Production Diary 9

This week we had another assignment to start creating an advertisement for our radio Drama. I started off by taking pictures of Kaitlin and Darius; I wanted to make Kaitlin look intimidated by Darius, but at the same time as if she wasn’t aware he was there. I took about 25 pictures until I thought I had got the right shot.

Style, Cues and Links

Cues and Links
Cues and links are used to fill spaces and gaps that separate the script for example the different scenes. We have used cues between introduction, different scenes and the finale.

A strong convention of radio drama is to have a theme tune or an introduction that is instantly recognisable, ‘The Unseen’ as a series would have this, but we decided to start the episode with a prologue,(see below this was to grab the audience’s attention, and to make them get involved, to try and figure out who the killer was.


(COMPUTER PROGRAMME FOR THE EMERGENCY SERVICES OPPERATOR, IT SAYS: Emergency (.) which service do you requi-)

LUCY#: (D) (Petrified) Please help me (.) Please I need some help (.) He’s just killed h-

(THE SOUND OF SHUFFLING CAN BE HEARD THEN THE DIAL TONE, SAD ERIE MUSIC CAN BE HEARD IN THE BACKGROUND FOR THE NEXT TWO SPEECHES FROM KAITLAIN)

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.

(MUSICAL JINGLE SAYING: This is BBC Radio 4 The Kaitlain Ross Show)

KAITLAIN#: (CLOSE) (As before) Little did I realise that by tomorrow I would be about to die.
Separation link
(ECHO OF GUNSHOT AND PIERCING SCREAMS)

We used links such as fades in and out between scenes 1 & 2, 2 & 3, 4&5; these have been used to link the scenes together without any major cliff-hanger jus moving on. To conclude Scene 3 we have used dramatic music, as you can hear from my clip (left) we used a stereotypical dramatic effect, so the audience would feel the disbear that kaitlain feels. To conclude scene five we were originally going to have Keys dropping to create suspense for the next week but because of time constraints we chose to the end the scene with a piercing scream.

Production Diary 8

Sammie and I both came in on half term to continue editing the piece, we applied the majority of the sound effects and changed the sound levels, also cutting out anything that could distract the listener from the atmosphere we were trying to create.

Past and Present Radio Dramas.

Amos and Andy (1928-1955)
Amos and Andy was a 15 minute daily situation comedy, it was probably the most popular radio show of all time. The listening audience was estimated at 40 million. the story was of two black men,from Harlem who owned the Fresh Air Taxi Company. this wasn't classified as a radio drama, but it was because of this show that Radio Dramas were created.

I Love a Mystery (1939-1952)
I love a mystery was a tale of three people who had formed a detective agency, they travelled the world in search of action thrills and mystery battling natural and supernatural creatures, whilst saving distressed women.

Sherlock Holmes (1930-1960s)
The famous Sherlock Holmes detective stories appeared on radio for more than 25 years, they were adapted from the original material and when that ran out, Edith Mesier then started writing more.

Escape (1947 -1954)
Escape is everything that was good about old time radio drama. Each and every episode was a micro drama carefully planned to capture the listeners attention for thirty minutes.


The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (2003-2005)
Originally a radio comedy broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1978. It is a science fiction comedy, Arthur Dent and his friend Ford Prefect explore outter space.


The Archers (1950 -today)
The Archers is set in the fictional village of Ambridge it is based around different families, and the trials and tribulations of their life.

Genre

The genre we chose for The Unseen is Tragic Thriller. Thriller can be defined as, suspenseful and adventurous. Tragic can be defined as causing great sadness or suffering. Therefore we have tried to incorporate all these elements into our radio drama.




I listened to many different types genres of radio drama including Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy, the archers, and Orson wells war of the worlds. these all varied in genre from science fiction, fantasy to a soap opera. I then decided to listen to thrillers, "The twilight zone" and "Lost in Liverpool"while listening i noticed conventions such as background music as there talking, describing where they are in great detail. eerie music running throughout and a narrator.
We then realised in order to be successful we would have to try and incorporate these conventions into our genre.

Prodcution Diary 7

At this point we had problems with a member of the group who wasn’t around for a couple of weeks, this left just Sammie and I to carry on with the editing. We decided to cut whole scenes out from the script, this made it very difficult for us to edit it together as we had to make sure it still made sense to the listener.

Production Diary 6

We all started looking for sound effects; we found some and recorded some. We then started adding them in when we realised that our radio drama was allowed to be around six minutes, no more. This meant we had to cut huge chunks out as ours with sound effects was reaching nearly 28 minutes.