#a81 talk tag

[anissapierce]

My a81 bag got wet with pins on it and there was some staining on the bottom so when i did some tie dying (turned out kinda disappointing) i used some of the die that was to b used after tie dying to do something fun

Before:

After:

Also someone who ran for county coroner taught me how to get some fun blood splatter

[danrat]

ok i’m lowkey obsessed with this post bc the tags are calling me a freak (affectionately) and i’m so sorry to the people looking at any of the recent a81 fics and going “…….ohhhhhhh. anyway!”

heard tho chef. watch this space! i’m open for anything! what kind of fluff are we talking. hurt/comfort? cuddling? rat cuteness aggroing dan and squeezing him so hard he blows up? i’m just laughing and having fun!

shakes you violently GIVE RAT LONG HAIR. bro is like a mad scientist do you think he has time to cut his hair. nuh uh.

[zipmode]

Ratty: squeak squeak

Samuel:

[fioblah]

you carry him like a person! fucking gay people

[dickwheelie]

just started archive 81, honestly I’m not sure what to make of it yet, it’s......fine so far. I think I need to just keep listening and see where it goes

[discountdyke]

imagine writing the best podcast ever and then turning it into the worst podcast ever

[angel-archivist]

God the Dsmp fandom reaches its grubby little grabbers literally everywhere it’s infuriating

Also hi Orph we need to hang out more cause we haven’t talked in a while, I hope all is mostly well in your life

LITERALLY its like, they feel the need to tag EVERY LITTLE THING and its so infuriating cuz its like I do NOT go into the TMA tag to see what avatar you’d headcanon Philmumps or whatever the fuck to be like PLEASE.. and its not even JUST the dsmp fandom like i saw people tagging when they drew other characters in the sfm style with the main tag and it clutters the whole tag up!! especially when the other thing your tagging has a broader/larger audience then the tag your cluttering up! I even see it happen accidentally in the archive 81 tags when people will talk about listening to the podcast in the tags and it ends up in the a81 tag just bark bark!!! be careful with tags on tumblr is all!! 

HI!!! yeah we havent :((( schools be crazy these last couple of weeks ive had so many tests n stuff!!! We should try to talk more 👉👈🥺💕 ily!!!

[sickeningradiances]

date of origin: 22 Feb, 2021

update: i already unfollowed a81 tag and ive listened to friends talk abt the show, i have too many things i want to watch to bother hatewatching this but listening to stuff about it is already painful enough

here's a post from a darker timeline. imagine, its after the archive 81 show comes out. the tag is filled with dan/melody art by people who have only watched the show. the rat enthusiasts have been forced out. people are weirded out why do we keep mentioning this Alexa lady. i have to block the a81 tag

[anissapierce]

Bringing up a81s acting is like bringing up Dylan's singing at this point like it bothers the newcomer on first listen but after a bit you realize you can grow used to it and find it charming even bc the art behind it is so good it doesn't matter and you wouldn't trade it

[anissapierce]

The city is like soooo under the hill core... In fact i imagine tht in the past it mightve been closer to tht human involvement sullies quite a bit even something as vast and unknowable as the city which us so unknowable its hard to describe but thru dan powells soundscape he gave you a vibe comparing it to night Vale a city in a narrative told by narrators tht u tell you about it well it's hardly a fair fight

[anissapierce]

The funny thing abt Rat is that....he thinks hes a muppet... Like the shit he does could b funny in another situation if played for laughs but like he literally thinks of himself as dr bunsen honeydew

[theradioghost]

Oh, I agree with this so much.

I was talking about this with my dad, who's been a writer and producer for film, live theatre, and radio drama. He told me that in a film scriptwriting class he took, his teacher told them that narration happens in film when the writing is too weak to let you know what's going on through dialogue, action or acting (like the terrible Blade Runner theatrical cut.)

I feel like my issue with the narration problems in Bubble and Starcalled has very much to do with this, and with what you said about limits. It feels as though these were shows written by people who wanted something as close to television as possible, but who were either unwilling to work within the limits of immersive audio fiction, or unaware of how to work with those limits. So, feeling like they weren't showing enough, they fell back on a device that works even worse in pure audio than it does onscreen; rather than learning how to work within the capabilities (and advantages!) of immersive audio, or trying a different method altogether. Learning to work within those limits, but also learning the unique things you can do in audio (and specifically immersive audio?) that you can't do in other media, is really what I want to see.

Learning the medium is so, so important. I think one of the few cons to how accessible audio drama is to creators via podcasting is that it's equally accessible to people who haven't (or haven't yet) learned what they're doing in audio, including people with big budgets and no experience writing audio drama, who assume there's no difference between serialized AD and television. As I mentioned in the tags of my first post, it's one of the reasons I really believe that podcast AD creators should listen to more golden age radio -- it may be outdated, but it was produced when radio was the most popular entertainment medium, by people with a ton of professional experience and very high standards for audio fiction that worked. I think there's a lot to learn listening to Escape or Suspense about audio fiction, immersive or not.

(Side note: while I'm not too familiar with Big Finish, I definitely think there's a lot to be said for audio horror that uses the medium well. I always think of Archive 81, and how the understanding that I think maybe only professional sound engineers/foley artists can have of the capabilities of sound have resulted in a show that's totally reshaped my idea of what audio can evoke. A81 pushes the limits of what audio fiction can do far enough to essentially create visual body horror in audio, and it's such a glorious, terrifying thing.)

big ol possibly controversial opinion: if the only way you can convey what’s going on in your audio drama is third-person narration, then you are probably bad at writing audio drama and need to stop trying to write for TV, seriously rethink your medium, and learn how to use it properly!

narration isn’t unusable. it’s very important, in fact. shows like Greater Boston and The Orbiting Human Circus, as well as noir-inspired shows like The Penumbra and Neon Nights, use narration (both first and third person) in ways that are stylistically innovative and/or which inform you about the world and the story. (spoiler: I still count the moment in GB season two where Leon interrupts the narrator as one of my favorite moments in the audio medium, period.) other narration gives a window into how characters think and process their world, and the possible differences between that and the reality of that world. the fact that Julian the Janitor summons up an imaginary narrator speaks to his dreamy loneliness, his love of old radio, and his desire to see himself as a character in the show he adores, as well as adding to the bedtime-story atmosphere and foreshadowing the end of the first season. the expressionistic nature of noir, where the dark and pessimistic views of the protagonist reflect, create, and inform the corrupt world around them, makes the kind of first-person narration created on the page by writers like Chandler and Hammett feel much more natural in audio than it would in many other genres. and in really good, deconstructive noir like The Penumbra, Juno’s internal monologue is vital to his character development exactly because of this expressionistic quality; Juno believes he lives in a world as dark as his thoughts, but those thoughts don’t always match up to the reality presented beside them; his depression effectively makes him an unreliable narrator. that doesn’t even touch on shows presented in monologue, arguably its own kind of narration, and which has its own brilliant uses — as in Within the Wires, where the medium of narration is a vital part of the story. effectively, all of this narration exists within the universe it presents — it affects and is affected by that universe.

but if the only way you can characterize your setting or your characters is to have an unintegrated narrator visually describe them! you are doing a bad job. in the trailer for Bubble (and oh, Maximum Fun, how could you do me like this), I can’t help but feel it would be much more effective to leave the dialogue of all the hipster-types in and cut the description of them lounging around in the park and vaping! the narration comes off as insecurity, someone who doesn’t know or trust the ways that audio is used to set a scene. and Starcalled, for all its interesting plot, is effectively a full-cast audiobook with a few sound effects. stop telling me that characters are narrowing their eyes or that the sunlight is glinting off their black visor. “show, don’t tell” applies to audio drama too! it just means something a little different.

Learn how to work with what you can and can’t show with audio! know that listening audiences will usually accept characters speaking or giving exposition in ways that would come off as unrealistic in many other mediums, and learn how to walk that line! and if you have to use narration, learn to use it in a way that doesn’t utterly break immersion or just prop up insecure writing. Lend a little thought to what makes narration in audio work.

[anissapierce]

S3 of a81 is soooo house of l... Literally a brother and sister sorting through their dads audio tapes

[anissapierce]

The thing dan powell as a character (not the actor/producer) is tht even if sound fetus abortion was an option n he knew abt the pregnancy idk if hed do it .. like.. not all mpreg situations can b solved w abortions but esp not ones rooted in reproductive horror inflected on kind caring dudes who are maybe too invested in Weird Things™ to kill said weird thing gestating within

[anissapierce]

I know that archive 81 didnt invent rituals that involving sacrificing a story or mad scientists who do surgeries on ppl involving a fucked up deal struck.... But like that doesnt change yu yu hakusho from being similar to yu yu hakusho. Cmon a brother going through with a ritual that change him to be able to save his sister. Ok that lines up more with dromen (its a gay trait to sacrifice yourself for anyone you love regardless of the type of love)

[anissapierce]

Like the thing that i realized doing this project is the reason why thomas's story hits so hard is tht I don't want to be him...like i cant stand to be alone and quiet like the only thing thats calms that is chewing on something of doing a singular hum or whistling w my moth closes every once n in a while