PLANNING PRODUCTION

Kayeesha Gomes 13 Elizabeth

PRODUCTION I had to research the different types of

radio drama’s as well as the fact that I had to research the type of people that would listen to my radio drama and the type of stories that they would listen to.

I had to research articles for my chosen topic which was footballers affairs.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article725180.ece

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-400034/Gambler-womaniser-drinker-brawler-So-thats-John-Terry-captain-England.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1389172/Footballer-loses-fight-for-secrecy-over-two-affairs.html

I did a questionnaire on my blog and got people to fill it in.

QUESTIONNAIRE Name…………………………………………………….. Gender- Male/ Female Age………… Have you ever listened to a radio drama?- Yes/No If yes, which one?

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

How often do you listen to radio Dramas?- Once a week/ Twice a week/ 3 times a week/ More than 3

What do you like about radio dramas? …………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Would you ever be interested in listening to a radio drama about a footballer who got caught having an affair?- Yes/ No

Why? ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

The majority of people who responded to my questionnaire were happy to listen to a radio drama about footballers and their outside lives.

They said this because they felt that it would be something different as opposed to the usual types such as mystery’s romance etc.

The age range who would listen to this kind of radio drama was teenagers from about 16- 25 or those who like football or are interested in footballers and their lives aka, celebrity gossip.

DRAFTING AND REDRAFTING Before writing my actual script, I wrote a short

story, about the size of an A4 page. The story was what I was basing my radio drama on which was about a footballer who had an affair and got caught.

I wrote about 5 drafts my radio drama script. The first draft I had just written the dialogue for the characters with few stage directions so for the other drafts, I added more sound effects and I had written more about the characters themselves. E.g. I gave pet names to the husband and wife e.g. “ You’re being a bit quiet J, what’s up?” and also made the husband very distant, hinting at the fact their marriage could be in trouble e.g. (J is very distant).

ORGANISATION OF ACTORS In order to get my cast together, I sent

them emails and text messages to organise dates where we could all get together.

This was quite difficult because there were certain dates that they could not all make, or some people did not turn up on the day or at the right time.

Once we all got together, I gave them each a copy of the script and the first time, I read it out to them, the second time they read it to themselves and the third time they read it as though they were the character.

What I thought worked well about my radio drama was the accents used. It made it seem more realistic and genuine. I was able to get my friend who was from America herself, so it was good as it made my radio drama sound better with the variety of people.

COMMUNICATING THROUGH PLAY AND BLOG I communicated things about my radio

drama through using a blog and posting updates about how I was developing my radio drama, information about my cast and also posting my scripts on the blog.

This was a good idea because people were able to comment on my research and listen to my radio drama and giving their opinions on how I could improve on it or what I could change.

ANALYSIS OF A RADIO DRAMA Other Radio Dramas that I have looked at have

been Afternoon reading, it is on BBC Radio 4. The episode is about a woman called Gracie and her

compost-obsessed husband dies, she decides that it is time for some radical personal growth.

It is written and read by Frances Tomelty and is produced by Eoin O’Callaghan.

The actors that are in the radio drama do not project their voices as they stand close to their microphones. They rely on the voices alone. The actors in this radio drama vary the tone and pitches of the voice to show how they feel and what they are thinking about a particular situation like when Gracie’s husband died she spoke softly and using a solemn tone.

It has a narrator because it is a way of making up for the lack of pictures and all the scene changes and actors are unseen on a radio drama so by having a narrator; it can help to create mind pictures of the listeners. The scene changes are suggested by dialogue for example they said that they were now going out to the pub rather than just going without any warning. The dialogue used in this radio drama help to show the meaning of the story. In some parts of the radio drama, the narrator is not used as the action used is self explanatory.

With Radio dramas, there is no audience to respond to what is going on as they often listen by themselves.

The sounds that are used in this radio drama are a mixture of naturally occurring background sounds such as people chatting in the background and laughing or crowds out and about.

By using music in this radio drama, it helps to create the mood and atmosphere as well as helping with showing the scene changes. Atmospheric music, like soft and quiet music was to used to set the sad tone to show the fact that Gracie’s husband had passed. It is a bit like a musical performance because depending on what is going on in the scene there are many different changes in terms of the volume of the music, i.e. loud, moderately loud, and quiet and the type of instruments used along with the tempo.

There are sound effects used in this radio drama. They use rather simple sounds, just on their own. Like for example when Gracie is thinking alone in the quiet, they just use the sound of birds humming. By doing this, it enables the listener to imagine their own picture to suit the story.

In radio drama’s though, the sound effects are of very little value as it is the dialogue or the story that are depended on.

CONVENTIONS OF GENRE OF RADIO DRAMAS The conventions rely on what is being said.

Every word that is spoken matters and has an effect on the radio drama and how it is perceived by the listener.

In a radio drama, emotional intensity is important because it can be communicated by the way the actors pronounce the word and how it is said, for example “Jessica: You’ve broken my hair straighteners” this is a rather silly line though it has a deeper meaning of the fact that she has actually ruined the marriage and is said aggressively.

It is a single radio drama/ play.

REPRESENTATION OF RADIO DRAMA The representation of my radio drama, the

focus has to be on the traitor, Krystal who Jermaine is having an affair with, who ruined the marriage as well as on the wife who is trying to build a home and stable family and is pampering her husband.

It shows what type of lives the footballers live and how they are seen in the pubic which is as a waste and those who only care about money and fame.

Though on the other hand, there are the people who do have respect for them and idolise the footballers.

NARRATIVE OF RADIO DRAMA My radio drama is a linear narrative as it is

structured so that the plot follows the beginning and end and runs in a particular order so that the story makes sense to the listener and so they are able to understand the radio drama.

In my radio drama, I have used narrative devices such as interior monologues which the wife does:

e.g. “Jessica: I’m ready to talk and ready to walk! Roll up, roll up! Come and see your hero, your footballing god, the true side to him, the lying, cheating bastard! This is a picture of him on a drunken night out dressed up in women’s clothes! Yes I am being serious. He actually wore a LBD and stilettos accompanied with the wig and makeup!”

ANALYSIS OF SOUND EFFECTS In my radio drama I used a mixture of sounds

that I recorded myself and some that I downloaded from the internet.

The sounds that I recorded myself were the birds and children playing in the park scene as well as the crowds at the football match.

The downloaded sounds were things such as footsteps, cars and keys.

I decided to use both my own and the internet sounds as I could not find all the sounds I wanted in real life and by using both it showed that I knew how to use my own sounds and also my knowledge of the internet.

ADVERTI made an advert for my radio drama. I did this so that people will be able to know about it. I only had brief words on the advert so that they would have to listen to my radio drama if they wanted to find out what it was about. The image on the advert gives the audience an idea of what type of characters are in the play.

RADIO DRAMA AUDIENCES During the end of 1998 Radio 4 had just fewer than 8 million listeners

which then in 1999 rose to 9.5 million. The people who listen to radio dramas on radio 4 are those who also

listen to classical fm and virgin. John Peel’s multi-award winning Home Truths programme on Saturday

mornings has doubled its audience to 1.9 million in under a year and takes a 12 per cent share of the radio audience on Saturday mornings.

The age group that seem to listen to radio Dramas are those in their late 40’s.

The Listeners Weekly Audience Breakfast Show Radio 1 10.8m 5.5m Radio 2 9.7m 5.5m Radio 4 9.5m 6.2m Classic FM 6m 2.9m Radio 5 Live 5.8m 2m Virgin Radio 4.6m 2.7m Capital Radio 2.9m 2m Talk Radio 2.3m 0.75m