Hi.  Yes this is the first attempt at such a project and must note that I have never been published in any form. I just really love writing.   I was rather ill this summer and spent most of it on my back at my parents place.  Just before getting ill I had ordered a whole stack of Doctor Who (and spinoff) radio plays from England, and that was pretty much all I had to listen to except for a few other music cds my parents picked up from my home.  Once I started feeling better I decided to try and write a radio play (since it was something I had never attempted before and I wanted allow other ideas for a second graphic novel to simmer in the back of my mind).  As for narrative, I wanted each play to stand on its own, but also be part of a much larger story that is being told from a future point in time.  Because of this each play will/should start out with a monologue by the main character Eric.  Below is the monologue from the first play:

ERIC

** Emmett City, Saskatchewan, population 2500.  To the west,  south and east of the town are the vast plains that dominate the province.  To the north are the salt flats and mine which employ most of the townspeople. My name is Eric Faramond.  I own a bookstore, the only one in town, which makes it a very busy place, but this story is not about my bookstore.  Looking back on it now this story is about magic and history, life and death, and how one can see so much in such a short time that changes them forever.  This story, my story, begins in Emmett City, in the month of October, in the year of our Lord two thousand and eight.** 

And here is the opening monologue from the second play:

ERIC

**            October 26th 1764.  It has been almost three months since I arrived here with my late Uncle Jurgen.  My uncle expected me to take his place and I suspect that Jurgen thought that he would have more time to educate me, but his death left me stranded, a prisoner of the past.  Yet I am not alone.  As the new Count of Fara I have a whole village of people to look out for and I have my tutor, the Lady Belinda.  Under her training I have learned enough German to easily hold a conversation and even more importantly I have begun translating many of my uncle’s journals in the hopes that I will find a way back to my own time.  So far I have learned nothing except that I am once again late for another tutoring session.**

In the scripts I have included sound effects  ranging from present day airports to German forests and battles with daggers, knifes, swords that leads up to the climax inside a raging forest fire.  I have also included music, almost all of it classical pieces that will either fit the scene (such as St. John's Night on Bald Mountain for the forest fire) or pieces by composers such as Biber, and Shostakovich, to represent specific locations like Strom Manor in the city of Mannheim, or the fictional village of Fara deep in the heart of the Black Forest.

At some point I hope to either get the money to produce the plays myself or see if I can sell the series of plays to a company like Bigfinish and have them produced.  I'm aiming for a runtime of about 50-75 minutes maximum because that is all that will fit onto a cd, but if the story takes 2cds worth of space to tell than that's what will happen.  For me telling a great story is most important and I will deal with the other aspects of creating the Radio play later.

Thanks.

Sincerely,

David

P.S.  Please note that both opening monologues are first drafts only and once I finish writing all the places that make up the season (five) I will begin the task of editing everything.

I'm glad that this has been getting good reviews. I wanted to see it but missed out in the theater, but should be available for rent here (Canada) soon so I'll check it out. As for movies in the theaters, both Juno and Charlie Wilson's War are fantastic. David

Quote - Call me a racist, but I prefer to donate my spare CPU cycles to the benefit of terrestrial life. Folding@home or FightAIDS@home are much more in my completely selfish interest of helping the human race fight diseases.

I do agree with with this, and if FightAids would work on my mac I would run it day and night to find a cure. Until then it's aliens when I have some spare time.....

Hi Mark. I thought that rotoscoping was painting over certain sections of the image to create the effect you wanted, such as the the glow of a lightsabers. If we are talking about using the built in particle engine I will probably not be able to get it to work, as I have tried many times in the past with no success. I will try and post an image or two of what I mean later tonight when I return from the doctors. Also how does C6 Pro work on a mac. Are there any problems I should know about before purchasing it. I'm using OS X 10.4.11 Thanks. David

I agree that the story should be well done and laid out and the CG aspect should be there to help flesh out the world of the story, not become the story, or push the story to the background. I enjoyed the Golden Compass but felt that something important was being left out at the end. I have just started reading the novel and am finding it far better than the movie. I have yet to see Beowulf. David

My wish would be a better walk lab. One where you could at the very least create side to side movements (useful for skating) and have movement presets for basic fencing, dances (such as the waltz, salsa, tango -- for both partners), and some skating and skiing motions would be great. It would also be nice if you could apply these presets to groups of people and off set them. It would sure speed things up when trying to get thirty or forty to dance in sequence, or do anything in sequence. Then again I've been asking this for years since Poser 5. David

Where are all the nightmares?  The nightmare eaters took them :p

That's fantastic that you are making a mac version.  Take as much time as you need as I am not going anywhere.

David

To bad there is not a mac version.  Great picture by the way.

David

There is a book entitled the Writers guide to the 1800, which gives an overview of the 1800, although it does not cover writing in the style.  I suggest by starting to read other authors that have published during the 1800's and then try a go at it.  You can never do to much research.

David

P.S.  If it makes you feel better I'm working on a story set in 1764 Germany....research is my friend :)

Just curious,  what version of After Effects are you using?  If you have the Pro version a lot more can be done in it, before you export stuff out, with no loss in quality.  If it is going to be eventually put on a dvd for viewing you can also tell AE to use broadcast safe colours.  What type of effects are you trying to create?

David

That was fantastic.

Thanks Mark.

Hi.  I was just wondering can Carrara 6 Pro make use of Bvh files.  If I create a batch of bvh files can I assign them to poser people in Carrara to speed up the animating process?

Funny I have used carrara several times for small tv projects (mostly school plays) and have never had a problem.  It looked the same on the tv as it did on the monitor.  Maybe Final Cut Studio pro automatically compensated for the colour range.

Glad that you got it working for you.

David