Wing Commander - Defiant Few (New Audio Series)

Hello all. Long time no update. Sorry about that.

Episode one is coming along nicely, so is episode two for that matter. There've been no end of delays in the form of script revisions, sound effect hunting and grim diseases striking down the voice actors, but I dare say that most of that is now sorted out.

In the meantime, here's something for you all. A short trailer for the series:

 
no growleffects for the kilrathi? :(

Kilrathi shall sound markedly Kilrathi-esque in the episodes.

Anyway, I recently sent out the script for episode 3, and there are a handful of new roles available. Most of these are minor roles, or else they start out minor at first then gain more prominence in later episodes.

The deadline for auditions is May 1st. Please send all auditions in wav or mp3 format to rmepaul@googlemail.com

Captain Metcalfe: Male, older voice. Commanding officer of the TCS Gallant. Invariably formal, stern and outspoken.

Audition Lines:


‘Flight deck, this is the Captain. We’re going to have a lot of fighters touching down soon, including surviving fighters from the Artemis. Be ready to perform emergency repairs and rearming.’

‘Admiral, with all due respect, it’s not a good idea for you leave the ship, not when the airspace around the base could become a battleground.’


TCS Gallant Bridge Officers 1 and 2: Male or female,20-40. All business. These characters may get names in later episodes, for now they’re minor roles.

Audition Lines:

‘No indication of fighter launches yet ma’am.’

‘Captain Metcalfe, flight deck reports we have all our fighters on the deck. Rearming and emergency repairs are commencing.’


Chief Adams: Male or female, 20-30. Chief Technician onboard the TCS Gallant. They have only one line in episode 3 but their role becomes more salient in later episodes.

Audition Line:

‘Understood Captain. Me and my crew are ready.’


Lieutenant Ryder: Male or female, 20-30. Communications officer onboard the TCS Arthur Clouston. All business for the most part.

Audition Line:

‘Ok pilots, we’ve managed to establish contact with the cruiser Harpy Eagle and have gotten an update on the situation in Perry.’
 
Just a head's up. Episode 1 is almost finished. There's some last minute tweaks and edits to see to and I'm waiting to get second opinions from the voice actors, but we're still on schedule for the vague, unspecified, 'sometime in April' release date.
 
"Understood Captain. Me and my crew are ready."

should be

"Understood Captain. My crew and I are ready." (it sounds better, too)
 
"Understood Captain. Me and my crew are ready."

should be

"Understood Captain. My crew and I are ready." (it sounds better, too)
I disagree. For starters, it's never a good idea to have grammatically correct speech. That kind of thing works in a novel, but the spoken word is different. Most of us have our own individual speech patters, not to mention that when you speak, you can't backtrack and correct any mistakes you make - so we're simply more prone to getting things wrong.

In this case, changing the text also has deep character implications. I have no idea which of these options conforms better to what Plywood Fiend has in mind for the character, but the point is that they are not the same. "Me and my crew" suggests someone a bit more self-centered (not necessarily in a negative way), more confident, who regards the crew as an extension of himself. "My crew and I" on the other hand implies someone who thinks of the crew first, regarding them as the real key to success. Is a leader only as good as his crew, or is the crew only as good as the leader?

(note, by the way, that Plywood Fiend did not necessarily even think of any of this - it's easy to point that kind of thing out from the sidelines, but when you write, you... well, just write, and often it's only after a couple of drafts that you start really adapting the text to the characters consciously)


By the way, I don't think it sounds better either - but that's purely a matter of taste ;).
 
Must remember to check on this thread more often.

Anyway, as Quarto said it's not good to have grammatically correct speech in a script as few people actually talk that way and characters who are written as such tend to sound unrealistic. To that end I give my actors the leeway to modify the exact wording of their lines to whatever fits best with their speech patterns. Sometimes that works better, sometimes it doesn't.

Finally, 'My crew and I...' to me conjures strange images of the Queen as the Chief Technician. Make of that what you will.
 
Finished!

Presenting episode 1 of Defiant Few:


Downloadable MP3 version: https://soundcloud.com/#rychyrdpyyl/wing-commander-defiant-few-the

My thanks, once again, to my team for their commitment and hard work. My thanks as well to cast and audience alike for their patience. There've been no end of gremlins to fish out of the wiring in the early days, but hopefully future episodes shouldn't take nearly as long to get finished.

P.S. A warning to headphone users, there are some loud moments.
 
just a question: Is every Episode a stand alone " short story", or do they all belong togehter forming a campaign?
 
Do you need to have an account just to see the page? The link doesn't seem to work.

Gah, I thought I'd worked around that. Truth be told, I'm not sure. It works for me when I try (signed out), but there seems to be no rhyme or reason for who it works for and who it doesn't.

Cumbersome though it is, if you type in 'RychyrdPyyl' into google, the first option should take you to my account profile, and from there the downloadable episode should be right in front of you.

I'll try and get the link sorted, or find somewhere where displaying audio files is the straightforward process it should be.
 
Listened to this today - I quite liked it. Any chance of setting up a page (here or elsewhere) with a guide to the series, character list etc.
 
Listened to this today - I quite liked it. Any chance of setting up a page (here or elsewhere) with a guide to the series, character list etc.

That's on the to do list, however there'll be new characters, ships and other things introduced with the next few episodes and I want to get the show a bit more established before setting up an accompanying page for it.

Thanks for listening.
 
Hello all.

I'm pleased to announce that episode 2 is now completed and uploaded.



Downloadable MP3 version (The link should work this time):

https://soundcloud.com/rychyrdpyyl/wing-commander-defiant-few

Hope you all like it. Thanks to everyone who listened to and enjoyed episode 1 and thanks as always to my increasingly large and dedicated team of voice actors.

(Once again, take care if wearing headphones for there are some loud moments)
 
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