Unit 41- Radio Drama

Task one-

How old is radio drama?

Radio drama became popular in the 1920's.

When did radio drama reach it's peak?

Radio drama reached it's peak in the late 1930's and early 1940's.

What did networks start doing in 1927?

The radio act of 1927 was created which transferred the responsibility of the radio stations to the federal radio commission.

What happened in the 1930's?

In the 1930's national radio advertisers became aware of the major potential for radio-advertising. They bought air time and became sponsors, as this happened other companies took notice and tried to join in. The result of this popularity was many new programs including comedy shows, interview and advice shows and 'day-time' serialized drama. After this, day time schedules commenced.

What effect did war have on the radio?

The war caused radio stations to broadcast extra news programs about Britain's and America's involvement in the war. News programs were broadcast twice as much and after so long, people grew tired of the constant reminder of the war and turned elsewhere to look for an 'escapism.' This inspired many comedy and thriller dramas which became very popular.

What effect did radio drama have on the early years of television?

Not enough homes had TV receivers and national sponsors were hard to find, meaning that production costs had to be kept low. This made it to risky and expensive to validate the creation of any new shows, so existing dramas from radio, were transferred directly onto television shows.

Does radio drama still exist in the UK? Where? What other types of shows do these stations broadcast? Name 5 radio dramas in the UK.

Radio drama is broadcast on BBC Radio 7 and BBC Radio 7. These stations also broadcast news shows, shipping broadcasts, small documentaries on topics such as farming, the war in Iraq and the sell-by dates of food.

Radio dramas in the UK are:

1- The Archers

2- Electric Ink

3- Women's hour drama

4- Book at bedtime: Love in summer.

5- Dr Finley: The further adventures of a black bag.

Task Two-

War Of The Worlds

War Of the Worlds is a radio drama written by Orsen Welles which was broadcast in 1938. The drama itself is based on the story of aliens from Mars invading Earth. It was broadcast from Madison Avenue in New York using brief news flashes which interrupted a seemingly normal radio music schedule.

In 1938, the drama was broadcast. It began with a short introduction by Orson Welles, explaining the intentions of aliens if they were to invade, however, many listeners missed this part of the broadcast and only heard the drama itself unaware that it was in-fact, only a drama. With the anxiety of the upcoming World War Two, people believed the drama to be a real news broadcast informing America that martians were invading Earth. This caused many people to flee their homes in sheer panic, families to evacuate their houses, run with wet towels over their heads to escape the 'poison gases' and frantically alert family and friends to the impending danger of the 'alien invasion,' causing sheer panic throughout America. Later in the show, a rocket landed in New Jersey, with people coming here to see if this was the truth.

The drama was so believable due to the realistic way the drama was broadcast. As radio was the only source of information, it was always believed and taken to be the honest truth, which gave people trust in the radio stations. The drama itself was written in a very believable way, as it was created by placing the 'news flashes' in between a regular music show in a way which would normally occur. It also used the names of real places and sites in America to give the impression that this way really happening, this teamed with the names of experts, (which were in-fact actors,) gave listeners plenty of reasons to believe that the world was being invaded.

Task 1:Using some of the websites listed below, choose 2 radio dramas of different genres and write an analysis of each.

The Archers

The opening music creates a positive and happy semantic field to open the drama. The instruments used in his theme tune are string, including violins and cellos, which are commonly associated with a rural setting g as apposed to the city. This may help give listeners the mindset of being in a country setting and ties in with the drama itself.

The voices in the radio drama are the only way in which the listeners can understand what is happening, (except for a narrator) this means that we need to hear them loud and clear. In this drama, the voices of the characters are very loud and emphasized to make them easy to hear through the radio. Each character also has a very obvious and distinct accent. For example, there are many accents used including west country, an upper-class male and female and a northern male. This broad range of accents helps the listeners differentiate between each character, so we can clearly understand which character is saying what. The wide range of dialects from all over the country also broaden the audience which the drama appeals to, as the more different accents there are, more people from around Britain will be able to relate to the accent of a character. This will also help personalise the drama to each specific area of which the dialect is from. The accents also signify culture codes for each social class, (upper or working.)

The ambience bed includes lots of noise which sets the scene for the audience, as they can only place it with their hearing, not like on the television, where the audience place a scene with their eyes. In the background there is a bed of noises including cups clinking, people talking and echoing crowd noise which indicates a busy hall. The sound effects used tell the listeners what is happening around the characters, for example- the car door shutting, footsteps running or waking and a fire alarm. Silence is also used in the same way as ambience and sound effects to build tension and suspense in a scene. It may indicate a silence between characters, an awkward silence or a longer silence for a change of scene.

The Looking Glass war

In the second radio drama, the opening music uses piano. It is played very slowly which creates a mysterious tension which fits the genre of mystery. This helps the listeners understand the content of the radio drama they are about to hear, as they will associate the opening music with the genre of the drama.

The voices of the characters are all very loud and distinct and the accents signify the class of each character. Many of the accents are upper class, although they are all very distinct in their dialects- this allows us to differentiate between characters and relate to one of them which may have a dialect which we recognise. The over- emphasised speech allows us to understand the feelings and emotions of each of the characters as the tone is very obvious to us. There is a very strong German accent used, which allows us to understand the background of each character as we have background knowledge of this country. This also fits with the time setting of the war.

There is also lots of ambience used to set the scene and make the radio drama appear more realistic. Cars driving past, birds singing and doors opening and closing are used throughout to allow us to understand what the characters are doing, as well as their speech. Coughing authenticates the radio drama, as it is an involuntary action which seems to fit well into the scene to make it natural. The sound of morse code is used which allows us to understand what is happening, it also allows us to slip more easily into the time setting of the drama- early 1930s. Silence is used as effectively as the sound effects and ambience to create tension between the characters- this works especially well in the height of an arguement as it contrasts very well to the raised voices. It also signifies the change of scene easily.

Produce 3 x 20 second clips, each clip should emulate the codes and conventions of a specific genre.

Task 4: Write 2 proposals for each drama (4) briefly stating the different possible ways in which you could produce your dramas. Include ideas on narrative, sound fx, locations, characters and music beds.

One possible proposal for a radio drama was to re-write a commonly known fairy tale, changing the character's personalities and the settings but keeping the basic structure the same or similar. The first idea we had for a radio drama was to transform the fairy tale, Snow White. In this story we have decided that we could change the story by making everything about it modern. The setting will be changed from a house where they all live to a council estate, and the forest will be changed to an over-grown garden. We will change Snow White into the opposite of herself in the fairy tale- a moody, annoying girl who sleeps around. The dwarves will be small children who hang-around the streets on bikes. Prince Charming will be a drunk in a pub. The story will be told by Snow White, who is complaining about the habits of her alcoholic boyfriend, Prince Charming. The primary target audience for this radio drama will be teenagers, as they will be aware of the original story and understand the new narrative. It will have a single narrative to keep it simple and easy to follow.

Another possible idea is the changing of the characters' personalities. The idea was that Snow White will be the damsel in distress. The seven Dwarves want to kill Snow White, and the character of Prince Charming is helping the dwarves. The wicked witch tries to protect Snow White from the dwarves by feeding them all poisoned apples. Prince Charming has side effects from the apple and falls in love instantly with Snow White. The dwarves are put in jail, Snow White and Prince Charming fall in love and the wicked witch moves into the Dwarves' house in the forest. Snow white is the damsel in distress, the witch is the hero, the dwarves will be the villians and will have names which connote this and the prince will be the helper to the villains. This uses Propp's theory of a hero, villain and damsel in distress. The primary target audience for this drama will be teenagers as they will understand the traditional story line and the irony of the change of the fairy tale, the secondary target audience will be adults aged 20+. This story will be set in the traditional setting of a forest, the same setting as for the traditional fairy tale.

Another possible proposal for a fairy-tale drama re-write could be a changing the motives of all the characters, whilst keeping the same story line as the original film. The original story line is as follows:

A beautiful girl, Snow White, takes refuge in the forest in the house of seven dwarfs to hide from her stepmother, the wicked Queen. The Queen is jealous because she wants to be known as "the fairest in the land," and Snow White's beauty surpasses her own. The dwarfs grow to love their unexpected visitor, who cleans their house and cooks their meals. But one day while the dwarfs are at their diamond mine, the Queen arrives at the cottage disguised as an old peddler woman and persuades Snow White to bite into a poisoned apple. The dwarfs, warned by the forest animals, rush home to chase the witch away, but they are too late to save Snow White from the poisoned apple. They place her in a glass coffin in the woods and mourn for her. The Prince, who has fallen in love with Snow White, happens by and awakens her from the wicked Queen's deathlike spell with "love's first kiss."

The Queen will want to kill Snow White not because the magic mirror said that she is more beautiful than her, but because Snow White has ran away with the Queen's boyfriend. Snow White lives with the dwarves, who work in a coal mine, and cooks and cleans for the dwarves everyday with help from the forest animals. The Queen visits the house whilst the dwarves are at work and persuades Snow White to bite into a poisoned apple and she falls into a deep sleep. The dwarves are alerted and run to rescue her, but it is too late. Prince Charming, (Snow White's lover and ex of the Queen,) runs to Snow White's side, the Queen runs away and the prince is devastated that his true love has died at the hand of his evil ex. The dwarves place Snow White into a glass coffin and the Prince Kisses her. She wakes up, and lives. The Queen finds out that her attempt at murder has failed and runs away never to be seen again. Snow white is the damsel in distress, the Queen is the villain, the dwarves will be the helpers and the Prince will be the hero. This uses Propp's theory of a hero, villain and damsel in distress. The primary target audience for this drama will be teenagers of 13+ as they will understand the traditional story line and the irony of the change of the fairy tale, the secondary target audience will be adults aged 20+. This story will be set in the traditional setting of a forest, the same setting as for the traditional fairy tale as to not change the story line too much. All three proposed storylines will include the narrative of an equilibrium, disruption and resolution as in Todorov's theory.

Treatment for the fairy tale radio drama based on 'Snow White.'

Our radio drama will have a hybrid genre of fantasy and fairy tale as the happenings which are included, would not happen in real life. We have changed the plot from the traditional story of Snow white been threatened by the witch, to the witch helping save Snow White's life from the seven dwarves. Prince Charming is also the hero in the traditional story, however, we have changed this so that he is the helper to the villians, although later in the story he falls in love with Snow White- as in the the traditional story. The story line of our radio drama is as below:

Equilibrium- Snow white lives in the castle with the wicked witch. The seven dwarves live in the house in the forest with Prince Charming.

Disruption- The seven Dwarves want to kill Snow White, and the Prince Charming is helping the dwarves. The wicked witch tries to protect Snow White from the dwarves by feeding them poisoned apples.

Resolution- Prince Charming has side effects from the apple and falls in love instantly with Snow White. The dwarves are put in jail, Snow White and Prince Charming fall in love and the wicked witch moves into the Dwarves' house in the forest.

The primary target audience is teenagers and children aged 13 upwards. Therefore, it cannot be shown on late night radio or include expletives. As our primary target audience is not adults (the secondary target audience is), it would be ineffective to soley show the radio drama on a radio station who's main audience is adults. Therefore we will broadcast our drama on BBC Radio 4, in after school hours, but not after 9pm. We could also broadcast it on a school radio station, as this will reach lots of children of our primary target audience.

The music bed will include string music and piano as these instruments can signify happiness and sadness quite easily as the story will have both these emotions included. At points of tension or worry (such as the meeting of the witch and the dwarves,) the music will be high-pitched and fast, to increase the tension. In points of happiness (such as when the prince falls in love,) the music will be slow and signify romance. We will also include sound effects to help the audience what is happening, as they cannot see the drama as on television. These sound effects will include birds and animals to connote the setting of the forest. Also included will be the chewing of the apples as the dwarves chew and the dropping of bodies to the floor as they collapse.

We will have to use different voices for each character which can easily be identified and differentiated between. We will do this by using different accents for each character. This also has the benefit of making characters easily relatable to, as people from all around the country will be able to relate to one accent. Snow White will have a posh accent with a high pitch to signify innocence. The Dwarves will have deep voices to signify danger and villians as they are the villians of the story. The witch will have a calm, comforting voice which will signify that she is a good character. Prince Charming will have a very distinctive accent and a deep voice which will connote that he is a 'baddie' but the accent will also make him seem less threatening.

The ambience of the story will include music sung by Snow white which will also add to the stereotype that she is the good character. Another use of ambience is the use of echos when the dwarves are put into jail. This will signify loneliness. Other backgound noises we can use is the noise of animals and plants moving to connote the forest. Sounds of crowds and a generally busy area will accompany scenes from when the characters are in the castle to signify that this area is popular.

Task 3: Produce a mind-map of your ideas.

Task 6:You should produce 2 scripts, one for each of the treatments from the previous task.

Script
(Opening credits play)

*Opening jingle plays* *Fades into bird song music bed*

Narrator- There once was an enchanted land, far far away, where magic and wonder lies around every corner- even around the back of the local drug hangout. There were houses and shops, cafes and McDonalds, but the castle atop the hill, was the most fabulous of them all. This was the home of Snow White and her stepmother- nicknamed 'Witch' after her homemade outfit from last Halloween. Snow White loved her stepmother very much, and they soon became best friends, as well as mother and daughter.

Snow White- This cake is delightful, Thank you.

*Cutlery clinking and birds singing *

Witch- My pleasure sweetie, it’s better than the one from last year, apple flavour, made you sick for weeks...

Snow White- yeah, sure is mum.

Narrator- All was fine and dandy at Snow White's house, however, on the other side of town, it was a different story. Think of walking out an episode of MTV Cribs and strolling into right into an episode of shameless. Lovely, eh? The other side of town was filled with a forest and home to seven dwarves and their trusty helper, (more like the complete idiot that follows them,) Prince Charming. *tension building music plays*

Dwarf 1- 'Ey... Gimmie that mushroom Princey.

Prince- But, it's the last one... Can't I at least keep this one?

(Whiney voice) Dwarf 1- Not a chance pal. I need this one. Last one n' all.

Prince- Fine, I'll go clean the floors and polish that mirror.

*sigh* Dwarf 2- Finally. It's been lying around this hut for the last few years, could make some money selling that on ebay..

*footsteps walking away* *door creaks open* *door shuts*

Prince- (To himself) Right, better get started. Voice of mirror- Hello handsome. (FEMALE VOICE) Prince- Um.. Who said that?

VOM- Me of course, I'm the talking mirror in need of cleaning. *female chuckle*

Prince- Right. Obviously. *Shouts* Hey, fatty, clumsy, come look at this.

*footsteps running, increase in volume*

*door opens and closes*

Dwarf 1- Woah man... I've heard about these mirrors, they tell you the truth. Everytime to any question..

Dwarf 2- Hey...Who's gonna win the Xfactor?

VOM- The winners will be John and Edward.

*laughs*

Prince- What happened to Zac Efron?

VOM- He's presenting a shopping channel.

Prince- Told you he was a complete...(cut off by dwarf 1)

Dwarf 1- So then... Oh mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the fairest of them all?

*Laughs*

Prince- Won't be you mate.

Dwarf 2- It's me. No doubt. My eyes, ladies can't resist.

VOM- The fairest of them all is Snow White of course. Skin as white as snow, hair as black as coal. She's the most beautiful.

Dwarf 1- WHAT?

Prince- Told you so.. *laughs*

Dwarf- Well, I won't stand for this. I'm the fairest in this town, not a spot or wrinkle in sight and Gok Wan himself would be proud of my style. There's only one solution.

Dwarf 2- yeah, what's that then? Smash the mirror?

*Gasp*

Dwarf 1- No, we'll put it on eBay, but this Snow White, she must be killed.

*Gasp*

Narrator- Whilst the dwarves and the prince plotted the vengeful death of the innocent Snow White, she was blissfully unaware of her upcoming meeting with the man upstairs, spending time with her step-mother baking, cooking, painting and gardening. Oh, and listening to her favourite band of all time, Wham!

Snow White- It's such a shame that the Wham! concert's sold out. I'd love to go.. *sigh*

Witch- Well maybe your prince will come and take you to see them, you'll have to wait and see.

Snow White- Yeah right mum. In the last month, 10 guys have asked me to the prom, but when I asked them about their music, not one of them mentioned George Michael ooorr Wham! I can't date someone who doesn't know the words to 'I'm your man' It's a crime!

*Female chuckle*

Witch- Ok sweetie. Whatever you say..

Narrator- Meanwhile in the forest, the dwarves sharpened their pitchforks *scraping metal* and loaded their paintball guns. Ready for the long 5 day trek to Snow White's castle...

Dwarf 1- Are we nearly there yet?

Dwarf 2- Dunno, I can't see. I'm not tall enough to see. Charming, are we there yet?

Prince- Yeah, there's a castle about 100 yards away.

Dwarf 1- Finally. We've been walking for daayyss.

Prince- It's been 20 minutes.

Dwarf 1- Oh. I've got short legs. Seems like longer.

Narrator- The witch looked out of the tower to see 7 small men and a handsome looking Prince approaching the castle with all manner of weapons. *screams* She alerted Snow White and all the staff to run before the terrifying looking beasts attacked. The staff all ran, *running footsteps* taking any valuables they could find with them. (Can't trust anyone these days.)*door opens* Snow White ran into the cupboard under the stairs in search of safety. *door closes* The witch knew that they couldn't protect themselves from such monstrous creatures, so decided to create a spell she'd learnt in chemistry at school- how to poison a fruit to make the eater of it fall unconscious instantly. *running* *distant screams and bangs* She fled to Snow White's floor of the castle and into the room she'd recently had converted into an exact replica of one of the rooms from Hogwarts where she concocted the potion she hoped would save hers and Snow White's lives. *bubbling and fizzing noises fade out*

Dwarf 1- One, two, three GO! *fire crackling noises*

*loud bang*

Dwarf 2- C'mon, lets kill her while we can! *cheers* *distant screams*

Prince- You know I'm not a man of violence, but I will help with the reaching of door handles and escape hatches guys...

*Running footsteps*

Narrator- Meanwhile, the potion was finished. *door shuts* The witch came out with the 8 apples on a tray and headed to the place where the noise was. *footsteps* *increasing bangs and shouts* *clashing of metal* She was indeed very scared, but she knew she had to save her daughter so had a few drinks of whiskey, and nervously stumbled down the corridors.

Witch- Hello, you must be here to read the gas meter. It's in the kitchen, but first how about a lovely apple, fresh from market this morning. Here, take one.

Dwarf 1- Look lady, I'm here on business I'm in a rush you see...

*mmmm noises*

Dwarf 2- Hey.. don't we have time for an apple? They do look truly scrumptious...

Dwarf 1- *sigh* Yeah, ok. But then we'll need to get going. I've gotta be at the dentist at 3..

Narrator- The dwarves and the Prince each took an apple and took a huge bite from the innocent looking fruit. Their stomachs rumbled and their tongues swelled up. *stomach noises*

Dwarf 1- Yey, my moufs th'all weiwd. *groans*

Prince- I feel all lovely, positively divine I must say.

Witch- I'm glad you approve, but, um, sir, don't you feel at all ill?

Prince- No, I'm healthy as a horse.

Witch- Oh, ah well, guess i'll have to just go for the punch in the nose for you...

Narrator- The seven dwarves instantly fell to the floor alongside their half eaten apples. *dropping bodies* The witch dragged their bodies to the dungeon, *dragging of bodies on carpets* whilst the Prince skipped along behind her, humming a familiar tune all the way with a huge smile on his face. The witch then hurried to find her daughter. *running* After a few hours searching, she discovered her hidden under the stairs. *door opens*

Snow White- Oh mum, are you ok?

Witch- Yes, I'm fine, I treated those little blighters to one of my specialties- poisoned apples.

*laughs*

Snow White- Great idea mum. Excuse me sir, what are you humming? I know that song.

Narrator- The prince had not yet seen the girl hidden underneath the stairs, he was too busy admiring the paintings. However, at her question, he turned to answer her, seeing her for the first time. His facial expression was one not often seen, but often written about in books and sung of in songs. His face looked like that of a blind man seeing the sun for the first time.

*romantic music- violins and piano*

Prince- Um... err... Sorry, what did you say?

Snow White- I asked what that tune you were humming is, i've heard it before..

Prince- Um... Well, don't laugh, it's kind of odd for someone to still like the song after all these years, but it's 'I'm your man' by Wham!

Narrator- Snow White stared at the prince in a look of awe and admiration. Did he really say Wham!?

Snow White- Did you really say Wham!? I love that band- that really is a classic song.

Prince- What's your name?

Snow White- Snow White, yours?

Prince- Prince Charming, it's kinda ridiculous I know, blame my mother.

Snow White- It's perfect.

Narrator- The dwarves were taken to the police and locked away for the rest of their lives. *metal chains and doors slamming* The bungalow in the woods where they lived their whole lives was given to Prince Charming. Six months later, the charming Prince proposed to Snow White and they were married the next month in the castle where Snow White grew up. *kissing noise* *fairy musicThe not-so-wicked witch moved into the bungalow in the forest and she placed the magical mirror above her fireplace where they had daily conversations about all the lies in the world. But best of all, they all lived happily ever after.

*Closing Credits*

Original Radio Drama

Proposal

Our 5 minute radio drama will be based in a hospital in present day. The main character will be a well-known and popular doctor called Dr Cullen and there will be various other assistants who work with him including, Susan, Tom, Cheryl and Stu. The receptionist will be the hospital gossip, called Georgina Hawthorne. The hospital manager will be called Robert Masen, and be in charge of the hospital itself. The patient who Dr Cullen fails to save is called Harry Lowe. The plot will consist of Todorov's use of equilibrium and disruption however the resolution will not be included in this episode. and therefore start with peaceful, everyday occurrences. In the beginning, Dr Cullen will be called out to save the patient's life- he does. He leaves the house and returns to the hospital feeling slightly ill- a result of the virus he has mysteriously contacted from the patient. He knows that something is wrong with him, and suspects it has something to do with the man who he visited. Weeks pass and the Dr still feels ill, he makes mistakes in surgery due to the mystery virus and tries to hide these from his colleagues. His patients however, know the reason behind the mistakes- Dr Cullen. They threaten to alert the other doctors, and in a desperate attempt to save his career, Dr Cullen holds the patients hostage in the hospital. Being in close proximity to a deadly virus, the patients all fall ill. The Dr never leaves them alone, Dr Cullen then shows the same symptoms as Harry Lowe. This is the end of the story and the audience are left with an enigma which they want to solve.

We will use different accents and dialects for each character so that they are easily identifiable for the listeners and use sound effects so that the audience can hear what is happening in the story. Dr Cullen will have a deep and formal tone of voice and will speak in proper English to connote he is a professional. Robert Masen's voice will be similar to Dr Cullen's although Robert Masen's will be deeper to connote that he is older than the Dr. Georgina Hawthorne will have a high pitched voice and speak with a more common accent to connote that she isn't as well-off and as professional as her co-workers. The other 4 co-workers will all have very distinct accents and dialects which will allow the listeners to identify them as well as be able to form a personal relationship with the characters as they will recognize at least one of the accents.

The locations we will set our drama in are:

-A modern hospital in a city centre in Britain.

-Harry Lowe's house. This will be dirty and untidy.

-Hospital reception.

- Dr Cullen's private office.

Possible problems that we might face include:

-The length of the drama- it may be too long to condense into a 5 minute show.

-How we will include noises of a virus for the audience to understand.

-Keeping the story line interesting.

-Including enough information to make sense, but not too much to make it excessively long and confusing.

The genre will be a hybrid genre of thriller and mystery. The typical conventions of these genres are creepy, suspense creating music, open ending which creates an enigma for the listener and death and/or murder. It will loosely incorporate Propp's theory of hero, villain and damsel in distress. The villain will be Dr Cullen, the damsel in distress will be the patients in the hospital which are held hostage. The hero will not be revealed in this episode, as no-one is saved. Dr Cullen works alone, telling nobody of his situation so there is so helper. The primary target audience is predominantly males, aged 20 plus. The secondary target audience is both men and women aged 15-20 and aged 50 plus.

Recording of discussing the content on the radio drama including scripting and technical details is evidenced in the following video.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

Script for the hospital radio drama

*OPENING CREDITS PLAY*

*Phone rings three times, clicks to indicate that it has been answered*

Dr Cullen- Hello Dr Masen, how can I help?

Robert Masen- Hello Mr Cullen, can you attend to the emergency that just came through? With there being no accident, emergency in the area, your the only on-call doctor able to treat patients with heart attacks- Mr Cooper and Mr Williamson are both off today. I'll fax your the details but you'll need to leave immediately.

Dr Cullen- Yes, of course. I'll leave now. What's the patient's name?

Robert Masen- Harry Lowe. His address is on the fax.

Dr Cullen- Thanks, I'll call you on the way back.

*Phone clicks onto hook, shuffling of clothes to indicate putting on a coat and door closes*

Narrator- Dr Cullen arrived at the patients house exactly 7 minutes after the phone call with Dr Masen, the hospital boss, the big-wig of The Royal London hospital.

Dr Cullen- (Questioningly) Hello? Mr Lowe? My name is Dr Cullen, I'm the emergency doctor, I hear you have suffered a heart attack?

Harry Lowe- (Strained voice) Yes, yes, I think I have.

Narrator- Dr Cullen made his way into the living room of Harry Lowe's scruffy-looking bungalow, *Door creaks open, footsteps walking, clock ticking in background* to be greeted by the reason he hated being the emergency doctor and preferred his usual position as head doctor and occasional surgeon-*SIGH* bottles and empty food boxes lay scattered across the floor, the walls were a dirty yellowed colour, and the furniture appeared to have been reclaimed from a bomb site in the early 1970's.

*Coughing and wheezing*

Harry Lowe- *STRAINED VOICE* How's it looking doc? *COUGH*

Dr Cullen- Right, I've finished with your assessment, it seems you have suffered a heart attack, (PACKING OF METAL OBJECTS INTO A BAG) but you have an underlying virus which I cannot place. You'll need to stay overnight at the Royal London, (MUTTERED) I'm afraid..

*CLOCK TICKING FADES OUT*

Narrator- Dr Cullen arrived back at the hospital to be met by the questioning face of his colleges. *WAITING ROOM CHATTER, CONVERSATIONS IN BACKGROUND AND TYPING OF COMPUTER KEYBOARDS* The receptionist, Georgina Hawthorne would always smile in that sickly way, flutter her false eyelashes at him and drop everything she was doing, just to greet him each time he passed her. This was also one of those times.

Georgina- Good afternoon Dr Cullen, you look a bit pale, everything ok?

Dr Cullen- *sigh* (sounds bored) Yes Georgina, I'm absolutely fine. *footsteps*

Narrator- Dr Cullen arrived in his office, *DOOR OPENS AND CONVERSATION FADES OUT WITH DOOR CLOSURE* glad to finally have the chance to sit down and rest. After visiting Harry Lowe he did feel slightly odd. His head was really heavy and his muscles ached as if he has just come back from a long run and his eyes felt like they had lead weights hanging from each eyelid. He sat in his desk and slowly drifted into a deep sleep. *SNORES*

Narrator- A week had passed since Dr Cullen's visit to Harry Lowe. The day after which, he was informed of Mr Lowe's surprise death.*MUSIC BED- SAD STRING MUSIC TO CREATE A EMOTIVE TONE* This came as unexpected news to Dr Cullen- it was only a mild heart attack after all, and he thought back to his visit- Mr Lowe looked the same way that Dr Cullen now felt. He complained of aching muscles, a heavy head an aching eyes which he couldn't keep open. In a moment of realisation, Dr Cullen noted that these were in fact, exactly the same symptoms as he had- but he just couldn't figure what they were symptoms to... *MUSIC PICKS UP TO QUESTIONING AND FADES OUT INTO BEEPING*

*Beeping of heart monitor fades in*

Susan- Dr Cullen, I said heres the scalpel. You need to remove the patient's appendix. I can do it if you don't feel up to it...

Dr Cullen- No, there's no need, I'm fine. This is a simple appendectomy, I'm absolutely fine. Tom, can you pass me the tissue please. *metal clinks*

Tom- Tissue Dr Cullen

Dr Cullen- Thanks, Susan, I need scalpel 6.2 please.

Susan- Here you go... Everything ok?

Dr Cullen- (rushed voice) *LABORED BREATHING TO INDICATE PANIC* Yes, yes. It's just a minor setback, carry on...

*Beeping of heart monitor fades out*

Narrator- Dr Cullen completed the operation, much to the relief of his accompanying surgeons. He had never made any mistakes before, yet this operation had taken him much longer than usual and he had to concentrate more. It worried him. *FOOTSTEPS AND HUSHED CONVERSATION*

Later that day, Dr Cullen continued his daily rounds of checking the patients for improvements.

Dr Cullen- Miss Honey...

(interrupted by a woman with a sweet, high pitched voice who sounds friendly and quite old)

Miss Honey- Call me Rose.

Dr Cullen- Rose, your stats look really good, your chest infection is improving dramatically. Here's today's tablets. *Rattle of tablets in a tub*

Miss Honey- *WORRIED TONE* Err, Dr Cullen, I'm sure I', only supposed to take 2 tablets in each dose, not *mutters* one, two, three, six, seven.. Are you sure this is right?

Dr Cullen- Yes, I'm positive. I'll be over at the nurses office, see you later.

*Footsteps walking away*

* Female Shouts* Dr Cullen! Dr Cullen! *Running footsteps*

Woman's voice- Did you give Miss Honey her tablets?

Dr Cullen- Yes I did, about 10 minutes ago,why? What happened?

Woman's voice- She has been given 3 times the amount of the wrong drug which she is allergic to. It's caused her windpipe to swell and she's finding breathing very difficult.

Dr Cullen- I see.

Narrator- Dr Cullen was aware of his increasing mistakes at work and at home, it was only last night whilst cooking a pizza *SIZZLING NOISE OF FOOD COOKING, METAL BEING PLACED ON UNIT, SUDDEN YELP OF PAIN AND KNIFE FALLING TO FLOOR* he sliced the palm of his hand open with a sharp knife. *MUSIC BED- SLOW REFLECTIVE MUSIC* Glancing down at his right palm, covered with a bandage he worried what had happened to make him to cause these mistakes. He'd taken paracetamol everyday and yet his headache, aching muscles and eyes wouldn't go away. *HUSHED CONVERSATION IN BACKGROUND* It was during this moment that he heard the hushed conversations between the patients in the ward he was stood in the middle off. He was surrounded by patients, each of them glancing at him and then turning away as he met their eyes.

Whispered- I heard he nearly killed Amanda Honey, gave her an overdose apparently!

Male whispered- He had a patient in theatre for 2 extra hours, mistakes all the way!

Female- Yes, he's been awfully distant for the 3 weeks I've been here, not a very good doctor at all, I've a right mind to complain to Mr Masen, he's his boss, I got my daughter to find out who he was...

*Footsteps*

Narrator- Dr Cullen walked towards the gossiping patients, he knew if his patients complained his medical career would be ended in an instant. *FOOTSTEPS* As he neared the beds,*HUSHED CONVERSATION FADES OUT* the patients sat upright and looked towards Dr Cullen.

Dr Cullen- Hello, I didn't mean to be nosy, it's just that I overheard the conversation you just had and wanted to inform you that there will be major consequences for the particular doctor if you do in fact report your unnecessary concerns to Doctor Masen.

Male- Who we speak to and what we say privately is between myself and Doctor Masen, if that is who I chose to speak to.

Dr Cullen- I see. You will regret your decision if you do speak to Dr Masen about my medical performance, take this as your warning.

Female- Well I'll add this conversation to my list of failings on your behalf when I talk to Mr Masen. *SHOUTED* Don't you threaten me Dr Cullen!

Dr Cullen makes a 'Humph" sound

Narrator- Dr Cullen understood that the patients would not end their complaints here and took the decision that would change his, and his patient's lives forever. He walked over to the nurse's station... *FOOTSTEPS*

Dr Cullen- Excuse me ladies, can you please attend to the emergency downstairs, I'll look after this ward and if I need any of you, I'll put a call out. In fact, once you've done there why don't you all take a break, go home early- you deserve a break anyway.

Female voice- Yes, of course, thanks Dr Cullen. I guess we'll see you tomorrow.

*Footsteps and chatter of nurses fades away and door opens and closes. As door closes, all conversation is faded completely*

*MYSTERIOUS MUSIC BED FADES IN*

Narrator- Dr Cullen walked towards the doors of ward 13, he flicked the lock on and then addressed the patients who sat in their beds in front of him:

Dr Cullen- I'm afraid I cannot allow any of you any contact with of my collegues or your family from here on in.I will be the only doctor who will see you and you will stay here until this situation is resolved. The doors are locked, as are the windows. (DR CULLEN COUGHS VIOLENTLY)

*Gasps*

(MUSIC BED FADES OUT)

CLOSING CREDITS FADE IN

____________________________________________________________________________

Treatment

Our radio drama is part of a serial drama with a target audience of predominantly males aged 20 plus. The secondary target audience is men and women aged 15-20. To reach this target audience, it could either be broadcast at lunchtime when the majority of this age group will be on their lunch-hour or on an evening. However, if broadcast on an evening whilst the target audience are at home with access to TV and radio, they may chose a TV program over the radio drama, whereas in daytime, they may not have this access to TVs. The story is based around the working life of Dr Cullen who is an influential doctor in the Royal London hospital and follows him as he gets a mystery illness and then eventually holds the patients hostage. The main location will be in the hospital itself, which allows people to form their own idea of the setting, as it is a common setting, and will allow the audience to relate to it. It may also create a diversion, as a hospital visit is usually dull, whereas adding excitement to a usually dull setting may escape their everyday lives. There is an element of mystery and enigma to this story as the audience learn the facts of the story as the characters do. This will appeal to a varied audience as it is set in a modern hospital with modern, familiar occurrences happening, (the surgery and patients in hospitals,) which will allow the younger audiences to relate to the drama as this is what they will know, but the mystery and old-styled enigma of a mystery virus and hostages will appeal to older listeners who will enjoy this style of old-styled drama.

The character of Dr Cullen is enigmatic, as we are sometimes unsure of his intentions. However, he often evokes emotion with the listeners as he does something wrong at work, which is easy to identify with. The character of Georgina Hawthorne also allows readers to identify, as she is very different from the other characters. She is written as the ‘work place gossip’, which is another role that the listeners may be able to identify with.

I will use a narrator to inform the audience of changes of scene, time and movement. This will also give us the chance to present information about the characters between scenes and before speech to allow the audience to understand the characters.

To get the voices of each of the characters, we will need to audition a variety of people to enable us to find the most appropriate voice for each part. We already have a pre-conceived idea about each of the character’s voices and so are more able to narrow down the casting for each role. We have also decided to have very distinct dialects for each character as this will allow listeners from all around the country to be able to relate to one accent personally identify with this character.

Final radio drama

Task 10: Complete an evaluation of your product.

Our original aim was to create a realistic looking radio drama which was of a reasonable standard to be shown on a real radio station. I think that we have achieved this aim as our drama sounds realistic and fits the conventions used by real radio dramas of a similar genre.

Audience feedback:

We have played our radio drama to a group of people to gather their opinions of our work. The overall feedback we got was, "The music beds used establish the genre well." "The script establishes the characters and their personalities well and we can understand what it." "Sound effects are used sparingly but relevantly shift scene and tell us situation." "The sound levels are varied throughout in the speech, but are always clear and easy to understand what is being said."

Representational issues

Our drama may have given some negative messages about the NHS, doctors and hospitals as in our drama it is these which are associated with the danger which happens with the character of 'Dr Cullen.' The voices of the characters in our radio drama were played by both males and females, to make the characters easier to relate to. We didn't use other ethnic groups in our drama, simply because we had to use the people that were available to record at the same time that we were. The characters aren't of mixed origin as we felt that this tied us down to in terms of who we could use to voice these characters.

We used music to add to the mood of the drama by adding pieces which connote different emotions at different points in the drama, for example, in the time of tension, high pitched and string music is used. We haven't included any well-known 'chart' music as this would infringe copyright and the audience may end up listening to the music bed more than the drama itself. Our target audience is predominantly males aged 20 plus and the language we used is appropriate for this as we used words which younger people may not understand, making them suitable for this audience. When compared to a real radio drama, I think that our drama isn't as professional, but this was to be expected. However, the music beds and the use of sound effects in our piece are used in a very similar way to those of the professional drama.

Technical Issues

The levels for the voices were difficult to keep level as we recorded the complete drama at once in the school's radio studio, but found that some lines weren't good enough for the final piece, so we re-recorded these separately with a voice recorder. However, we found that some of the lines recorded in the radio studio have more of an echo than those recorded by the voice recorder. When put together, the difference in echos can be heard slightly. The music bed was too high in places, so that speech was hard to understand, however, once we listened to this, we corrected it by turing the music bed's volume down. We also cut the end of one word off in editing, to correct this we re-recorded the complete line, so that all levels are the same. We can prevent this by keeping a second copy of each line that is recorded.

We included a variety of sound effects in our piece to anchor the genre and setting of the drama. They are used sparingly, but when we used them, we added various layers of them to give an clear idea of what is happening in the scene. Since our drama is set in a hospital environment, this made finding some sound effects of an operation quite difficult. To help with this, we decided to create our own by recording sounds of cutlery and doors slamming around school. We made sure that these sound effects fit in with the scene and that they didn't seem to stand out as being not suitable.

Conventions and Narative

The typical conventions of this genre are:

-A tense music bed which creates suspense.

-A variety of sound effects to add to the scene.

-An open ending which leaves the audience in suspense.

In a professional product of the same genre, the use of music beds, sound effects and the open ending would be the same as these are all typical of the genre. However, the companies who create these would have many advantages over us as they have a lot more money and experience than us. They can also employ real actors who specialize in their jobs and can provide more realistic acting, rather than gathering the closest people to the voices we feel are the most appropriate. We included an enigma in our drama to create suspense, we also included an equilibrium and a disruption to make this typical of the genre of our radio drama. I would regard our radio drama as multi strand narative as although the story itself focuses on the story of Dr Cullen, it brings in smaller stories of events which relate to him and his path.

Self Evaluation

Working on this radio drama has taught me lots of new skills as I am now able to confidently work using the programs, Garageband and Audacity. I have also learnt to edit recordings and raise/lower volume and pitch according to make this fit into tracks I have created and am also able to layer sound effects, voiceovers and music beds effectively to make a finished track. I have found that my strengths are editing the music beds and fitting these into the track effectively, lowering and raising the volume and editing the music beds to make them longer, shorter and fit into the track better. My weaknesses are converting the files into the suitable format and making sure that all the ambience is even throughout the track.

I think that we worked well as a team, although one member of the team didn't work as well within the group. On the whole, we worked really well as a team as we all listened to each other's ideas and suggestions and shared the workload between us evenly as we set a target for the work we needed to complete in each lesson.

Future Targets

If we were to do this radio drama again, I would record all of the voice overs with the same equipment in the same environment to make sure that all background noise and ambience was the same.

To promote our radio drama we could:

-Advertise using radio or TV adverts

To distribute our radio drama we could:

-Place our drama on the BBC iPlayer

-Use CDs with the drama on.

-Show our drama on radio stations

The laws and codes we will need to consider the rules and codes of Copyright, as some of the music we have used for the music beds may be copyrighted and this would mean that in order to use these, we would have to pay a fee to the person/company who has copyrighted them. To get this permission we would need to contact the company in ownership of the songs and ask for permission. We could do this via emailing each of these people. OfCom's rules state that illegal drug use is not to be encouraged in any publicly broadcast ie-TV or radio show. Our radio drama doesn't encourage drug use in any way, however, the character of Dr Cullen uses drugs (as he is a doctor) and accidently harms his patients. This could be a problem as this may be perceived as harmful intentional abuse by some listeners, and this could therefore pose a problem in following OfCom's rules.