Task 3 LO1 Assignment

Radio Drama

In this essay I will be discussing and critically evaluating two different radio
dramas. The two radio dramas are in the style of one traditional drama and one
post-modern drama. A traditional radio drama follows a typical narrative
structure in that they usually include multiple characters including a narrator.
Therefore, it consists of quite a strong storyline and often the characters face a
problem which they need to spend time solving. Although, the post-modern radio
dramas raise questions rather than answers them. Instead of the characters
answering them, its up to the audience to interpret themselves.
The traditional radio drama that I shall be talking about is called Archers, a
family and friend oriented drama running 13 minutes. The Arches is a
contemporary drama and is set in a rural setting. It also has a particularly
famous opening credit theme song that is famously known within the fandom
and target audience for its distinct sound. After listening to an episode, I would
say the target audience are middle aged; a lot of them are already fans so I think
they have a pre-conceived expectation of it containing adult humour and
relatively old actors. I think the target audience being middle aged, dont want to
listen to a drama any longer than half an hour as people of that age like to do
things. The Archers are only really a quarter of an hour in duration and allow the
target audience to actually find the time to listen. The duration is enough to be
caught up with the characters and its a little piece of time that the audience can
take to relax and listen.
This particular episode was centred on a rehearsal ball for the end of the year.
The episode takes a slightly odd turn when a newly returned Debbie comes into
the face of Richard causing some stir and gossip around the bar and restaurant.
However the one person not joining in with the gossiping was Elizabeth.
The episode starts with one of the main characters, Debbie, talking to her father
Brian who owns a farm. I know that the scene was held outside because straight
away I could hear sounds of Birds specifically a crow sound. As the scene
progressed it sounded like they were getting closer to the farm because I could
hear what sounded like sheep. The pair wanted to get back to the farm to take
costumes over to a dress rehearsal that was taken place to celebrate the New
Year off in style. I can tell that they are on the move after Brain says Anything
for a quiet life, as I heard breathing and the footsteps sounds become more
prominent. Also, I know that they live on a farm as Brain confesses to his
daughter and says I have to do whats right for the farm.
After Debbie and Brain fetch the costumes, the scene ends and there is the use
of silence. However, as the new scene begins, there is a fade in to some piano
music with very little background noise to suggest we are in a completely
different location. We refer to this technique as Aural Signposting and I know
from the ambience that the scene is taking place at the rehearsal venue. As
straight away I could hear no noise from outside, quiet chatter and music. In this
scene, you meet the characters Susan, Linda and Kenton who are getting ready
to start the dress rehearsal. I know that Linda was the women running the ball as
she appeared to seem very in control and ordered a lot of people about. When
Brain comes in to deliver the costumes, Linda asks after his wife Kate, calling her
Assistant Director second in command to Linda. When Brian asks for help
carrying over the costumes, Susan agrees to help him. Susan appears to be the
only character that has the typical thick country voice. This signifies her class as
compared to the other characters as she seems to be of working class and has a
very little role in managing or directing the ball rehearsal. This makes her voice
very different from the rest so is easy for the listeners to distinguish it is her
when she is speaking. I think this also helps to paint a picture in the listeners
head of a typical rural life. You have the locals who have lived there years like
Susan appears to, and you have Linda and Debbie who clearly have some money
and are middle class.
Throughout Kentons performance there is musical piano piece being played.
During the piece, Linda and Susan both shout out things to Kenton about his
performance. When Susan says Hes got good legs hasnt he, it almost sounds
like the voice is being directed from somewhere else. This use of this sound is
good as it is more realistic of how it would actually sound in real life.
The last scene takes place in the pub where everyone goes to after the dress
rehearsal. There is use of fade as Debbie runs into Elizabeth and they start to
catch up. We can tell that they are sat quite close to the bar because we hear
their drinks being made and the clanging of wine glasses. When they finally are
settled, with their drinks they begin to talk about their personal lives and how
their Christmases have been. There is use of chronological development in that
the period of time the episode is in in winter and they are mentioning Christmas.
The turning point of the episode was when Elizabeth explains to Debbie that after
several years of being single she is ready to date. She confesses to Debbie that
she is looking for one man, this implies to the audience that Elizabeth already
has her eyes on a man. A few moments later, you see the character of Richard
appear. He immediately rushes over to the pair and greets with Debbie. You hear
earlier in the episode that Debbie had been in Hungary and that Richard seems
so surprised to see her, you also never hear how long she was away for. After
Richard greets with Debbie, he turns to Elizabeth and politely says hello. You
hear that when she replies it sounds as if there is a change in her mood as she
says hello very hesitantly. This is where the story unfolds into a problem, as I
said earlier, traditional radio dramas often have a problematic storyline that the
characters need to solve. There is then a different creation of mood as the
audience are left with questions about Elizabeth.

In terms of narrative structure, the arc of the story really begins with this scene
onwards. Beforehand, it was just setting the plot up but now you can start to see
examples of a clear linear narrative as it begins to unfold the conflict of the story
with the characters Debbie/Elizabeth/Richard. The restaurant soon starts to fill up
with the familiar faces of Kenton, Linda and Susan. They sound as if they are
closer to the restaurant as the chatter in the background gets louder. After
casually gossiping about the performance and the actors, the conversation turns
to the fact that Debbie and Richard seem to have some chemistry. This shows
development of the plot as the rest of the episode seems to be centred on the
pair. I know that they have chemistry as when Susan says they do have
history of course. After discovering that Richard is single, my mind thought of
Elizabeth and her conversation with Debbie. You learn that Debbie is also single
because she mentions I miss the company and having someone to do things
with.
The final moments of the episode Elizabeth is sat alone and watches Debbie and
Richard walk out together. Kenton comes over and leans in and asks Elizabeth
You okay sis? she replies and the final words of the episode read Well theyre
grownups now, they can do what they like. This leads into suspicion because as
the listener you never really know what Elizabeth is thinking until she says that,
there is use of a cliffhanger ending because we dont know what happens next or
what is going to happen between Debbie and Richard. I feel this appropriate to
the target audience because they will want to continue listening, as the use of
the cliffhanger made me think that the next episode will contain even more
conflict.

Moving on from traditional radio dramas, there are also dramas that follow a
more postmodern style. The postmodern drama I will be discussing and
comparing to the Archers is Blind Mans Confession, a 12-minute long
standalone story. After listening to the drama, I would say that the target
audience are predominately teens, as I am a teen and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It
follows a young man retelling the events that happened to him on one very
unfortunate night. Following a fatal crash joy ride collision with a police car, a
man meets his own worst enemy. This was the cause of the loss of the mans
eyesight. The genre is a horror/fantasy/thriller and was written, produced and
directed by John Greenhalgh.
Before the story even starts, there is a disclaimer from Fred Greenhalgh and his
voice is very different from his voice in the story. He is talking fast that of an
advertisement promotion. However, he is giving plenty of introduction, which
gives the audience a title. I think that a long title is effective for their target
audience as teenagers are more likely to binge listen to other Final Rune
Production radio dramas over adults. This is because teenagers have more time
as most do not have jobs or anything-major taking up their time.
The story begins with clich scary music, so straight away, the audience can
identify the ambience and that the creation of the mood is quite eerie and
unsettling. Then you hear the voice of the man who narrates the story speak. He
is speaking in past tense so I knew that the structure started off as nonlinear,
after the incident took place.
However, he then begins to tell us all about how it happened. This tells the
audience immediately that it is going to be a flashback. As opposed to the
traditional drama which is one continuous story, you know that the story of the
Blind Mans Confession is quite clearly standalone piece. We know it is
flashback because is being told through the eyes of the victim. So, the horror
took place in what you hear as a stormy night with obvious sounds of rain and
thunder. It is clear he is in a car as he stated I drove in obsessed fury, gritting
my teeth with an alkaline taste on my mouth. You can also hear a car radio
playing some rocky music and every time he turned a corner, you could hear his
wheels spin almost as if he was out of control. His use of words are very
descriptive which allow the reader to understand with the help of some effective
English Language techniques. You do not find that with traditional radio dramas,
because if something happens or someone walks into the room it is then straight
away addressed by the other characters.
There is use of dramatic silence before the man explains that the only thing I
didnt account for was the other car. This is effective because it then paints the
picture in our heads straight away, I knew exactly from that moment that this
person caused a tragedy. After he says that, the new scene fades up and it is
back to past tense. The narrator is recalling his story; therefor the use of
flashback is so effective. All of a sudden, you hear a massive crash of the two
cars colliding. The person begins to explain his emotion and feelings of the awful
moment, and there is dramatic use of a heartbeat sound effect to suggest the
idea that it is not real and he could be dreaming. He described himself in the
moment saying in hell? or in the womb?, and everything burned like fire.
Immediately, I noticed the use of dramatic reconstruction, as the narrator
recreated the scene using advanced technical language, something that wouldnt
have been effective had he not spoke it out to the listeners. The creative use of
language techniques are so effective and make describing things even easier, as
the use of rhetorical questions and metaphors have been used. What I also think
is effective is the use of dramatic restoration, now I cant tell what exactly he
says here at 2.17, however the use of flashback allows the listeners to be
restored and have great awareness of what is going on.
Shortly, the man comes out of this weird transition stage after the Collison, and
sees a light and finds himself back to reality. I was familiarised with the sound of
lightning as he claimed he was standing in an uneasy cold lake and crooked
woods. As he started to walk towards the main road, a lightning bolt flashed
against his smashed up car and it is then under covered that the other car in the
collision was a police car. As he was explaining the police car, a thunder sound
effect blacked out the rest of the background noise; this is effective as it creates
the mood for the rest of the piece. He then went to reach the car door and saw
the dead police officer corpse. Scary music overwhelmed the narrator just before
we hear the words evening sport; this was the sound of evil, the mysterious
man, the key part in the chronological development in the story. His voice was
raspy and he spoke less formally than the narrator. This was where the
explanation of his appearance is clear. It makes you wonder whether the police
officer was alone in that car and I remember that feeling of pure dread run
through me the first time I heard the line. As this mysterious man starts
speaking, you hear small whimpers from the other man, its quite hard to work
out if its coming from the story or from the guy narrating over it. After the
creepy guy says Im not one to fuck with god, the man looks at the police
officers corpse and sees the empty holster. The creepy man then says though I
will step on his toes if I must. This is a clear indication that this man is your
worst nightmare and in that moment he already had the officers gun pressed
against the mans skull.
The mysterious man gave him 60 seconds to justify himself of why he shouldnt
get shot. You hear the pure terror in his voice when the guy narrates his feelings.
He used direct speech when portraying his feelings directly to the audience, but
its gets harder because his words turn into a sobbing plead and cry for help. He
had to get up for work tomorrow and he just wants to liveplease?. At this
moment the scene was interrupted by a passer-by and it sounded like a truck
engine. As a listener, this was the turning point of the story because the man
could have escaped and been rescued by the truck driver however the
mysterious guy warned him and said there is more than one bullet in this gun.
Without hesitation, the gun was shot and all you hear is the gun shot and nothing
else, the truck driver was shot dead. After that all you hear is the thunder, and
then the mysterious guy carried on. For a few moments the innocent man and
protagonist of the story thought that everything was okay and was thinking out
loud telling himself that he would be fine, he thought he was going to be free.
However this was not the case, the mysterious guy struck one more time and
went for the guys eyes, blinding him.
You hear the words my eyes shut and then it turns to silence. The pause is quite
long which suggested that the man fell asleep because of the large gap between
the next scene starting. As he awoke, you hear the familiar sounds of thunder
and rain to suggest he was still there at the scene. The man had been blinded
and when he went to claw for his eyes he could not, it was just empty sockets.
Moments later police sirens emerge and the man continues recalling the horrific
event and the mysterious person. That was the end of the flashback, because
after that the guy wakes up in a hospital bed, and that was where the whole
story was being told from. The man still cries out about his eyes as he tells the
rest of the story to us, beauty is gone forever. He ended the story with a
monologue, telling the listeners not to judge him or patronise him. The one last
thing he asks us, the listeners, is, I did my best to keep the bargain, tell him Id
like to know his name, tell him I know too, to not fuck with god. Those were the
final words of the story of the blind mans confession. After that, all you hear is
the end credits. The end credits are spoken by the main character and contain
eerily, dramatic music whilst he finishes the story. At the end of the piece, the
words happy Halloween are muttered to the audience scaring us, I was left
feeling completely absorbed by the story. A credit is a piece of information either
at the beginning or the end of either tv show programme a film and a radio
drama. It contains the names of the people who worked in that particular project
such as the director/writer or producer as way to credit them for their work.
Usually you read about the credits in the synopsis or the back of the DVD cover
or the end of a show, but the Final Rune Productions narrator read it aloud at the
start and the end.
To summarise the two radio dramas, I prefer the style of blind mans confession.
The Arches is something that has been going on for a long time as I
think you have to be within the target audience of already being a
fan for it to click, as it took me a few listens to understand what was
going on. With the traditional radio drama, it is often you hear two
scenes happening simultaneously which can confuse the listener if
youre not used to it. Blind Mans Confession was very much a
standalone piece, and even though it was told through the eyes of
the main character it was still easier to follow when changing
scenes/locations. When it comes to the structure both dramas had
good flowing structure as both followed a plot. I gave a lot of
examples for the two so I cant fault the content as I was
entertained by both equally. Blind Mans Confession included a lot of
adjectives and much other good use of English language techniques
which is great when explaining something, as for the listener,
makes the scene appear even more realistic to us. I found the use of
sound used in both radio dramas very professional and real, the
aural signposting was clear I knew exactly where the characters
were at all times, in particular with the Archers. I felt entirely
gripped by the language used in Blind Mans Confession as it was
very over the top and had me completely entranced by the whole
thing. That was unfortunately something that The Archers lacked, it
follows a traditional linear narrative containing very ordinary
people, so when compared to the imaginations of a postmodern
drama, can seem boring. I reckon I could have liked it more, had I
not listened to the postmodern radio drama afterwards. I liked the
ending of the Blind Mans Confession the most, you are still left with
the questions the main character has of the guy who blinded him.
Overall, I think Blind Mans Confession is all together more
impressive technically, so I think it is easier to be kept entertained
by this, which is why it is my favourite.