Voice Over edited by Henrik Anttonen
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| Issue 3/2003 Contents |
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INT. Voice Over
Announcements:
Poll: Writers - Readers
Help needed
Anybody listen? - Radio writing
Interview:
The Dictatorship Pizza

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| INT. Voice Over |
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I'm awfully late with this issue, I know. That's because of many reasons. Most important was the fact that I started studies and had to move, so there has been a lot going on in the real world recently. The other reasons are more down to earth. First of all, you still haven't contributed in any way, so once again this is an issue written entirely by me. I beg you to change that and contribute. The idea really wasn't for me to write everything.

The second down to earth reason is the fact that I've been unable to get interviews. This was supposed to be a big radio writing issue, but nobody granted me interviews about the matter so it diminished into a one single article about it.

This issue also features the beginning of a poll that is just to coordinate who you readers are so that I can plan the magazine for you. I'd appreciate if you'd participate.

From now on, I have to cut down the releasing schedule. From this point on Voice Over will be released when a new issue is ready. This means uneven intervals, but I promise at least 6 issues per year.

I really would appreciate if you'd just sit down and write something for the magazine. It really isn't that hard. It also has a significant impact on how often the magazine will be released. You might not believe it, but editing a magazine is a lot easier if you don't have to write all of it. So here's the deal: You go and write something and I'll put it on the magazine and in the end, everyone are happy.

The End.

Now, if you are interested, I planned on telling a bit about myself. I realised that you don't have a clue what kind of a nutcase takes this kind of job, so I decided to correct the matter.

I study music technology, but I'm mentally 36 so I'm not your average college goon. I've been writing mostly for radio recently, although I'm developing a television series with a couple friends in US. I myself live in Finland.

I'm also active in other internet activities. I do a bit of music that has been released in ModPlug. This music is mainly for my radio plays. I also trade bootlegs and otr radio shows. I myself am a moderator of group dedicated to trading Frank Zappa concerts.

I'm also an Interactive Fiction enthusiastic. Interactive Fiction means text adventures. I write and program some of myself, but most of all I play. Badly.

I'm also a follower of Star Trek: Renaissance script based fan fiction series and moderate a site dedicated to Renaissance fan fiction. Yes that's right, fan fiction to fan fiction.

And while I can, I edit Voice Over. So you can see why I have problems keeping deadlines when you don't contribute…

Oh, and by the way. This issue was written in a quite a hurry, so please forgive my especially crappy grammar.

henrik anttonen
thealtren@hotmail.com

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| Announcements |
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POLL: WRITERS - READERS
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Well, Voice Over now firmly exists and I'm not planning on quitting for quite some time, so it's time to gather some information about my readers.

The process is very simple: Send me email to Voice Over@hotmail.com and tell me if you are scriptwriter or -reader. This is just to know who the people who are subscribing are and this helps me to plan out what kind of emphasis should the magazine take.

This is just going to take you few seconds, so I hope you take the time.

Also, all feedback and suggestions (as long as they're civil) are more than appreciated.

Voice Over@hotmail.com

HELP NEEDED:
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As I described in the editorial, my days are getting quite packed now days and that's why I'm looking for a co-worker for Voice Over.

If you are interested, email to me at Voice Over@hotmail.com and we can discuss as to what you'd actually want to do. All help would be appreciated.

I'm not being optimistic though…

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| Anybody listen? |
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- Radio writing

Some time ago, I posted a question to Simply Scripts forum asking if there are anyone interested of writing for radio anymore. I didn't get a single answer and that upset me enough to write this little praise for radio drama, maybe to spark one of our fine readers to take a moment to actually consider this fantastic craft. (And to fill space so that #3 would get ready sometimes, but we're not talking about that right now.)

I've been writing, producing and directing radio plays for most of my life. Not single one of them has even been broadcasted, because there simply aren't enough interested listeners. I can't see why. What a thought provoking medium it can be! Radio writing actually is the only scriptwriting medium where your imagination truly is the limit.

Think about it! What would cost thousands of dollars on screen can be easily created in sound faster and cheaper. You can create vast armies by yourself, or build grand structures by just describing them to the audience. You can place your characters anywhere you wish without any limitations caused by technology or budget. It's all there, under your fingertips. You can even abandon the visual way of thinking and tell abstract stories. It's almost like writing a book, except that the listener has the sound to grasp to and by that, the experience is more real than a book could ever create.

The storytelling techniques are a lot clearer as well. You don't have to worry is what you're writing filmable. You can abandon the strict rules of screen. Your story can go on the way you feel like. You don't have to worry about distances, lighting, anything. I've written stories for audio that would be impossible to make on screen but which works in radio without a problem.

Tom Hanks said in one interview that movie is the director's craft, television series is the producers craft and theatre is the actor's craft. Well, radio drama really is the writer's craft. In radio, the text is all that tells the story. Director can't tell the story with a fancy camera tricks. It's the writer, and to some respect, the sound designer.

The problem lies with the fact that nobody cares. There are virtually no radio productions really going on and the few which are existent are fading away. The good side of this is that you don't need a company, because you don't need the money. All you need is a microphone and a couple of friends to make your vision real. There are a lot of amateur radio drama groups active in the internet making dramas. It is lot faster and cheaper to produce a radio play than a movie. You can do it by yourself and with any luck; you'll receive some popularity and get to establish your name. There are interested people online.

I want you to think about it. This concludes our annoying advertisement.

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| Reviews |
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Review by T. Henrik Anttonen
(thealtren@hotmail.com)

NAME: The Dictatorship Pizza
WRITTEN BY: Omar Mouallem with Moe Mouallem
PRODUCED: No
DRAFT: First
FILE FORMAT: .htm
URL: http://www.geocities.com/the_burning_cigarette/DICTATORSHIP-PIZZA-1.htm

This is a pilot to a new virtual sitcom series called The Dictatorship Pizza. Isn't that just what the world needs…?

Actually, the reason why I wanted to review this particular thing, is the setup. Because while the general quality of the writing is kind of amateurish, the characters and the whole concept is something worth looking on.

It's a story about a family which has come to Canada from Russia when they were fed up with Gorbachov's horrible ideas of openness and reform. They have founded a pizza place called Dictatorship Pizza where the customers don't have any say on what they are going to do or eat. The fact that the public loves this, can easily be considered as a satire of the current development where the people demand that their individual rights are being torn in the favour of general safety. I don't know whether this is intentional or not, but it works.

The character of the family's father, Victor, is a success. He is hilarious in his deep belief in the superiority of Stalinism and his open quest for complete annihilation of democracy and a communist revolution. The other family members are left as pretty blank characters behind Victor's persona. At least in the pilot. The overall feeling that it left was pretty much the feeling of a one man show.

But as I said in the beginning, the actual writing is something the writers should still work on. The dialogue was kind of clumsy at times and the general behaviour of the character was not that natural. In addition, some of the sentence structures would suggest that the writers are not all that experienced.

The humour is basically the normal sitcom average with few new ideas. Not a place to find revolutionary humour, but constant flow of standard hilariousness. (What a sentence!) Entertaining, nothing more, nothing less. But then again, does it have to be?

But in the end, I would say this is a concept worth reading and developing. With some more practise, I can see potential in the writers (whatever their method of working together is).

Work on the proper formatting! would be my first most suggestion.

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| End of Voice Over issue 3/2003 |
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