Evaluation

Here’s the prezi for the evaluation of my overall work:

http://prezi.com/k6mfd63ahw5a/untitled-prezi/?kw=view-k6mfd63ahw5a&rc=ref-14187951

RADIO DRAMA FINAL PIECE

Here’s our radio drama Exciderunt
Edited by:
Alvin Maduli for Scene 1
Logan Macleod for Scene 2
Charlotte Buckseall for Scene 3
Chloe Hughes Cullinan for Scene 4

Ancillary Task: Finished Listings Feature

Here’s the PDF file for the finished version of the listings feature:

Alvin’s Finished Listings Feature

Here’s the JPEG file:

Ancillary Task 1: Finished Newspaper Advert

Here’s the pdf file for my finished newspaper advert cover

Alvin Maduli’s Finished Newspaper Advert

Here’s the JPEG file:

Ancillary Task 2 – Magazine Feature – Development

For this feature, I made a rough layout to get some idea of how it will look like:

I considered what sort of supplements to add in the double page spread after doing some research on existing magazine features, so I considered adding pull quotes, image details, headline and subheading etc.

For the article, it will be an interview with one of the main voice actors and co-writer of the radio drama, talking about the process with the script and how it is like working with the other voice actors.

 

Then I started using InDesign on the mac. Using an A3 layout, the first thing I did was to place the background; which has been already edited in Photoshop (using motion blur, similar to the front cover background), then placing the main image (in which quick selection tool has been used to crop out the background).

What I did was to change the opacity of the main image so it has that fade effect and blends with the background. I changed the opacity from 100% to 70% so it does not look too faded.

For the headline, I used a font from the website dafont, and used the colours red, white and black as they all represent a thriller theme. Then I used a drop shadow so that it stands out.

For the subheading, I used a plain white font but highlighted some key words like the actor’s name and the name of the radio drama to red so that it stands out. I did the same to the pull quote with the word “frustrating” so it looks interesting.

 

 

For the article, I had to create a box behind the text so the text can be read:

So I selected the rectangle tool

 

 

Then changed the opacity to 85% so the background can still be seen but can still read the text. I used a simple black font so it stands out with the faded white box.

 

I then changed the front style for the questions in the article so it can be read clearly. So I made it slightly bolder.

 

Then I added the supplements for a conventional magazine feature; image details, page numbers, name of magazine and issue number, details for the radio drama; running time, radio station and radio drama name. I also added a bold line at the top of the page, with “Interview” just at the top right of the second page.

FEATURE FOR TV GUIDE ANALYSIS

To help create my double page spread feature for my radio drama, I had to analyse an existing feature from existing magazines like Radio Times to demonstrate a few forms and conventions that were used relating to the theme or storyline of the radio drama. This helped me create a few ideas of what conventions I could use to promote the target audience.

The double page feature is fairly simplistic and could attract the older demographic (between 25 and 40) because the show related to the article Hustle is aimed at that target audience. The fonts used is simple, Times New Roman and the important titles in the subtitle is in bold so it stands out. The bold heading grabs the audience’s attention and gives and idea what the article is about and the main image supports it. The main conventions used though were the pull quote that is in the article. They pick out a certain quote that could be interesting and leads the audience to read further, and it shows what the audience would expect from the article. Another convention are the pictures used that relates to the article. The bigger picture shows that they are the main subject in the article. The characters in the image wear formal clothing and in a studio which gives some idea what the article or the show is about. The second images is smaller which could slightly relate to the article (mentioned in the article). The white background and the black font for the article does not really clash making it slightly difficult to draw attention and makes the audience focus more on the image. Another convention used is the main details of the show e.g the date the show starts and what channel. This is a way to promote the show and audience would check it out if they liked the article. The main image is placed on the right which is placed perfectly as if it was placed in the middle where the folding of the magazine is, it would be less attractive and would stand out less. The date of the issue is placed right and so is the page numbers. Image details is also used giving information about the image as a form of advertisement.

Overall, there are conventions used in this double page feature but it is too simple. Although, it is targeted at an older demographic so it just attracts the right audience. As my target audience for my radio drama is almost similar to this one, I will use some conventions used here but also improve on some areas like the fonts. But this double page feature is a great example and helped create some ideas.

Ancillary Task 1 – Poster – Development

The first I did to start my poster for my radio drama is building a mindmap and get some ideas of what I could add to my poster:

Then this was my rough layout of my poster:

Then I used the program Photoshop after taking some pictures, and the first thing I did was to edit out the background so I can put a different background, which will be a picture of a London trademark.

Using the quick selection tool, I highlighted the main image that I want to select.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then I adjusted the edge so it looks professional. I did that by smoothing the edge and output it to a new layer. I did that to two images of the two main characters of the radio drama. The next thing I did was to edit my background.

 

What I did for the main background was to create a motion blur effect to it to make it look edgy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So I chose the motion blur and made the distance to 15 pixels so it doesn’t look too blurry that the London landmark will be hard to notice.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I then placed the images of the two characters and then added the title and text. For the title, I used a font from a website called dafont and just placed it vertically. This was the first draft.

Then I changed the background as I found the colour too boring. Then I added the supplements like the radio station logo, the date and time, and a pull quote from a review.

RADIO DRAMA/MOVIE POSTERS – ANALYSIS

To help create my poster for my radio drama, i have analysed a few posters to demonstrates a few forms and conventions that were used relating to the theme or the actual story. As my radio drama belongs in the thriller genre, I researched a few existing thriller genre movie and radio drama posters.

1 – THE INVISIBLE MOVIE POSTER

  There are several conventions used to classify the film as a thriller film. The tone of the poster looks very dark and mysterious as the character is shadowed and hardly see his whole appearance. The rain complements the dark element to the poster. The title used in the middle blends in with the rain, making it more mysterious. The tagline used; “Life, Death and something in between” exposes little of what the film is about, which could interest the target audience which is mainly male around 18-40 years in the western culture. A promotion strategy is used; adding the crew involved who has other films “The Sixth Sense” and “Batman Begins”, which could interest other audiences who like those films and also could relate to the film as The Sixth Sense and Batman Begins belongs in a thriller film and because they had box office and critical acclaim, it might make the audience believe it will be good. As the poster does not give much away, I think this is a sophisticated poster that works well.

 

 

 

 

 

2 – TAKEN MOVIE POSTER

There are lots of conventions used in this poster that would classify the film as thriller film. First of all, the props and costumes also used indicates that it’s a thriller film; man wearing a suit and holding a gun. There are only two colours used as a font; orange and grey, and the orange font really stands out as the whole poster itself is very dark, and the orange font used for the lead actor and the film title itself works very well. The lead actor, who also done other successful films like Schindler’s List and Star Wars I: The Phantom Menace, helps promote this film well and the fact that it stands out with the orange font draws attention and a great example of mode of address. The tagline, assuming is a quote from the film, gives away what the film is about and clearly indicates it’s a thriller genre; story about a man killing people in order to find his daughter.  The target audience is mainly male in the 18-40 year group, mainly in the western culture as the tagline indicates how much violence and brutality there will be in the film. The poster didn’t need to add the crew involved who has also done other well known films that other people might be familiar of as the poster itself is professional enough and is a great example of mode of address. Overall, it is an effective poster.

 

 

 

 

3 – TORCHWOOD: THE DEAD LINE RADIO POSTER

There are several conventions used to classify the radio piece as a thriller but it’s quite hard to indicate. The poster doesn’t give much info about the story, but some conventions is used. For example, the characters in the poster is wearing smart and sophisticated clothing except for the female character, which gives little indication that it’s a thriller radio drama. I think the target market is men and women in the age of 18-40 as the characters are both male and female aged 25-35 and they could relate to the characters. With the cast listed at the bottom of the poster, the audience might have known them from other projects. I think this is a sophisticated radio poster but it doesn’t give much information.

RADIO DRAMA – EDITING AND SOUND ENVELOPES

RADIO DRAMA – DEVELOPMENT

FINAL DRAFT

Here is an attachment of our final draft for our script. We did lots of changes, including deleting certain scenes to avoid running overtime, and changing the tone of the script to make it more of a thriller drama.

EXCIDERUNT NEW

Script Development and Read Through

A few changes were made during and after the read through we had for the script. We had to change some dialogue for the main character in order to make his character more human, and changed a fragment of the storyline in order to make sense as the storyline needed improvement and the audience found it convoluted.

During the read through, a few changes were annotated in my first draft, including more direction on the second scene, and changing Officer Smith’s tone at the first scene to make him more aggressive. Due to absence to one of our group, My contributions for the group was to write the missing part of the script, and also to put all of our scenes together and made sure it all makes sense. I rewrote my draft after the annotations I made during and after the read through.

We try to stay in contact on Facebook and used that chance to discuss the changes further, including the plot twists, Dan’s character development; how he died, and the main character’s direction throughout the story. We also had to cut back a few scenes as we found it to be too long, as we did a test run and it took just over 10 min. So we had to delete scenes like Scott meeting Cindy after he was released from prison, but still changed it that the whole story makes sense.

Here’s a few shots of our read through in lesson:

1ST SCRIPT – ANNOTATED

The attachment below is the annotated version of our first draft of the script. We had lots of improvement rewriting our second draft after annotating our first draft. including re-writing the second scene and fragments of the main story.

ANNOTATED 1ST DRAFT

Location Details

The story will set in Hackney, London and these are the several locations that will take place in several scenes:

• H.M.P Pentonville – Caledonian Rd, London N7 8TT: The prison scenes will take place here where he is released from prison and the times he had with the man who took of care of Scott in prison.
• King Edward Road – Nearest Route – A503: This will be Brock and Dan’s place where Brock’s death and the final confrontation between Scott and Dan will take place.
• Trowbridge Road – Nearest Route – A12: This will be the Dion and Jerome’s place where the shootout will take place, it’s nearest attraction is the Olympic Village at the Hackney Wick.
• Beaumont Road – Nearest Route – A124, A112: This will be Lucy’s place near Newham University Surgery where Lucy works.
• Metropolitan Police Service – Bethnal Green Police Station, 12 Victoria Park Square, City of London, London, Greater London E2 9NZ – Nearest Route – B119, A107: This will the police station in which the final scene between Smith and Scott takes place.

Character Development

For my radio drama story, Exciderunt, I improved its character development compared to the treatment I worked on, so there’s more detailed background about the characters.

Scott – will be the main protagonist for the story. Born on the 17th December 1984, he is currently unemployed as he was released from prison after he committed a crime that he believe he didn’t commit. He had a car accident 10 years before he was released from prison and caused him anterograde amnesia which means he has short term memory loss. Because of that, he believes he didn’t commit the crime that he did 10 years ago, which involved a bank heist and killing a security guard. His appearance shows him as slightly toned and rough after his times in prison, and his attributes he had before the accident includes cocky and confident. He has a very close relationship with his brother no matter how bad their situations are. He was mainly influenced by the punk movement, and worship bands like The Sex Pistols. His favourite films includes The Long Good Friday, Snatch and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. Although he has the presence of having the hero archetypes, as darker secrets soon reveal, he will start becoming like an antagonist, which challenges the stereotypical idea of protagonists being heroes. We also begin to realise his convoluted feelings as his vengeance is derived not only by his accident, but the pain he didn’t feel over the years because of his short term memory loss. So he would be considered as a three dimensional character.

Dan – Scott’s brother, born on 9th July 1980. Although he won’t be introduced properly until the last act of the story, he is considered as one of the main characters as he is mainly involved with the situation that derived Scott seeking revenge. Flashbacks of the relationship between him and Scott will show how close they really are. He has similar tastes as Scott’s, which he also worships the punk movement and British crime comedy films. He is more toned than Scott, as being the bigger brother, Dan is a lot stronger physically and emotionally. Although he deals with real life situations, He does unrealistic actions, like robbing a bank and abusing Scott’s mental state.

Detective John Smith – born on 2nd November 1981, used to be uniformed officer 5 years ago, he’s now a private detective for the Criminal Investigation Department. As a uniformed officer 10 years ago, he was involved with Scott’s murder case, which he believed Scott was innocent. After Scott was proved guilty, Smith decided to become a police detective as he believed that the Police Department isn’t doing their jobs right, and being a detective helps gather more evidence to prove a man innocent or guilty. After finding out Scott’s parole and early release, he decided to finish the case, proving his innocence by investigating who framed Scott. His character is more open minded which contrasts the stereotypical police officers who only thinks about arresting criminals without considering their point of view. He always observe everything, making every little detail important. He wears a suit and is emotionally reserved (no emotion) which mainly reinforces the Hollywood stereotype of detectives being mysterious.

Results – Graphs

Out of 5 respondents  all of them are in the age of 16-20 years, 2 of them are male and 3 are female, these were the results for the radio drama survey:

These results shows that 60% of the people in the age of 16-20 years always go to the internet and 40% always watch television while they sometimes listen to radio and read newspapers and magazine which shows that the younger demographic are less interested in radio which could be something to improve for my radio drama piece.

This bar chart shows how often they listen to radio and 80% of the vote responded that they listen to radio 1-6 hours per week.

This bar chart shows what their favourite station is and 80% of the vote responded with BBC Radio 1 which is the most popular radio station in the UK, while 20% responded with Heart FM which is the one of the mainstream pop station. It shows that the young demographic only listen to radio for music or news instead of radio dramas.

This pie chart shows how many people have listened to a radio drama before and 60% of the vote which are in the age of 16-20 years said no. I wouldn’t say it’s a surprise as the younger demographic interacts with other media more like the internet and television. These were the responses when I asked if they’ve ever listened to a radio drama, and if yes what’s their favourite station, and if no, why:

One of the responses shows that the young demographic only listen to radio for music instead of radio dramas. Although one responded that their favourite radio drama is Orson Welles’ War of the Worlds so maybe the science fiction genre could interest the younger demographic.

This chart shows how many people like a certain genre and 40% of the vote chose drama and romance as one of their favourite genre while 20% chose crime/thriller, horror and mystery. I could maybe infuse two certain genres to interest the audience more.

This shows what they want to hear in a radio drama and 80% of the vote replied with music. Again, this illustrates that they only listen to music in radio. However, 60% responded that they would likely want to hear sound effects and 20% likely wants character development within the radio drama.

I also asked the respondents on how they could improve radio dramas so it would interest broader audiences and around 40% skipped the question, while 60% replied with:

“Explosions!”

It seemed to be the only thing that could interest the audience which doesn’t really make an accurate conclusion on how radio dramas can be improved.

My radio drama’s target audience are mainly 18-25 demographic and the responses for my survey are 16-20, and there wasn’t enough respondents to make an accurate conclusion which made my research slightly difficult, but I will use some of these information for my radio drama as I believe it has made me realise what would interest my target audience because it would be the opposite of what the respondents, which are the younger demographic, has responded with the survey. I will still use some information from the results, like using music and sound effects and infusing some genres to interest the target audience.

Target Audience

We decided our target audience will be the age of 18-30 years with mostly male audience, and mainly working class with a multicultural ethnicity. We believe it will appeal to the age of 18-30 years because of its dark tone of the narrative, perhaps anyone younger than 18 years old would find the ending, swearing and some violent scenes too shocking, while it mainly interests the male audience as the most characters in the story are male and maybe they could relate to one of them. At first we thought it would interest the upper/middle class for its convoluted narrative but the characters are working class; mainly the thugs, and the working class could relate to the characters. While we decided it will interest a multicultural audience as we try not to be offensive to a certain cultural society, so we included characters like Jin Ling and the thugs.

Genre – Psychological Thriller

Our group have chosen a genre and it will be psychological thriller. The stereotypical aspects of a psychological thriller usually includes a non-linear narrative or flashbacks, some twists and turns, and involves a back story for the main character, and consistent themes include identity, perception, death and mind with some realism. For example, Christopher Nolan’s Memento is loosely influenced for our radio drama for its main character’s state of having anterograde amnesia. Also, films like The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable influences the twist endings of most psychological thrillers. I don’t believe it would create a problem when transferring these styles into radio as most of these doesn’t necessarily involve a visual element and psychological thrillers mainly focuses on the narrative. And these rules has to be there in order “supervise” filmmaker’s production and audience’s reading (Ryall).

It would be difficult to challenge these aspects and make it as entertaining and intriguing as possible as they were made this way to interest a certain target audience, so if I change the structures and styles; chronological narrative and one dimensional characters, it would seem boring to the audience.

FINAL RADIO TREATMENT – Exciderunt

This thriller drama revolves around a man with anterograde amnesia and seeks revenge for being charged of killing a security officer during a bank heist. It is influenced to films like Memento and The Lookout and film noirs like LA Confidential for its setting and narrative. This story would interest the target audience, which is an age group of 18-25 along with a mixed gender audience, because of its neo-noir style and its heavy focus on the unstable emotional states of characters as the story progresses, especially Scott. Although its structure will be in chronological order, it will have flashbacks that will relate to the film and twists will be revealed as the film progresses. It covers the themes of revenge, perception and memory.

Characters

• Scott Vaughan – 28 years old, has a short term memory loss due to a car accident
• Dan Vaughan – 32 years old, Scott’s brother
• Detective John Smith – Officer investigating and finishing Scott’s murder case
• Brock, Dion and Jerome – The thugs involved with the bank heist
• Lucy Vaughan – Scott’s sister
• Jin Ling – Security Guard who was killed during a bank heist
• Detective Peter Buswell – Officer 2

Plot

Set in Hackney, Scott, who has anterograde amnesia due to a car accident, was jailed for 25 years for the murder of Jin Ling, a security guard that he didn’t know he committed, after a bank heist that he didn’t know went wrong. After parole decided to release him early due to his mental state and his good behaviour, he seeks revenge for the people who, he believes, framed him.

While Officer John Smith, who worked with the murder case 10 years ago and disagreed with the verdict of Scott being guilty, decided to find more evidence and “finish” the case. A flashback 10 years ago is shown when Smith asked Scott if he did it, and Scott replied, “I don’t know if I did it or not, but somehow I deserve it”.

Scott visits her sister, Lucy, and gives her his notepad containing his rough times in prison, including his interaction with a man who took care of him, who was then executed. He then asks Lucy what happened to him and his brother Dan. She said she only knows that Dan was killed by a group who was involved in a bank heist. She then gives his keys to his old place.

He goes to his old place and finds a notepad which contains every memory he had ever since his recovery till the time he went to prison. He finds out that the last half of the notepad is ripped off but he finds an address in the notepad that could lead to the group who was involved.

Meanwhile, Smith arrives at Lucy’s place and asks her where Scott is now and where Dan used to live, hopefully find some more evidence about Scott, and she gives Dan’s address which is the same address that Scott found in the notepad. As Smith leaves, Lucy phones someone (unknown to the audience) and tells them to be careful as she thinks Smith might be onto him.

Scott goes to the address written on the notepad, which is Dan’s place, and finds Brock, one of the men involved. He tortures Brock for information. Brock revealed him that the other two men involved, Dion and Jerome, ran off with the money they stole from the bank heist and told them where they are now. He then shoots Brock point blank.

Smith arrives at Dan’s place and finds the Brock’s dead body. He investigates the place and finds a sent text message to Dion to be aware. He then searches Dion’s profile and finds an address.

Scott arrives at Dion and Jerome’s place and realising that Scott’s out for revenge, starts a shootout and ends up killing Jerome and injure Dion. Scott prepares to kill Dion, but he reveals to Scott that Dan is still alive, and where he lives now.

Smith arrives at the crime scene, he investigates the place and finds Jerome’s phone. He finds a very recent missed call from an unknown number, which happens to be Dan’s. He tries calling the number, and while waiting, continues to investigate the place. Dan answers and asks where Jerome is now, and Smith replies, “Who is this?”, and Dan hangs up. He sees a picture of Dion, Jerome, Brock and Dan together and realises Dan and the group planned the whole thing. Smith goes back to Dan’s place and asks the police for backup.

Scott goes back to Dan’s place and reunites with Dan. Scott, starts assuming that Dan is involved, points a gun at him and asks what really happened. Dan reveals that he planned the whole bank heist and that after Scott’s recovery from the car accident, Dan used him as an advantage and asks him to help as he thinks there’d be no flaws to the plan and they need the money for Scott’s “treatment”.

A flashback then occur in which during the bank heist, Scott accidently shot Ling as an act of self defence, and they all flee from the scene. Feeling guilty, Scott wrote what he did to his notepad but Dan ripped it off, protecting them from the police. Soon as the evidence are turning against them, Dan betrayed him and “confessed” that he wasn’t involved and that Scott planned the whole thing and killed the guard.

Filled with rage, Scott shoots Dan in the shoulder multiple times. Horrified about what he had just done, Scott helps him stop the bleeding. Dan apologizes to him and admitted he wanted Scott to know he was dead so he wouldn’t be a suspect to the bank heist. Dan then dies from blood loss. Scott burns the notepad to avoid being a suspect and suddenly looks horrified as he finds Dan’s body on the floor after not remembering what just happened. He then calls the police and holds Dan’s body. The police and Smith arrive and take Scott to the station for questions.

At the station, Smith asks who killed Dan, and Scott doesn’t respond. Smith is then asked to go back to Brock’s place for evidence and just as he leaves, he asks if he did it and Scott responds, “I don’t know if I did it or not, but somehow I deserve it”.

Here is an example of the script:

SCENE 1 – POLICE STATION

SCENE BEGINS WITH NOISES BEING HEARD IN THE BACKGROUND, INCLUDING TELEPHONE RINGS, PEOPLE CHATTING AND KEYBOARD BEING TYPED. A DOOR IS HEARD BEING OPENED THEN CLOSED. EVERYTHING GOES SILENT, THEN FOOTSTEPS ARE HEARD, STOPS AND A PILE OF PAPERWORK IS SLAMMED TO THE TABLE. PAGES ARE BEING TURNED WHILE OFFICER SMITH’S DIALOGUE IS HEARD.

OFFICER SMITH:       So Scott Vaughan. 21 years old. It says here that you were charged for the murder of Jin Ling, on December 15^th 2002, at 40 Islington High Street, London. What’s your defence?

BRIEF SILENCE INDICATING NO RESPONSE.

OFFICER SMITH: Look, I need you to work with me here, Scott. I’m here to help you.

Radio Treatment – The Feud

The Feud is a crime thriller drama for the target audience of 18-40 years along with a mixed gender audience. The story revolves around Jake Costello, who is the son of Mob boss of the Costello gang, who falls in love with Amber Stracci, who turns out to be the daughter of Costello’s arch nemesis, the Stracci Gang. As their love becomes stronger, the feud between the gang becomes stronger. This is strongly influenced by the famous play Romeo and Juliet while references crime thriller films like Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas and Casino. This will interest the target audience because it covers several themes like love, betrayal and father and son relationships. The female audience would relate to the female lead, Amber, as she is a strong character at first but is weakened by her love with Jake. while Jake represents weakness at first but becomes stronger when he’s with her so a theme of dominance is also represented here. It will be in non-chronological order with some flashbacks, involving Jake’s childhood and his bond with his father before he died.

We are introduced with some characters like Provenzano, a police officer who was also a good friend of Costello. He’s been the father figure of Jake ever since his father died. Costello, Jake’s father, the dominant figure who is very calm yet affirmative. and Stracci, a very aggressive leader. All of these characters represents the theme of father figures, which is one of the biggest themes of the story.

This is an example of a short scene, the first scene where they’re in a warehouse where Jake is about to get killed by one of Stracci’s men.

THE FEUD

 

SCENE 1 – WAREHOUSE

 

MUSIC INTRO

ANNOUNCER: The Feud, The Warehouse, written by Alvin Maduli, with (NAME) as AMBER, (NAME) as JAKE, (NAME) as PROVENZANO. We join them at the beginning where Jake is about to get shot by one of Stracci’s men.

A GUN CLICK IS HEARD AND HEAVY BREATHING IS HEARD.

A HEARTBEAT IS PLAYED .

AMBER: I love you Jake…

A GUN SHOT IS HEARD.

(SILENCE)