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Audio Drama Session 2
BBC Radio Session Monday 23rd February 2009 This session started off with a run-down of some of the basics to think about when dealing with the microphone - and in terms of what to think about when actually physically recording, in order to make it successfully convincing to the audience. One of the first things put to us was the importance of thinking about the microphone as the ear of the audience. This sounded obvious but I had never thought about that in such a literal way before! And it really helped me to just visualise a little ear on the end of it moving around the room. What went along with this was a discussion about how you can completely control the perspective of the story that the audience is getting. I admit something bristled inside me at this point, as one of the things I love most in theatre is giving the control of perspective to an audience, getting them to choose, and working in a space where they are all hyper-aware of each other (eg. in the round) so that there is a physical imperative to ina way be experiencing everything via their perspective as well - like when you watch a sprinter there's a bit of your muscles that imagines doing that. I think multiplicity of perspective creates the best work ever and it's why Shakespeare is so awesome (and The Factory). I will come back to this. The basics continued via demonstrations - how to have an intimate conversation - essential thing to both be on the same side - having to sort of fake looking at each other - only if you want the effect of conflict should they be on opposite sides of the mike. Jethro demonstrated walking up a mountain with a running commentary after a discussion about physical rhythms, in which we were also given an interesting example where two actors had been in a scene where one of them was pushing a bike up a hill and the other just walking - it was explained that to sound convincing they both needed to hold on to their own rhythm and not get sucked into each others'. (Which is also a great rule for acting generally!) Tristan also demonstrated the rule of always saying an entrance of exit line actually on the move so it doesn't sound like you have just teleported straight by your ears, or just flown across the room - and how it's important to walk backwards when leaving because as soon as you turn your head it's like you're disappeared. It was also highlighted that there is a kind of 1 step = 10 step (ish) ratio in terms of proximity to the mike and the effect on the imagination of the listener - so that often with walking into or away from a scene, it's important to take smaller steps which will sound normal on the recording. There was a bit more discussion then about the difference between recording in a studio or on location, the difficulties of recording period drama or sci fi on location because of modern sounds...and also the way you can trick the ear, because the brain will make the links and justify the sounds according the story they are being told (backwards footsteps usually sound forwards for example). (I started remembering bits of the Goon Show, who played audio tricks on you all the time, heavy footsteps hilariously from the wrong person, extended banging crashing walking sounds that turned out to be someone rolling a cigarette etc - gags which were funny because your brain had already assumed one thing from the sound but it turned out to be something else...countless genius examples) There was also a big point made, going along with the talk about choosing the perspective that the audience gets, is that you really have to make the choice as clear as possible, and make sure it is actually justified. We then divided into 4 groups with the task to make a quick 1 minute scene that could be recorded by someone in the group twice, from two different perspectives. The first group had a couple being shown through a house, ending up springing the owners in the master bedroom. It was a really brilliant process to watch the physical recording and then hear how effective it was - they really sounded convincingly in a house, and like we were really following the estate agent and then the couple - and there was something totally satisfying about then hearing it from a completely different perspective. There was some great sound effects too, keys in the lock, bump on the head etc. The scream of surprise at the end brought up the really important point of using 'more intensity, less volume' as a really good default rule - the importance of this was reiterated a few times. I was in the second group and we set it in a yoga class, following first the teacher dealing with keeping the class together amid interruptions, and then inside the head of the perfect student. Doing the interior monologue threw up an interesting question for me about breathing and thinking at the same time, because the breath was a conscious yogary thing, but I wasn't quite sure when to speak I was still doing the breathing even though we were inside my head! And it was really fun knowing that everyone couldn't hear what I was saying at the time - but then it sounded really loud when we played it back! Was stunned again at the sensitivity of the mike. The third group had a hostage situation in teddy bear shop, the first perspective being of the teddy bear itself, the second following the robbers. It was interesting how watching it I couldn't quite make sense of the details, but in the playback my brain did start to join up the dots - it sounded like Catherine had actually slapped the kid to shut her up, whereas I didn't know who had been by watching it. The fourth group did a parents springing the babysitters in their bed scenario (with very well-observed parent vocabulary). The first perspective seemed to be listening to the events more neutrally in the bedroom, generally following the parents; the second with the babysitters hiding in the kids room whispering. Again, as audience it was really fun guessing what was going on in the second recording, and satisfying to hear the other side. Which I think brings me back to this controlling perspective thing - and how I think you can still give your audience the choosing and a multiplicity of perspectives - simply by doing just that - giving them both...sounds obvious now but it took me a while to get to! And the thing that radio has in common with the conditions Shakespeare was writing for too, in that it is still a medium whose audience goes across all classes - which means that like Shakespeare (unlike almost every theatre writer since) you have to write for everyone without patronising anyone. Of course telly is accessible to all, but radio has the added brilliant involvement of the imagination, which can put you in Hamlet's position of being able to 'see the imminent death of 20,000 men' - by not seeing, having to imagine ourselves inside the eyes of different people, objects, walls, to entice the ear to make us all to 'see better'. Overall it was awesome to be given a really good set of things to focus on and feel like more colours are going into the palette...very exciting! Madeleine Hyland |
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| Started By | Thread Subject | Replies | Last Post | ||
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| SarahBedi | radio training | 8 | Feb 27 2009, 6:05 PM EST by Ben_Hassell | ||
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Thread started: Feb 24 2009, 8:11 AM EST
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I loved this session, especially going through the basics in such detail - it gave all the pieces at the end a far bigger vocabulary to work with, and loads to explore!
what i'm really excites me about these sessions, and it's something i'm only just begining to work out and understand, is the idea that rather than us all simply become very 'good' and able at working in radio/writing for radio, we could actually become as versatile with the medium as we (hopefully) are begining to be in theatre ... so that we could play a scene in one take, without blocking it/making decisions, so we really play with eachother and the equipment ... that sounds really obvious now i've written it down, but i think in the past i've always thought of radio as something that required blocking and decisions, due to sensitive mics/sound levels/editing, etc. but i think that as long as we are all 'match fit' and trained up (ie not flailing about in the dark) it produce some interesting results ... don't know if any of that makes sense ... xx |
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| Anonymous | RE: radio training | 2 | Feb 27 2009, 5:37 AM EST by SarahBedi | ||
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Thread started: Feb 26 2009, 5:33 AM EST
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These sessions are so productive and it sounds like everyone learnt a huge amount from the last one. Very jealous. Back next week x
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