Pendant Audio

Pendant Audio Productions is the "other" long running audio drama company (along with Darker Projects) that began with fan fiction and grew outwards into much more fan fiction and original tales. Pendant has been operating since 2005 with another Star Trek fanfic series called Star Trek: Defiant and then expanded outwards with a mass of shows based on DC Heroes. Many of the shows are written by Jeffrey Bridges who acts as Executive Producer over the entire prodigious production company. They have currently one hundred and sixty-three episodes released all told. Themes go from general rating to mature.


Website
Initially the website looks confusing, but in actual fact it is easy to navigate, and contains a pile of interesting information. The many shows are listed down the left side with original podcasts first. Top right hand corner of the page includes the main credits, and this is consistent if you click to the different shows. On the main page down the center are news items and release dates. This is really handy, and other productions should take note. If there's one thing I'd like to know from my favorite audio drama series is when the next episode is coming out. What makes this especially compelling is to my memory they've almost always hit their deadline- an impossible task for most other companies.
The website is built for a community. There are casting calls, information about awards presented and a link to a chat site. Everything about this site says Pendant is serious about their productions and their shows. The design is arty, but doesn't come across as too amateur.  
Rating 4/5

Audio Drama Type- Modern Theater, Fan Fiction
Pendant follows all the structures of modern podcasting and in fact has a history of innovating them. While I'm certain to be corrected, Pendant is one of the first shows I know of, which used multiple podcast streams. They use sound effects and music, both theme and mood in their productions. They appear, again like Darker Projects, to have grown from a series of friends who wanted to write and produce together. These are some of the best kinds of collaboration opportunities around.

Acting Type- Long Distance Amateurs
The quality of acting ranges from okay to poor. While I'm only going to give a brief overview now (I'll do more detailed reviews of shows when I get through the companies), it's important to provide some examples. There are some excellent exceptions. In Superman, Last Son of Krypton,  Kathryn Pryde as Wonder Girl has a stellar range, and Ryan H. Nelson does an able job as the Man of Steel. Jerry Scullion does an incredibly Harrison Ford impression, and that usually is phenomenal to hear. But sometimes the urge to sound like the actor can overpower the actual performance of "Indiana" and it's important that the integrity of the character takes precedent over "sound-a-likes". The biggest concern I have however is the lack of tension in much of the acting. That could be a fault of the Direction though.
Rating 2/5

Production Types- A Little Minimal But Not By Design
This is one of my biggest complaints and the cause of my love/hate relationship with Pendant. After five years of steady production, you'd think they would be further ahead in their sound. While Darker Projects, Wormwood, and Broken Sea have created compelling and sometimes entrancing sound worlds with their productions that draw you in, Pendant remains tinny and still sounding artificial. They have improved since their first episodes, but they still seem to be plagued with a very amateur sound. Their original shows, especially Dixie Stenberg with its older sound and their anthology Seminar certainly are better than many of their superhero fiction which I've been listening more too right now. Again, I'm certainly lumping many shows together in saying this, but this is an overview of what I've heard.
When it comes to dialog, the voice recordings are also uneven and very clearly recorded in different places. The actors at times do not sound like they have any idea where to go with their next line, and that's not their fault. Acting in long distance is kind of like playing poker in the dark, you only hope you've got a better hand and you have no idea what the other person's face looks or what he's holding till the final hand is laid.
But the lack of intimacy in the lines could be mitigated if the lines overlapped a little. I just finished the latest Superman, and many of the characters simply wait until the other actor finishes all their lines before responding. This is ping-pong dialog, and doesn't sound at all like natural speech where people interrupt, cut off, and yell over top of someone else when things get tense.
And that too is a major problem. There's little tension in the production. The sound effects sound like they just appear, instead of produced by the scene. I listened to a fight scene between Lobo and Supergirl, expecting massive punches between these two near god-like individuals only to hear standard fight sounds, that reminded me of belly slaps instead of haymakers. If Supergirl gets hit by Lobo, I'm expecting there to be buildings she gets pounded through, or earthquake like shockwaves.
Not that this isn't easy to do with superheroes. Combat is one of the hardest type of scenes to get right, and I've only heard Kung Fu Action Theatre do an extremely good job at times letting me know what's going on. The pinnacle of superhero fights, for me at least, was Dirk Maggs Batman adventure Knightfall, but while that makes good inspiration, it is hardly expected.
What I do enjoy in the production is the music. Mr. Bridges has a good sense not only of what theme music works well, but also what works extremely well for mood music. That's a rare gift, and one that raises the audio drama.
Rating 2.5/5

Writing
The largest things missing in the writing I've heard, is tension. There are many scenes with characters that feel like padding. There is simply a lack of a strong through point to many of the plots. Superman seems plagued with many Mary and Barry Sue lines like, "Lois Lane is one of the world's greatest reporters". Perry White seems to tell Lois how great she is in every episode I've heard of Superman. My experience in a paper illuminated this praise from my Editor, "Well that didn't suck much."
Editors don't like to pat their reporters too hard on the back because they'll be looking for a raise if they do. Better to keep them hungry.
Keep the audience hungry. Add realistic tension between the characters. Make sure they don't get along well. Clark moons over Lois and Lois has only eyes for Superman, and even then she doesn't like to admit that to the general public. Drive your characters and plots like you're whipping a race horse to the finish. We've all read those comic books that spent much of the comic setting up a story. They were boring. I listened to an episode of Superman, that only brought Lobo out as a threat at the very end. Get tension out early and keep us wondering what's going to happen next. Revolve between groups of characters less, and focus on telling one story well in each episode. Too many subplots can have us lost. Again, this would be unfair to give an overall rating for the writing. But it needs some solid work in some places.

Additional Notes: The Eternal Dilemma
Pendant seems to have the opposite problems of Darker Projects. They produce far more shows on time, and presumably on budget, but their quality suffers. Which forces me to ask myself which I prefer more? Quality or Quantity?
It really is a hard choice because I really want to enjoy all the titles Pendant does. But in the end I choose quality. I'd rather Pendant took twice as long in their schedule to produce better quality scripts, acting, and production. I'd wait by my feed to ravenously devour those shows, instead of losing Pendant and coming back every once in a while with puppy dog hopefulness.

Over All Rating
Pendant Audio is an example where the sum of the parts make a greater whole. With all my stark criticisms and concerns about the productions, I love this company. I love it because I feel like I've grown up in Audio Drama with them. I just wish they'd mature faster with their tastes as I have. But they have fun making their shows, and I will continue to listen in hope.
Rating 3/5





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