Directing my first Radio Drama

NOV-DEC 2022

From nov- December 2022 I worked on my very own radio drama with 3 other students. here we had to create, edit and cast this with real actors, to create a final and professional result. you can listen to the full episode on my page in [boa projects]

AC1

The purpose of this final product would be to create a contemporary outlook on the world of radio drama, therefore hopefully encouraging the upcoming generation of young adults to show more of an interest. Our drama uses familiar topics to hopefully create a relationship that reaches the chosen audience on a more relatable level. Unlike most crime dramas here we have used a case that most of our generation will hopefully remember very well. This will then maintain that interest from our audience as this will spike memories from their past, which then will continue that intriguing nature they will remember back to when the case first came out.

Our audience is mainly young adults and teens due to the lack of interest from that age group. We wanted to demolish that stereotype and spark interest to get people listening. It will also help with educational aspect towards students, as there Is now a hug variety of radio dramas which will maybe be able to help students on the go with their studies. It may also be good Entertianment on the go, as from research I know that young people say they never have time to listen to podcasts etc. As we know young people are usually busy on the go individuals, which means a radio drama would be a great project to reach this age group with entertainment. It is also aimed for all genders, due to the nature of the podcast doesn’t speak more to one than the other. Although it is not aimed at a specific area, it may gain more appeal in Liverpool as that was where the case came about.

If I were being specific, I would say our radio drama was aimed at ages 16-25 Ish as it although it has mature language and themes, I feel our dialogue speaks to wards a younger demographic. These people would also have to have an interest in true crime and like thrillers. I also feel this would be great for people who want to watch dramas in their spear time but struggle to find that time, due to it being totally auditable, this means that they can experience this alongside their busy lifestyle. I feel there will need to be a sensor before releasing this to a public audience, due to the strong language, themes of sexual violence and murder, there will have to be a warning.  

Our main challenge was our time frame, as pre-production we had a great amount of time, but production was a bit of a rush. From when we received the actors to recording day, it didn’t give us an amazing amount of time to work with them. We overcome this by having small meetings before sessions to make sure we had everything communicated between each other. Scripting was also a little difficult as it was still new to us, and to write a script that communicated our vision perfectly took a lot of trial and error. Another challenge we faced was editing. Although we had covered adobe audition a few times in class, it was still veery new to us, so it became an issue to put into practice what we had originally visualized.

Skills and methods I would use next time would be to plan my time better and make sure I stick to it. I found my biggest flaw was not sticking to my to do lists, I would plan and create deadlines for each project, however, I would then keep adapting them to longer deadlines until I ended up with one day left to complete about 5 smaller projects. I would also use the spear time towards the development stages of the project and fill the gaps by upping my editing knowledge instead of trying to do it all in the last 2 weeks of post. I would also help.  

I hope to have represented everyone well and in a positive light. I will say our characters are slightly stereotypical, as we just had to base them off familiarity as we didn’t know these characters personally. We have deffiently used criminal drama stereotypes through the detectives. I feel the ages of the individuals were correctly based on naturalistic qualities, especially detective one as we show his intelligence through the way he speaks but it comes across with a very mature tone “in my 20-years of service”.

The overall representation is important as although we agreed it would be fictional and exadurated we must portray this serious subject with the up most respect due to its nature. We are using real names and real stories; therefore, it is essential to treat it with sensitivity. It is also important to stick to the genre, so we don’t confuse our audience with multiple genres and themes. The research appeals to my target audience as I've used techniques used by popular radio dramas in my edit, so, by using these it will also appeal to the demographic that listen to radio dramas often. People listen to these episodes due to the style and order. It will be good to keep this recognizable for an audience which will hopefully benefit us when trying engagement techniques, as has been tested before and it is proven to work and gain that talked about engagement. 

AC2

Radio dramas are basically a storytelling technique that is purely audio based, however they do rely on certain codes and conventions to collaborate to create that immersive experience. First of all, sound effects to bring the story to life, dialogue to keep the story moving, music, to set the mood in the scene, pacing, to maintain that engagement and finally audience engagement, which is there to keep the listeners invested in the story. These are essential in the creation of a radio drama for it to be successful and will lead to creating a captivating show.  

War of the worlds.  

Broadcasted on October 30th, 1938, The War of the Worlds went down in history as one of the most famous radio dramas. For the production, Orson Welles’ Mercury Theatre Company adapted H.G. Well’s serialized science-fiction novel published in the 1890s. The show kicked off at 8 p.m. during prime time, with millions tuned in across the United States. It was formatted as a news bulletin. The presenter began by taking listeners to the Meridian Room at Hotel Park Plaza to be entertained by Ramon Raquelle and his Orchestra. The dance music was interrupted by an alarming announcement that Professor Farrell from the Mount Jenning Observatory had witnessed explosions on Mars. The music resumed playing before another bulletin announced that a meteor had crashed into a farmer’s field. Emerging from the crashed metal capsule was a bear-sized glistering Martian with tentacles. The aliens began wiping out humans on mounted Martian war machines, which terrified the unaware listeners. The realistic performance and the fact that some fell for it cemented the audio drama’s notoriety and position in history.

Structure, Format, and Length of Audio Dramas 

From my research Audio dramas follow a basic structure. They have a beginning, middle, and end. Depending on the length, the audio drama may have a series of subplots, smaller stories within the plot’s main events. You can use the long-standing dramatic structure that involves exposition, conflict, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. For instance, during the exposition at the beginning of the play, it's important to introduce the Who, What, and Where. Audio dramas will also include similar elements to stage drama such as plot, character, theme, pace, tension, dialogue, and genre.

Now, before we start thinking of the sound effects, you will need to write the script depending on the genre. Are you planning to produce a radio drama or audio drama for your podcast show? Performances may last from 20 minutes to 90 minutes. How many pages will you need to write? One page may give you anywhere from 1 minute to 1.15 minutes. So, 60 pages of material may translate to a 60 to 75-minute show. Once you're happy with the script, the next process may entail finding actors and conducting rehearsals. You may need to have trial runs with rough recordings and create Forey sound effects. While you can do the recording remotely, it’s better to have a group session. If possible, you can reduce the need for narration. Instead, have characters create the storyline, setting, and action from dialogue alone.

Radio Drama - A small timeline 

● Radio dramas emerged with the introduction of the ‘théâtrophone’ in 1881. It was a telephonic transmission system that allowed users to listen to theatre and opera performances over phone lines.

● The first English-language radio drama was a brief sketch specially produced for Pittsburgh’s KDKA Radio in 1921.

● A Comedy of Danger by Richard Hughes, recorded in England in 1924, was the first BBC commissioned radio drama.

● The most famous radio drama was War of the Worlds that aired on October 30th, 1938.

● During the golden age of radio, most radio dramas were live shows owing to the poor sound quality of recorded programs. The magnetic era, beginning from 1945, saw a leap in audio fidelity, allowing the recording of radio programs.

● Increased priority to produce TV programs saw a decline in the production of radio dramas for many networks around the world. Producing radio dramas did not come cheap as networks needed to pay for studio recording time, scriptwriters, and directors.

● the archers is the world's longest-running radio drama series beginning its national run-on 1st January 1951.

From my research I say the only influence I would have gained would have been from war of the worlds. I have seen this live concert in the same style as it would have been broadcast on the radio. I love the elements of the change in rooms and environments from war of the worlds radio drama, and I wanted to incorporate that into my own. We loved the element of crime during the initial ideas process, so it had to be a clear asset in the drama, but I guess we got most aspects of the ‘investigation room’ idea from preexisting criminal dramas we had already seen. After also listening to some existing radio dramas and podcasts such as case 63, I loved their ideas of the interrogation tapes and how they incorporated sound effects to add depth and texture to the audio, as it made you feel like you were in the room. This is what I have tried to communicate, and I hope it does.

AC2

Through our initial conversations we discussed different genres at first, and we all decided we liked crime. We then began to think whether we wanted a fictional or a nonfiction piece. However, this all tied in with our target audience as we wanted a mature themed drama but also a drama that appealed to a younger generation. This became difficult as we tried different fictional cased but we couldn't find one that we all could agree on, it was also important to us to not copy an existing idea, so this meant if we wanted to use an existing case, it would need to be able to follow to to modern day to create an almost sequel like story. We then realized that if we were following a story up to modern day, it would also have to be exciting and interesting, so we had to find someone who had reoffended and was in the public eye recently. After a lot of independent research and discussions we decided on the henry bulger case, which led us to discover the amazing story that came from john Venables. We all agreed on this and began to come up with a concept that would be realistic to edit and create. Then scripts were written, we began casting, recording then finally our first episode was complete.  

We didn't receive any feedback on our drama from teachers due to their unavoidable and totally acceptable absence, but we did however get feedback on our pre-production aspects from sally a BBC professional who complimented us on our themes, production document sand our scripts. one improvement she did give us, was to use sfx such as feet shuffling and pen tapping in between silences. However, we often spoke as a group and gave each other contrastive criticisms and improvement ideas.

I have experimented with new techniques and technology to produce unique content through using our actors to create different tones of voice in different takes, so we have different visions of the same script to work with during editing. We also asked Venables to use a scouse accent to create factual references. During recording we also took patches during takes and scenes, so we could get the best out of the session.

We also used new equipment such as directional mics and sound mixers. This was interesting to learn as I am hoping to maybe work in radio so getting used to this equipment will benefit me by giving me confidence in the industry. It also gave us experience in setting up kit which also gave us knowledge in what SDs to use, for example in this sound desk we used a micro-SD. I didn't consider as we got told to use foley and sfx however, I had to think about the heaviness of the footsteps to match the atmosphere which was a consideration. 

AC2

NO FEEDBACK- I didn’t do two drafts, I only did one final piece. I took on advice we had been given by others regarding things like taking patches instead of brand-new full takes, pre organizing my folders of sfx and foley. We acted on this feedback by adding these in post and by looking at other sfx and foley we could add to fill the gaps to make it more naturalistic.  

Personally, I think I have met the standers of delivering a full edited and recorded 5-8 minuet radio drama, exported the recoding in a mp3 format, created a radio drama aimed at young adults between 18030 years of age and it is able to be listened to on the go. I did this by keeping the radio drama a min of 5 minuets and ours in 8min long, I exported my video into a mp3, I added relevant content and appealing themes to the drama to appeal to the correct generation and age range and I also made sure in post, that the drama flowed.

Personally, I think I did this by keeping the radio drama a min of 5 minuets and ours in 8min long, I exported my video into a mp3, I added relevant content and appealing themes to the drama to appeal to the correct generation and age range and I also made sure in post, that the drama was easy to follow. It all went to planned and all as stated in pre-production. As I edited, I also added more sfx when suited which enhanced the edit. Planning our radio drama impacted the engagement of our younger audience as while planning we had research and educate ourselves on engagement techniques. These were things such as using music between scenes to make the atmosphere clear using tempo, we also used pacing to enhance dramatics and make emotions clearer.

There's not much to compare with War of the worlds, it's very different from the science fiction genre. I suppose we still talk about mature themes and talk about the future, but I suppose that’s it really suits us. Regarding editing techniques, I guess we both include sfx, foley and music. However, we planned this radio drama on the day I had listened to a podcast called case 63. I you have never listened to it, it is about a time traveler who is being investigated by a psychiatric after being arrested claiming he was from the future. I guess I may have taken the idea of an investigation room and tape recordings from that, but the idea came from a completely unique idea.

AC3

We needed to plan. That was a thing we lacked, as we had all these amazing ideas but none of us had the technical skills to create its postproduction. We managed it on slightly different level, but it made more work for ourselves, as Aswell as creating a radio drama, at the same time, we had to use external time on educating ourselves. However, production day considerations were crucial in pre-production, as it's all about planning for that day really, we needed to make sure we were prepared and as organized as possible in order to get everything we needed on that one-day recording.

We used many planning and developing skills through various documents. Examples of these are idea generation, call sheets, risk assessments, casting documents/ adverts, logo designs, audience profiles, scripts, postproduction plans and breakdown reports. These all helped us stay organized and on task and can be found in our production portfolios. 

I feel I have achieved this by combining all my sounds together in post-production. These include dialogue from our actors, sfx from epidemic sounds, foley (e.g., our footsteps, shuffling and the paper), our music (again from epidemic), which was a huge part in our radio drama, and it played a huge part in the beginning, middle and end of it; finally, we also used silence to add that depth of suspense and mystery when the plot built up. I feel this contributed to my creative intension as it all worked together to build the story and gave it life, without this added sound, the story would not radiate its full effect. We were only able to do this by using sound because it was a radio drama.

Theatre of the mind is a form of storytelling that relies heavily on sound to create an immersive experience. Sound scaping, however, is an audio environment that helps the story get told. It always involves sound effects, music, dialogue and narration to engage that listener and makes them believe in what they're listening to.in radio drama theatre of the mind and soundscape are so important to help engage that audience. Unlike film and tv, radio does not have the visual help, instead it relies on sound to help the audience visualize the story through the audio. 

These are both very important but soundscaping allows that sense of realism to perfect its atmosphere through audio. This can include anything from ambience, traffic or background dialogue to more intense noises like an explosion or crash. Overall, they are both essential in the creation of a successful radio drama and can have enough power to transform a listener anywhere just through audio and a story.  

I have applied creative audio editing to achieve my intensions by using adobe audition to merge audio clips, adjust the fades in and out on each clip, I have used and experimented with filters and effects to make voices deeper or seem clearer, I have overlapped sounds to create an echo and I have also used cut, to either delate a clip or shorten or split it. I feel this collaboration worked to achieve my intensions as it allowed me to merge everything together, and I liked using audition and I could add different frames to make my editing more organized and well timed. One example being making Venables's voice slight deeper at one point, was to make his anger seem more aggressive more than childish and defensive, it wanted the scene to radiate psychotic anger, I didn’t want it to seem playful, and before the filter, it seemed slightly playful.

To edit I used adobe audition which was surprisingly easy to use! Audition can edit software as a wave or multitrack editor. When you open this the set up and user interface starts with multiple tabs, I then changed it to multitrack so I could add multiple pieces of audio at the same time. Once I had done this you can edit all sorts, such as audio gain, timelines, cut and copy etc. You add audio by simply just dragging the files on to the tab you would like it on. One tip that miss Hurdiss told us that helped me stay organized was to keep my tabs all labeled as individual segments. Knowing how to use this software also helps going into the professional world, as it is an industry recognized program that many professionals use on a daily basis.  

AC4

I feel I completed the responsibilities of my role. I was the director for this project as suggested by my team. I was hesitant about taking the role, but I loved it once we got straight into it. I enjoyed this role as I could be heavily involved in pre, but I also had great input during decisions and especially when recording. I had also been heavily involved in the casting side of the project and I created all the documents that went alongside our scripts when attracting actors. I feel due to me being very hot on with these roles, it made things easier for everyone as people didn’t have to worry whether I would get stuff completed, as I got everything done by deadlines. I feel I worked at a professional level and spoke to other members with professionalism, we used the correct etiquette in order to communicate the correct messages and we were honest in a respectful way when we had something to comment on.

As director I had the creative lead on the overall creative vision, communicate the script into an audio match and work with cast and understand all technical aspects to perfect audio. Physical tasks include lining the scripts, breaking down the script, producing a plan for order of the episode and leading talent with guidance. On set and while recording I had to communicate clearly with the whole team on what I wanted audio to sound like and also whether we needed to retake, provide notes between takes and I also wrote notes on our best takes to help us in post. I used templates t help me with this and also used script lining techniques used in classes to help me with this. I needed organization skills during this process to keep on top of things, good teamwork but this was made easy as my team was great, also confidence as giving the cast notes was very nerve racking, and of course so many more employment environment stereotypes (focus, Commnications, leadership, self-motivation). Due to these skills, you of course do need to have some requirements one being confidence in yourself and ability to back your own decisions, but also confidence in a sense that you can ask your team for help when you need it.  

We applied the correct lingo when filming such as rolling/ quiet on set/ another take/ reset/ stand by etc. This allowed everyone to know what you were on about or what was about to happen, so people could prepare . I acted professional by keeping respectful, open to opinions, kind and a good team player. This helped the process run smoothly and limited issues along the way.

We started with a checklist and every time something was completed, we would check it off and write our names next to it. This made sure we knew who had this document and if it needed to be done. Once everything was completed, we added it to a document each so everyone had access to everything in their own space and they could edit it with notes depending on their role. We would always put a deadline 2 days before, if possible, for when we needed it, e.g., casting docs, scripts, call sheets, printing etc. This made sure we kept on time and would be done by when we needed it to be.  This helped with the process because it was easier to plan everything and keep a record of stuff. Pre prod also gives structure from the development process through to post and allows us to develop and move forward with everything. Having one big pack also helped as everything we needed was also in one place if and when we needed it. 

ASSET MANAGEMENT - was just the easiest way to keep everything in one place and easily accessible. It was nothing complicated, it was just labeled with what it was, so I knew how to locate it.   

We had done our risk assessments and contingency plans already for recording, we had consent forms all prepared and ready to be signed when needed. This also includes the use of risk assessments. Regarding risk assessments, we stuck to all procedures in place, such as making sure our cast was aware of fire procedures in case of a fire etc.

AC5

My intended impact on my audience was to make them feel involved, like they could feel they had an opinion of his guilt. I wanted them to feel as though they were involved in this story personally, therefore they could communicate real feelings when listening. I want them to listen and feel tension as the music builds or finish the episode wanting to know more. I also feel there is an opportunity to use it to educate people on criminal investigations and police interrogations, as although it is dramatized, it does contain elements of the truth. I also hope it gets people talking about this disturbing case again, as it has slightly been forgotten and this MERDER was on the verge of being released again despite his awful actions.

We met our initial expectations as we created a full well edited episode, a pre pro document, a full cast and a successful 1st episode that the audience found engaging. Our crime drama meets the typical and generic conventions as it has a main character and a more inexperienced sidekick, a lead detective and of course a dramatic story that breaks the law. We achieved all of them. I would say however, one thing that didn’t go so well was that I noticed in post that sometimes it would get a little slow and the pacing wasn’t great. I don’t know whether it was because I knew the episode by heart or that I’d listened to it almost 100 times, but I did get a little bored in some parts. I tried to alter these parts with music and crescendos which did help a little, it was an issue I was worried about affecting our audience. Maybe we could of fixed this by getting more people to read the script in the development process of things. 

I achieved this by using creative audio recording and editing skills through using audio levels to transfer sound into different sensations, for example I have adjusted the audio levels of foley footsteps for it to feel like they are walking in a certain direction. I know there is a way to pan the sound to the other ear, but I have not yet got to grips with that skill. However, I have also used fading of a background Noise e.g., the prison background, this is to show the shift in location from prison to corridor to the room. I didn’t really use much sfx as I wanted the focus to be on the dialogue as I feel that silence can be as effective as anything, especially when trying to communicate suspense and mystery. We of course during recording also took advantage of the volumes and mute on the mics, as when we took patches, it was mainly due to one tiny fault in someone's speech, this was easily fixed, but to get the ultimate focus we muted all mics except one during these recordings.

 I feel the audience believed I communicated the correct impact, as my personal feedback was good. Once I had sent the radio drama to my family, I received comments such as “are you making more? if not, you should”, “oh wow that sounds so professional, are you sure you made that”, “where can I listen to it, is the rest on Spotify” which I think means they liked it. My cousins who are 19 and 22 also said they liked it and even showed their friends and partners which I hope proved our age target was matched.

I feel it suits the platform it was intended for, as according to my brief it didn't state where it was meant to be housed. Metaphorically if it was posted somewhere like BBC sounds, apple podcasts or Spotify, it would defiantly work well. It could even be played on a radio station, but I would then suggest a relevant playlist to accompany it, then a scene would be played after every song.

An MP3 file is a digital audio file that uses something called a ‘lossy compression algorithm’ to make the size of the file smaller while maintaining the sound quality. One of the main advantages of using MP3 files like radio dramas is because they can compress larger files into smaller ones, without massively affecting the sound. This makes it easier to store and share large amounts of audio, which is very important for radio dramas, especially if they are very long. Another advantage of using MP3 files for radio dramas is that they can be used with a wide range of devices. Overall, MP3 files offer high-quality sound, good storage, and broad compatibility that makes them an ideal format for radio dramas. 

WRITTEN BY JESSICA-CHLOE WATSON