Superknova (Ellie Kim)
Gender: Transgender woman
Sexuality: Queer
DOB: N/A
Ethnicity: Korean
Nationality: American
Occupation: Singer, songwriter, musician, music producer, audio engineer, activist, doctor
Note: Became the first physician at Lurie Children’s Hospital to publicly speak out against cosmetic, medically unnecessary surgeries performed on intersex infants without their consent. Result is that Lurie Children’s hospital formally changed their policy regarding intersex infant surgery and became the first hospital in the United States to do so.
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this is a genuine question not at all meant as a rude gotcha, but I feel like I've seen lots of people cite the relatively low barrier of entry as a huge advantage of podcasts as a medium, "if you have access to decent audio tech you can make a podcast" etc etc. So where does the need to sell a script come in? Is it a financial thing, and IP thing, something else?
this doesn't read like a rude gotcha at all, it's a really good question! there is a much lower barrier to entry when it comes to podcasts compared to tv, film, theater, etc. (though not as low as writing a book if we're talking about hard resources - you can technically write a book with just a laptop and a dream and then self publish! though as a writer who has written a lot of scripts and four books (3 published) writing a book is a much bigger psychological burden imo lol).
the need to sell a script, for me, is entirely a financial thing. if I had the money to produce podcasts at the level I want to entirely independently, I would! I know how to do it! but, unfortunately, I really only have the funds to produce something like @breakerwhiskey - a single narrator daily podcast that I make entirely on my own.
and that show is actually a great example of just how low the barrier is: I actually record the whole thing on a CB radio I got off of ebay for 30 bucks, my editing software is $50/month (I do a lot of editing, so this is an expense that isn't just for that show) and there are no hosting costs for it. the only thing it truly costs me is time and effort.
not every show I want to make is single narrator. a lot of the shows I've made involve large casts, full sound design, other writers, studio recording, scoring, and sometimes full cast albums (my first show, The Bright Sessions had all of those). I've worked on shows that have had budgets of 100 dollars and worked on shows that cost nearly half a million dollars. if anyone is curious about the nitty gritty of budgets, I made a huge amount of public, free resources about making audio drama earlier this year that has example budgets in these ranges!
back in the beginning of my career, I asked actors to work for free or sound designers to work for a tiny fee, because I was doing it all for free and we were all starting out. I don't like doing that anymore. so even if I'm making a show with only a few actors and a single sound designer...well, if you want an experienced sound designer and to pay everyone fairly (which I do!), it's going to cost you at least a few thousand dollars. when you're already writing something for free, it can be hard to justify spending that kind of money. I've sound designed in the past - and will be doing so again in the near future for another indie show of mine - but I'm not very good at it. that's usually the biggest expense that I want to have covered by an outside budget.
but if I'm being really honest, I want to be paid to write! while I do a lot of things - direct, produce, act, consult, etc. - writing is my main love and I want it to be the majority of my income. I'm really fortunate to be a full-time creative and I still do a lot of work independently for no money, but when I have a show that would be too expensive to produce on my own, ideally I want someone else footing the bill and paying me to write the scripts.
I love that audio fiction has the low barrier to entry it does, because I think hobbyists are incredible - it is a beautiful and generous thing to provide your labor freely to something creative and then share it with the world - but the barrier to being a professional audio drama writer is certainly higher. I'm very lucky to already be there, but, as every creative will tell you, even after you've had several successes and established yourself in the field, it can still be hard to make a living!
anyway, I hope this answers your question! I love talking about this stuff, so if anyone else is curious about this kind of thing, please ask away.
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I love Blackhole… For a planet-eating, world-destroying, indestructible force of nature, one would expect him to sound absolutely TERRIFYING if he was mad, but apparently, thats not the case! Even when he tries, he never seemed to sound threatening or scary. Maybe a tad bit upset, but never scary (to me at least)
I dunno, I love it when characters who are fully capable of destroying everyone and everything have a vocal volume below 50 decibels. Its a fun little contrast :D
Also his voice is monotone as hell. i think thats funny
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seriously I don’t think a lot of people really realize the impact that wtnv had on the audio drama landscape
if you enjoy an audio drama, I would put money on someone being inspired by wtnv no more than 2 or 3 “generations” up the chain
you can see the footprints of it in that 2014-2016 fiction podcast boom, where a lot of the podcasts started with a “reason” why you were hearing a recording of these events rather than just being a “fly-on-the-wall” observer. it was the equivalent of every book starting with “I’ve written these events down so that someone may read them”
wtnv made so many people realize that if you had a story in your head, you just needed a microphone and someone to read it
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so, a month ago, @redstonedust made this post that ranked the lyrics to Hermitgang in order from "1 Hit KO" to "So Bad It's Good," and it's haunted me ever since, so now i make it everyone else's problem too
lyrics and chart:
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