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.
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