Planning of my radio drama

1. Planning of my radio drama Dannielle Leonard.

2. Target Audience • My radio drama is intended to be broadcasted on Radio 4’s afternoon play, this would typically draw in an audience who meet the following criteria: • Housewife • Unemployed • Elderly • Student • Working environment where radios can be played (office/garage/salons/workshop)

3. I have aimed ‘Aberration’ at a young audience which is not conventional of Radio 4’s afternoon play but could easily draw in students as they often have days off or short days. However, my radio play could also be enjoyed by any age group and it is not strongly targeting one sex but possibly could be more appealing to females.

4. Organisation of Actors and Equipment • All characters will be communicated through by a Facebook group and also SMS for those who do not have facebook accounts. • Recording will take place within Ursuline High School and all actors will personally be given a script from me one week before recording to ensure they can get into character and be familiar with the script before recording takes place. This is to limit mistakes made during recording time. • All actors will meet at UHS at the same time and over a two day period only. • Recording will be done through a Sony ux 60 Recorder. This is provided by Mr Milliken and will be then transferred immediately onto the computer hard drive for editing.

5. Analysis of another radio drama • Chosen drama to analyse: ‘Can’t live without you’. • It is clear that this radio drama is a thriller, this is connoted through the use of ‘eerie’ sound effects such as the music played between the consecutive narrative and the flashbacks. The music provides a feeling of fear and vulnerability for the audience to grasp. • The voices used are that of an adult male and an adult female. The dialect in the drama from the narrator, the male, states that these two characters are a married couple. It is very easy to differentiate between the two characters as they are different sexes.

6. One particular flashback scene provides evidence to the audience that the couple were once very much in love, this is connoted through the soft and slightly high pitches in their voices and the polite and loving dialogue between them. However, the consecutive narrative connotes a bad patch in their relationship as there are references to ‘red bills’, hospital trips and appointments and the possibility of a transplant for the female. • There are other sound effects that connote to the audience that this drama operates within a realist representational code such as the use of everyday sounds like a ringing telephone, doors closing and footsteps.

7. Narrative, Layout and Direction • My radio play will be in a consecutive narrative structure throughout the majority of the play. The opening dialogue from the main character is set in present time, and the rest of the extract is set in hindsight. • I will do this in order to create a overview of what will happen, in the opening, and this then creates a sense of suspense within the audience as they know something critical will happen during the play and from then on it is a matter of unravelling the drama set within the play. • There is a slight lack of description of the events that happen, however this is intentional as I want the audience to have space for their own imagination to take over and leave them with hanging questions throughout the play. This helps to capture their attention and encourage them to listen to the entire play in the hope that their questions might be answered.

8. Drafting and Redrafting • After the completion of my first draft of the script for my play, I realised that their was room for more evidence of the relationship between the characters. I done this through adding more casual dialogue between the two main characters to build up a representation of their past relationship and their lifestyles. • I also noticed slightly unnecessary dialogue in the play that interrupted the narrative sequence and made the attention of the audience slightly sidetrack onto irrelevant topics. To handle this I cut out some of the characters lines and kept the script based strictly on the issues in the play after the relationships between characters had been established.