Production Diary #2

From our research of urban myths we brainstormed stories for each of them such as how it would work, what would be the climax etc. After doing this we then decided that the urban myth about a body in a mattress would be the best idea.

Production Diary #1

This was when we were first given our task as a whole to create a radio drama, our group (Me,Alice & Catherine) decided to base ours on urban myths so we went onto the internet and researched urban myths and noted the ones down that we thought would work well.

How have you used sound effects, voice, music and silence in your radio drama?

All radio dramas incorporate sound effects, voice, music and silence.

In our radio drama we used quite a few sound effects such as car noises, phone rings and walking on gravel. Sound effects help set the scene and enable to drama to be understood easier. In our drama we had quite alot of phones ringing as we scripted some phonecalls, if we did not place the sound effects in the listeners might be confused as to who is talking to who and even that it is a sound effect. Also when the three girls were driving to the Travelodge we added exterior and interior car noises to ensure the listeners of the setting and also when they had arrived used the sound of footsteps walking upto the Travelodge so that the listenenrs know there is going to be a change in setting. Sometimes the sound effects seem a bit to obvous but as there are no visual aids they need to be to ensure complete understanding for the listeners. Also to create a creepy element to the Travelodge we made the doors creak.

Regarding to voice, Alice played four characters so she had the hardest job of differentiating her voice within the charcter roles. It worked out quite well except from the end which we then changed. As well as a main character Alice played Mr. Pike, Olga and a radio presenter at the end. Olga's voice was easy to differentiate because she had an transylvanian accent and Mr. Pike's by lowering her voice. The difficulty came at the end when the drama was over and it was the presenters speaking, after getting our feedback we realised it was hard for listenenrs to tell what that bit was actually about.

Regarding to music we had no music in our drama whatsoever, in one scene the girls sings to a chart song and we were going to play the song in the back so it seemed like we were singing along to the radio but we then decided agains that. After listening to other radio dramas we realised we needed to add a theme tune.

We didn't have alot of silence in our radio drama only when there was a change of scene to ensure the listeners know that there is a change of scene. We didn't feel it was needed as throughout there characters were always talking and in traditional horrors silence creates tension but we didn't think this would fit into our drama as it is not a straight out horror.

How does your radio drama represent particular social groups?

A radio drama isn't visual so it is harder for the audience to understand what is going on and what is trying to be presented. Because of this the audience rely on aspects such as dialect, tone, linguistic features etc. The three main characters in our radio drama are women and I think were quite easy to portray, Debby was a student and you could tell this because of the lexical choices used such as "fit" and talks about bringing boys back to the hotel room at night. I think Debby represents students quite well but must remember that not all students aren't the same so we can't just class young girls and promiscuous. The other two main characters in the drama Tracey and Joanie are a bit older than Debby and we were able to show this by their lexical choices and their choices in the drama. For example Tracy is a woman with a full time job and is dedicated to her work, when things start to turn Tracy seems to pull things back in before andything bad happens and seems wary "Let's just get checked in first" Joanie is quite similar to Tracy with the fact she has a job but she seems more relaxed and not as controlling as Tracy. When writing the script we had to make sure Tracy and Joanie didn't slip into any slang or say anything out of context to keep inline with their character roles.

How does your radio drama use, develop or challenge forms and conventions?

A radio convention is something which you expect to see/hear and which are the same across a certain genre. There are many radio conventions which are in radio dramas, such as sound effects, volume, interaction, lexical choices, and also if the narrative is open or closed. Many radio dramas also include enigma which is when the audience doesn't know a particular piece of information until the end when everything is tied up and becomes clear.

After researching radio dramas I found that there was not many horror themed radio dramas so I will compare my radio drama to horror films. We used sound effects in our radio drama to make it sound more realistic and enables the listener to picture the drama in their heads. We also used sound effects to create tension. Many horror films use silence with sound effects to create tension for example footsteps. In our radio drama I think we could have used more sound effects to create tension to give off the impression that something freaky was going on. We gave a few clues away that something was wrong by the smell of the hotel room and the smell on the wall but i feel we could have included some more build up of tension by adding spookier sound effects.

The volume of the three main characters stay pretty much the same all the way through, but when Olga is introduced she comes across alot louder, also Olga has an transylvanian accent, which helps differentiate characters and it also adds tot he spookiness of the drama. Films also use this effect too, for example Daybreakers. Also when Mr Pike is introduced he has quite a low toned voice and speaks slowly. When recording our drama we had to ensure we carried out the characters dialect and pitch all the way through as not to confuse. The 3 main characters didn't have and different accents because we wanted to keep it as realistic as possible and there was no need for them.

In our radio drama we created enigma, we did this because then when ending the drama it made it easier to tie up. In our radio drama the audience doesn't know that there is a dead body under the matrress in the hotel until right at the end. They might have a clue something is not quite right because of a few clues throughout the drama but they wont fully know and shouldnt lead the drama to be predictable.

When writing out script we didnt have to think much about our lexical choices because we were trying to keep it as realistic as possible so we just wrote what we would say in real life. When we recorded the drama we realised some things just didn't sound right so at time we didnt just stick strictly to the script. I think this allows the drama to sound like how we wanted it to as we just play off each other.

How does your work use cues within your radio drama, and what style of writing did you apply when creating your scripts?

When we began to draft out our script we wanted to keep it as casual as possible to make it sound more realistic so we slipped in slang and a few jokes so as not to make it as rigid and structured. I think as the characters were around our age and all girls it made it easier to write and act out. Also all three of us are good friends so it made the whole script flow easier and sound more realistic.

Our radio drama has a few different genres within it, as it has horror parts and also reality. It starts off as relating to teenagers going to university and then ends up with a twist of horror at the end. As it was an unknown horror we had to say certain things within the drama to give clues but still keep the horror aspect concealed until the end.

When writing the script we used cues to show where we needed pauses and sound effects, we inserted alot of sound effects into our drama such as car noises, walking and creaking doors. When writing this we put our cues in a red font and put them into brackets to make it easier to differntiate between the script and directions. This also made it alot easier when we were recording our drama because we could slowly see how it was going to be put together.

Radio Dramas

The Archers-

The Archers is the longest running radio drama since 1950, there are six episodes a week and it is broadcasted on BBC Radio 4 at around 19.02pm. It is very popular as it is the most listened to non-news programme on Radio 4. It is set in the fictional village of Ambridge in the county of Borsetshire. The storyline is mostly based on the family of the Archers who own a farm but contains other families aswell. The Archers often base their episodes around real time so having shows to do with what is going on in reality on the present day. The series is often based upon the class of the different families within the village.

I have listened to a few episodes of The Archers and from this can identify the certain conventions of radio dramas they use. At the start of the drama it starts off with the theme tune which is called "Barwick Green" which is an upbeat maypole tune. This gives the drama recognition for the listener even if they do not know that the show is going to be on. They also often mention names to whom they are speaking to just to clarify the characters names and so it is easier to understand and it can get confusing if you cannot see what is going on. The Archers also use alot of fades and sound effects when settings change to ensure to the listener they know what is going on in the drama. The use of accents and dialect in The Archers is also important as it allows listeners to differntiate between characters even more and make the series seem more relalistic, it also can differentiate between the different social classes of the different families. Also in one particular episode i listened to i spotted that it use the technique of self reffering by reffering to Radio 1, im sure if i listenened to more of the episodes that i would find alot more self refferential parts.