Wednesday, 28 November 2018

How to script radio drama?

                 First of all, the dramatist shall develop a good idea on which the entire story snowballs. In radio drama, first impression is the best. The beginning is everything. If the starting point can’t catch the audience they will turn to another station. The very first moment itself should be very dramatic that can parachute the audience into curiosity. Structuring the story is another major task. The radio drama is structured in fast pace to keep the audience with changing events and turning point. Characterization is also more important. The character should be believable and recognizable and serve the purpose within the plot.


                 They have to be intentional and it is better start with a stereotypical character to ensure rapid recognition, then twist the stereotype. Give each character a dominant physical or behavioural characteristic. Make the dominant characteristic purposeful and extreme in behavior and active.

People are hungry for entertainment. If they wanted boredom they would be filling out their tax returns instead of listening to your radio play. Make people afraid, but also excited. The main character must have the sympathy of the audience. Your audience has to identify with your main character. If this does not happen you have created a failure. Booo!

Drama = conflict = audience is dictum. There has to be an emotional, financial, human, moral, physical struggle so the listeners can laugh or cry.
The art of storytelling is exploring the extreme limits of our psychological or physical existence.
A good dramatist always pitches one polarity against another to keep the audience with him.
As the beginning, the climax is also everything. In fact, climax is the beginning of keeping the entire drama in the minds of the audience for ever. It is also invitation to the next work of the same team.

It is through dialogue we engage dramatically with the world. Characters inform, argue, amuse, outrage, and argue through the ebb and flow of dialogue. When we do we talk and that is how great radio plays are made. It is mostly through dialogue that radio drama moves forward. So, writing dialogue is the most painful, creative step in drama scripting.

The ambience/atmosphere creation is also important creative stage since it s sets the emotional spirit of the play. It determines whether your listeners believe in the world that you have created. Worlds are not created by dramatic dialogue alone. There is attitude and atmosphere. This is determined by detail and relevant detail. It could be in a sound effect. It could be in the writing. It could be in the music. It could be in everything that creates pictures in mind.

No drama without emotion. Love, hate… every type of emotion is crucial to move forward the story. Analysis of any good radio drama reveal that it is a perfect blend of tension, humour … . To stop the listener dropping off or switching off, maintain the tension always and throw in the humour. Tension, humour, tension, humour, tension humour...like the foxtrot..Make the emotional rhythm of the play dance on the listener's heart and mind. Charm and alarm, charm and alarm. But they have to be linked. Your character uses humour to react to the tension in the scene or play. Keep one character who uses humour to deal with difficult situations. Make sure the humour is verbal. Slapstick belongs to a different type of play or entertainment. Make sure you do not have characters taking it in turns to be funny. This is not stand up comedy or sitcom. Make sure that the character who uses humour has a consistent sense of humour.

No comments:

Post a Comment