Radio Drama: Narrative Development

Recognising that we only have a five minute slot to fill, our group decided that it should be filled with the arc of an on-going storyline.

Original Plot
Teaser: Susan cleaning her home hears shouting next door, followed by a scream.
Opening Title - Craig Armstrong - Escape 4.00-4.15
Scene One: Police turn up at the Windsor household to find Lara hysterical, Susan arrives and asks police to return another time when she has settled down. Susan then turns on Lara, threatening to blackmail her as she deduced what really happened. Lara threatens Susan back, as a warning, Susan leaves.
Scene Two: Jonathon comes home as ambulance, that police call for, leaves, he tries to console his wive, showing the true nature of their relationship.
Scene Three: Lara leaves to 'go to the shops', waits for Susan to leave her house, tries to run her over, Susan narrowly jumps out of the way and survives.
Scene Four: Lara returns home, hears noises upstairs, grabs gun for security. Finds Jonathon in bed with Sean, they argue and Lara shoots Sean. Cuts to Susan calling the police. Cuts to Lara arguing with Jonathon, police turn up, come up stairs just as Lara shoots Jonathon. Knowing she has no way out, Lara turns the gun on herself and commits suicide.

Problems with Original Plot

• Mid construction of the script we realised that the plot needed rewriting as the motive for Lara's killing spree was unjustified as she was, herself, having an affair and knew of Jonathan's sexuality.
• We found out we cannot use any music that we haven't created, so the intro music and a couple of pieces throughout had to be removed.
• If we were to shorten the script the continuity would be unstable, especially seeing as so much was to happen we would need to thoroughly explain some parts to explain what was going on.
• Susan's motive for blackmail was flawed, as was what she wanted.
• Lara's Character develops too fast, turning from spurned lover to killer too quickly.
• The gay affair is not needed in the storyline whatsoever and the guy she's having an affair with doesn't have any back story, only that Lara is obsessed with him.

Final Plot
Scene One: Gary Plackett is enjoying a pint with his friends after work when he gets a text from Lara Windsor to come over.
Scene Two: He arrives to find Jonathan Windsor waiting for him, they have a fight and Jonathan pushes Gary down the stairs. The relationship triangle is established.

Scene Three: Lara arrives home after shopping to find Gary's body at the foot of the stairs. She panics, screams and cries at the sight of him. As Lara tries to get her medication, she has trouble with bottle, so she gets angry with it, throws it and breaks down. Jonathan comes home to find Lara in a mess, immediately asking if she had already called the police, finding out she hasn't, he consoles her. He decides their alibi by planting a pair of Lara's earrings on his person and breaks a window to make it look as if it was a burglary that went awry. Jonathan leaves Lara crying to make a call to the police.

Scene Four: The police leave, explaining they'll be back in a few days for further questioning. Jonathan explains to Lara that this'll be their little secret, acting blase. When Lara questions him on his coolness to the situation he provokes her by returning the question back at her causing her to silence. Lara leaves the room to secretly call Susan Thursgrove, her best friend, this shows the exposes further the back story and the situation that Lara is in.

Scene Five: Lara returns from her cancelled hair appointment, that is implied that Jonathan had moved to another day, Jonathan plants seeds of doubt in her mind regarding her memory. He returns her phone, claiming he found it, pushing the point further. She then confronts him about a text she's found on her phone to Gary, the day he died, Jonathon then breaks down Lara, once again, to kill herself. She does so and he reports a 'suicide'.

Note:

There penultimate version followed a different ending...
Scene Five: Lara returns from her cancelled hair appointment, that is implied that Jonathan had moved to another day, Jonathan plants seeds of doubt in her mind regarding her memory. He returns her phone, claiming he found it, pushing the point further. As she goes into the other room to get him the newspaper, he pours boiling water over his hand, claiming she did it to him when she returns. He pushes the idea that she keeps blacking out and acting out, even questioning if she killed Gary finally pushing her to kill herself

We decided against this ending due to amount of sound effects, that it was bit messy and to cut down on time.

Tzvetan Todorov:Todorov wrote that:

• All narratives begin with equilibrium.
• There is a disruption of equilibrium.
• The disruption is regonised.
• There is an attempt to repair the disruption.
• A new equilibrium is established.

Within our narrative we see a similarities.
Equilibrium: Lara's illicit affair is secret, she is planning to leave her abusive partner with help from her lover, Gary, who receives a text message to meet her.
Disruption: Lara isn't there, it's her husband Gary, who knows everything, Jonathon murders Gary.

Recognition: Lara returns home and finds Gary dead, also realises her phone is missing.

Attempt to repair: Lara struggles to carry on as normal so that Jonathon is 'none-the-wiser'.

New equilibrium: Our new equilibrium is one of disruption, Jonathon makes Lara kill herself, thus ensuring the cycle of equilibrium. Being a serial drama there is no 'new equilibrium' as it is ongoing.

Vladimir Propp:

Propp concluded that all characters could be resolved into 8 character types in Russian fairytales-

• The VILLAIN — struggles against the hero.
• The DISPATCHER —character who makes the lack known and sends the hero off.
• The (magical) HELPER — helps the hero in the quest.
• The PRINCESS OR PRIZE — the hero deserves her throughout the story but is unable to marry her because of an unfair evil, usually because of the villain. The hero's journey is often ended when he marries the princess, thereby beating the villain.
• Her FATHER — gives the task to the hero, identifies the false hero, marries the hero, often sought for during the narrative. Propp noted that functionally, the princess and the father can not be clearly distinguished.
• The DONOR —prepares the hero or gives the hero some magical object.
• The HERO or victim/seeker hero — reacts to the donor, weds the princess.
• FALSE HERO — takes credit for the hero’s actions or tries to marry the princess.

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Radio Drama: Research and Development

The idea for Pembrooke Gardens came from the want to start and end with a murder, as with our previous research into dramas show that drama and mystery are very popular and that the storyline would be gripping enough that the audience would want to know more. Considering about the elements of drama and what we know from personal viewer experience, we had managed to plot together the two murders, yet were unclear about how to link them, finally decided on an ongoing storyline of affairs, sham marriages and controlling partners.

We then thought about where and who, and decided that adhering to codes and conventions it is important to have a location that is relatable to the audience, and naturally the most associative location to the UK audience is London. Upon settling on an area, Kensington, we then chose a road with the right sounding name; We chose Kensington due to the status and the idea of corruption of status, having drama and dark secrets on-going behind closed doors and having the chance to see what is going on behind, reference: Desperate Housewives. Giving the drama a physical location adds realism, like the successful mystery drama's before, i.e Agatha Christie, Midsummer Murders and narratives of soaps like Coronation Street. 

With a genre of serial drama and mystery, complete with 'who-done-it' scenario, we chose a themes of thriller, narrative twists and realism in order to keep the audience enthralled.

Our final ideas, theme wise, settled on that of a soap serial drama.

• Soap operas began on radio and consequently were associated with the BBC. The BBC continues to broadcast the world's longest-running radio soap, The Archers, which has been running nationally since 1951.
• They are ongoing, episodic works of dramatic fiction. Early radio series were broadcast in weekly day time slots when most listeners will be housewives; thus the shows were aimed at and consumed by a predominantly female audience. The soap opera stories run concurrently, intersect, lead into further developments and typically end on some sort of cliffhanger.
• The main characteristics that define soap operas are "an emphasis on family life, personal relationships, sexual dramas, emotional and moral conflicts; some coverage of topical issues; set in familiar domestic interiors with only occasional excursions into new locations". Fitting in with these characteristics, most soap operas follow the lives of a group of characters who live or work in a particular place, or focus on a large extended family. 
• The storylines follow the day-to-day activities and personal relationships of these characters.
• Many Australian and UK soap operas explore social realist storylines such as family discord, marriage breakdown, or financial problems. UK soap operas frequently make a claim to presenting "reality" or purport to have a "realistic" style. UK soap operas also frequently foreground their geographic location as a key defining feature of the show while depicting and capitalising on the exotic appeal of the stereotypes connected to the location.

We have set out these guidelines for our radio drama and have decided that our target audience will be women, age 35-55 years old, as due to some of the topics covered they could associate themselves with the characters we will create. The kind of themes we'll cover shall have a domestic and emotional essence to them, marriage and partnership, family life and conflict. Set in a 'familiar domestic interior' our drama shows the disintergration of a couple's marriage, aiming to end the episode on a cliff hanger as is standard to soaps to ensure the audience consume the following episode.

The History of Radio Drama

Radio Drama was initially developed in the 1920's.

By the 1940's it had become the leading form of entertainment, releasing 50 new drama's a year (incl musicals, variety performances, comedians etc).

In WW2, the public feared going out and so they gained all their information and entertainment from the radio (incl. Winston Churchill's speech).

In 1951, over 300 radio dramas were produced a year.

Post war, radio stations changed their names to attract a steadier audience to shows such as 'Curtains up' (reaching 7.5 million listeners) and 'Saturday night theatre' (reaching 6.75 million listeners).

The first weekly serial dramas begun in 1946 with 'Dick Barton, Special Agent' by Edward J Mason. This was popular due to the post war spy craze that was occurring both on screen and radio. In the 1950's we saw the birth of 'The Goons' a very successful radio comedy that launched Spike Milligan and Peter Sellers into the limelight of the public eye, kick starting their careers.

As the famous Space Race began as did the trend for scifi to hit the scene, as seen with 'War of the Worlds'.

In the 1980's, radios became stereos and, with the added option of a left and right speaker, so evolved the use of sound. Radio dramas were able to have fading sounds and simultaneous sounds to create more complex aural scenery, as seen in 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'.

In today's society however, radio dramas don't appear to be as popular with the younger audience as it once used to be, unless it comes to comedy shows such as Miranda and Little Britain. There is, however, 'The Archers' still running, conducting agricultural knowledge to the masses, and successfully being the longest running radio drama known to date.

The Archers

'The Archers' consists of 6 short episodes a week, beginning in 1951 to promote farming technology to farmers, accumulating roughly 16,000 episodes so far (they even do not stop during election). 'The Archers' has an immense fanbase, including several unofficial websites. It is set in the country side some twenty minutes south of Birmingham in a faux county called Borsetshire. And consists of a vast variety of characters that surround the Archer family to ensure an air of realism of day to day life and freshness of variety

The Twilight Zone

'The Twilight Zone' first began as a well regarded TV series, created and written by Rod Surling in 1964, and claims 156 episodes to date. In 1980 Spielburg decided to turn it into a film which inspired a failed TV revival and finally a radio drama adaption of the original series in 2007.

Honestly, I found it hard to analyse the episode at hand, after watching the original we could see how the producers struggled to create the same atmosphere and tone for the piece by not properly over compensating in the barriers of communication (removed visual from such a visually orientated narrative).

Through this they over compensated upon the script work, yet under-developed the characters; they had also over compensated on the sound effects to the point where it became comical (reference the officer pouring himself a cup of coffee, loudly, sipping it, loudly, then swallowing, very loudly) destroying all hopes of tension. This again happens with the background music, becoming loud enough that it becomes hard to listen to what is being said.

The character creation is very simple in this episode, the more authority the character has the deeper the american accents gets.

Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy

In 1977, 'Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy' was born, thanks to Douglas Adams, along the same time as 'Star Wars', and headed the beginning of the British comedic scifi radio drama genre. The series became so popular it subsequently became a TV series and a film.

In vast contrast to 'War of the Worlds', HGTTG is very much based around comedic value and the tangibility of the imagination as opposed to destructive seriousness that forebodes the end of the world. HGGTG quite clearly and in a blasé manner destroys the Earth within the opening scenes.

From the classic folky "galactic" intro, the tone is set and we can tell that this series is going to be "terribly" British, from humour to accent to lexical choices. There is tea drinking, dire politeness and popping down the pub. How British can we get? With use of SFX in the opening scenes we can get the full extent of what it is to live in Britain, politely quite patrons in the pub and the polar opposites of life in space, bleepy, woopy, technology. In theme of Britishness, the humour is both dry, quick and highly satirical, 58p for six pints and the remedy to the world going to end? "Go and lie down, have a rest.", even the hitchhikers guide itself is drenched in satire.

Music is used softly in the back ground, rising and falling with tension or lack there of, whilst tension was used to represent the nothingness of space.

War Of The Worlds

In 1938 Orson Welles broadcast his unfathomably hit radio drama, 'War of the Worlds', perhaps one of the most pivotal sci fi radio dramas of the twentieth century.
The narrative of WotW presented itself in a very controversial way. Mimicking that of news broadcasting and also styles of evening entertainment shows, it perpetuated the false reality of the radio drama with such finesse that if you were to listen to it without knowing what you were listening to, you have presumed this was reality. A sad fact of truth for some towns in the bible belt of the US.
Welles had planned this radio drama with such precision to elude all ideas of the world outside of the piece, as that became the only thing you focus on. With the only form of immediate news-baring coming from radio, Welles engineered his drama with perfection to play on this; he even postponed breaking the verisimilitude by pausing for a break ten minutes later to aid his cause. This in turn helped cumulate the rising terror associated with this famous radio drama.

The radio drama itself is split into two parts, the first a vibrant and powerful piece of warped reality, with very little to prove otherwise, the second an obvious and lacking narrative that follows a characters journey into finding that the aliens have died from bacterial viruses. The second half appears both anti-climactic and highly lacking in comparison to the first, as the illusion is not only shattered but appears to have been entirely ignored.

Cultural Codes
Welles pays high attention to speech within his radio drama, right down to implementing false stuttering and faked false starts. This also includes attention to detail when covering regional accent and dialect, pitch and tension to alleviate empathic/synthetic stress, technical jargon from scientists and use of vocal bass to ensure the stereotype of authoritatian figures.
For example, the radio presenter adheres to this, his faint new york accent blanched over by American RP, this tentatively is played with a numbness and perpetual calmness to fear. His interviewed subject a simple New Yorker had a restricted vocabulary and slow pace of response.

Symbolic Codes
The Rhythm of this piece is key to the tension being built, in the beginning we have the illusion of an evening entertainment show broken into by "emergency broadcasts". These broadcasts break the tinny music (signature to live radio of that time), to allow a soft, monotonous, slow paced speech, only to return to the music that has been skipped forward somewhat to create the illusion of the pace moving faster than it actually was. Yet for the majority of the piece 'real time' is used to perpetuate the realism being created.

Technical Codes
This piece has been intricately woven with sound effects to maintain realism. The attention to detail is astounding, from the faint clock ticking in the background of the observatory to the interviewed New Yorker standing "accidentally" too far from the microphone. This not only aids in setting the scene and atmosphere but makes you feel like a fly on the wall to something that is "really going on".
Silence was more heavily used toward the end of this radio drama as a scene changer or time passer, yet it was also included in the first half to represent death, silence. Likewise with music, discounting the opening sequence of a variety show, it was mainly used in the second half to set the tone of the piece.