Radio Drama- Hitch Hikers Guide To The Galaxy

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a science fiction comedy radio series written by Douglas Adams (with some material in the first series provided by John Lloyd). It was originally broadcasted in the United Kingdom by the bbc.

Finally!! We have a name for our Radio Drama!! ROUGH CUT!

We finally have thought up of a name for our radio drama it is called rough cut!
We first thought of The Village girl but it was misleading to the viewers as they may have thought the setting/location was a village when it fact it meant a young girl in a big city of London trying to pursue her career ambitions. We decided on rough cut from thinking of fashion names and searching the internet for different fashion names to combine. I also looked in different magazines for different words and styles. One of the girls from the group thought of passion for fashion but i disagreed as i thought it was really cheesy, basic and not exciting enough and makes the drama seem uninteresting. i looked in many magazines and come across..words like The Runway, Style Mania etc We called it rough cut as the story itself is quite rough with stories of cheating, relationships,good vs evil etc a lot of stories and emotions happen in the different states of equilibrium (Todorovs Theory) so we thought it was quite appropriate also the word cut, as in the fashion world you cut different fabrics to make a garment so we think its relevant to the main protagonist Lauren and the Main Adversary Vivienne as it is linked to their careers so the word link well together and create a really good title.

Setting



this is royal albert hall which was too large for what we needed



This is Pure London which i chosen for our Venue

this is at pure london where shows and fairs is happening

The setting for our drama was very important as it needed to be somewhere suitable for a real fashion show, to make it realistic and accurate.  We wanted to find to have a venue which was grand and modern for hosting fashion events and somewhere in the heart of London city as this is where the drama is located and if we used a well known place it would be more realistic to the audience. we thought of the Royal Albert hall in london but as that is quite a big place and lauren plays a starting out designer the venue was bigger than needed for the character so we carried out my research through internet searches – finding out what places were available and suitable to hire. i looked at pure london which is where fashion shows and fashion fairs are held but the group disagreed as we needed a venue where there is only one fashion runway although it would of been a good location for a new fressh designer so then we looked at This website: http://www.eventwise.co.uk/html/fashion-show-venues-london/ which was helpful as it showed us a lot of possible options, but we were looking for somewhere more well-known and recognizable to our target audience. so we discovered Somerset House which  seems to be a suitable place for our drama as it is the venue for London Fashion Week this year. This makes it current and recognizable, reflecting our drama as realistic and contemporary for our modern target audience. Also, those listeners who have a keen interest in fashion will be aware of Somerset House being the venue of London Fashion Week, so could easily engage with the drama, as the setting reflects a truthful representation of a genuine fashion show.

Characters

The Main Protagonist- our central character is Lauren who i imagine as a young woman who has extremely good talent in fashion but she lacks a bit in confidence as she considers herself as an outsider of the fashion industry and thinks for the worst, but she has a feisty, impetuous and ambitious side to her . Her mum died of cancer which she relies on her Boyfriend Chris to support and help her out with her fashion productions. She has tried to make herself a success and worked for Vivienne her ex boss who she walked out of her job after a huge row. i describe lauren as dedicated young girl who is trying to pursue her dreams and career and securing herself with money. she is a caring, down to earth but can be  naive as she trusts everybody she meets which is sometimes why she gets stabbed in the back, at times Lauren is a girl who will stand her ground if needed and has a humorous side but never takes it to far but she is mainly a friendly,caring girl. These personality traits attract the listener to instantly to liking her.
In Terms of Appearance i see Lauren as a very short girl about 5ft,4inches who has fiery Red hair she stands out a bit which makes her different, i see her wearing clothes like floral dresses but looks sweet and innocent looking.

This is How i Imagine Lauren to look like 

This is  Ali Redcliffe from material Girl

We were influenced by many TV shows and films such as Material girl, Ugly Betty, and Devil Wears Prada  which have influenced what we want our characters to be like in material girl there is a girl called Ali RedCliffe who is an ambitious women who can be feisty but is very down to earth she influenced me a lot in terms of character ideas for Lauren's personality traits  especially name picking as we were trying to find a simple name but nice compared to Vivienne who has a really upper class, posh name to show the difference. even the show influence our drama in terms of sound effects etc bringing ideas to how we want our drama to be like also how to bring a younger target audience interested



Devil Wears Prada- Andy 



ugly betty



This is from the Devil Wears Prada and there is young women who is Andy trying to pursue her dreams in the fashion industry and in all of these shows and films all portray good vs evil. Andy plays a naive young woman comes to New York and scores a job as the assistant to one of the city's biggest magazine editors, the ruthless and cynical Miranda Priestly.which is another example of an evil boss and also they show boring simplistic names compared to the boss who's name is Miranda a posh upper class name. Another programme is Ugly Betty who is a very ordinary girl, plain jane type in the fashion industry. All of these characters have the same traits and characteristics which is the type of personality that people like and makes the viewer engage with the character also when bad things happen the viewer will engage and feel sorry for the character also people relate to the stories themselfs.

The second protagonist: Evil Vivienne

I imagine Vivienne as a old, mid forties woman whos fashion career is dying out. I see her as a women stuck in her ways, has a chip on a shoulder. Vivienne is a woman who think's she better than everyone, uptight, posh, more money than sense type of woman. She is very overprotective and ambitous although she does anything to make sure she is at the top and best although what she does is not always the best or cleverist thing to do. There is always a Good Vs Evil character especially in these type of films, These characters Portray Vivienne such as Cruella Deville who is an evil character trying to kill puppies for there spotty fur or Miranda from Devil Wears Prada who Miranda is the boss of Andy but she makes Andys life hard work so it shows good vs evil. Another portrayal of these type of Characters is from Material girl the Woman is Davina bailey who is the evil ex boss even in the image it portrays there relationship especially as there standing back to back, good vs evil.

Script Log :Changes and Developments to the script:

After reading through our script we felt the narrative should be stronger and a longer script. the story line we had was too simple so we wanted it to be more exciting for our listener by having more shocking story lines and to make it exciting for our aimed target audience.

A drama is usually a character or characters who are in conflict – (we have followed this convention with the narrative revolving around protagonist Lauren’s conflict with her ex-boss Vivienne.)  However, dramas usually include shocking events that make the audience feel empathy for the protagonist and be able to relate to their issues. Our drama was lacking this intensity – (the main disruption in the narrative was Lauren’s final dress for the fashion show being damagaged by Jeffrey, Vivienne personal assistant) – we needed something more, to create an impact on the listeners and create a stronger narrative that  fits our chosen genre.To improve our narrative in this way we:

• Created a new scene in which Lauren’s boyfriend Chris is having an affair with Lauren’s ex boss and enemy, Vivienne. 
•  We then decided that as a climax to the plot, the truth would be revealed to Lauren by Vivienne in the final scene - creating a shocking and memorable ending to the radio drama.
• we also added areas in the script which were funny this developed our theme into a sub genre of comedy/drama which would appeal more to our young target auidence.  It makes the drama more amusing as well as dramatic.

here is our typed up 2nd draft of our script:
  which we changed the first scene to Vivienne and Laurens boyfriend Chris in bed together which we introduce the characters and their relationship by Chris saying to Vivienne that  this is not right, your my girl friends ex boss and that he loves her so it shows the relationship he has with Lauren at the same time of engaging with the viewer he is cheating on her with Lauren's ex boss which all comes out in the last scene but Chris is black mailed by Vivienne as she threatens to tell Lauren if he doesn't stay with her. we made some slight changes to this scene as we had his mobile ringing twice but its not needed as it slows down the scene and Chris is in a rush in this scene.

Scene two is the day of the fashion show which we changed the setting from being in a street walking to the venue to a dressing room in royal Albert hall, we also decided to get rid of the Character Roxy to make the script clearer and by reducing characters that have a few lines we make the bond between Chris and Lauren more . so in scene two it is just the characters Lauren and Chris.

This was scene three but we have joined the scenes together we show in this scene Chris being really nice to Lauren which makes him look bad to the listeners as he is cheating on her. we also did this to make the character consistent. when Vivienne is talking to Jeffrey we added what he does (personal Assistant) in the script and has Vivienne shouts at Jeffrey being really bossy, he squeals to show the relationship between him and Vivienne that he is scared of her and that his a bit of a push over we also added to the scene Vivienne saying "MY!" which shows how self centered she is and she alters her voice in the scene as she shouts at him but then she wants a favour so her pitch is altered to let the viewers know she is up to something.

Scene 5: is at the fashion show, when the finale dress gets ruined our first idea was that it gets purposely ruined with red paint although we thought it is too original so we decided that we would have the dress ruined with iron marks all over it, so we changed that on the script also there was lines for Roxy who is an ex character so her lines in this scene are the model who has to wear the dress so it shows the relationship and the reaction of the dress.












Scene 6-last scene this is where lauren is happy as her collection turned out well and the dress although lauren and vivienne bump in to one another and hell breaks loose and lauren finds out about chris and Vivienne. we didn't want to have a happy ending as this is  a series drama it would carry on to the  next weeks so its carry on drama just like many TV soaps like East enders etc and like many Radio Dramas like The Archers.                                            

Rough Draft of our Script-Village Girl

This is our first rough draft of our script which we created, which we realized that it was only about 3 minutes long when reading it  so we need to develop it and make the script stronger and a tighter script. we written down ideas on the script like what should happen to the ruined dress in the drama, we thought that there could be red splodges of paint on it. but then we discussed that its quite original and been done before so we are going to change the script and make it more interesting also we named the radio drama the village girl as to what the character Lauren is as she is a young girl in a big city  but then the drama was misleading to the audience so we also need to change the name of the radio drama.

radio drama ideas 1: of character,setting,accents and plot...

 

This mindmap summed up our first ideas about the radio drama. In lesson we created a basic structure of a narrative, wrote down what appropriate settings and locations would be and developed our main characters by choosing their names and roles.
As a group we made a mind map of ideas for our radio drama, we first thought of different story line ideas, that we could uses for a plot from looking at what we did previously thinking of doing a horror and looking at myths and legends we thought we would be different and we come up with the idea of a drama based on two fashion designers that are competing against each other. the story was based on two characters that were good vs evil, young vs old, hero vs villain. the characters we created were Lauren who is the main protagonist she is a young  girl who previously worked for Vivienne but ex-boss was jealous of her ideas  and sacked her so new designer  Lauren is just starting out who is a big girl in a big city trying to pursue her dreams and Vivienne who is the other leading character (villain) is  a women in her late 40s who clothes are dying out since Lauren's left her business, Vivienne is trying to wreck Laurens career  in the radio drama. we were influenced by a lot of films and TV shows such as devil wears Prada, Material Girl and Ugly Betty. other characters we included were Chris who is Laurens boyfriend and Roxy who is Lauren's best friend and assistant and we also had Jeffrey who is Vivienne's personal assistant. we thought of different accents we could include in our drama we thought that Vivienne could have a strong, deep french accent, which with a strong accent it sounds like she has authority compared to Lauren who has a soft spoken voice with a little London accent. the genre is a bit of a comedy drama as we want in our script some funny areas to engage with the listener and make them intrigued with the story line of whats happening next!. we thought of different locations for our drama and we thought of London as we can create different sound effects anywhere such as car sounds, music, clapping, high heels other settings were a hall for where a fashion show can be held, and on busy streets where there walking, more recognized sounds so the viewer knows whats going on. as i have listened to many radio dramas and have got confused where exactly the location and sound etc were so i want it to be quite easy to imagine in the audiences mind.

the plot idea for our radio drama was the first state of equilibrium: is Lauren is hosting a fashion show and every thing is running smoothly, then there is disruption: as Vivienne finds out about Lauren hosting a fashion show and Vivienne plans to ruin Laurens show by hosting one herself. then theirs recognition: as Lauren finds out about Vivienne show and Vivienne personal assistant Jeffrey has to ruin the dress. then repair: the ruined dress is a success  and the new equilibrium is Lauren is happy and gets heard by all other designers etc a step in to her career and Vivienne is left with no one at her fashion show.

Ideas on genre and conventions for radio drama

As a group we made a mind map based on different genres and the conventions of that genre, we did this to see what type of genre we wanted to develop with our radio drama. as a class we had been looking at different myths and legends for a storyline for our drama. we first thought of doing a horror radio drama as they are more engaging with the audience and thought sound effects would be easy for it. we thought that it would be too easy and predictable just like many horror radio dramas so we thought we would be different and choose a different genre.

we were thinking of Creating a radio drama aimed at young people, teenage/early 20 year olds, is new and exciting and the plot would have to be relevant to todays society. Therefore the group found it important to think of a strong, unique storyline to engage a  young contemporary audience. many of the radio dramas we have listened too, have been male orientated such as war of the worlds, hitchhikers guide to the galaxy etc and the male characters in them were male so we thought we would have a female protagonist.

The Archers radio drama

The Archers is the longest running serial drama in the world, it started in Janruary 1st 1951 is still running on BBC it is a radio soap and in the 1950's it was very popular as radio was very dominant espcially after the war.By 2001 13 and half a thousand episodes had been made. the drama is based around a fictional village which is very agricultural with farmers etc, soaps are to make people escape there own lives and in the drama the location is set near the cotsworlds which is not real but to make the drama feel real to the audience. The Archers is based on families which are wealthy and they know each other it is one small community together which go to village meetings and talk about food labels etc.  one of the main characters is Helen Archer who is a fragile woman but is very independant and pregnant with sperm donar-  middle class women compared to her mother, Pat Archer who is higher middle class as she speaks very formal language and well spoken proper english who is very protective and motherly over Helen also her husband Tony speaks well spoken and he plays a very miserable careless man. other characters in the Drama are Elizabeth who is a business woman and mother she wants the best for her children but still know children need to have fun compared to her husband who wanted there children to go boarding school and do extra maths lessons over the christmas period, he speaks proper english too. which sets the scene that there a wealthy high class families in the country side very different to what a town would be especially crime etc as a man in the drama is complaining about his dad stealing a tree where many dramas have violence gun crimes etc very different its almost as though the drama is "Too Good" to be true as its not like that in real life no crime etc. the special effects in the drama are water running to show theyre in the kitchen washing up also pouring stuff hearing it clang to make sense of the location set. there is also long silence to show changing of scenes in to other scenes and families. i liked the archers i thought it was a simple narrative very easy to understand.

Twilight Zone

Twilight Zone is a radio drama which was a cult series and also got made in to a TV programme. it is about this man who is on a ship and keeps feeling funny and imagining things, there is a sound on the ship and people are trying to find out what it is. There is the captain who has a deep accent to show he has authority, Belle, is the man who keeps seeing things and hearing things he has a low pitched ,calm voice until he goes nuts and hears things. Belle then starts to get loud and high pitched also the doctor who looks after Belle, she has a deep voice like the captain which show's some sort of authority in there jobs. the sound effects in the drama is when Belle opens the door there are man shouting his name but when the doctor opens it is silence to create tension. comparison to the TV programme and Radio Drama , the radio is clearer and louder so the audience understand, it is more fast paced and less silent compared to the TV also the script in the TV a man asks if Belle is okay and he says yeah compared to the Radio which he says he is not okay and then faints. the radio drama was quite good, i understood the drama and thought it was very flowing and dramatic.the radio drama also sets out that you can also here himslef in his conscience.

Hitch Hikers Guide To The Galaxy-Radio Drama

Hitch Hikers Guide To The Galaxy: is a science comedy fictional radio drama that starts with two men talking which is about one of the men's house about to be bulldozed to build a new bypass but the other man say's " it does not matter as the world is going to end" which the other man does not believe, at the end of the discussion they end up going to the pub and as they leave the pub they get a lift on a alien space craft as the aliens are destroying earth which makes the drama so funny, on the space craft aliens read poetry to the men.
the language in the Radio Drama was english, one men spoke proper english (well spoken) and the other man  spoke good english although i thought he had a bit of a london cockney accent. the dialect was formal although the choice of language was informal and the pictch of there voice was medium pitched. the special effects were wind when the aliens turned up and music which was 80s style. i thought that this drama was  really boring , i found it very confusing to who was who at times and what was happening it was a very confusing drama. in comparison to war of the worlds, war of the worlds was more interesting,clear, easy to understand than this. the two dramas both speak formal but in some choice of language it was informal and they both had male characters in there drama . in difference to one another this drama was fictional where as war of the worlds was fictional but it was made to seem realistic not fictional also war of the worlds started of as a news report wheras hitch hikers drama starts with a narrator in which they were structured, and war of the worlds had more space sounds and explosions wheras this drama did not which suprised me as this drama is more recent that war of the worlds so they had better technology although the music they used was 80's, war of the world was just had an orchestra and piano.overall i preffered War of the worlds than this Radio Drama.

War of the Worlds Radio Drama

The War of the Worlds was an episode of the American radio drama anthology series Mercury Theatre on the Air. It was performed as a Halloween episode of the series on October 30, 1938 and aired over the Columbia Broadcasting System radio network. Directed and narrated by Orson Welles, the episode was an adaptation of H. G. Wells' novel The War of the Worlds. I listened to the Radio Drama "War of the Worlds" which the story was being played to the audience as if it was a real news report of an alien invasion which paniced many people although it happened when another radio station was on a break so people switched over which then drawn people in because they really thought there was an alien attack. The mode of address was it was directed to the listener rather than a story being listened and when they tell the audience that its not real they changed it in to a drama but listeners carried on listening as they were hooked. the narrative was formal language what was descriptive like the news reporter in the drama, the accent was standard proper english, and the language was english. The pitch was mainly medium although when it turns in to a drama there are two men talking and the internal monologue of when they speak, there is no sound to make the audience know there is no one left apart from them to make it feel as though there isolated but as the men talk they sound very high pitched and echoing. The sound effects in the drama are screaming, explosions, alien noises to set the scene to the listener and make it seem real. the music was calm with piano and classical just after they annouced a alien invasion and an orchestra playing which is a simulation of real life radio. There was a awkward silence to create tension and to make the viewer think whats happening.
The radio drama  was quite good and interesting although sometimes it got confusing where it was in the story.

Radio Drama Log-2

I listened on BBC Iplayer a radio drama called the Colour Purple. it was about a black girl born in to poverty called Celie who lives in south america who is uneducated girl who is very religious and believes in christianity. at the start of the drama she is 14 and as she grows up through poverty i beleive her social class background is lower class.(i believe through the drama, times passes so she is 14 but it runs her life up to when she is 20 years old) The Charaters in this drama are her Father who is a very twisted,bitter, grumpy man and also an abuser to celie as he tries to rape her and she has to be quiet, so her mother doesent know what happens which is a very emotional part of the drama, also her sister called Nettie, you can tell in the Drama that her and her sister have a strong bond. throughout the drama celie lives with a husband and i think nettie goes to live with her.
this radio drama is okay although the story is very confusing and as you cant see you have to imagine what is happening which is confusing as you dont know what really is happening i.e whether her age does change or the story line is right.

Log1- Overview of Radio Dramas and a Radio Drama i have studied.

I listened to a Radio Drama on Radio 7 called Anne Bronte. it was about a story of a young girl called Agnes Grey who seems to be a spoilt girl who owns a horse and other expensive things. it seems like the drama is set by the sea by the background music of the sea and wind. I believe it is an upper class family in the drama as she reads shakespeare books and the language is very posh and proper english. I also think this radio drama is set as though it is in the early 1900s and as there is no sign of technology apart from letters. Agnes is 18 but is treated by her parents as a child also she wants to be a governess, her family say she couldnt persue her dreams but agnes chooses to earn her own living and tries being a governess. my opinion on this Radio Drama was that it was boring and is more for a middle aged and plus target audience.

Overview of Radio Dramas:
Radio Dramas are very out dated because of new technologies such as TV and films Etc, Many years ago Radio was the main input for finding out News especially during the war it was the only source to find out what was happening and it was also mainly used to entertain people. many young people like myself have never even listened to a radio drama because we now have other ways of entertainment such as TV, Films, Games etc so many radio dramas are targeted towards the older generation, the radio is not a dying medium just there are other media platforms that are more dated and better. The Benefits of     radio over television drama is that you use your imagination in what you think the characters look like etc in dramas also you can listen to music on the radio  and different channels such as local networks or large networks such as radio one, etc and its a device where you can listen to anywhere such as on your phone, in the car, at home its an easy media platform where you can receive anywhere. From looking at the history of radio dramas and knowing that they are not very popular compared to TV that i am thinking when i produce my radio drama that i will target it to a younger audience with an updated story and using todays sound effects etc a more updated fun radio drama something that will influence the younger audience and make them interested in radio dramas.