The Hollywood Reporter (Weekly)
FICTION FORWARD
The creators of the Ambies’ most nominated podcast on what the honor means for the future of audio drama
The very best thing that could possibly happen to The Very Worst Thing That Could Possibly Happen was garnering five Ambie Award nominations, including for podcast of the year. While the podcast’s creators are thrilled about the recognition, they’re more excited about what it could mean for the genre of audio fiction.
“The fact that the most nominated podcast this year at the Ambies is a fiction piece is a really big deal to us. That’s the win,” says Alex Kemp, the series’ creator, writer and director. The podcast is a self-funded passion project for Kemp and his wife, Winnie, who jointly executive produced the show through their Venice, California-based studio, Wolf at the Door. The series follows a man named Raul, who is lonely living in Hong Kong until he finds he can write letters to his favorite author, Sara, who lives in Paris — and has been dead for 30 years.
It is one of several smaller projects the couple has fit in between doing production services on fiction podcasts for larger studios, such as Batman Unburied for Warner Bros. Discovery and Spotify. The “surrealist romance or surrealist dramedy,” as they describe it, was brought to life by a cast of six actors, musical scoring and sound effects. (The score, also by Alex, and sound design, were Ambie-nominated, as was the cast.) Such tools allow for “enormous scope” at minimal cost, says Winnie, who comes from the world of film and TV.
“You can do anything you want with great sound design,” she says. “There’s something very intimate and much more connected to somebody in your ear than a lot of film and TV,” she says. The goal of the studio is to bring more creative and diverse voices to the forefront of podcasting.
“With our shows, we really want to push the boundaries, so that we can fill it in with more people,” Winnie adds. “The bigger the audience is for audio fiction, the more varied creators can come in and hopefully, eventually make money doing it.”