Non-Linear Script, Non-Linear Editing

The past two days Dave, Al and I have been stringing together the radio play. I can't remember when I first heard the term "non-linear editing" but I do remeber I couldn't comprehend it. That was maybe two decades ago, like when I started working at the green radio station at school.

I was truly surprised at how much we were able to accomplish in two, two hour sessions. Wednesday we (mostly) took all of the audio we had recorded with the actors in August, which were entirely out of order, and put them in order. That included remembering which takes we liked and which we didn't. Thank God Dave took very good notes, because I had no idea.

At the end of that session, I was also struck at how much I thought the show was going to sound ... not good. And it was 1 hour and one minute long - that was before adding music and sound effects. We need a 00:58.30 program, period.

Yesterday we finished stringing the dialog together, and added music and available sound effects (those already part of the show - we need to create a dozen or more new ones) and Al and I took a lot of the more obvious pauses out of mine and Brian's delivery. Brian is the "voice of the slides", basically, announcing the beginning of each scene.

By the time we were done with that rough edit the show was - one hour and two minutes! We had added an awful lot of time with the music, but apparently we had also taken out a lot of dead air. That was a thrilling relief. There's still a lot of work, but I think we have nowhere to go but down - chronologically speaking.

Target airing is the day after Thanksgiving, at noon. It will be a "Very Special" episode of Around Noon, which would have been a re-run on that day, anyway. We have a lot of work to do before then, but I like to think the hardest part is done.

I will need to cut certain passages, and going over the rough version there are a few places I want to re-record entirely, but only me, not any of the other actors. Anyone who has any suggestions for cuts is welcome to make them.