(Newswire.net — January 20, 2015) Thomson, Illinois — Old-time radio is back, but it’s nothing like what your grandfather heard.
So says audio theater producer Bill Heid, whose company, Heirloom Audio Productions, just released its second audio theater CD, In Freedom’s Cause, which tells the true story of 14th century Scottish hero William Wallace. It has so many sound effects, audio “layers” and dramatic moments that Heid calls it an “audio movie.”
Heid made the comments during an appearance on WOCA’s “AM Ocala Live” with Larry Whitler and Robin MacBlane, broadcast out of Ocala, Florida.
“I remember my dad listening to the Lone Ranger and Green Hornet and Shadow,” Heid said. “But technology has changed so much. We wondered: What would it be like to do old-time radio?”
In Freedom’s Cause is the second audio theater project from Heirloom Audio, which released Under Drake’s Flag last year. Both are based on read heroes of history.
“This is just like a movie,” Heid said. “This is not someone reading in a monotone voice. You just can’t see the movie except in the theater of your mind. We like to think that’s the richest way to view something. We wanted to make them big and epic, like a movie.”
They’re based on books by G.A. Henty, a 19th-century writer who wrote more than 100 historical fiction books. Each one told the story through the eyes of children placed in the middle of major historical events. Mel Gibson’s Braveheart was loosely based on Wallace’s story.
“He would take you to places using children, but he makes it fun,” Heid said. “If you watch a story on TV or a movie theater, all the heavy lifting is done for you. But when you listen to an audio theater, your brain has to do some work: What’s that like when a cannonball goes whizzing by my head?
In Freedom’s Cause stars Skandar Keynes (Edmund of The Chronicles of Narnia series), Billy Boyd (Pippin of The Lord Of The Rings), James Cosmo (Campbell, Father Christmas of Braveheart and The Chronicles of Narnia, respectively), Joanne Froggatt (Anna Bates of Downton Abbey) and Brian Blessed (Boss Nass and Clayton in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace and Tarzan, respectively).
For more information on In Freedom’s Cause, visit InFreedomsCause.com. To request an interview with Heid, email press@heirloomaudio.com.