We recently featured an article on the satirical collection of news stories from alternate realities called What Were Once Miracles Are Now Children’s Toys by Ira Nayman. Now comes a radio play based on the book called Weight of Information. The first one is about the mystery of gigantic floating heads that appear over every city in the world…but just float there whispering gibberish, which leads to debate as to their origin and purpose [youtube]. The second one features a behind-the-scenes peek into the Alternate Reality News Service and how it works [youtube]. Both are well-produced and funny.
That said, I don’t think the YouTube videos quite work. I understand that it’s a radio play, so you’re just supposed to listen not look, but right now the videos show pictures of what are apparently the actors recording the plays. That kind of takes away from the illusion of what’s going on. Personally, I would have used pictures that reflected what was happening in the story. Photoshopping some giant heads would have helped. At the very least, I would have used a static picture of a logo for the news service or something like that, so we’re not focused on the screen. I also think a podcast would have been a better choice for the series than YouTube. Still worth a look…er, listen, though.
What do you think of the Weight of Information series?
