In the last Madison’s Musings, discussing Madison in the world of science fiction, I mentioned that I chose the episode of Dimension X called, “The Parade” because it was one of my favorite episodes of the series. But as a writer, and more specifically, the editor (with my husband, Jeremy, as the audio engineer), what I came to realize is that an episode called “The Parade” is probably going to have a “parade” in it. That’s a fun little feat for an audio drama! So I wanted to talk here about the usage of background ambience as a way to fill out and create the world in audio storytelling.
Because I get my inspirations from decades of listening to the radio dramas of the 30s-50s, background ambience, to me, is an absolute necessity. “Theater of the Mind,” as these shows are often called, should paint an audio picture of the settings where they take place. While small sound effects like doors, footsteps, phones, etc. are also a great tool to bring the listener into the world, what I, personally, strive for is to put in background sounds that fill the world out in the listeners’ imaginations. I’m from a strong theater and improv background both as a writer and an actor. And what I was taught to avoid was “talking heads” in scene work. That’s when you have the actors performing their dialogue, but the scene is stagnate. Think of two people having a conversation together on a couch. You hope someone is going to go look out a window or pour themselves a drink – something! Improv it’s a real pitfall since you don’t have any actual props, save maybe a chair. So how do you build the invisible world so it’s not two people standing there just… talking? I look at audio drama in that same way. Which is why this is an audio drama and not an audiobook. We’re trying to create relationships between characters and living settings, so the background ambience is a great tool for that.
Also, the background ambience makes the scene feel more real. I have worked professionally as a background actor (aka “extra”) now for five years. Why do film, TV and commercials hire us to, basically, walk around in the office, the hospital, the city street, the restaurant? Because we fill out the scene and make the location feel more real for the characters inhabiting it. Same with background ambience in audio drama. I can tell you through dialogue that the characters are in an busy police precinct. But just that little extra oomph of typewriters, phones ringing, people chatting, fills out the scene and makes it more authentic. More ALIVE. Even though, like the human extras walking through the set, background ambience is not meant to be focused on in the storytelling… but if it wasn’t there, you’d miss it. It might feel like something is “off” in the scene, and that feeling would lead to uneasiness and, even though it’s subtle, take you out of the world.
Now, a freakin’ PARADE isn’t an easy background sound to incorporate, especially subtly. How do you make it loud enough to enhance the scene, but not be as loud as, well, a freakin’ PARADE?? Between the parade bands, cheering spectators and the marching Martian soldiers, that scene challenged us to find the balance that still kept the focus on the characters and the primary action. If I may say so, I think it came out really well. I’m talking about it here because I am pretty darn proud of it. After I edited our episode, I went back to the original episode and realized… those bastards didn’t include a parade AT ALL! Whaaaat??? Yup. The original Dimension X episode has no actual parade sounds. Well, I’m glad we included it, and I hope you enjoyed the audio world we created for you.
-Chrisi (aka Madison)
