EVALUATION OF RADIO DRAMA

By Annabelle Snelling

HOW DOES YOUR PRODUCTION FIT IN WITH THE VALUES OF RADIO 4 AND ITS PLACE IN BRITISH LIFE?• The middle class values of radio drama allowed

me to create a piece that would be relatable and of interest to a more middle class audience. For example, I was able to create middle class characters Jake, Rosie and Dr Reynolds. It is clear to the audience through my radio drama that Jake is middle class e.g. he is wealthy and is taking a holiday on his Father’s boat with staff and crew on board.

• Dr Reynolds is has a clear high status shown through he accent and profession. The fact that he is a Doctor suggests he is well educated and successful.

Middle class audience members may be able to relate to Jake or would be able to more easily imagined being on a beautiful boat like Jakes more so than a working class person.

Middle class mental illness is more likely to less psychotic that working class due to the better surroundings and upbringing they would have received. The middle would suffer more with mental illness such as eating disorders. The middle class are well educated and therefore may enjoy listening to a more challenging radio drama with a complicated story.

The popularity of post modern films and the concept of what is and what isn’t real, explored in films such as shutter island, inception and black swan, would be more interesting to a middle class audience. The huge popularity of films like these support this idea. A more uneducated audience would be less likely to understand or enjoy the challenge of figuring out what is and isn’t real and would be more likely to give up on a radio drama of the same genre as it is not even backed up with interesting images. The high popularity of psychological thriller’s e.g. Shutter Island, Law Abiding Citizen, Donnie Darko, Black Swan, The Silence of the Lambs etc, allowed me to use intertextuality enticing a similar audience.

Radio drama’s were often Sci Fi as it was simply to create a fictional world and story e.g. War of the Worlds, without having to include believable costumes and sets. The decrease in such radio drama’s due to film technology we have to now make these amazing and believable sets, graphics and costumes has challenged me to bring audience’s back to listening to such radio drama’s. Creating a radio drama was much more simple as I did not have to show the different locations of the extract e.g. showing the Captain steering the boat through the storm would have been too time consuming, costly and most likely impossible for me to film, but I was able to easily create the sounds to show what is now happening to the audience. Past Radio 4 drama’s have been Sci Fi and horror but have been less popular than radio drama’s such as The Archers.The current popularity of Post modern award winning films such as Black Swan, Inception and Shutter Island may make audience’s more interested and likely to listen to radio drama of a similar level of challenge and complication.

‘Love affair with all things American’ - very focused on America. They will loose listeners in Europe and other areas if consider less important.

Losing its appeal to younger listeners –needs more programmes for the younger generation. They need to talk about things the younger generation will want to hear about.

Mostly middle class, middle aged adults – Working class would be less likely to listen to radio 4, may feel less appreciated and wanted if they tuned into radio 4

Issue of race – The majority of people who listen to radio for are white. There are only white people on radio 4 e.g. The Archer’s.

Losing fans over programmes story lines – For example, The Archers lost fans after the gay wedding they had within the story.

WHAT ARE RADIO 4’S AUDIENCE ISSUES?

HOW DOES YOUR DRAMA RELATE IN TERMS OF STYLE IDEAS AND LANGUAGE TO THE AUDIENCE? English and an American accent - easier for my audience to understand

and relate to. As an English radio station (radio 4) my listeners who were English were able to clearly understand Jake, Dr Reynolds and the Nurse’s accent. Rosie’s American accent was also understand to my listeners due to radio 4’s ‘love affair with all things American’. The high popularity of American TV amongst young English teenager's allows my target audience to be familiar and comfortable with the accent.

Flashbacks - clear to the audience as it is used in a lot of television which lets audience’s already be familiar with flashbacks. The over sound effect I use to suggest that it is a flashback is repeated before every flashback in my radio which makes the story and narrative easier for the listeners to follow.

Repeating the beginning of my radio drama at the end if effective in leaving the audience in a state of questioning and confusion which effective keeps them engaged and want to listen more to the radio drama. As a middle class audience this reflects the idea of how educated people will like a challenge.

REFLECT ON THE REPRESENTATION OF PEOPLE, PLACES, IDEAS AND LOCATIONS .   I was successful in communicating Jake as a middle class wealthy

man. I did this through his spoken accent and use of wording e.g. he never uses any ‘slang’ words. Dr Reynolds saying ‘Your boat has been found’ suggests his wealth and upper class background. His accent was good in showing him as a young healthy man due to the clearness and clarity of his voice. The middle class audience of radio 4 would have been more likely to relate to Jake in the sense of his wealth and upbringing rather than in his mental illness and current situation.

I was successful in showing Rosie as young beautiful American woman from the way in which Jake spoke about Rosie (‘she had the finest brown hair and bright green eyes’) and her spoken voice. Choosing Zenaide to play the part of Rosie was very successful as her American accent was clear, believable and understandable to my class mates. The current middle class audience of radio 4 would be able to relate to Rosie as she reflects a typical middle class woman marrying/in love with a man similar financially. This reflects the proposal that the middle class are more likely to marry someone of their own social status.

Choosing Cassie as Dr Reynolds was successful as her voice was effective in communicating her powerful status and control over Jake e.g. her deep voice made us fearful and trusting in her. The middle class audience of radio 4 would be able to clearly know who Dr Reynolds is due to the typical powerful and patronising Psychiatrist or Doctor presented on Television e.g. clearly spoken, ‘we’re here to help you’. The audience may feel able to relate to Dr Reynolds due to his success and clearly well educated background as he is a Doctor.

Having Sadie play the Nurse was extremely successful as she fully understood the typical patronising Nurse. Playing a slightly flirtatious Nurse was effective in communicating the relationship she has with the Doctor. Paying more attention to the Doctor than Jake gives off the idea of people with mental illnesses being treated as almost non human or unimportant e.g. she played a similar character to Nurse Rachid in One flu over the cuckoo’s nest.

Using sound effects to communicate different locations such as the island was effective as I was able to use bird sounds and ocean waves to communicate this. This was very clear due to the typical beach and ocean edge sounds. The middle class would be able to understand this clearly due to their wealth and popularity and advertisement of summer beach holidays. I used the language to also communicate this this further e.g. ‘I have to get off this bloody island’ was effective in stating where he was. My class mates said that the sounds of birds and ocean waves made it clear that they were on a beach.

The fact that Jake was in a mental institution was very clear and I effectively used language to communicate this e.g. ‘Let me out of here’, ‘always the same questions’ and ‘Help me please help me’. The Nurse saying ‘medication time’ at the beginning of the extract lets the audience know from the very beginning where he is and his situation. Dr Reynolds saying ‘we’re here to help you Jake’ further communicates this to the audience. By this stage the audience have realised Jake’s location in the mental hospital.

To communicate that Jake was on his boat I used sounds of howling wind and wave crashing to communicate the boat and storm which they were in the middle of. The Captain saying ‘I’ve been sailing these seas for too long not to know we’ll be fine’ suggests clearly that he is a Captain to the audience whilst communicating further how he is in the middle of steering the boat. My audience said that this was extremely clear due to the sound effects and spoken words as they both communicated Jake’s location clearly to the audience. A member of my class said that at first they were not sure where Jake was, only that he was in the middle of a storm, but after the Captain begins to speak things become clear. This was effective in keeping my audience members engaged as the sudden sounds of the storm effectively confused them, leading them to want to listen more and find out exactly what is going on.

HOW DID YOU FOLLOW, EXTEND OR BREAK CONVENTIONS OF A RADIO PLAY? Flashbacks within my narrative structure - complicates

and challenges my audience. I was successful in communicating when flashbacks were happening as I used a static radio sound to show when Jake was going in and out of reality. As the location would suddenly change after the radio sound, my class mates said it soon became clear that these were flashbacks.

Repeating the beginning of my radio drama at the very end – effectively confused my audience - successful in challenging them to figure out what exactly is happening here (what is and what isn’t real).

By breaking the conventions of radio drama by creating a tragedy/psychologically thriller radio drama I hope to bring new listeners to radio 4 due to the gripping story line and increasing popularity of psychological thrillers.

Radio drama’s are usually slow – I created a fast extract to keep the audience more engaged as so much is going on at once and it does not drag on. This makes it more like film which would attract a younger audience

Having the Nurse as very over the top/in your face was effect in making the audience feel annoyed by her. This reflects Jakes feelings towards the Nurse. Making her sound unrealistic - over the top patronising voice and constant high pitch made her seem like a comic book/cartoon character.

Having everything heard as if from Jake’s perspective. I turned down the voices of Dr Reynolds and the Nurse in scene 2 when to communicate the Nurse walking into the room and talking to the Doctor whilst Jake waits at the door.

COMIC BOOKS Creating a slightly comic book looking advert (the

bright colours and rotated bold font- appeals to a younger audience.

Upcoming rise and popularity of new comic book films e.g. Kick Ass and Scott Pilgrim vs. the world.

The brighter colours - exciting, new and eye capturing!

HOW HAS DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY MADE IT POSSIBLE FOR YOU TO BECOME PRODUCERS OF MEDIA TEXTS? Using a microphone and recorder allowed me to simply record it and upload to computer. I was able to create my radio drama in less than ten minutes due to technology. I used the editing programme (Adobe Premiere Elements 8.0) which allowed me to cut, paste, edit and import recorded sound effects quickly and easily.

Using coral paint shop pro I was able to edit my pictures to create symbolism and meaning e.g. Putting a cracked walls effect on Jake’s face to symbolically reflect the fading and loss of memory. I was able to put a high contrast on the pictures to made them brighter and more eye capturing e.g. I made the red blood hands very bright to attract the audience’s attention as red is strong, bold colour.

Using the blog was successful as I was able to organise my research and production in different categories whilst keeping my work together and organised in one place. I was able to show my progress over time which effectively helped me in knowing the stages I was at with my course work.

A REFLECTION ON THE DECISIONS YOU MADE TO CUT WORDS, CAST CHARACTERS, EDIT THE DRAMA, MAKING AND USE OF SOUND EFFECTS, CUTS TO MAKE SCENES TO REDO AND IN GENERAL THE PROCESS OF CREATING A COMPLEX AND SUBTLE MEDIA TEXT. I had to cut sections between the pages of the script as when recording we had to stop

to turn pages. This was fairly easy as I was able to direct my group in when to start and stop knowing that all pages had been turned and that everyone was standing quietly still and ready to carry on. When a line was said in the wrong tone of voice or when the actor accidently said a word wrong, I simply told them to stop and repeat the whole sentence. During the editing process I was able to cut out the sentence’s or words that it not work and replace them with the new recorded sentences or words.

My casting was very successful and I did not feel like I could have chosen better actors for the roles. Each actor was confident with the role they had to play. They were patient and were easy to direct due to their high level of concentration. Jake’s tone in voice was effect in making the audience feel sympathetic towards. Rosie’s voice was effective in communicating her culture and young age to the audience. Dr Reynolds was effect in making the audience put their trust in him due to his calm and deep voice. The Nurse was effect in creating a typical stereotyped Nurse (patronising, loud, over the top).

Making sound effects was difficult at first as their was a lot of background noise when recording them on the school grounds. After I took the recorder home and recorded my sound effects in a quiet environment, they were much more effective and clear. Putting sound effects into my radio drama was easy as I was able to create layers. I had all my narrative on one layer and sound effects on top of this layer which made it much simpler and easy to read and understand. I was able to turn up and down the volume of sound effects to fit with the narrative.

HOW HAVE YOU USED LINKED IDEAS TO CREATE THIS SYNERGY THAT GOES WITH THE PRODUCT? The same themes run through each production (advert,

listings page and radio drama). I showed the themes of love and tragedy through the spoken speech in my radio drama e.g. ‘I’m going to ask Rosie to marry me’ and ‘She was murdered!’, through the listings page preview of the story (set in a mental hospital after murdering his lover) and through the images on my advert (the Rose, Rosie’s dead body and the red bloody hands). – love, tragedy, memory loss and mental illness.

I showed the themes of mental illness and memory loss through each production in different ways e.g. I showed memory loss through the main image of my advert and talked about Jake’s memory loss in my preview. I showed mental illness through sound effects and speech in my radio drama and talked about Jake being in a mental hospital in m preview.

HOW DID YOU USE SIGNS AND CODES TO REINFORCE YOUR PREFERRED READING OF THE TEXT FOR THE AUDIENCE? I gained sympathy from my audience (18 year olds) through my

character Jake. The situation I created for Jake allowed me to gain sympathy from the audience e.g. he nearly lost his life in the story, he was drugged, his fiancée is dead and abandoned on an island. This was enough for any person to go mad and therefore the audience would feel sympathetic towards Jake. I used Jake’s spoken language to also create sympathy e.g. ‘she was taken away from me’ and ‘you don’t know what it was like there’.

I gained sympathy from my audience through my character Rosie by showing the distress she is under. No girl wants their lover to forget who they are. As Rosie was murdered even though she was innocent will make the audience feel sympathetic towards Rosie as she clearly fell in love with someone who she did not really know fully what he was capable of.

I gained trust from my audience through my character Dr Reynolds as he is so demanding but makes the audience believe he truly cares about Jake. His profession suggests he knows what he is talking about and therefore the audience believe him and are on his side. For example, ‘we’re here to help you Jake’ suggests he genuinely cares for Jake.

To make the audience feel untrustworthy towards the Captain I used hints to show his evil plan. For example, the crew laugh and he the Captain says ‘You can trust me Jake’. This hints that things are not what they seem and that the crew are making a mockery of Jake as he believes the Captain due to the long term trusting relationship the Captain has had with Jake’s father.

In a similar way I show hints of the crew’s plan through the character the bar man. For example, he laughs and then says ‘here you’ll need it’ whilst pouring Jake a drink. This gives off conflicting messages to Jake to hint that things are not as they seem.

HOW DID YOU LISTINGS PAGE REFLECT THE AUDIENCE PROFILE? I followed the conventions of a listings page e.g.

Columns, one picture at the side for a preview, ‘pick of the day’ section, the name of the show and the time it starts.

The photograph of myself - appeared a typical teenage girl due to the clothes I wore and hair style. The blazer gives off a feel of intelligence and seriousness whilst reflecting teenage middle class fashion.

Column about theatre attract a middle class audience to the page (expensive and more middle class appeal).

I presented more challenging or intellectual films e.g. Inception. This would attract a more middle class audience to the page due to their interest for a mind challenging film.

HOW DID THE PREVIEW USE NARRATIVE HOOKS TO ENTICE THE LISTENER?

I used a cliff hanger at the end of my preview in order to keep the reader interested and already engaged with the radio drama. They will want to know what happens next and therefore will be more likely to tune in to the radio drama.

I kept the reader interested in my character Jake by slightly explaining his situation (having just been admitted to the mental institution) but without giving much reason as to why, only subtle hints. Explaining that he has lost his memory will entice the reader as they will want to know why and what he has forgotten as clearly it is something significant.

HOW WAS YOUR ADVERT CONSTRUCTED TO SELL THE PRODUCT AND WHAT WAS THE VALUES AND CONVENTIONS OF THE ARTS PAGE OF THE PUBLICATION IT WOULD BE PUBLISHED IN? By focusing on presenting my advert as a

psychological thriller genre I would be able to attract radio 4 listeners (intellectual and middle class) whilst also attracting a younger audience to radio 4 due to the growing popularity of psychological thriller’s.

By making the advert bright and colourful I will attract the audience more to the advert due its bright eye capturing look. The bright red bloody hands will attract the audience due its sharpness and hint of horror/tragedy.

By using a photo of a young man I would attract more young female listeners to radio 4.

THE END