- the story of the first series-

Late one Sunday night in the spring of 1999, I happened to tune my radio to 90.9 FM, the frequency of KRCL, Salt Lake City's community radio station.  What I heard was a science-fiction
narration / radio drama adventure called Searcher and Stallion.  I was quite impressed.  I had made small audio productions in my bedroom before, and thought that I might want to make a production like this one for the radio.  It turned out that Searcher and Stallion was only a small part of Scott Howard's show, Variables, which also featured another shorter science-fiction radio drama called Ruby, a section of internet news briefs called Netnews, and a lot of "mostly electronic music."  I decided to email these people and ask them what my chances were at getting a show played on Variables.  Scott's reply was swift, and he said that if I could make something entertaining and airable (i.e. CD quality sound) he was just as game as I was.  So BOWEN IN SPACE was born . . . I started gathering ideas and writing the scripts around May.  I scribbled out the first rough draft of the first scene I wrote (the one when Bowen gets Greg to come with him to the garage) on a clipboard of scratch paper behind the closed curtains of the stage at Beehive Elementary, where I work.  I would get most of my inspirations and revelations for BOWEN IN SPACE's script while vacuuming the halls and cleaning the toilets at the school.
 
 

Clok (Bowen) at the computer, talking into a sock

It took me until October to get all four scripts written.  Then we went through the trial of getting a working sound card for my computer.  Dan (Greg) and I spent many long Saturdays at State Street computer stores and slaving over my computer in my room, trying to get the right hardware and drivers to get  my computer to record sound.  Then I spent countless hours trying to find free recording software on the internet, but finally gave up and bought Sound Forge XP at Media Play.  I did a few practice recordings with my new toys and decided that I finally had the equipment I needed to record BOWEN IN SPACE.
 
 

Dan (Greg) talking into a sock

All of the actors are friends from school.  They all fit the characters very well and did an excellent job, considering the fact that Angie (narrative and Eustacia) is the only one out of us that has any real acting experience.  I never considered myself to be a good actor.  By far, I think Dave (Graham) did the best out of us all.  Everyone that's heard the show agrees that he brings his character to life far better than any of the rest of us.
 
 

Angie (Narrative & Eustacia)

We recorded our voices in my bedroom with borrowed microphones, mixed through my $50 four-channel sound mixer that I got for Christmas three years ago, straight into the hard drive of my computer.  We didn't have pop filters for the microphones, so we used socks instead.  We would try to get all the actors from an episode together on a Saturday to record, but sometimes someone wouldn't be able to make it and we would record their parts separately.  We had to record all of Adam's parts (Zaalchine and the ship's captain) much earlier; he moved to Idaho even before all the scripts were completed.  After we'd finish recording the voice for an episode I would immediately get started editing and sequencing it--a very long and tedious process.
 
 

Dave (Graham), Dan (Greg), Clok (Bowen), & Jim (Bar Droid)

I spent every spare moment I could putting together the music, searching for sound effects on the internet, trudging through the raw recording sessions and pulling out the good bits, and editing, and editing, and editing.  I would wager it took me at least tweny hours total to edit each episode--about two hours of editing for a minute of the finished product.  We would record the voice for the next episode before the previous one was completed, mostly because a few of the actors would be leaving for college soon.  After our last recording session in the winter of 1999, the only steps left were for me to finish editing it and burn it onto CD.
 
 

Sonia (alien dancer) talking into a sock by herself

With the help of the CD recorder I got for Christmas, I finally did the deed at 2:30 am on January 23rd, 2000.  My uncle, Quentin Webb (a graphic designer in  New York City), was kind enough to design and print the high-quality covers and inserts for me.  He also gave me a set of software / hardware called CD STOMPER for Christmas, which allowed me to make and print the perfectly-shaped label stickers on the top of the CD's.  On February 6th, 2000, Dan and I went down to KRCL and handed Scott Howard the finished CD.  Scott scheduled the broadcast for February and March of 2000.
 
 

Clok (Bowen) & Josh (Troubled Soul)
running whilst talking into socks

When I first embarked on my journey of BOWEN IN SPACE, I thought I would have it done before the summer was over.  Six months after that, ten months after I began, I've finally finished and it's finally being played on the radio.  So do me and the rest of the crew a favor and give it a listening ear, okay?  And after you do that, email me!  I would love to hear your comments and questions about the show.  Any type of feedback would be appreciated.  Enjoy BOWEN IN SPACE on me. 

- J. Clark Gardner
Kearns, Utah
February 2000

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