Call for Submissions

Posted on February 20, 2013 by Lee

The window to write for Series 2 of 4amcab is now open.

This time we are having a month long window where we are asking for your sketches so we can more thoroughly plan all 6 episodes of the second series.

Here are the details you need.

– The current window is open until Midnight Wednesday 20th March 2013
– Send your Word .doc scripts to us at this email address: ideas@4amcab.com
– Put “Series 2 submission” in the subject box – this will ensure you get a receipt to say we’ve received your work.
– On each sketch, put a header with your name and email address on, so we can keep track of who sent what.
– Send us as many sketches as you like, there is no limit.

As we are expecting to receive a lot of sketches, we are not able to offer feedback for individual sketches but if we like something or think that it could be developed we will let you know.

As always, everything that is used will get a credit on the website.

For more infomation on what to write about, have a look at the writers guide but the main thing we are looking for are short sketches with a slightly surreal or silly sensibility. Have a listen to one of the later episode of Series 1 or individual sketches on our audioboo channel.

We look forward to reading your work.

Remember, the deadline is Midnight Wednesday 20th March 2013

Really Exciting Update (really?!)

Posted on February 13, 2013 by Lee

The 4amcab tech elves (erm, that’ll be me then) are working hard in the background of the website this month to make things run a bit smoother for series two. In the past we’ve suffered from the website being a little bit unreliable meaning that sometimes you weren’t able to access the latest episode. We are making improvements that, although might not be visible on the site, should mean we have a better service when the new stuff comes out. What do you mean that’s not a very exciting update?!

So, if over the next month you come here and can’t read anything, rather than it just being one of my mispelt posts (!), it’ll probably just be down to site maintenance.

To keep up with other really exciting updates, ahem, follow us on twitter.

(This message was approved by Rachel Wheeley)

Series 2 announcement

Posted on February 6, 2013 by Rachel

So we had the big swivelly chair meeting and we’re delighted to announce that work has officially begun on 4amcab, series 2. The door will remain open to new writers, but we’re going to approach things a little differently this time.

Rather than having a deadline for each episode, we propose to do a big trawl for scripts at the beginning, and then request additional material as and when we need it as the series progresses. We’ll be releasing some guidelines for potential writers very soon.

We’ll be doing another six episodes this year, bringing back some old favourite characters from series 1, and developing some new ones.

So keep ’em peeled, and we’ll be in touch soon.

Rachel and Lee

European Podcast Award Update

Posted on February 2, 2013 by Lee

The 4amcab Microphone As of 1st February, the deadline for the public vote on the EPA has passed. We’d like to thank all our supporters for voting for us and we have our fignesr crosesd (that was a joke!) that we’ll be through to the next round. For those that are interested in how the judging panel decide who wins, this blog post highlights how the competition works.

If we are lucky enough to have enough votes to get to this stage we feel confident that we can score highly in a lot of the areas that the judges are looking at. Whatever happens, we’re chuffed to bits to have been selected as a nominee.

In other award news, we’ve almost finalised our entry for the highly prestigeous Sony Radio Academy Awards. We will be pitting ourselves against the country’s biggest comedy names in radio, so figners crssoed (stop it now!) for that too.

Once we’ve finished patting ourselves on the back, expect an announcement regarding Series Two next week.

Award Update

Posted on January 17, 2013 by Lee

The deadline for voting has been extended. You can now register your vote for 4amcab in the European Podcast Awards until 1st February 2013.

We promise we’ll stop talking about this soon ;-)

Award Deadline

Posted on January 11, 2013 by Lee

There are only a few days left to register a vote for 4amcab in the European Podcast Awards. We’ve been nominated in the Personality category and until the 15th January 2013 you can help us get through the public vote and onto the final stage which is decided by a panel of indusrty judges. Click on the following link to vote: European Podcast Award

We’ve also been featured in the Herts Advertiser, though they managed to get Rachel’s name slightly wrong ;-(

(click on the photo to see a bigger version)

Final Recording of 2012

Posted on December 12, 2012 by Lee

Last night a select crack team of professional mercenaries gathered in a secret location (no, not Brighton actually!) and recorded the Series One Christmas Special of 4amcab. When I say crack team, what I really mean is the usual bunch of scallywags that heard there’d be mince pies and a bottle of Cava, and as such they couldn’t resist.

I want to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of the team that has worked on the project, from the actors to the writers and all the way up to the tea boy (there is no tea boy, must get one for Series Two). I won’t list them by name here, that’s what the credits tab at the top of this page is for, but without them the show would have been very different and perhaps wouldn’t have even happened at all. They were all brilliant and it’s been great working with them on what has turned out to be a very special project. The one person I will mention by name is the tea girl, otherwise know as Rachel Wheeley. She’s the tea girl in that she’s had a mug of tea grafted to her hand just so she has a drinking vessel available at every moment in the production. Rachel is my co-creator and although I do the recording and mixing of the thing you actually hear, without her I wouldn’t have even got off the ground with the project – she was the one who first uttered the words “4amcab”. Just when I feel like I can’t face another blinking cursor, she’ll send me a text/email which keeps me going. This is a collaborative production and without Rachel’s incredible motivational powers it would have probably stayed in my head and not reached your ears. Cheers Rach!

So, now I have the massive task of trying to get this final show of 2012 in the can before the season of joy has passed, let’s hope it don’t end in tears. I’m expecting a text from Rachel kicking my butt any second…

Done and Dusted… for now!

Posted on November 27, 2012 by Lee

And now, the end is near. And so I face the final curtain.

Well there are no curtains but, metaphorically, the final one has fallen on series one. We’d just like to take a moment to pat ourselves on the back –

*humph*

“Owwww!”

We’d also say a few thank you’s to all the wonderful people we’ve worked with on the project so far. We’ve had nine writers, 16 actors, one animator and one Bi Polar Bear! Not to mention 6,368 downloads of the whole project to date, which has far exceeded our humble expectations. We’ve recorded in seven different locations, ranging from a proper studio and a converted church all the way to Lee’s garage and garden shed.

I hope you agree that we have come a long way from the start and that as we’ve gone along the episodes have improved in every way. We are going to spend some of our time off looking at what has worked and come back with a bigger and better show in the New Year.

In the meantime, we are working on a Christmas Special (are we? – ed), so it’s not really the end. Series Two will kick off once we’ve recovered from our Yuletide hangovers, so expect something in February. We will continue to post stuff up on this website and we are quite active on Twitter too, oh and don’t forget to ‘like’ us on Facebook … we’ll even throw in a digital latte!

4amcab goes 2D

Posted on November 21, 2012 by Rachel

A little while ago we asked if anyone fancied animating one of our sketches. We were blown away when the brilliant Mike Kelley of kelleytoons sent us an email to say he’d only gone and flippin’ created this gorgeous cartoon for our ‘Phone virus’ sketch (from Ep 5) Thank you Mike!

And if that weren’t exciting enough, Episode 6 is out now!

Calling all animators!

Posted on November 7, 2012 by Rachel

Are you a frustrated animator with an itchy pencil finger but nothing to draw? Fancy casting Derek, Mairead, or the ALL NEW Fat Pipe into glorious 2D (or even 3D) reality?

If so, please get in touch. We hope it would be mutually beneficial. A portfolio piece for the animator, and a thing of beauty for our sleep-deprived listeners to cast their eyes over whilst allowing one of our sketches to penetrate the lateral cortex.

So do get in touch, and if you know a talented animator, please send this on, we’d love to hear from them.