Radio Drama – Addition of Sound Effects

The next thing that needs to be done, is to edit the dialogue into it’s final 5 minute segment and add all the sound effects that will be needed to emphasise the goings on in the Radio Drama itself. Also, the addition of selected music to the background of certain sections, like the speech of Zane, will also need to be discovered and placed behind it to add a certain element to his speech.

More will be added to this post as the sound effects get worked out and added.

Radio Drama – Dialogue Recording Completed

On Thursday 27th January, the group finally laid down the raw dialogue for our radio drama ‘Possession’. This process was made easier by the prior radio room induction we had with our tutor to let us know the ins and outs when it came to actually recording. The software we actually used to record the dialogue was ‘Soundtrack Pro’ and we did it in around 16 takes. 16 takes would appear to be alot, but we ironed out every little mistake so the dialogue is near enough perfectly done. It was said that it wasn’t all that important to act well as we weren’t to be marked on the merit of our acting but we put alot of effort into the acting process just to do it well, due to one of the cliche’s that I live by, ‘if you’re going to do something, you may as well do it well’, and hopefully that shows through in the final cut of our radio drama.

The next thing we need to do is consider sound effects and music for the drama as they, like the dialogue, are a very key component when it comes to radio drama, as there is no visual aid, so the sound effects and music need to be good enough to give the listener a perfect view of what’s going on in their imagination.

New Script after changes.

Original Script

Radio Drama Production Log : Possession

Character Synopsis

I have written some basic summaries of the main characters in our radio drama. This will help myself and my team mates to get an idea of the characters we will be playing. This is also something that could be posted on the website of the radio drama, to let people who are new to the show about the characters. This is something that the website for the radio drama ‘The Archers’ did.

Teena
17
Female

Character Traits: Restless, short attention span, enthusiastic about little apart from boys, shy but is outspoken when she wants to be, ambitious.

Character role in terms of Propp’s character theory: The Hero

A stereotypical teenage girl in the way that she is easily swayed by boys. When it comes to decisions that don’t involve boys however, she is fairly head-strong. She lives in an English suburb next to Earls Barton on the map. She finds herself bored with her life and where she lives. She is always looking for excitement and dreams of moving away all the time. Her parents are caring and give her plenty of freedom and although she has no reason to rebel, she does for the excitement. She feels as though no one understands her, apart from Andy, who is her best friend. She has also befriended a local boy named Zane through the website Facebook. She has a great interest in Zane, even though she only knows him through Facebook. She thinks he will be her ticket out of the suburb and into the exciting world she expects to be around her. Teena is unaware of Andy’s feelings for her, he feels as though he loves her but he knows she won’t ever realise. She is concentrating more on Zane than anything else, even her dreams of escaping.

Andy
16
Male

Character Traits: Loyal, shy, not very ambitious, relaxed attitude towards most things.

Character role in terms of Propp’s character theory: The Helper

Andy is a quiet teenager who enjoys sitting when he is doing anything. He sits in his room and listens to music, he sits in the local wood with Teena and he sits in the living room in front of his computer. He enjoys the comforts of a simple life, and enjoys his life where he lives. He thinks he is in love with his best friend Teena, but feels he will never tell her because he doesn’t want to push her away. He admires Teena because she is so different to him, she is outgoing and wild. He likes her energy because he knows he lacks it. He is never really passionate about anything, but he enjoys reading books and listening to vinyl records. He doesn’t have much of a relationship with his parents, or anyone apart from Teena and Chuck.

Chuck
17
Male

Character Traits: Confident, sceptical, playful, simple minded.

Character role in terms of Propp’s character theory: The False Hero

Chuck considers himself to be Andy’s best friend. Andy and Chuck have been friends since they were toddlers and so they know each other well.  He often finds Andy too lazy and Andy finds him too boisterous. Chuck is into playing sports and video games and anything that involves a competition. He gets along well with his dad and has a lot of respect for his mum. His parents put pressure on him to succeed but he enjoys the challenge. He is popular at the college they all attend and is naturally a people person.

Zane
19
Male

Character Traits: An outsider, imaginative, ambitious, mentally unstable.

Character role in terms of Propp’s character theory: The Villain

Zane is an outsider in the town; he doesn’t have many close friends but is popular. Despite being popular, he feels no one takes him seriously and he longs for friends who really care for him. He is very imaginative and enjoys fantasising of fictional lifestyles for himself. Superstitions, religion, magic, folklore and fantasy novels are his main interests. He is bored of where he lives, like Teena, and longs for a more exciting life. He finds it easy to sway people’s opinions and often leads debates at college. He sees Chuck as an adversary to his popularity. He has romantic feelings for Teena despite never speaking to her in real life. He uses social networking sites to build up a false, but more desirable image of himself.

LOCATION
We are basing our drama in a remote suburb in England, the place is fictional, this means that our audience won’t know where the action is taking place, making it more sinister. But to let our audiences get an idea of the place, we will be using sound effects relevant to where the action takes place EG woodland sounds. Also, there are sound effects we won’t be using, such as busy city sounds, and so the lack of certain sounds will also give audiences a idea of the characters location. The characters will also reference and talk about their location to give a further impression of the location.