Our Story

Long ago, in the city of New Orleans, Fred Greenhalgh dreamed of having his own production company to produce his stories as well as those of offbeat and talented writers. He'd always thought of himself as a writer, and had a stack of short stories to support this assumption, but wanted something more than just the written page to work with. At the time, he imagined it was film, though he never really liked how expensive and time-consuming film was. It took a return to his home state of Maine, post-Katrina soul-searching, and a chance project with a friend to steer him to the art form that entrances him now: audio fiction.

Following the completion of Day of the Dead, Fred began adapting more of his stories for audio and learning as much as he could about the artistic and technical aspects of the craft. He submitted a grant for starter funding to the Libra Foundation Futures Fund, and while he didn't get the cash, he did come up with a plan, which he set out to accomplish with a working budget of zilch.

In the months since then, FinalRune Productions has seen an active production schedule with new stories every 2-3 months. Fred's auteur presence has diminished as he's found talented and generous musicians, voice talent, and writers to contribute to the stories. Distribution has grown steadily, and while we're still not turning a profit, we've gained a foothold and a lot of decent press.

Fred's long-term vision with FinalRune is to develop a killer enough product that small to medium sized press companies will choose to have short story collections or short novels adapted into the audio form. Fred hopes to jumpstart this process by picking stories from his favorite magazines and approaching the publishers about adaptations, as well as producing longer-form serials. His first will be Amerigeddon, an absurd comedy about the devil and Jesus on a bungled apocalyptic road-trip of the United States, followed by The Cleansed, an epic post-apocalyptic story of three friends in search of a hero in a world more ambiguous than they imagine.

For now, expect more audio fiction stories from every end of the genre spectrum.

The FinalRune Productions process has been truly a work in progress, and about as "indie" as it can get. The bottom line has been to do as much as possible with scant resources. We've learned a lot in the process.

Currently at our disposal we have:

A Marantz PMD-660 Portable Recorder - This is actually the main recording device for pretty much everything, because we don't have a dedicated studio. Fred bought the Marantz after good reviews on Transom and elsewhere on the net, and has been blown away with its performance. It's truly a workhorse, and while some might have some complaints about its sound quality, we don't. After all, the thing is inconspicuous enough to be hidden underneath a winter jacket when tromping through Boston on a drizzly afternoon but powerful enough to record several sources of high-fidelity audio through a mixer in more comfortable conditions.

Shure SM57 and SM58 Microphones - These are new additions to the FinalRune ditty bag, and haven't been through enough rigors for us to have a detailed opinion. However, practically anywhere on the web we read rave reviews for these microphones, which are virtually indestructible, cheap, versatile and sound good. What's not to like?

Azden SGM-2X - This combo shotgun/omni mic Fred bought when he was still doing Mini-DV work and is splendidly suited for that purpose. It's a really nice-sounding microphone, but it's really intended to be a shotgun first and an omni mic second. Fred's incentive to finally upgrade was due to frustrating amounts of popping while trying to do simple promos.

Audio Technica ATR-30 - Almost embarassing to put these up here. Fred used these a lot during "Day of the Dead," on Best Buy's "100% Deposit 30-Day Lending Policy." For a $50 mic, they're pretty capable, though the levels are a bit low and off-axis sound reduction is practically non-existent. They're basically a cheap knock-off of the Shure SM-58, and believe us, you get what you pay for.

Yamaha MG 10/2 - Basic mixer with lots of XLR inputs and 1/4" output for the Marantz. Sounds pretty solid, but nothing to write home about.

Lexicon Alpha - This replaced a Soundblaster Extigy as primary USB recording apparatus for a computer. Not gonna lie to you -- we bought it because it's the cheapest USB/XLR interface that showed absolutely any promise whatsoever. It's a world above the Soundblaster, however, which while doing pretty crisp and clean sound always recorded at ridiculously low levels (seeing as it had no levels control). This one still has a little bit of level issues (I think it's all those dynamic mics) but does as product specifications say. Not a bad buy.

HP TC-4200 Tablet - This little tablet notebook is the workhorse that's edited all of the productions to date. Yes, on a 12" 1028x768 screen. But after having a gigantic laptop, we find this one actually goes with us places and it has excellent battery life and the tablet functionality to boot. Fred took a calligraphy class for the explicit purpose of designing the logo.

Access to space at WMPG in Portland, Maine - Without this, we'd be pretty SOL. As a volunteer at WMPG (for his Radio Drama Revival! show), Fred is kindly given latitude to book out space free of charge in one of two rooms. The production room tends to have limited availability, while the performance room sometimes has a little sound leakage from the nearby music studio, but the excellent proximity to USM (the primary source of our voice talent) makes the studio a prime location for our work. It's also got cool people hanging out all the time and a generally good vibe.

Note that these aren't meant to be comprehensive reviews, but unsolicited user opinions by someone who's been throwing this stuff around for a few months and using it for somewhat unconventional, though not entirely absurd, purposes. I've been pretty satisfied with my decisions so far, but that wouldn't be true without so much good info on the internet.

Learn some more about the people behind the productions. After all, without much talent, luck, and dedication, none of the stories would be here for you to hear.

Producer/Writer/Director:

Frederick Greenhalgh

Voice Actors/Actresses:

Crew:

Randall Farr

Musicians

First off, if you're just arriving and have no idea what "audio fiction" or "radio drama" is, read my radio drama primer. Then read on.

FinalRune Productions is dedicated to producing top-quality audio theater using top semi-pro/amateur (read: unpaid) talent, on-scene location recording, and the best production value we can beat out of ingenuity and digital non-linear editing.

After trucking through this far on the brute force of passion, we've figured out a couple of things that work and don't work and kind of know what we're looking for now.

Note: After trying and failing to work remotely, we need people who are based in the Portland, Maine area (or willing to drive).

While you can hack together voices in post, you lose the organic nature of acting when working remotely, and it's a heck of a lot harder to record on-location this way.

Exceptions granted to musicians only.

Roles we're seeking:

Sound Recording Assistant/Engineer/Foley Magician

Fred would LOVE to have a creative partner able to help out with handling equipment at recording sessions, playing around with random items to make strange noises, and maybe even performing some digital magic with Adobe Audition (and hey, you might even be able to talk me into getting Protools).

You don't really need credentials, but during production times you'd need some time. We produce 2-3 stories per year, so there's roughly a 4-6 week period associated with each project where we're scheduling sessions, recording on location, and then mixing/editing it. Time is flexible, but we create deadlines (even to just "enjoy the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.")

Voices

Actors/actresses of every flavor are welcome with open arms. We produce 2-3 stories a year, so it's not a big commitment. Typical recording process is 1-2 rehearsals and 1-2 recording sessions, ranging from 2-8 hours/each depending on the scope of the project and logistics.

Digital reels preferred. If you can't find a mic to connect to your computer, we can do a phone audition, but com'n, decent mics are less than 50 bucks nowadays...

Musicians

FinalRune already has connections with a few great musicians, but we're not opposed to learning about some more! The musical needs vary widely with each script, so there's always new terrain to be explored.

The best fit is someone with their own digital music suite who is able to communicate via email and send MP3 files back and forth. Some creative interpretation of the script is necessary.

Bands are awesome, but often not what we're looking for.

We are no longer seeking unsolicited scripts. We've got more stories than we have time to produce already now.

However, Fred is generally happy to take a look at your writing samples and critique them, and possibly hook you up with a producer who might be a better fit.

Before we get that far, however, make sure it's formatted like a radio script! Fred's preference is the RuyaSonic template.

Thanks for your interest!

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It's helpful to have a moral compass. Here are some of the things that FinalRune Productions stands for:

Economy, quality. Less is more. Use the resources that are available to their best and invest in the future. Measure twice, cut once.

Mutualism. Nurture relationships wherein both parties benefit. Remember that karma is as unavoidable as gravity. Golden rule, all that.

The local. The particular. Sense of place. "No ideas but in things."

Independence. While being aware that there are market forces on art, not compromising on core principles due to those forces. Having integrity. With freedom comes responsibility.

Story. Overall, a commitment to the "truth;" not objective Truth, ordained from on high, but in the simple truths illuminated by the choices of characters in troubled circumstances. Exploring this curious accident we call life.

FinalRune - Mystery and Meaning

Breakthrough - Transformation - Day: Dagaz

Here is the final Rune belonging to the Cycle of Initiation. Drawing Dagaz often signals a major shift or breakthrough in the process of self-change, a complete transformation in attitude, a 180-degree turn. For some, the transition is so radical that they are no longer able to live the ordinary life in the ordinary way.

The Book of Runes by Ralph H. Blum

I stumbled across this bit of text years after I'd been using the moniker "Final Rune." It was a completely random set of words to choose, originally, but the phrase seemed to fit, was easily memorable, and no one else on the Internet was using it.

The more I've learned about runes and particularly Dagaz, the more the symbol fits with my ambitions as an individual artist and as part in creating an entity that will hopefully transcend me. Long before I thought about using radio drama as the means of my art, I was committed to stories that dashed off the beaten path of literature, flirted with the boundaries of genre and twisted the naive heads off the rules while they weren't looking. I enjoy fiction that is surreal, even psychedelic, yet rooted in mysticism, mythology, and folklore. "Final Rune" embodies a boundary between the physical realm and the mystical one, between history and future, between something ancient and the thoroughly modern. I attempt to create stories that dance this fine line.

Though I hope my work is not as misunderstood or lost in the annals of time as the true runes, I do reverently respect their mystery and hope that at times I can reach in that next realm to steal a nugget of wisdom. It is a risky dance, with cliche on one precipice and obscurity on the other, but conjuring one sublime moment to one person along the way would be more repayment than I might ever ask. In the meantime, I hope to entertain in the best way I can.

"No ideas but in things." - William Carlos Williams

photo of fred greenhalgh Fred has been writing stories since his childhood in Downeast and Central Maine, where the rural landscape fed dreams of distant lands with knights, dragons, and monsters. His determination to leave his home town got him as far as the University of Southern Maine, and two years later he took a university-sponsored exchange to the University of New Orleans where he studied film, photography, and drinking.

After taking another year for an independent project studying the street culture of New Orleans, he headed back to Maine to graduate USM with a BA in Media Studies with University Honors. His senior thesis was the radio drama Day of the Dead, a story about a young man's search for a missing lover in New Orleans--a celebration of his adopted and beloved city.

Having found his calling in radio drama, Fred decided to continue adapting his stories for audio and founded FinalRune Productions, following a moniker he'd been using for years. A few months later, and a few stories under his belt, Fred saw a 30-minute slot open up at Portland, Maine community radio station WMPG. He jumped on the opportunity to add an audio theater show to the roster, and the open-minded programmers at WMPG felt the same. Radio Drama Revival, a showcase of modern audio theater, was born.

Fred continues to push FinalRune with more and more ambitious stories -- each time writing something that he wonders if he'll be able to produce. His pursuit to learn more brought him the National Audio Theater Festivals' week-long workshop in 2007, where in a week he-gained a graduate level crash-course in mic placement, directing, sound effects creation and other nuts and bolts learning of how GREAT audio theater was made.

Non-stop listening of Crazy Dog Audio Theater, ZBS and other radio greats hasn't hurt, either.

While the long-term outlook of audio theater remains direly non-commercial, Fred has the pleasure of managing internet marketing and copywriting at Hall Web Services, a growing Maine web development and internet marketing firm.