Production Guides
THE SCRIPT
Matthew Solon wrote The Appeal about a fictional asylum case, using extensive research. He visited a Somali community centre, spoke to lawyers and took time to get court procedure right, giving the drama a documentary feel; as in real conversation, people repeat themselves, interrupt and change their minds.
Matthew uses 1.5 spaces between each block of dialogue, ensuring the script is easy to read and a clear distinction is made for the name of the CHARACTER. Some radio scripts number each speech in each scene ie. 1- 10 on the left-hand margin.
Sound effects are prefixed by FX: This interview takes place in a family court-room.
Structuring a story is vital for a radio script. Matthew works out a story, and aims to answer the question ‘Why do we sympathise with the main character?’ before he begins to write.
The medium of radio means, like television, writing is not just a literary medium or words on a page, but is a template to create an imagined world. Unlike other art forms, the advantage of radio is that there are no limits to your imagination, no restrictions over locations or crowd scenes.
LOCATION and STUDIO
John Dryden prefers working on location as incidental sound gives location recording an authenticity that is hard to recreate in a recording studio.
On the other hand, Clive Brill, favours a studio set up, giving him complete control over his environment.
Clive recorded his drama in a studio at The Soundhouse in West London, which is set-up with different floors for recording ambience, foley/spot effect doors as well as a well-stocked props cupboard to create sound effects. Clive divides his studio into different acoustic spaces, for example, a drawing room is recorded in the part of the studio with a wooden floor.
He worked with a sound engineer, recording directly onto a Pro-Tools digital audio workstation which runs with a DAT tape back up in the case of hard drive failure. The Soundhouse also has an extensive effects library on a central server.
The ‘court-room’ scenes for The Appeal, were recorded on location in a college TV studio. John Dryden chose this location for its similar ambience to the asylum court rooms he visited when researching the story. J Milo Tailor, the sound-recordist, constructed a make-shift canopy above an actor to reduce voice reverberation from the ceiling, placed panels across an exposed brick wall, and laid down a drape to reduce acoustic bounce from an exposed floor.
www.thesoundhousestudios.co.uk
POST PRODUCTION
John Dryden edits the recording using Pro-Tools on his laptop at home. He takes the opportunity in post-production to put back some of the pace and rhythm of the script, recreating pauses, adjusting timing. He will add spot effects (FX : The appellant is passed a glass of water), which he hasn’t collected on location.
In the case of The Appeal, Milo Tailor, sound recordist will edit the footage using the software system Cubase on his laptop, with footage stored on an external hard drive.
ACTORS
Unlike TV or theatre, the listener can’t pick up facial nuance or physical gestures, so voice becomes everything for an actor. Like performing to a camera, actors direct their voice to a mic, whilst maintaining eye contact with a fellow performer. Moving nearer or further away from the mic creates an ambient language, just as wide shots or close ups work in film and television. Actors enjoy working in radio, as the medium gives them freedom to play parts they wouldn’t necessarily be cast for in television or theatre.
John Dryden cast both actors and non-actors in The Appeal. His secret, in working with non-actors, is to cast individuals who have a very similar experience to the characters they will be playing. With inexperienced performers, he keeps them moving through the space, and encourages them to put the script down and say lines in their own way.
Having a mixed cast of actors and non-actors proved very effective in The Appeal, with actors toning their performance to ‘meet’ the non-actors with a similar level of performance, creating a natural and authentic feel.
Working with a casting director, John Dryden met his actors at a Somali community centre and a college with a number of Somali students.
A list of casting agents can be found through Contacts, the actors’ directory, published by The Spotlight. Actor’s agents can also be contacted via The Spotlight’s website or Cast net. Depending on your plans for a radio drama, you may need to ask the performers to sign a release form.
www.castingnetwork.co.uk
www.thespotlight.co.uk
RECORDING
J Milo Tailor is a self-taught sound artist. He first played, then recorded bands, and worked at Resonance 104.4 FM which gave him the opportunity to work on dramas and documentaries. He approaches sound-recording as a radio art, not simply from a technical perspective. He listens to raw field, and acoustic ecology recordings, which gives him a feel for soundscape. Milo is technically adept and ensures he is completely at ease with his chosen set-up.
Recording the court room scenes in The Appeal, (in which actors are sitting down and static), he used individual AKG stereo mics on stands, with pop shields to reduce the harsh sound that can be heard when an actor’s breath hits the mic.
The mics, arranged around the space were powered by an external sound-card, enabling Milo to record at 48 KHZ, 24 bit. He set levels for the 5 mics through a Behringer Euroack Pro mixing desk, which links to his laptop, a standard high-street model with a Pentium 4, 3 ghz processor, and his chosen audio software package Cubase.
When recording scenes on the move and quieter interchanges between the characters, Milo used a boom pole with a stereo mic attached, protected with a wind-shield, recording onto a Nagra hard disk recorder.
Sound equipment hire:
www.richmondfilmservices.co.uk
www.resonancefm.com
www.soundonsound.com
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