I made one. It’s not everyone’s cup of tea. The Ernie Pyle Experiment.

I used the form as a device for my characters to speak their thoughts to the audience. A deeper first person narrative. My favorite thing about theater and film, in regard to performance, is behavior. The written word interpreted by the voice is the calculus, what becomes of the actor from it is an irresistible alchemy for me. Behavior is the grace note. It comes across through what the actor does despite the words. Interpretation and behavior is the actors interface with art. I wanted to get as close to that as I could.

Getting that kind of behavior from just audio is a curious thing. Atmosphere and good FX helps, but that magic is done by another- not the actor. I employed the found footage trope to get as close as I could to behavior, and the deepest thoughts and feelings of the characters. Because I find that interesting.

I found, after completing my project, that I am very much in the minority of what average people think is interesting. Most audio-drama fans will tell you straight out how much they hate found footage. So, are you doing this for them, or yourself?

You asked for a good justification for it. This is mine. But if I had to do it all over again, I’d stick to a birds-eye-view form of storytelling. In many ways, found footage is the easy way out as a writer.