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.