Research - News notifications on the radio

Recently, I have been researching the way in which the radio announces news updates. After listening to many news announcements, I have noticed that the speaker uses standard English pronunciations, making it easy for the listener to understand as it is clear and well spoken. This is the same way that news presenters on television communicate to its audience. Aswell as this, I have noticed if there was an incident on the motorway which involved death or murder, the announcement would not specificly say what has happened and just state that there has been an accident. I will take all these points into consideration when writing and recording my radio drama.

Research - Accents

Within many aspects on media such as, television programmes, films and radio dramas, accents are commonly used to help create a picture of the character for the audiences. Stereotypically, it is said that we can identify what a person is like and how they act just through their accents. Although this is entirely incorrect, these stereotypes are still used within society today.

Research - Signifiers

Signifiers can be sounds or a group of sounds, or an image or a symbol that stands for an object or concept.

For example,
Horror - weapon (knife)
Western - cowboy. hats
Comedy - laughing (from an audience)
Romance - romantic music
Fantasy - mythical creatures
Action - guns and fast cars

Paradign
classifications of signs, or a set of associated signs which are all members of some defining category but in which each sign, is significantly different
e.g. A horror story would include props and costume, location, characters, narrative which could be a story of past?

Research - Location & Motorways

To make our radio drama appear more realistic we decided to research into routes and alternative routes that the characters would take. This would enable the listeners/audience to relate to the story and give a sense of realism. We decided that within the radio drama, the M1 and M6 would be closed so therefore they take a route on the A34 to avoid build up of traffic which may occur on the M40.

Planning - Characters

Here are some mind maps I  created earlier to show my thoughts on the characters that will feature in the radio drama. I have choosen to have 3 characters within this episode.

Planning - Narrative

Narrative Structures

The narrative is the way in which that a story will unfold whether it being the narrative order or the way that the story is told. As the radio drama episode is only allowed to be 5 minutes long, I have to consider this when planning the narrative.

Theorists

Tvzetan Todorov - Todorov is a theorists who suggests narrative is simply equilibrium, disequilibrium, new equilibrium. This means that he believes that at the beggining of the story, the equilibrium is calm and settled. Then, something happens to distrupt the equilibrium, and as the story goes on, the equilibrium is restored. Many succesful Hollywood Blockbusters use this narrative structure within their films. I'm sure it would be equally as successful in radio dramas. Although, the radio drama I am producing is only 5 minutes long. Therefore, I have choosen not to use this narrative structure within my radio drama.

Vladimir Propp - Propp analysed Russian Folk Tales in the 1920s and realised that the same events occured in each story. Creating a constant framework. Prop came up with narrative functions that are controlled by the characters. Such as,

• The Hero
• The Villain
• The Donor
• The Helper
• The Dispatcher
• The False Here
• The Sought for person (e.g princess)

Again, as my radio drama is only 5 minutes long, I do feel that it will be a struggle to make it clear to my audience which character falls in which category.
I have taken the theorists ideas into consideration andI have decided to have 3 characters within the drama, as it will be easier to find people to play the characters and to keep the listeners/audience interested.  Each character will have significantly different personalities to help tell the story. The characters will be all young and female, plus 1 or 2 of them attending University. I have choosen this because I feel that it will appeal to younger people.
I want to include an aspect of horror within the radio drama so i have decided that the 3 girls will travel at night time from the University of Manchester to their hometown, Oxford. Motorways will be closed due to accidents of some kind, making them take an alternative route through unlit country roads which are unknown to them.
Also, I will include a radio news announcer to help tell the story, revealing that motorways will be closed and so on. I want my narrative structure to break existing codes and conventions. I want my narrative to unfold in such a way that will shock the audience. So therefore, i have decided to end my radio drama with a cliff hanger ending which allows to audience to let their imagination run, and come to their own conclusion of what happens.

Ideas Generated

After listening to existing radio dramas, I felt that they were rather "dull" and I found it quite hard to engage myself with them. I think this is because they are simply not aimed at my age group. I believe that there is a gap in the market, that being radio dramas for teenagers. This has helped me think of ideas for my radio drama, as I want to produce something modern and almost give radio drama a "new life"

The big ideas for our radio drama first began after reading a horror story an urban legend, from the website, http://urbanlegends.about.com/od/horrors.

The Hook

"

A TEENAGE boy drove his date to a dark and deserted Lovers' Lane for a make-out session. After turning on the radio for mood music, he leaned over and began kissing the girl.

A short while later, the music suddenly stopped and an announcer's voice came on, warning in an urgent tone that a convicted murderer had just escaped from the state insane asylum — which happened to be located not far from Lovers' Lane — and that anyone who noticed a strange man lurking about with a hook in place of his right hand should immediately report his whereabouts to the police.

The girl became frightened and asked to be taken home. The boy, feeling bold, locked all the doors instead and, assuring his date they would be safe, attempted to kiss her again. She became frantic and pushed him away, insisting that they leave. Relenting, the boy peevishly jerked the car into gear and spun its wheels as he pulled out of the parking space.

When they arrived at the girl's house she got out of the car, and, reaching to close the door, began to scream uncontrollably. The boy ran to her side to see what was wrong and there, dangling from the door handle, was a bloody hook!"

After reading this, we decided that we wanted include some aspects of this story within our own radio drama.

Radio Drama Analysis - The Archers

The Archers first broadcasted on January 1st 1951 and is still running today, everyday except for saturdays. It is broadcasted on BBC radio 4. This radio drama has a very large cast and has its own fictional map of the village


Story lines in the past years have included issues such as, gay marriage, deaths, heroin addicts and abortions.
The Archers is still very popular today and has been running for a significant amount of time.

As a young person, I dont find The Archers as exciting as it could be. I find it very difficult to engage myself and relate to the characters due to the way in which they communicate with each other. I think that this is aimed at an older generation. I will take this into consideration when planning my own radio drama as I would like to aim it at young people.

Radio Drama Analysis - The Twilight Zone

The Twilight Zone was first aired in 1950's and then released its own television show in October 2002..

Radio Drama Analysis - The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

“The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” is a science fiction comedy radio series written by Douglas Adams. It was first aired in 1978 in the United Kingdom by BBC radio 4. It was then aired in the United States in March 1981. The drama was known for being ahead of its time in relation to its use of music and sound effects, resulting in the radio drama winning a number of awards

After Listening to this clip from the famous radio drama, over all I felt that it was very outdated. I thought this because the beginning of the drama is very informative and uses formal language. I found it extremely hard to engage myself throughout this part of the drama as I found the old fashioned style very boring. A convention that was used in this drama was the introduction music which was played at the beginning of the drama. The music was very upbeat, but still old fashioned. The music in the introduction caused me to come to a conclusion of what the radio drama is about. Although the music was serious to some extent, it was also upbeat and give the impression of happiness and power. If the same style of music was to be used in a new radio drama production now, I don't think it would be as successful as it was. This is simply because this style of music will not interest the every day listener of today.

Many sound effects are used within this drama which makes it very successful.

• Voices have been transformed to give the effect of a "speaking computer" or a "futeristic voice". By doing this it makes it clear to the audience what is happening, who is speaking and helps them understand the overall story.
• Sounds such as screams are very loud and very powerful to have an effect on the listeners
• noises such as breathing and grunting have been very exagerated. It almosts makes me feel that I am in the same room as the characters. It also helps me visualise what is happening in the drama.

A narrator is used within this drama to help tell the story. Although I think this is helpful to the audience, I also think that this narrative style is very old fashioned and outdated.

Background music is also used throughout the drama to help add atmosphere to the story. I think this works extremely well as it helps set the mood of the drama and what is happening. It also indciates to the audience of the up coming events that may occur.

It takes a little while to be introduced to any characters, but when we meet them we can instantly make some assumptions on the character. At 4:52 in the video above we meet a character who is well spoken. They speak clearly, standard english and have a tone in their voice which suggests that they have some kind of authority or power. The character is also polite using words such as "Good Evening", this suggests to the audience that this character is friendly.

The performance of the characters within this radio drama is very important. As the listeners have to rely on what they hear to help them understand the story, it is very important that the characters reactions and emotions are made very clear either through their performance or other techniques.

The time it takes for stories to unfold is quite long considering that the 26 episodes was spread out over many years.

In conclusion, I dont think that this radio drama would appeal to many people today. The entire drama is outdated but many of the conventions have been taken and used in existing products, such as the background music. I found the drama very hard to follow as I found the narrator not very interesting. At some times I think it was unclear what was going on in the story. While generating my ideas for my own radio drama, I will take all of these points into consideration.

Radio Drama Analysis - The War of the Worlds

The War of the Worlds is an episode of the American radio drama anthology series Mercury Theatre on the Air. It is directed and narrated by Orson Welles, the episode is an adaption of H. G. Wells’s novel “The War of the Worlds”. This episode was first aired on October 30, 1938. Its running time is 60 minutes and its home station is CBS Radio.

H. G. Wells’ original novel relates to the story of an alien invasion of Earth and the end of the 19^th century. The first two thirds of the play was a contemporary retelling the events of the novel, presented as news bulletins.

an episode was set out like a radio show, which caused panic for people of America, as they believed that the USA was actually under alien attack. War of the Worlds had a huge impact on the audience of its time, making it still famous today.

Classical music is used in intervals throughout a section of the radio drama, I feel that this is very dated and wouldn't be very successful if produced again today. I thought that the radio drama, as a whole was very serious. Every character was very well spoken. I don't think this would work today as I believe that auduiences need variety in the characters to enable them to relate to them.