It's Time to Listen

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.

The script and the story came together nicely.  At times, it felt like it wrote itself.  After a casting process that lasted about ten days, I found amazing people to voice the characters.

A fantastic artist and friend brought the Crimson Crane to visual life with some awesome artwork.

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.

To add to our luck of having things fall into the right place, Stephanie has been a guest at two conventions lately.  I sent her a set of cards with The Crimson Crane on them, and she's been signing them for fans.

Now, everything is in place.  After weeks of work and anticipation...the idea that became a show is ready to premiere.

I'm happy with it, and I'm excited for people to hear it.

Now, we all have to do is sit back and see what listeners think about it.  That's a whole new level of anticipation and anxiety, but I'm glad I have it.  After all, it means we actually pulled this off, and it's ready for the public to hear.