwathagor]

Originally Posted by MatthewM

Oh yes - Tom would stay in if we decided to do that part of the story. But I am thinking, would it perhaps be easier to do a seperate Book (ex: Book II) rather than the story as a whole? For fans like us, we would not be "lost" as to what happened prior, and anybody who will be listening to our project would already be familiar with LotR. So it might be easier to work on just one of the Book's.

Azaelia - good outline.

Good thought. It would be cool just to do certain parts of the story that we felt needed improvement, or that we particularly liked - such as the Bombadil episode. Could be a good way to start out, and then expand the project later if all went well.

I'd love to help. I am going to school in the Chicago-area and live near Portland, Oregon (during the summer), so I may be a bit removed from other Downers, perhaps. I'm not sure. At any rate, I'll do whatever I can. Some tasks would doubtless work better over long distances, but I can write and act.