Postmodernism vs Traditional

Tradition radio dramas take place with a firm storyline that consists of one
narrator as well as multiple characters voiced by various voice actors. In these
radio drama stories, there is usually a mystery/ dilemma that the characters are
working towards to solve. Post-modern dramas are different to traditional in that
post-modern tend to being bring up problems and problems rather than solving
them. Throughout these stories, the audience will be tested to see if they can
work out the answer to the questions being raised. The first radio drama I
listened to was the post-modernism radio drama, which was a horror story about
a man who crashes his motorcycle into and kills a police officer, only to then
stumble over to the crash site to be held at gunpoint by a criminal. We then here
a gunshot sound effect, thinking that the criminal has shot and killed the man.
Instead, we are taken back to the broken man in a hospital explain his story in
agony and fear. This entire story is told through the man in the hospitals vision
through flashbacks, this technique allows for both real time dialog to go on, as
well as narration to go over the top at times where what is happening need more
context or explaining.

The postmodern radio dramas uses many sound effects to establish to the
listeners various bits of information. For example, the sound on the motorbike
tells us that he is driving on a road at a high speed as well as that it is raining
from the splashing from the bike and just the sound of rain and thunder. The
drama uses various different sound effects to establish to the audience what is
going on in the scene, another example is the crash. The effects can be also
used as techniques to create different feels to scenes, such as the heartbeat
create suspense and uncertainty. Information in the story can also be told
through straight dialog from the narrator. The narrator in the story is also the
man in the crash, so when we have him telling us the story, it makes it feel more
personal as well as adding to its validity. This also allows the narrator to have
emotion in his voice he is telling the audience what he experienced not too long
ago, so he can express his personal feelings in his voice whilst narrating what is
going on, giving the listeners an indication of how they should be feeling. When
he finishes his story, he continues speaking in real time and leaves us with more
questions about his mystery. The ending of the blind mans confession is a type
of cliffhanger but more in the way that it is left open for interpretation and
questions for the audience to think about. The last sentence in the story is I
shouldve known better than to fuck with God Which is a reference to something
which happened earlier in the story. With all these unanswered questions and
mystery in the story it leaves the audience wanting to find out more about the
story and the characters, as well as what happens after the story told. The drama
uses dramatic reconstruction by using dramatic and high intense moments in
order to re-tell parts of the story through flashbacks; this creates the story to be
perceived as more dramatic. The story is most likely aimed at a younger
demographic as there is many action and horror elements which would have
more appeal to a younger audience. Characterisation is a strong aspect of the
Blind Man; this is mainly directed towards the build of the Villain/bad character in
the drama. The Drama does a very good job of building him up as a fearsome
character and someone that should be feared, this is mainly done by him being
described in fear by the narration character, who is shaking with fear when
describing aspects of him such as him being extremely violent. The use of sound
and silence is used in the story for various reasons, louder sounds, such as when
he is driving his bike to create an intense feel, and silence and or quite sounds to
create suspense or fear. There is also the use fades between scenes to give time
for the audience to gather their thoughts and create more suspense for the next
scene. Music can be used again in various ways depending on what type of
music it is, for example using eerie scary music when the gun is being pointed at
the mans head. The theme music is important to a radio drama as it can be
used as an indication to the audience that the drama is coming on. The Theme
music in The Blind Man is used to tell the audience what sort of drama they are
about to watch. The Archers their famous Barwick green theme to let the
audience know that the drama is about to come on. The way the different
characters speak is also very important to the story, for example the narrators
voice when he speaks about the man who put a gun to his head, sounds
traumatized and as if he is still scared of the man as if he was in the room. The
narrator to speak directly to the listeners often uses direct speech as a form to
get information and emotions across to the audience. The creation of mood and
location is used through using acoustic effects such as the motorbike driving
through the wet road in the rain. Elements such as these help for the audience to
have an understanding of how they are supposed to feel as well as how the
character might be feeling. The mood that these techniques create also allow for
the audience to have a rough idea of might be to come, so for example when the
main character is driving down the road in the rain and the mood is very intense
and almost unsettling, they may have an idea that something bad is about to
happen. Instead of having a chronological order of telling the story, this radio
drama uses flashback this makes the story nonlinear. This is leaps in time
backward from the narrators point of view to past events. This creates the story
to be non-chronological. This creates for a more complex storyline and the
audience having to keep up with all the ongoing events. Even though that some
of the story is told in flashback, there is still a general sense of chronological
development. This means that the story is developing forward and not moving
backwards through time. This is easier to be explained in the Archers as the
whole story is played in complete chronological order and we follow the different
characters and plots through the days and weeks without having elements such
as flashbacks to memories and other events. There are some aural signposts in
the story with mostly the sounds on the roads, such as the motorcycle and the
cars, which gives the audience more of an indication of where they are. The radio
drama makes good use of direct speech on various occasion when two
characters are speaking to each other about a subject straight to each other The
use of voice in this drama is vital in the drama is get across how the different
characters are feeling, the best use of voice is shown through the blind man
when he is explaining how he became blind, we can tell by the fear and
trembling in his voice how scared he is. The story unfolds in the most dramatic
way possible with a build-up of tension through techniques such the music
building up and changes of pace in storytelling. This eventually unfolds to the
audience with the blind man breaking down and the story coming to a quite
depressing end. Used the audio story once ended goes, back to the narrator
speaking in his normal voice where he credits all the voice actors in the story and
the production team, as well as telling the audience about other stories and how
to follow and subscribe to them.
The traditional radio drama in which I listened to was the Archers. This story was
an idea of creating a location and family and creating problems for them to face.
In the episode I listened to, they were in the process of getting ready for a
gathering, as well as a story line they also had other storylines playing out at the
same time such as the step dad deciding if he should adopt the son Henry or not.
This is again a fictional family in a fictional town (Ambridge) The story in the
episode I listened to was about the women getting ready to go to a gathering.
There is another story along with this based on the son Henry and his adoption.
The style of the episode if very different to the other story in that it seems more
realistic and like a normal real day, rather than a big extravagant story with
action and violence. The story show us that they are inside by saying in some of
the dialog, for example the line There wasn`t enough space in my kitchen
while putting something on the table, this implies that they are in an inside
environment. The way the characters speak is also relaxed and as if they do not
have to talk over any background sound. The way the characters speak in this
traditional radio drama is a lot more normal to everyday life compared to the
postmodern drama, which is always speaking in an intense way that you would
expect out of an action/horror film, whereas in this drama it seems as if they are
just having normal conversations. Another form of direct speech is the use of the
narrator who gives the listeners direct speech about ongoing events, throughout
the drama, for example, when the narrator is explaining the body lying on the
ground flat on its back. The characterising of different characters is done in a
subtle way in the archers, which is through small conversation and a mixture of
thousands of episode of the characters development. The development of plot is
an essential aspect of a radio to make the story somewhat interesting and
throughout the whole radio drama; we see the story develop in a chronological
order of events, meaning that the story starts from the start and ends at the end,
keeping all the events in order of how they happened in time, this helps for the
audience to understand what is going on as the drama jumps from scene to
scene whilst using different characters to develop storylines. This allows for the
story to be followed easier by the audience and a simpler story to understand.
The development of plot can also be sped up by dramatic event happening in the
plot, for example in The Blind Man a dramatic event that happened which
drastically developed the plot was the crash. The title of the drama is titled
Archers is a simple title aimed just to be simple and tell the audience the name
of the main family in the drama. The use of music in the traditional radio drama
is very subtle and more used as a background tool to create a light mood. The
Title of The Blind Man is again a short and effective way to give the audience a
very brief understanding of what the story might be about, while making them
want to discover who the blind man is and listen to the radio drama. The titles
are read out, as it is a radio drama. On the Archers, it is read out through a
continuity announcer before the actual radio drama starts. The narrator in the
actual story reads out the Archers. The use of these various effects in mood
gives the audience a clearer indication of how they should be feeling and
reacting to what is happening in the different scenes. The duration of the
majority of the Archers episodes are around 12 minutes, which is a good length
to get enough information in to give the story some good development, whilst
keeping the story of the radio drama snappy enough to be still interesting.
Having the Archers, as a shorter drama is appropriate, as is a radio drama that
people tend to watch every day, so having it shorter can allow people to dip in
and out of listen to it when they have a free bit of time or just to have a quick
catch up with the drama. The duration of the Blindman has also fit the story
into a very good duration of time, it is a good duration as the amount of time
makes the progression of the story as well as other elements such as tension are
allowed to develop in the appropriate amount of time. Having the Blind Man as a
longer drama is appropriate, as it is a one off drama that people would have to
make a small commitment to watch, not just quickly watch it casually like the
Archers. The story unfolds into new storylines, which can be seen as cliffhangers
to set up the next episodes. Archers can`t afford to end the whole story as they
need more episodes to follow, but there is often some sort of resolution to the
sub stories in the drama. The Archers has a linear story structure, which is a
story that goes in a chronological order, this is appropriate, as the story being
told, is not to crazy and more of a story of everyday life.
The Two radio dramas use titles at just before they start the actual story to
introduce the drama and introduce the story.

The two radio dramas both have similarities and differences. The main ongoing
similarity is the narrative structure and escalation of story throughout the drama.
The Traditional radio drama`s use of sound effects was a lot more subtle that the
postmodernism drama in that they were effects that seemed to be more of a
background of the scene, for example the kettle sound in the Archers we could
hear just in the background as the characters were speaking. Then in comparison
the traditional radio dram had a lot of sound effects which were the focal point of
the scenes, for example the motorbikes engine and the crash. The Archer sound
effect seem to be there to add a little more to where the audience already knows
it (Countryside home) Whereas the blind man often uses the sounds to set the
scene an give the listener a broader understanding of what is happening. The
two radio dramas have many of the same conventions but do them in very
different ways. Another example of this is the characterisation, since the Blind
Man is a one of drama the characters have to be flushed out quickly and made
over dramatically so the audience know what they are like in the short time the
get to know them thus the drama use big dramatic techniques to characterize
the characters. In contrast the Archers has thousands of episodes for the
characters to come out of the shell and give the audience more understand of
what they are like as people. Therefore, this allows the characterisation to be
done on a much smaller scale by using different small conversation to develop
the characters slowly. The two radio dramas use these different techniques as
they both are going for a different tones and moods throughout the dramas and
these techniques can help to set tone for the drama. The traditional drama uses
more relaxed techniques in order to make the drama feel at the amount
dramatization that a drama of that type should be. On the contrast, the
postmodern drama uses the techniques and elements in order to create a much
more intense drama that fits in with the story and narrative.
 Voices
The use of voices in a key element in both the radio dramas in term of
establishing who the different characters are. So in the traditional drama the
voices are very important not only in establishing who the characters are as
individuals but also establishing there social status and role in the group of
people. The voices also allows the audience to understand other features of
about the characters such as gender, age and more. For example could say
something such as that they have to go to school, which would imply that the
character is a younger character. Voices is more important in the Archers in this
case as the drama is based on developing characters and establishing who and
what they are doing in the story. The voices can tell the people apart from the
top end of the social spectrum as they have a southern accent and the people at
the bottom have rural accents. In the postmodernism drama it is less important
but still vital in establishing who characters are. So the voice in many scenes tell
us the distinctive differences between the Good and bad characters.

Characterisation
Characterisation in the radio drama is how the drama tells the audience different
character traits about the characters in the drama. An example of this is how
they establish that the main character in the Blind Man is young. They do this
through having him talk about him going to a party. This is also done in the
traditional drama largely; this is done, as the characters development is just as
important as the story. In fact, it could be argued that character is more
important than the story and plots as that is what keeps the audience coming to
see. Different acts that the characters do can establish different characterisation
of characters, such as a character being angry and moody all the time could tell
the audience a lot about what sort of character that character is.
Narrative structure
In the archers, there is a clear narrative structure as the story follows a clear
linear beginning middle and end format, which the audience can follow from
beginning to end. In the postmodernism drama, it uses different non-linear
devices such as flashbacks, this creates a story, which does not necessarily have
a clear beginning, middle and end. This makes for more complex storytelling and
the audience thus having to pay more attention to understand the plot fully. With
the Archers, it has a linear narrative, this allows the audience to stay engaged
throughout the story.