And what if all of that went away, so that you couldn’t hear any of it anymore? How much would your life change? Quite a bit. That is the general premise of Unheard: The Story Of Anna Winslow, my new found footage audio thriller, available now across the world through Audible. In it a young foreign student, Melissa, at a university in northern England, begins an investigation into the disappearance of a fellow student (the titular Anna Winslow). She begins to discover that Anna Winslow started to suffer hearing loss and then undertook a radical new procedure – one that could have put her life in danger, and could now threaten Melissa’s life. One of the things that Melissa quickly finds out about Anna Winslow is that she became famous for an on-campus incident but there was more to the story. People didn’t try to help her, and Anna failed to try to communicate with others, and it all led to the actions she’s taken and her disappearance. This project originated with Audible UK, and I wanted to honor that by setting the mystery in northern England (which I’ve travelled to during a comics promo trip a few years ago). I fell in love with the peace and ruggedness of the area, and decided to make it a character in the tale. There’s another reason why I wanted to set it in the UK… British actors make everything sound great. This is my first audio drama and I quickly decided to incorporate the limits and of the medium into the story. We can only hear what’s happening, not see or feel the story. It’s imperative that we listen. And not just the conversations and interviews taking place but everything else. And very early on I incorporated something that would make the listener ask: What was that noise? What did I just hear? Oh my God. As someone who has written a lot of sound effects (SFX) in comics it was great to be able to script something and actually be able to hear them come to life. And I could just imagine people listening to this on earbuds so it makes it that much much personal. There’s so much noise in the world today (literal and metaphorical) – hopefully we will all learn how to figure out what to listen to, what not to, and – most importantly – make sure we communicate that properly.
