Thursday, 1 April 2010
Sunday, 28 March 2010
Evaluation: How The Unseen Develops Or Challenges Forms And Conventions Of Real Media Products.
When we chose the genre of thriller, we then researched other radio dramas in this genre they were very limited, and one of the newest dramas we found was the devil you know (2007) so we tried to take elements of this whilst bringing it up to date to suit a modern audience.
I feel that the unseen has used similar conventions to other radio dramas throughout, such as music, narrative, dialogue, silence sound effects and themes. We have developed the usual narrator, as when we first created the piece, we didn’t have a narrator but with audience feedback, we decided to add this element into our drama. We didn’t want a narrator the whole way through as we thought this would turn it into a story, so we decided to have Kaitlin at the beginning foreshadowing what was going to happen to her. (See clip). Another element i feel we developed was voice, as we have a voice over at the start and end of the drama, it starts with “This is the unseen”, we had this spoken in a deep voice, and to connote to the listener what genre the drama will be. At the end we have jus you have been listening to the unseen, with the character and actors names also the names of the producer, and script writer.
I think we have challenged the usual conventions of radio in many ways. Unlike the majority of radio dramas we did not have music running throughout, we wanted the audience to focus on understanding the characters, and be able to relate to them. Secondly we started off with a prologue, no other radio drama apart from the twilight zone had used one, but as we thought that this was the closest popular radio show to our genre we decided to incorporate it into the unseen. Finally We started off the story in non chronological order this was done deliberately so we created tension and grabbed the viewer’s attention. As you can see from the extract below, Kaitlin is foreshadowing what is going to happen, and then there is a straight cut, where she is then talking on her radio show.
KAITLAIN#: (CLOSE) (Sombre) That’s when it happened (.) Where my whole life changed before my very eyes (.) It’s hard to believe that it only started less than forty eight hours ago (.) I had just started my morning radio show without a care in the world.
KAITLAIN#: (CLOSE) (As before) Little did I realise that by tomorrow I would be about to die.
(ECHO OF GUNSHOT AND PIERCING SCREAMS)
KAITLAIN#: (Chatty) Hello I’m Kaitlain Ross (.) Welcome to my show (.) It is Monday the 23rd of November and the time is nine o’clock in the morning (.) Now onto my first caller.
RUBY#: (OFF) You have a caller on line one.
KAITLAIN#: (Gentle) Hello I’m listening
We used this technique later on in scene 1 where Lucy has called into Kaitlin’s show, as she is telling them of how she loves her husband, but is afraid and wants to leave, she is then interrupted by Darius, and the phone cuts off. We did this so the audience would think that she is dead or seriously hurt, this is another element that is unusual in radio.
I feel that the unseen has used similar conventions to other radio dramas throughout, such as music, narrative, dialogue, silence sound effects and themes. We have developed the usual narrator, as when we first created the piece, we didn’t have a narrator but with audience feedback, we decided to add this element into our drama. We didn’t want a narrator the whole way through as we thought this would turn it into a story, so we decided to have Kaitlin at the beginning foreshadowing what was going to happen to her. (See clip). Another element i feel we developed was voice, as we have a voice over at the start and end of the drama, it starts with “This is the unseen”, we had this spoken in a deep voice, and to connote to the listener what genre the drama will be. At the end we have jus you have been listening to the unseen, with the character and actors names also the names of the producer, and script writer.
I think we have challenged the usual conventions of radio in many ways. Unlike the majority of radio dramas we did not have music running throughout, we wanted the audience to focus on understanding the characters, and be able to relate to them. Secondly we started off with a prologue, no other radio drama apart from the twilight zone had used one, but as we thought that this was the closest popular radio show to our genre we decided to incorporate it into the unseen. Finally We started off the story in non chronological order this was done deliberately so we created tension and grabbed the viewer’s attention. As you can see from the extract below, Kaitlin is foreshadowing what is going to happen, and then there is a straight cut, where she is then talking on her radio show.
KAITLAIN#: (CLOSE) (Sombre) That’s when it happened (.) Where my whole life changed before my very eyes (.) It’s hard to believe that it only started less than forty eight hours ago (.) I had just started my morning radio show without a care in the world.
KAITLAIN#: (CLOSE) (As before) Little did I realise that by tomorrow I would be about to die.
(ECHO OF GUNSHOT AND PIERCING SCREAMS)
KAITLAIN#: (Chatty) Hello I’m Kaitlain Ross (.) Welcome to my show (.) It is Monday the 23rd of November and the time is nine o’clock in the morning (.) Now onto my first caller.
RUBY#: (OFF) You have a caller on line one.
KAITLAIN#: (Gentle) Hello I’m listening
We used this technique later on in scene 1 where Lucy has called into Kaitlin’s show, as she is telling them of how she loves her husband, but is afraid and wants to leave, she is then interrupted by Darius, and the phone cuts off. We did this so the audience would think that she is dead or seriously hurt, this is another element that is unusual in radio.
Wednesday, 24 March 2010
Evaluation : Audience
Demographically we have chosen women between the ages of 35-60, we have raised real issues such as domestic violence in our drama, so ideally we would want women from all demographics listening but I think we will reach social class B through to C2, from intermediate managers through to skilled manual workers. BBC radio 4 has very little demographic D and below listeners.
This is the main audience for radio drama listeners. As our genre is thriller we may have the collective identity of women we would expect a few male listeners, but they would not be our primary target audience.
Physcographically, we are aiming at Succeders, mainstreamers, explorers. We are aiming for succeders as these are people who are successful and self confident, and may want to relax and unwind after a long day at work. We chose explorers, as they would enjoy the challenge of finding out who the stalker is.
Our audience will be active, as we want them to get involved in the story and talk to their friends about it.
The uses and gratifications model has four key elements to it, diversion and escapism, personal relationships, personal identity and surveillance. I think that our audience fit into all these categories. Firstly, diversion and escapism, this is where the audience could build personal relationships with the characters, especially as we would run it as a series. Personal relationships, and personal identity both interact as The relationships we have between Carlos and Kaitlin and Lucy and Darius, people may find themselves relating to, or sympathising for the characters, it is a storyline, that as a series people may go to work and talk to their friends about Finally surveillance, as this is real life, things that happen in the real world.
To attract the audience we would advertise using many different types of media. Firstly we would advertise in magazines, especially the radio times, as this is the most used amongst radio listeners.
we would advertise on BBC radio 4, after popular shows such as The archers, doing this we would guarantee that a huge amount of people would know the show was going to be aired. We would also have an advert in the radio times ( see right).
This is the main audience for radio drama listeners. As our genre is thriller we may have the collective identity of women we would expect a few male listeners, but they would not be our primary target audience.
Physcographically, we are aiming at Succeders, mainstreamers, explorers. We are aiming for succeders as these are people who are successful and self confident, and may want to relax and unwind after a long day at work. We chose explorers, as they would enjoy the challenge of finding out who the stalker is.
Our audience will be active, as we want them to get involved in the story and talk to their friends about it.
The uses and gratifications model has four key elements to it, diversion and escapism, personal relationships, personal identity and surveillance. I think that our audience fit into all these categories. Firstly, diversion and escapism, this is where the audience could build personal relationships with the characters, especially as we would run it as a series. Personal relationships, and personal identity both interact as The relationships we have between Carlos and Kaitlin and Lucy and Darius, people may find themselves relating to, or sympathising for the characters, it is a storyline, that as a series people may go to work and talk to their friends about Finally surveillance, as this is real life, things that happen in the real world.
To attract the audience we would advertise using many different types of media. Firstly we would advertise in magazines, especially the radio times, as this is the most used amongst radio listeners.
we would advertise on BBC radio 4, after popular shows such as The archers, doing this we would guarantee that a huge amount of people would know the show was going to be aired. We would also have an advert in the radio times ( see right).
Tuesday, 23 March 2010
Evaluation : How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
When I first started researching into radio, my primary tools was the internet. I started off by researching about the history of radio and then listening to old and new radio dramas such as Amos and Andy and The Archers, on sites such as www.oldtimeradiofans.com and BBC I player. I also used it to find out information about abuse and how women in particular would feel and act in that situation. We also used it to find a helpline number, as if a programme is covering such topics it is usual to have a number to call.
When creating the radio drama we had to use a recording suite, nobody in the group had used this equipment before, as Sammie was playing Lucy, Keri and I decided to split the role of recording. The recording studio is split in two, so we had the actors on one side and Keri and I on the other; we were connected through microphones and headphones. It was quite a simple process we had to set up a soundboard, adjust sound levels to what was needed and then press record. We recorded directly onto soundtrack pro.
Once we had finished recording we then had to start editing the piece. Once again none of us had any experience with this and so we were all assigned different roles, I started off by listening to it and splitting each scene, then deciding what bits we would keep and what we wouldn’t, as we had recorded some scenes more than once. At this time Sammie was changing the voice levels, to try and make sure that we kept it at the same volume, as parts of our recordings were louder than others. Once we had both done this we then started adding in transitions and sound effects. We created most of our sound effects, such as Carlos falling to the floor, and footsteps but we got some such as thundering, heavy rain, and background noise for the street from the soundtrack pro library.
I had to take my own pictures for my advert; I used a digital camera for this, once I had taken them I then had to turn them into a jpeg file, before I could start editing them. This was my original photo
As you can see this is how my picture first started before editing. I started Photoshoping my picture by cropping it so I removed parts of the picture I didn’t want to use, and then a black and white filter, this was to add an eerie effect. After that I started changing the gradient and darkening certain parts of the picture, to grab the audience attention. I then moved it into Indesign and turned the backdrop all black, as I wanted the poster to be purely black and white which is an unusual convention in Radio drama posters, but I thought that it reinforced the thriller genre.
I also used Indesign for my advert and double page spread. I had to create text boxes for my articles and listings. I used things such as stroke and swatches, to create new colours and change the style of my writing.
When creating the radio drama we had to use a recording suite, nobody in the group had used this equipment before, as Sammie was playing Lucy, Keri and I decided to split the role of recording. The recording studio is split in two, so we had the actors on one side and Keri and I on the other; we were connected through microphones and headphones. It was quite a simple process we had to set up a soundboard, adjust sound levels to what was needed and then press record. We recorded directly onto soundtrack pro.
Once we had finished recording we then had to start editing the piece. Once again none of us had any experience with this and so we were all assigned different roles, I started off by listening to it and splitting each scene, then deciding what bits we would keep and what we wouldn’t, as we had recorded some scenes more than once. At this time Sammie was changing the voice levels, to try and make sure that we kept it at the same volume, as parts of our recordings were louder than others. Once we had both done this we then started adding in transitions and sound effects. We created most of our sound effects, such as Carlos falling to the floor, and footsteps but we got some such as thundering, heavy rain, and background noise for the street from the soundtrack pro library.
I had to take my own pictures for my advert; I used a digital camera for this, once I had taken them I then had to turn them into a jpeg file, before I could start editing them. This was my original photo
As you can see this is how my picture first started before editing. I started Photoshoping my picture by cropping it so I removed parts of the picture I didn’t want to use, and then a black and white filter, this was to add an eerie effect. After that I started changing the gradient and darkening certain parts of the picture, to grab the audience attention. I then moved it into Indesign and turned the backdrop all black, as I wanted the poster to be purely black and white which is an unusual convention in Radio drama posters, but I thought that it reinforced the thriller genre.
I also used Indesign for my advert and double page spread. I had to create text boxes for my articles and listings. I used things such as stroke and swatches, to create new colours and change the style of my writing.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)