How old is Radio Drama?
Radio drama is over 70 years old.
When did Radio Drama reach its peak?
Radio drama reached its peak in the 1940’s.
What did networks start doing in 1927?
In 1972 radio drama was born when networks created/adapted stories and even writing original scripts.
What happened in the 1930s?
In the 1930’s national advertisers began to buy air-time and sponsor programs making networks compete for their shares,
What effect did the war h
ave on the Radio?
The war had a big impact on the radio as people would listen to the radio, for
news or listen to radio dramas if they were sick of hearing about the war.
What effect did Radio Drama have on the early years of t.v?
Radio dramas were made in to t.v shows such as suspense.
Does Radio Drama still exist in the UK? Where? What types of other programs do these radio stations broadcast?
Name 5 Radio Dramas broadcast in Britain today?
Radio drama does still exist in the u.k on radio channels 7, 3 and sometimes on others. The archers, silver street, the twilight zone, animal farm and treasure island are five radio dramas broadcast today on radio 7.
Task 1:Using some of the websites listed below, choose 3 radio dramas of different genres and write an analysis of each using the notes above and in the picture below.
analyzing radio drama:
The war of the worlds.
October the 30th 1938, American's tuned in to the radio, not realizing the terrible effect this show would have on the america. Or
son wells Created mass terror through the radio drama “the war of the worlds”. America tuned in to what they thought was a music show, but what m
any didn't know was it was also a radio drama show. people began to flee the area and others thought they could smell poison gas or see the flashes of lightening in the distance. six million people
tuned in to the radio broadcast meaning a mass scale panic was created. Most of the listeners missed the opening credits of the show which meant they thought it was real news broadcast and not just a live story with orchestra. Within the following month of the
broadcast their were about 12,500 newspaper articles about the show and its huge impact. The media created such a
hype about the show making it have an even bigger impact that it could have had. The reason panic was created in such a huge scale, was through people contacting other family members or friends telling them that they heard " Martians incinerate curious onlookers with their heat rays". Many of the listeners were left highly confused as the actors voices weren't recognizable from other radio shows, this type of show had never been done in America before so the audience were accepting the cast as real and not anti real. Perhaps Orsen Wells should have kept saying and ba
ck to our story or kept referencing to the fact the broadcast was real, but so
me reports state that
once he found people were taking the show seriously, he wanted to create panic and be as real as he could. The script made the play sound real and the reports that were done to make the audience think that all the reports and newscasts were coming from all over and not made in the studio. This was also helped by rewriting
the war of the worlds to the present day so the audience could reflect more with the show.
http://www.war-ofthe-worlds.co.uk/war_worlds_orson_welles_mercury_2.htm
The archers
Target audience: 30+ multi sex middle class educated,
Genre: soap opera- on every day
voices: range of voices and varied accents and pitches men and women of d
ifferent regions. The volume changes when they are arguing or to convey they are far away, heated tone when arguing calm tone to connote a calm atmosphere . The texture of the voice varies with the character and the dialect they use and the actors all use rhythm to create a monotone atmospheare and engage the listener. The opening voice is a male specking clearly “ will tom ever forgive brenda” this creates an enigma as the listener wants to find out if tom will forgive her.
Technical qualities: Due the fact that the drama has been prod
uced by BBC the sound quality is high class to signify how the bbc is reliable to make high quality productions. their is no popping in the drama as that would make the drama sound less professional. Sound effects are used such as doors opening and closing, car doors, doorbell’s and knocking to help set the scene to the listener and also create an atmosphere. such as the rustling of coats/cloth
ing sets the scene of people sat talking fidgeting like people do this applies to the uses and gratifications theory (personal relationship) as the listeners can relate to this situation, of talking and trying to resolve a problem.
Cultural codes: The accent and dialect used is from all over england to reflect on all of english society and also avoid being polysemic as you will be able to tell the difference between characters.
codes of context:The show starts with a jingle of abbas song knowing me knowi
ng you which is the shows title,Alan then talks and introduces his co star, who enters with some background music. when the voice is calm the atmosphere is also calm, the atmosphere is reflected by the tone of the voice.
actiuality/ambience:
Alan Partridge
target audience: 17-30’s lower demographics
genre: comedy chat show spoof.
the voice: the voices are all different pitches to help the listener differen
tiate between characters. The young guest (simon) has a high pitched voice to connote he is a child, the dialect he uses is proper english to convey how “smart” he is. Alan (the presenter) changes the pitch in his voice to make it more dramatic and less monotone. he also uses this technique as many presenters use this format and he wants to use this to mock the normal shows. at, which changes tone and pitch of voices. Simon's father has a deeper voice and juxtaposed against Alan's so we can clearly tell who is who. the volume of characters voices change when arguing or to create a calm atmosphere by talking quieter. the textures of the voices vary on the person and the dialect they use but the texture is generally smooth. the voices can be applied to t
he uses and gratifications theory as the change in pitch and juxtaposition of dialects add to the sense of diversion by entertaining the listener.
technical quality: the sound quality of the pice is good as it is p
roduced for the bbc so they use high quality equipment due to the BBC's professionalism there is no feedback or popping.
cultural code: the young boy used formal english and has a posh dialect
codes of context: the show again begins with a jingle of the famous
abba song to anchor the program and act as a i-dent. The people do sometimes talk over each other as this is what people do naturally and alan wants his show to appear natural.
ambience/ actuality: ambience plays a role in the radio drama, as music beds are used when guests come on stage, sounds of the audience cheering, clapping and laughing are used to give us Alan’s preferred reading of what he wants our reactions to be. The hitting sound is used to convey that alan has hit the child guest. vladamir propps theory can be applied to this drama as alan is perceived as being the hero that hit the villainous child star, who is seen as being precocious and his dad of being the damsel who created this monster.
Task 2.Produce 3 x 20 second clips, each clip should emulate the codes and conventions of a specific genre
Task 3: A Mind Map of your Ideas
Task 4: 2 x Proposals briefly stating different ways of presenting your drama; including ideas on narrative, sound fx, locations, characters, music beds etc...
proposal for idea one:
My first idea of radio drama is a spoof of the classic children's tale red riding hood. in this my primary target audience will be teens 13- 18 rather than the typical audience for young children as my story line mocks the fairy tale. due to the content of the drama and the audience the drama would be aired later rather than earlier 5pm. the characters will be different than in the original to help mock and make the story more entertaining. The narrative will be a linear single strand one. i will also break the typical conventions of women and men’s roles in fairy tales. Red will not be a sweet innocent little girl who needs to be saved and her grandmother wont be a typical stereotype of sweet old lady. they will both be harder and more independent rather then damsels in distress like suggested by vla
damir propp’s theory. Although we will be messing around the hero and damsel in distress their will still be usage of them the police wolf will be the damsel trying to catch the villains red and her grandmother. the hero can be who the listener wants to be the hero. each of the characters will have different tones volumes or accents to help the listeners distigish between them easily.
Our radio drama is aimed at teens 13-18 with a genre of horror/supernatural/comedey entertainment. Our drama will use sound fx appropriate to the verisimilitude such as owls hooting to connote horror. It will be a multi strand narrative but will be understandable to make it less polysemic and confusing to the audience. We will use an informal manner of speech to relate to the target audience who use this as teens have an informal mode of adress.We will also include a Yorkshire accent, as this dialect will again help our audience relate as they are from Yorkshire. We will try and apply the uses and gratifications theory to our drama, diversion, surveillance, personal identity and personal relationships, as this will ensure a captive audience. To anchor the genre of horror comedy we will use sound fx and jokes in our drama. To make our drama sound more realistic we will record the sound using high quality equipment, this will also help maintain the interest of the audience as they will listen to a good quality drama rather than one of a poorer one. We will also use garage band and audacity to edit our work and add sound effects and music in. As the story line of our piece is complex we will leave it half way through the story as a cliff-hanger.
Treatment for red riding hood!
This drama would be aimed at late teens due the content of the drama as i feel it would be unsuitable for younger years. The voices used would be different to make it easier for the listener to distinguish between characters and make it less polysemic. The general story line is based on the fairy tale red riding hood but we have changed the roles of characters and themes. The drama will use sound fx to create the correct ambiance and suit the genre of the peice. The drama will have a multistrand narrative but will be clear to ensure the audience will understand what it occuring and not be polysemic. This drama includes a informal tone and the inclusion of slang, to create a personal releionship and identity as stated by the used and gratifications theory, to help the audeince connect to the story more. The accent and dialect will be local as this drama is for a local remit rather than to go on a national station such as BBC 2. The genre is comedy so there is alot of jokes within. This is a pastiche of the classic red riding hood tale, i have tryed to make it more relevant to the target audience of teens rather than for children. The drama will be recorded with high quaility equipment to make it sound professional, and will be edited on garageband or audacity.
Task 6:You should produce 2 scripts, one for each of the treatments from the previous task.
Script for actual drama!
Logan-kam
Brooke, Miss Smith- Georgie
Narrator, mum person- steffie
Emily, - Claire
Vladamir-joff
Intro:
Once upon a time in a land far far away there was a prince…..no we’re only joking. The actual story we’re telling today is indeed much darker then any fairy tale. It begins on what seems an ordinary day at school but no-one knowa the terrible truth hidden deep within.
Sounds of children talking its quite muffled as its outside
Mother: bye Loge. Have a good day. Kiss sounds
Logan:muuuum. bye .
Car door opening and shutting
Footsteps
Playground noises as the two characters walk through school: children talking laughing and shouting etc.
Logan: Hey Emily, wots up?
Emily: (posh accent) I’m good thanks, but I am a little freaked out by all those disappearances,
Logan: oh yeah didn’t Sam’s sister go missing yesterday?
Emily: yeah, that’s the tenth person to go missing and their all kids at our school, daddy says that the police are in a terrible state trying to find them all.
Logan: still no leads then?
Emily: no my father says they just disappear and there’s no clues or traces at all.
Door opening and kids talking becomes loader as fluffy and Emily are in school.
Logan: hey are you ok? Did you have a good weekend?
mack: Aye, (inaudible speech) have a good week end I did Ach I went to scootland and there’s been are murder reet near me auntes Ouse. But its was good och me little lassie sister ate too much haggis and we ended up ome earlier.
Logan: lets just go to class…. Its half eight anyway we will be late…
Mack: aye.
Footsteps NARRATOR MEANWHILE
Hear the headmaster talking to the secretary
Vladimir: hello Mrs Smith, can I have a word with you in my office?
Mrs Smith: Sure, I’ll be there in a moment sir.
Vladimir: excellent
Door closes
Vladimir: The OFSTED reports are due out next week, can you file them please?
M.S: I’ll be sure to get on that st
raight away.
Vladimir: I am so glad that I hired you this year, actually…. There’s another matter that I need to talk to you about…
Blood curdling scream…… BACK TO LOGAN
Logan: that was the most depressing lesson that I have ever, ever been to in my life thank god it’s the end of the day.
Brooke: hey Logan have you seen like my mates you know Sam, Dan and fred I cant find then, and they were supposed to meet me half an hour ago…
Logan: nah m8, I aint i…
Screams
Logan: what the …..did you hear that
Brooke: yeah it sounded like a scream dinit...
Harsh footsteps
Teacher: what are you two up to? Go home it’s the end of the day.
Brooke: didn’t you hear that noise? It was a woman screaming you cant say you didn’t hear it it was well loud…
Teacher: no it was erm… erm… the air vents…
Logan: are you sure I mean this is happening a lot recently I hear it all the time its really weird.
Teacher: we are getting the system fixed now GO HOME. (2) NOW
Brooke: come on Logan lets go… ill ca
tch up with Sam n that lot later..
Footsteps fast paced
Meanwhile after school, Mack had needed to stay behind to do some work
Noises of cleaner and echo’s of footsteps
Vladimir: hello there Mack.
Mack: hye
Vladimir: come to my office please I need to have a word about your um…um…homework ah yes your homework… your teachers are all worried about the standard of the work you hand in..
Going to the office (footsteps and door closing)
Mack: um. So work?
Vladimir: yes, interesting, look let me just say this straight, you are going to die
Mack: you canny talk to me like that
Vladimir: oh, I can … (Dum dum duuuum)
Scuffle sounds of Mack and Vlad fighting: tables being pushed away running feet grunts and a final sound of biting. BAGPIPES PLAYING – dramatic music…
Turns around and starts walking off
Mack, you canny kill me….. I’m Scotti
sh!
Vladimir: is that so
Mack: aye, tis true
Grunts of pain and then silence
Evil laugh by vlad.
Car pulling up and door opening.
Logan: bye, my dads here to pick me up
Brooke: All right cya.
Car door opening and closing with radio playing
Dad: so did you um… have a good
day?
Logan: Sam’s sister went missing last night.
Dad: not another one! This is getting out of hand you’d think the police would have done something. And what I don’t understand is why school is still open I would have thought they would have shut it.
Logan: ten people have gone missing now and according to Emily the police are struggling to find any clues.
Dad: I don’t like this one bit why don’t you go to another school for a bit until it stops. I don’t want your well fare on the line or your education down the pan.
Logan: No, I like it here… and all of my friends are here too, I’m staying.
SILENCE
Car drives off with green day playing…
Narrator: the next day Logan finds out Mack is missing and decides to investigate…
Logan: have you seen Mack?
Brooke: nope not since yesterday he had a DT didn’t he.
Logan: he didn’t meet me this morning he wasn’t on msn last night and he’s always on msn after school. And he didn’t come to the park either. Something is going on and I think it’s time to find out what.
Brooke: maybe he’s…(whispers) Gone.
Logan: but but but but he he cant be….he’s Scottish!
Brooke: just because he’s Scottish doesn’t mean he is immortal. My parents said that if another person goes missing they are pulling me out of school
Logan: yeah my dad tried to get me to move but I refused. We have to find him and all the others; the police investigation is going no where. We have to go to school and sort this out,
Brooke: ok lets do it tonight
Night time sounds and footsteps owl hooting and crickets.
footsteps
Brooke: Right, I’ve done a perimeter check of the surrounding area and we need to access the building through that window up there
Logan: and how do you suppose that we do that?
Brooke: a-ha I came prepared, that is why I brought this rope with me
Logan: oh, do you always carry rope on you?
Brooke: no, you idiot, you know sometimes I think that god forgot to give you a brain. It’s a mission. Don’t you watch T.V? the rescuers always have a rope to climb or tie up bad guys.
Logan: whatever … let’s just get on with this
Mission impossible theme tune music bed under speech
And with that they take to the challenge of climbing the wall.
Grunting sounds. Pick axes. Rope straining sounds.
Brooke: well that looked easier on T.V…. I’m knackered.
Logan: (Out of breath) I think I have p
ulled a muscle. OW it well hurts maybe we should come back tomorw…
Brooke: get moving. After we have done this you need to start doing P.E your so unfit..
Logan: lets get a move on its creepy being here at night..
Owl hoots to connote scaryness
Brooke: we should split up
Logan: yeah, we can cover more ground that way
Brooke: ring me if you find anything.
Logan: oki
Footsteps echoing
Logan decides to head straight to the head teachers office to find some clues.
Logan: the teachers are acting suspicious lately I might as well start here.
Door banging shut in the wind
Logan: what the?
Haha spoooooky!
Door opening
Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god
Numbers dialing tone, phone noise and pick up tone
Logan: OH. MY. GOD. Brooke, where are you? You have to come here, I’ve found some of the missing children, thir in the heads
room. Over and out
Brooke: (Inaudible with static in phone call) ok im coming… oh ….who’s that…..argh get off……argh.
Logan: Brooke………. BROOKE are you ok?
Vladimir: Hello there Logan, I have your little friend here… you have 30 minutes otherwise she will DIE! Hahaha!
Logan: Don’t you harm her… you hear me… hello??? BROOKE !!!
Narrator: will Logan save the day? Will the children all be save? Tune in next week to find out.
Script two for red riding hood!!
Red riding hood script
Red: Georgie chav voice
James wolf man- hairy policeman: steph
Grandmother/Ethel: Heather
Narrator: Claire
Mother: kam
SOUND OF FOOTSTEPS AND DOOR OPENING AND CLOSING. DIALETIC TV SOUNDS AND NORMAL HOUSEHOLD NOISE.
Red: oritte muvva!
Mum: why hello there red! Pronounce your word Articulation is important!
Red: Whatever.
Mum: did you bring the blueberry pie from nanas?
Red: yes hang on……here…
Mum: just give me the basket you don’t have to take it out.
Red: erm I need me basket coz im….uhhhh….erm….going ooooouuuut…..
Mum: oh ok. Where are you going.?
Red: to er…..er….er…school yeh extra work ya noo.
Mum: oh how nice! Its nice to see you have finally taken and interest in to your academic life. After all those you no.
Red: asbos? Im an asbo kid me. Ahaha
Mum: shhh. The neighbours will hear. Well anyway its good to know youre putting all that behind you!
Red: yeah sure I am. Well I’m going to go now sees ya.
Mum: bye u m red hang on….
SOUND OF DOOR CLOSING
Mum: oh I was going to tell her the wolf was back, but I’m sure she will be fine.
SOUNDS OF FOOTSTEPS AND FOREST NOISES, WHICH GO FROM DAYTIME TO NIGHTTIME.
Red: lalalalalalalalalalalaaaaaaa (singing really badly) ive got such a brilliant singing voice I should go on the x-factor…. I bet Simon Co
well would fall in love with my angel voice. Lalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalaaaaaaaaaaargh
LOUD BANG AND SCREMING FROM RED
James Wolfe: Aha I’ve got you now red hahaha. All those times you’ve escaped my clutches and now I have the infamous red granddaughter of notorious drug lord Ethel.
Red: oi georef or ill get you done. They’ll believe me I swear I’m just a ikkle girl. I’ll just cry and say you followed me and plated them on me!!
James: planted what? BASKET RUSTELING INDICATING HER BASKET IS BEING LOOKED THROUGH
Red: Get your hands outtta me basket ya loser. Its MINE .
James: ahoy well what do we have here? A basket full of class a drugs I believe. You’re booked you will go down for a long time young lady
no one can save you now…… what’s that ….
FOOTSTEPS AND RUSTLING FOLLOWED BY A MOTERCYCLE REVVING UP TO THEM
Ethel: you get ur filthy ands off me red you here me wolf! Or ill be setting my minions on ya. Filthy creature.
James: I will not be talked to like this MADAME, your “red” has been caught red pardon the pun, handed and will be going down town tonight and I will finally get recognised for the police official I am and not looking like a wolf.
Red: yeah you have a lot of hair don’t ya like a wolf raaawr. Are ya sure youre not?
James: YES not SHUT UP stupid child. Its this kind of stereo type hinders my kind. We cant help that we have extra facial hair…
Red: shave?
James: I thought I told you to be quiet girl.
Ethel: I’m taking my granddaughter now. Come quick red love get the basket and climb on …. QUICK QUICK before he try’s to stop you.
James: get back here you…GET BACK GET BACK YOURE UNDER ARREST no. YOU ARE BRAKING THE LAW SECTION 1 POINT TWO…
Red: laters dude.
Ethel: REVVING OF BIKE. Peace out dude.
BIKE DRVING AWAY THROUGHT FOREST WICH GOES SILENT BEFORE JAMES ROARS WITH FRUSTRATION!
James: AAAAAARRRRRRGGGGHHHHHHHH. I WILL GET YOU. Its not over. Not by a long shot. What kind of stupid name is red anyway? MUMMBLING AND FOOTSTEPS AWAY.
Narrator: After red was rescued she returned home to find her mother writing and very angry
DOOR CLOSING AND TV NOISE
Red: er hi mummy.
Mum: don’t you sweet-talk me missy! Schoolwork? SCHOOL WORK! You liar you have deceived me for the last time dya hear me? No more. I’m sending you away to live with you’re sweet and caring nana. She will ensure you get bac
k on track.
Red: yeh yeh she will. Im so sorry mum, I just erm I dunno. Are you sure I don’t wanna go..
Mum: You set off tomorrow now off to bed NOW. AND DON’T LET ME HEAR A PEEP.
Narrator: The next day bright and early red is thrown out of her house by her mother and is walking across the vally.
FOOTSTEPS AND BIRDS TWEETING AND CHIRPING
Red: lol silly mum as if nana will make me get back on track. She’s the reason I do this. She will be so happy the see me. Ill live with her
forever get ma off me back hahaha.
LOAD BANG (GUNSHOT) AND SCREAM
Narrator: what has happened to red? Is she alive? Does she ever get to her grandmothers? Tune in next week to find out!
Task 7:To produce a radio drama using one of the scripts produced in the previous task
Evaluation:
The original aim of my radio drama was to entertain as it was a horror comedy. This i feel was achieved as when i got my peers to listen to it they reacted by laughing at certain parts. I got some feedback from those peers on my radio drama and this is what they said:
Claire Dring "i liked the drama, it was funny so it fitted it's genre of horror comedy. I liked the usage of sound effects they were used well"
Kam Chohan: " i think that the overall drama was good and i understood it all"
The messages that we gave out were both positive and negative as we had a antagonist who was kidnapping people and a protagonist who was trying to save the day with his helper (sidekick). I personally do not think we were biased as we included, both males and females and different ethnic minorities. We could have
included some other age groups, that is something that i would improve if i could do it again. The music that we used in the background was used to help set the mood of the piece and went with the dialogue well. For example we used the mission impossible theme tune as diajectic music to help connote the characters were going on a mission. We also used a sad song in the car to fit with the mood of the scene, which is sad. The language that we used in the drama i think was appropriate, we had characters that spoke informally which is the general trend for a primary target audience of teens. we didn't have any swearing or blasphemy included so as not to offend any listeners.
Technical issues
The levels were an issue as some people talked softly and some loudly so we had to try and balance them out. We always made sure that the music bed wasn't to load to overpower the speech and make the outcome polysemic. We also ensures that sound effects could be heard when they needed to be or were diajetically involved. We did cut peoples voices out sometimes if the sound wasn't good quality or the speech was wrong. Next time we could make sure people stick to the script and check the quality. The microphones worked well the only issue was how people were either spoke quieter than others or were further away from the microphones. I think that my radio drama did include a enough variety to keep the audience interested as we put the two genres of comedy and horror together. Editing was fine as we shared the work and we knew what we wanted. We used a multi track editing so we could have music beds and other sounds effects in. We used a lot of sound effects in our piece to help with the conventions such as footsteps help anchor the fact that the speaker is walking to the listener. We have used actuality as we have recorded some of our own sound eff
ects.
conventions and narrative.
The conventions we used typical to the genre were
Horror: owls hooting to convey nighttime, Evil Laughter and fighting sound effects.
Comedy: laughter, jokes and informal tone.
A professional product would use owls hooting to convey nighttime and evil laughter if it is a horror. They may also used wind or storms to again help add to the horror aspect. Professionals would have advantages over us as they would have more equipment, time, money, people and better quality equipment. In our narrative we took on bored both Vladamir's and Todorovs theories. We included an antagonist (villain) being the teacher, a protagonist (hero) being the main character and a helper being the sidekick who also ended up being the damsel in distress. The plot had an equilibrium at the beginning of the piece which quickly turns in to a disruption (children going missing) from this we gain another disruption as the helper gets kidnapped and becomes the damsel, so although the hero resolves the problem by finding the missing children, another issue is created. The end is the enigma of the drama as we don't get to find out what has happened to the children or if the damsel is rescued. Our story is defiantly multi strand as there are stories within the story.
self evaluation.
I learnt how to record through using a radio station. I personally think i was good at contributing to script ideas and also editing and teaching my partner what to do if she got stuck, without doing it for her. My weakness was acting as i don't think i sounded really professional. I didn't argue with me partner or people we got to act in our drama, as this would have made the outcome of our product less professional.
Future targets.
To improve on my work i would try and control sound levels better, or get people that talk with the same volume rather than people who all have different sound levels to their voices. I also would create a more simplistic script as ours was quite long, so by making it shorter i would have more time to make it sound professional quality.
Brainstorm of promotion ideas:
a brainstorm on distributing it
You have made useful notes on a number of the tasks but these are currently incomplete and cannot be submitted in their present form. The work for this unit does not therefore meet the pass standard.
ReplyDeleteTarget
Write up your notes for tasks 1 to 3.
Add a script/propsal; and treatment for the radio drama you are making.
Mr Burkinshaw
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteTreatment for fairytale needs extending to achieve the following grade.
ReplyDeleteM1 Detailed analysis of different genres of radio dramas with explanations of the different codes and conventions apparent in different genres. Generally appropriate use of subject terminology.
M2 A well developed proposal and treatment targeting a specific genre and audience. Some imagination shown with only occasional assistance.
M3 Script produced in response to treatment is clearly set out in a specific genre. Only occasional assistance given in script writing process.
M4 Well planned radio drama, produced to a good technical standard, showing some imagination and with only occasional assistance.