By Scott Murray

Wow.  It's hard to believe the first episode of The Crimson Files launches tomorrow.  It's exciting, scary and surreal rolled all into one.  About three months ago, all I had was an idea.  There was no concept, no story, no characters, no recordings and no artwork.  I just decided to create a fiction podcast.

I had my concerns:
Could I do everything well enough (write, direct, produce, edit)?
Could I write an engaging 6-part continuous story?
Would I find people to play all of the parts?
Could I get it all done in a reasonable timeframe?

My wife had concerns.  She knew I hadn't written anything like this in over ten years (and back then, it was all visual).  She wondered if the concept would translate well enough to audio.  She worried if all of the potential obstacles would turn this into a long-running and time-consuming effort.

However, three months later, we're both excited.

I found an affordable place to record the scenes.

​I hired some talented music producers to create a theme.

Post-production has been lengthy and extensive.  However, it's also been very fun to hear it all mesh together. 

I've had colleges listen, give me feedback, and it's been very positive.

By Scott Murray

I'm sure by now many people are wondering what they're going to hear when they tune into The Crimson Files starting August 24th. So, I thought I would answer some questions in the blog today.

What kind of show am I going to hear?
In a lot of ways, a fiction podcast is like listening to an audiobook with more voices, music and sound effects.  Another key difference is that this story was written FOR audio as opposed to something written for print and adapted to audio.

Superhero stories and be anything from light-hearted to dark.  What is the tone of The Crimson Files?
I would say The Crimson Files has a tone that could be closely associated films like Ant-Man with hints of the 1966 Batman TV series.

So there's humor?
Yes.  There is humor in every episode, and sometimes you don't see it coming.  There are characters in the story (Mr. Bill, Slick Saucy, Doc, Grandma Jeanie) who will say and do things at any time that might make you laugh.  There are also several pop culture references, as well as nods to other superhero stories and other movies within the series.

What kind of quality should I expect?
Expect a high level of quality, especially in the voice actors and the production of the show.  A high volume of days and hours are going into making the best possible show for the audience.

What's the best way to indulge in the story?  Is it hard to follow?
Fiction podcasts are a "theater of the mind" form of entertainment.  Many people will listen, and the show will generate visuals in their head.  Others will listen and just follow along.  A lot of work goes into making the story easy for the listener to follow (on the script and post-production side).  There is also room for people to come to their own conclusions as to what is happening in certain scenes (like fight scenes).

How many episodes are in Season One?
There are six episodes in Season One, and each episode is about 25 minutes.  A new episode will post every Friday starting August 24th.

Will there be a Season Two?
Most likely.  The response and reaction to the first season will play a major role in making it happen.  I can tell you that I have TONS of ideas for multiple seasons.  

By Scott Murray

I've always been a very conceptual and visual person.  Anytime I wrote something, it would always be based on the images in my head.  Anytime I read something, my brain would attempt to produce a visual representation of it.  There are advantages and disadvantages to this, but one major benefit was that I was never limited in the way I could tell stories.

I grew up in the 1970s and 1980s, and long before I was attempting to make movies with my parents' video camera, I was producing content on audio cassette.  I recorded over 50 tapes full of stuff, ranging from 1-2 hour stories to comedy skits.  I did this using:

• Multiple tape recorders (some for recording, others for music and sound effects)
• Cardboard boxes, books, metal objects, kitchen items and anything else I could find to make sounds
• An SK-1 Keyboard (to record and produce explosion sounds)
  
  

Oh, and I did all of the voices.  The biggest challenge was making them without my parents shutting down the production.  I guess it was like a kid practicing an instrument in their room, only I was crashing things and playing music.

Then I would listen to them for entertainment.  I would laugh a lot.  While it may sound conceited for me to say I loved my own stuff, it wasn't like that.  When the audio played, it triggered images in my head.  Those images included different people playing the parts, as well as scenery, action scenes and more.  So, my mindset was never that I was listening to my own content.  However, I loved making them as much as I did listening to them.

Later on, I got to play these for other people.  This included teachers letting me play them in my classes in high school.  That was the biggest distribution I ever got.  Many (including my parents) probably wondered, "What is the purpose for doing this?"

Well, maybe now we have an aswer.

However, it seems like it all started in my room so many years ago.  This is definitely a more sophisticated project, but the story still originated the same way.

It also plays the same way, and I really hope audiences will enjoy this new audio story experience.