What Makes a Good Script for Audio?
In my last post I announced Cynthia Abel as the winner of the Thirty Day Challenge Podcast Intro competition. But what made me pick her script over the others?
First of all, here’s her script as she provided it:
The intro is a bit like a circus ringmaster introducing an act.
With an underlying consequence to demonstrate the perils of the introduction statements.
—————————————————–
[Background sound - Drum roll]
Deep voiced Announcer:“Offering more outrageous thrills than a Japanese game show.”
[Background sound - End Drum roll]
[Background sound - karate attack yell] “Aaayeee”
[Sound of hitting wall - Splat]
[Sound - groan of impact] “Uuffff”
[Background sound - Drum roll]
Deep voiced Announcer:“More chilling than a Polar Bear Club outing at the South Pole.”
[Background sound - End Drum roll]
[Background sound - Splash into water]
High trembly voice: “It’s c-c-c-old-d-d.”
[Optional, omit if deemed too offensive] “Ohhh … shrinkage.”
[Background sound - Drum roll]
Deep voiced Announcer:“More cutting edge than a complete set of chef knives.”
[Background sound - End Drum roll]
[Background sound - Knife chopping]
In stilted chef Julia Child voice:
“Ow. And now we apply the bandaid to staunch the flow.”[Background sound - Drum roll]
Deep voiced Announcer:“Taking hoards of wide-eyed eager cyber explorers on a more profitable challenge than climbing Mt. Everest.”
[Background sound - End Drum roll]
[Background sound]
Nerdy voice: “Ooooh. Look at the view on my five dollar screen saver.”
[Background sound - Drum roll]
Deep voiced Announcer:“Helping the socially inept make friends and influence the Internet market place…”
[Background sound - End Drum roll and pause]
Deep voiced Announcer:“We present the Intrepid Master of WiFii walkingin the Virtual Center of Cyberspace…”
[Background sound - Cymbal clang]
Deep voiced Announcer:“Eddd Dale and his Marketing Menagerie!”
[Perhaps a bit of circus music to close?]
What I liked about this script was its simplicity, yet it still gave me lots of opportunity to really play with it (and go overboard on the sound effects). At the audio production studios I work from we talk about some audio being Theatre of the Mind. Sounds pretentious, but it simply means that you take a script and create an audio production that immediately conjures up images and associations in your head. This is particularly relevant to radio commercials, but also works for a fun podcast intro like this one.
And, of course, it embodied 2 of the things that we associate with the Thirty Day Challenge: it is designed for beginners (Cynthia’s script didn’t use any “in” language that newbies wouldn’t understand) and it is fun! And the circus theme definitely works well with the Thirty Day Challenge team 
As you can hear from the final result, very little was changed:
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What I changed and Why I Changed it
There were a few things I changed. I played with the sound effects a little more than the script said. This is not unusual when changing a written concept into audio. For example, I used different drum rolls and other linking sounds so that it didn’t get too repetitive.
Apart from that, I couldn’t get the “ it’s ccccoooold” to sound quite right in the mix, and felt the “oooh shrinkage” was descriptive and funny enough on its own. Also, even at his best, Jon cannot impersonate a woman and I didn’t have a female voice that could imitate Julia Child (hell, I had to look her up on YouTube because I didn’t even know who she was)!
The great part about the rest of the script was that the highly talented Jon Iles was able to do all the rest of the voicing AND he managed a few sound effects for me too. I personally think that the final introduction has a circus feel but with a slightly macabre edge to it.
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