Working with Pendant people

[cmdrhobbes]

rfrancis and I had this discussion on Dino a week or so ago, and I’ve been mulling my thoughts on the subject to clarify them before releasing them into the wilds of the intarwebs.

My thesis statement: When working on a Pendant show, you don’t work WITH most of the people on the show.

Now, let me clarify that statement somewhat before everyone

Comments

[spiralsequin]

Interesting stuff - thanks v much for writing it. I know what you mean about not really working together as we would if we had some glorious Pendant studio building in real life and could actually all meet up & rehearse and discuss and properly interact. [/dream]
But I guess that satellite audio drama has slightly different rules, because of the fact that it is all online. Maybe people say they've worked together as a shorthand, or because that's what they would have liked to have done if it was in real life.

As far as actors working together in a scene goes - no, it seems they very rarely have the time or inclination to work on a scene together first. Then again, for the long-running shows, it's clear that (most) actors are using their knowledge of how their 'colleague' plays the role and says their lines to influence how they play back. I agree; it's not the proper bouncing off that you can hear in DRT or other studio-based stuff, but it is at least an awareness, a remote-co-working in a way.

As for directors, well just like Panda says, it seems to differ completely from director to director - some you feel, as an actor, that you really do work with them - to the extent of getting paragraphs of character notes beforehand and detailed conversations about delivery, and others it's not the case.

I hope you don't mind if I go off at a slight tangent that this article made me think about - feel free to tell me to keep back on track.
Going beyond just Pendant, otherwise it becomes a bit personal, and because it's the same situation in all the groups I've worked with: the odd thing about this particular medium is communication.

I think it's because everyone's doing it in their free time and directors, in particular, are putting in hours and hours of work that quite a lot of them don't bother contacting actors at all. It seems quite common practice, once you've got a role, to send in your lines and never hear anything at all - not even a confirmation of receipt - and not even be notified when the episode comes out. Obviously, Pendant's lines system is awesome on that front.

Like I say, that's perfectly understandable what with time constraints, and I wouldn't criticise the general internet audio drama system. But I personally like the interaction and the feeling of working with people. It is a team project, after all. It just doesn't always feel like it when everyone's working separately. So I always do write back to cast and auditionees. Some do respond and others don't, but anyway, it feels a little more like a collaboration.

At the other end, though, there are productions where they do hold regular Skype rehearsals. It's difficult for some, mainly because of the time difference, but personally I also find it off-putting because I like to be able to do this in little corners of spare time, fit it around daily life, rather than the other way round. It's probably the same for most people involved?

I do think that production quality would benefit from rehearsal and proper interaction, but also that'd be the point where probably quite a few people would have to bow out. I guess you'd possibly get people in similar time zones as a team, but it'd be harder to have a world-wide cast/crew.

Sorry - a bit of a ramble. Do we all work together? I probably still like to say so, even though in most cases it probably isn't really very true. :-)

[cmdrhobbes]

I think this meshes very well with rfancis' stance, and I'm not about to suggest you're wrong; it's not cut and dried. And if it wasn't clear, I have only worked with Pendant, so don't have experience with Hess groups that rehearse.

[cmdrhobbes]

Stupid iPhone typing sucks. With these

[spiralsequin]

Well, on the whole I do agree with you that there isn't really a to-and-fro working relationship much of the time. But then I think about directors like Perry Whittle, who would to and fro maybe two or three emails every episode (not just for The Kingery or Pendant productions) on notes on the lines (on the ones he liked as well as the ones he wanted redone), on the character in general and on their relation to others and other takes.

Goodness knows how he managed it with so many actors - it was absolutely superb, but anyway, that's why I'd say I did work with him. In the same way, I did work with Russ as there was loads of discussion there. I've done paid online work from home and had far less discussion with employers. But those are the real exceptions to the rule. Most directors are just like Marleigh said - and at first, like her, I felt very isolated and a bit worried about what they thought.

I can see it's not really an option to change things. It might be nice for newbies to be made aware that they shouldn't expect feedback though, I dunno.