Natalie clip.mov

Evaluation

In What ways does my media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Before planning my radio drama i researched into radio dramas and their conventions such as attributes of the voice, music, sound effects and significant silence. I looked at the specific radio dramas such as the Hitch hikers guide to the galaxy, twilight zone, The archers and their conventions. The radio dramas that i would say have influenced me the most out of that list would be The archers and a bit of The hitch hikers guide to the galaxy. 

The archers has a soap quality. what i mean by that is, it consists of real life stories and affairs that we can relate to, with my target audience being young ladies to young women that is an important quality to keep into consideration as women like things they can relate to, when media products have this quality they are more than likely to sell their products as their target audience feels as if they have been understood. I believe the convention of the voice and regional identity plays a major role in this outcome. Generally people of middle class feel more comfortable being in conversation with people who speak informally because it provides a laid back atmosphere to build conversation on. The archers consists of a range of regional accents and some voices which are formal. i believe this was done to represent the progress in education over the year and that many people would rather associate themselves with people who speak formally as they are stereotypically linked to success although this may not be appealing for the middle class audience, it may increase the audience as a whole by reaching a wide range of social classes and in all uniting them with the element of life which is represented in the story lines which we can all relate to.

The Hitch Hikers guide to the galaxy as well as War of the world have been quite successful radio dramas due to their great use of sound effects. Sound effects play a major role in radio dramas especially because the story line can not be expressed visually which means more imagination is required from the listeners. For some this isn't as easy as it may be for others which is when the assistance of sound effects becomes handy. I listed The hitch hikers guide to galaxy as inspiration instead of War of worlds because the intensity of the sound effects can be easily compared. This may be due to the year in which it was released where technology has advanced greatly making radio dramas seem more realistic. I used sound effects a lot in my drama because its a comedy.

I challenged the use of Sound effects as i added certain sound effects for comedy purposes only not just to make my drama realistic.

Here is a clip that i have edited

Another convention I have challenged is my choice of language. We chose to do this so that our characters and the situation they are and in turn their responses to them can be related to by our target audience.

Another convention i have challenged is the use of silence. We used silence to create a dramatic effect in the last runway walk and reveal of the sabotaged dress. The only sound effect used were slow footsteps we did this to create suspense and keep the audience intrigued. We also used silence to break up the scenes. during our feedback they did say that our silent sections were the longest. however i believe this was necessary due to the nature of our radio drama being a comedy built around the fashion industry. The long gaps were needed to allow the audience to recollect previous scenes and also let the storyline unfold in their minds to keep them following. it is also used for clarity to show there is a new scene being involved. our scenes have been chosen depending on a change of setting or to show a substantial period of time has past.

War of the Worlds: Fake news broadcast

1. Narrative

•  Well spoken formal English

• In depth very descriptive and serious
• Texture: rich & thick
• Volume: loud
• Pitch: low
• Rhythm: moderate speed

Forecast

• Middle pitch
• Rhythm: :fast

Music

• Slow classical orchestra

News

• fast and punctual
• Pitch: high/moderate
• Goes straight back to music after news bulletin leaving audience in shock but hoping the music will calm them down. This also makes the story seem more believable to listeners that were not tuned in from the beginning

Princeton New Jersey

• Calm voice ( show he knows what he's talking about)
• Sound effects- muffling in background vibration)
• Professor Pierson: deep voice slightly not bothered
• Music: calm light piano to add to the overall feel of the drama

New York

• Pitch: high
• Volume: loud (shows anxiety & excitement new news have arrived)
• Sound effect: abnormal (made to cause panic)
• Volume: at this point the reporters voice is made louder to put emphasis on the anxiety of the scene
• Sound effect: police pushing crowd back showing commotion (explosives,silence,coughing, screaming)
• Mr Wilmer dialect: 'Bingo' slang word used shows not formal

Why did the Radio drama seem so real?

• Power cut during the fake news report matching the story lines so listeners following the story are bound to panic.
• Substation overloaded and blew up causing massive explosions adding to realism of the news report

Outcome of it all

•  People fainted
• Some ran 2 miles
• Guns were taken
• People stole petrol to go to nearest church to confess to priest
• no one could call and contact loved ones due to the power cut
• People who didn't follow tried to calm others down
• People who weren't even from Concrete Washington travelled to see if it was true and then when seeing police and commotion this assured their superstitions.

The Colour Purple

Sony Radio Academy Silver Award 2009
Episode 1
Born into poverty and segregation - the struggle of uneducated black girl Celie in America's Deep South. Stars Nadine Marshall.

Celie:
-Main character
Age: 14 year of age at the beginning of drama
Sexuality: Straight
Gender: Female
Social class: Low
Regional accent: South American

Fanso
-Celie's Father
Age:40-50
Sexuality: Straight
Gender: Male
Social class: Low
Regional accent: South American

Celie's Mum
-Not mentioned a lot in drama. Clueless about abuse Celie is going through
Age:30-40
Sexuality:
Gender:
Social class:
Regional accent:

Nettie
- Celie's younger sister
Age: 12 (at beginning of drama)
Sexuality:  Straight
Gender:  Female
Social class: Low
Regional accent:Southern

Mister
Celie's Husband (through arranged marriage)
Age:40-50
Sexuality: Straight
Gender: Male
Social class: Middle
Regional accent:

Shug Avery
-Mister's Ex-wife
Age:30-40
Sexuality:Straight
Gender: Female
Social class: Middle
Regional accent: Southern

Hoppo

Age:30-40
Sexuality:
Gender:
Social class:
Regional accent:

Olivia
- Celie's daughter
Age:7
Gender: Female
Social class: Middle
Regional accent: N/A

Rev mister& Mrs
- Olivia's foster parents
Age:30-40
-Married
Social class: Middle
Regional accent: Southern

Picnic at Hanging Rock

Womans Hour Drama: Picnic at Hanging Rock

The radio drama i listened to was about a mysterious disappearance of one of the main characters in the drama. I found the drama slightly hard to listen to. I would have prefferd to hear more dialogue than narrative. The dialogue created a good mental image where as the narrative made the drama less interesting. This could be because the person doing the narrative was an elderly woman and this is the first radio drama i have ever listened to.

However considering the target audience is elderly women i didn't expect to enjoy the radio drama as much.