LO4

The Archers - http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01mk0dv

Title: The Archers

Director: Micheal Powell

Producers: Kim Greengrass, Rosemary Watts




Storyline: Vicky drops fractious Abbie off at school. Brenda's sympathetic. They meet up at lunchtime, when Vicky confesses Mike can see only the negative side regarding the baby. But Vicky has a renewed excitement. She shows Brenda lots of positive postings and images on the net. The baby moves again and Vicky talks about finding out whether it's a boy or a girl. They agree it would be good if they could get Mike to share the enthusiasm.

Tom's happy that Kirsty and Frank have agreed to make up some of his ready meal samples at Jaxx. He's found storage for them too. Brenda asserts it's great to have some good news for a change.

Matt's frustrated when he can't get hold of Darrell. Lilian's short with him and he's left wondering what he's done. He catches up with her later at The Bull, in melancholy mood with Adam.

Darrell and Elona are pleased when Darrell gets some specialist carpentry work on a church refurbishment, although the job won't start for a few weeks. Darrell wonders if they can manage if he does less work for Amside for a while, and finds that he can't avoid Matt for ever.

Where was the drama located? The drama is located in many places, some being:

• School playground - which sounded like the typical primary school playground as you could hear a lot of screaming and playing from young children.
• Home enviroment - this sounded like it was set in the kitchen area as you could hear the clicking and tapping of the draws being shoved around.
• Work/Office - without them stating they were at the office I wouldn't have know they were here.
• Cafe - this sounded like the typical cafe enviroment at a busy lunch with chatter and cuttlery it give a clear picture of the place.

Was it all set in one day? Yes it was all set in one day, it showed quite a busy day for some though.

5 Places where you can listen to Radio Dramas

• BBC Radio 4 Extra
• BBC Radio 4
• Cornucopia Broadcasting
• Radio Once More
• Oxford Classic Radio

Radio Drama Ideas

• Breakup -
  - Both sides of the story.
  - Stereotyped teenage relationship.
  - Comedy
  - Affair
• School/college - - Past student narrating
  - very judgemental
  - not in the in crown but bases most of her judging on them.
• Teenage family drama - Diary form
  - Research: Tim Dowling
  - Diary form
  - To narrate and set the scene. This can be used also to get to know the characters in more detail in little time.
  - Mostly mothers point of view.

Production Timetable

Date: Wednesday 5th December
Time	Character	Location	Actor/ess	Notes
11:45	Mia	Main stage	Sophie Hoskin
12:15	Emma	Main stage	Charlotte Hollis
13:10	Violet	Main stage	Hayley McCarthy
Date: Thursday 13th December
14:50	April	Main stage	Annie Rose

 

Props List

Production Name: Copper Prep

Producer: Charlotte Hollis

Item	Script page	Description	Actor/location	Notes
Cigar	4	Large Cuban cigar, expensive looking, 7” long	Craig Jennings	Is not lit – is held in actors mouth
Door		Door opens and closes	Classroom	Squeaky as it’s a silent destination.

Location Scouting

 

 

Casting ‘Talent’

Emma

Charlotte – Knows the story and character well and is happy to improvise during the role if something else sounds better in the moment.

Mia

Sophie – Good tone for the part and has a strong confident voice which is what I imagined for the part of Mia as she’s a strong confident character.

April

Annie – April needs a very girly voice and Annie will fit this part perfectly. She has just the right personality to act out this part so will connect easily.

Violet

Hayley – Hayley fits this part well as her voice has many tones and Violet changes emotions a lot throughout the drama therefore I’d need someone who is capable of doing this.

 

Locations of where to record

·         Hallway

·         Classroom

·         Outside location

Recording Equipment

·         Go Mic by Samson.

Contingency Plans

Locations

·         Empty classroom instead of a hallway

·         Empty room instead of classroom

Recording Equipment

·         Zoom

·         Phone (last plan if despirate)

Evaluation

1.      What went well?

a.      I am proud with my casting and feel the actors fit well with the characters.

2.      What was less successful?

a.      After hearing from my target audience they commented on the bits I thought they would.

b.      My drama was very confusing and didn’t go anywhere.

c.       I feel Emma could have had some more emotion in her voice as she has a very mono-tone sounding voice and can get very boring to listen to.

3.      How have you improved your drama after your feedback?

a.      My target audience mentioned how it was very confusing and they didn’t understand what went where so I added a bit of music to highlight where the scenes changed.

4.      If you did this unit again and make another radio drama, what would you differently?

a.      If I were to do this again I would have chosen one of my other choices as mine was very hard to re-create as it was a confusing topic.