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Audio Drama Session 4
9th March 2009 Steven Canny, BBC Radio producer took this session. He said, loosely, the title of the session might be something like: "READING OR ACTING" We thought about the art of devising and, more specifically, the art of devising on the radio. How do you do it? Who does it? The answer is "not many". It is possible to work from bullet points. It is possible to work from "skeleton scripts", scripts which provide, i suppose, the bones of something.. the structure, beginning and ending lines of scenes, brief blurbs. With any method, including this one, the relationship between the writers and the actors is very important. Writers need to be open to actors' input. Trains in Europe are like cafes. Ours are like chapels at rest. We listened to an extract from "STRANGERS ON A TRAIN", a Radio 4 piece which was broadcast at 11pm over a summer. It was made as a sort of response to the kind of documentaries that were being made on Radio 4 at the time (and still are really).The whole series is from bullet points. The goal was for it to be comic but "something to brush your teeth to". 4 days recording (ie many many hours) were whittled down to just 90 mins of broadcast.Nat plays himself throughout the series. Stuart has more freedom, playing about 30 characters in total, including, for example Keith - who roars like a lion, kayaks to work and has a weird obsession with Mandela. We can see the bullet points, but the text itself was a virtuosic stream of, seemingly, babble. The babble nonetheless, coming as it did from specific aims, gave the listener an idea of what and who Keith was and why he was funny. I've got to produce a drama about slavery from an idea by a comedian. Then we listened to some of "SLAVERY, THE MAKING OF" in which the actors aped spontaneity. On Radio 4, the premier news channel in the UK, programs have to signal that it is "faux". We talked about the problems "Down The Line" had, complaints from people who thought it was a real phone in. People want to know the truth. People believe stuff. Finally we listened to some of "HOTEL EUROPA" by John Dryden. The opening was very produced and epic but then, surprisingly for some of us, the tone changed to one of relative domesticity and downbeat "realism". Despite the contrasting styles of the montage opening and the dialogue scenes that followed, we were prepared to believe the actor's place in the space rendered and believe the text that was delivered. Again (for others, freshly for me), the usefulness of such things as distance from the mic were fully apparent. Not having to remember is dangerous. Then Steve spent a long time doing down the theory he was about to propose. He mentioned how he notices himself often saying things like "stop being polite!" He showed us a radio script. It is set out in numbers. This is for ease of editing. But it looks like a fucking shopping list. An agenda. Steve talked about the problem of the "formality of the form". The problem with a numbered list is there is "no filter". Memory is a great trick. Remembering lines, on stage, on screen, looks like thinking lines up. There is a filter. Not so on radio. We laughed about the phrase "can you get a knife in there?" The issue of leaving gaps so you can cut it up more easily. As a producer, Steven said there was no need really for an actor to worry about things like that. He talked about the importance of supportive sounds. The authentic sounds of human interaction. They're almost never obstructive. Some people mentioned how you can hear when people are reading. The target should be at the forefront of one's imagination, if not vision. We concluded that the theory about the problem of the numbered list and the lack of a filter on radio was neither boring nor stupid. I'm venting my legs. We were given six scenes, each with first lines, last lines and a brief blurb about what happens in the scene. In pairs, as Fran and Sparks, we recorded ourselves performing the scenes, improvising the lines between first and last. We listened back. There seems to be such a thing, as well as a reading voice, as an improvising voice. We can listen to the radio for an hour and not hear anything that is actually "plausible". Then we tried to remember and transcribe the lines we improvised. We recorded again, this time reading the lines we had transcribed. We listened back. In the scripted versions, on the whole, there seemed to be less to figure out. Plot points were clearer. Some felt it was almost too clear. But could you listen to the messier, improvised dialogue for ninety minutes? Maybe... Could Mr & Mrs Radio 4 at home? We noticed, also, how improvising means you're less "on mic". Fearful of what shit might come out of our mouths, we are evasive, less direct in our delivery when improvising. Also worth noting was how tiny changes can make big differences. In one scene, a change of location (from outside to inside) made the second recording (inside) much more claustrophobic and sinister; it didn't feel like there was anywhere to escape. We also talked about how easy it is to go for the laugh in improvisation and how, really, that is not always the bravest option. WHEN RADIO IS REALLY RIGHT, YOU FORGET THAT YOU'RE LISTENING TO THE RADIO Xx x |
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TimEvans |
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, May 21 2009, 12:29 PM EDT
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| Started By | Thread Subject | Replies | Last Post | ||
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| AleFleming | Audio from this session | 0 | Mar 27 2009, 11:58 AM EDT by AleFleming | ||
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Thread started: Mar 27 2009, 11:58 AM EDT
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Hello - all the pieces, improvised and scripted, from this session can be found on www.audiotheque.co.uk...
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| willsharpe | Lay Out | 3 | Mar 12 2009, 7:55 AM EDT by willsharpe | ||
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Thread started: Mar 10 2009, 5:53 PM EDT
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For some reason it wants to set it all out in the middle like a poem. I can't change that. I've tried. i give up.
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| Jeremyjmortimer | Stephen Canny | 1 | Mar 11 2009, 5:27 PM EDT by Ben_Hassell | ||
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Thread started: Mar 11 2009, 1:21 PM EDT
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Just to say that Stephen Canny is one of our best Drama producers, but he is also a writer and theatre director. He recently wrote the script for the Peepolykus 'Spyski !' at the Lyric and the stage adaptation of Hound of the Baskervilles .
That thing about making scripted drama sound as if it is improvised is something we struggle for quite a bit in radio. |
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