Micro-Elements of Radio Production

As there is no visual understanding for the audience in any radio drama, they must completely rely on the use of sound. The use of sound can be separated into smaller sub-categories such as sound effects, voice, music and also silence. 

Voice.

In our radio drama, the use of voice perhaps the most relied upon aspect to convey emotion. The lexical choices we used, for example the use of slight slang words such as 'babe' acted as a representation of the way in which teenagers/young adults speak. On the contrary to this, the parental character pronounced words correctly and used no slang. This was to represent the way in which perhaps a more middle-aged person may talk. In addition to this, this also showed a clear divide in terms of maturity between the teenagers and the parental character. We also lowered the pitch of the teacher's voice to make the character an authority figure. We also attempted to create emotion through our own voices when acting.

Sound Effects/Music

Sound effects also played a key role in our radio drama. They were used to re-create the scenes in a realistic way. The most notable example of this is the bar scene. As you can hear from the clips below, the pre-edited version just seems like a normal conversation that could be held anywhere. However, with the added effects of clinking classes and light background conversation, it gives a much more realistic representation of a bar. I feel that, overall, the sound effects were used effectively, but there was a definite lack of music. I feel that with the inclusion of more music it would have improved the realistic feel of the radio drama.

The following sound clips are both of the bar scene described above. The first is the pre-edited version and the second is the version used in the final piece. 

snippet pre changes 4.mp3

snippet wth sound effects 4.mp3

Silence

Silence was used in two main ways, to indicate the break in between scenes and to create tension between the characters. I feel that the use of silence in between scenes was relatively successful; it is clear that there is a scene change. However, I do feel that silence could have been used more effectively to create a more tense atmosphere at certain moments in the piece.