Final Version of Radio Drama: 'Under the Mushroom Cloud'

Evaluation: How did you media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Throughout this process, this blog has been used to organise research and planning work, to show how our radio drama is unique, and how it should and can be a very successful piece. I researched audiences that still listen to radio dramas nowadays, in order to work out a suitable target audience, and to identify a possible genre for our drama. The gaming element was one we thought would be very effective, in attracting a young audience, simply due to the fact that more young people play videogames. Could we have a piece that would once again get young people listening to the airwaves?

I utilised Facebook, placing an original poster prototype to get feedback. The responses were mainly positive, except for a few which stated that I needed to adjust some of my colour levels. This was simply resolved by adjusting the levels with Photoshop.

The photography was simple. I merely went out with a short brief of the photos I needed:

                - Dark and Desolate          - Wastelands         - Nuclear war related

Overall I took around 7 or 8 photos, which I could then edit with Photoshop. Here are a few:

For the poster, and also to an extent, the feature, I needed to develop my skills with Photoshop, especially such as creating clouds in the background of images, to add to the mystery. I am however quite skilled with photoshop already, and was thus able to implement my ideas relatively easily. I did have some trouble with my feature spread though, making the polaroid picture. However, my team member Alex gave me some assistance in how to basically create it.

Overall, I utilised this blog to show my development, and progression. It has enabled me to show my original concepts, along with my improvements, to eventually create a very unique radio drama piece. I believe that the concept of a nuclear war will be very popular with a young audience too, and as such, it may attract more of these age groups to the airwaves once more.

Evaluation: What have you learned from your audience feedback?

This audience, being all males seemed to share similar beliefs in terms of how a radio drama such as ours should be put together. They also all seemed to like the gaming inspiration, though perhaps this may be because they are familiar with the 'fallout' game series.

Evaluation: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

I had originally hoped that the three products would all work together, in a way that would really sell our radio drama, and attract a large audience of listeners. In terms of marketing, I feel that the advert must go out first, catching people's attention, and givng people minimal information about the drama. This is the main reason why my advert is so vivid. A few weeks after the advert has been placed I would check feedback, and then place the feature in the radio times, several months before the drama is to air. I feel that if the poster evokes a response from the audience, they shall be intrigued to read the article. The long wait here shall hopefully increase the suspense and anticipation of the audience for the drama. The more the release is prolonged, the more they shall no doubt want to hear it. Though there is always the issue that if it is prolonged for too long, listeners may have forgotten about it when it is released.

   The poster will act as the 'enticer', its colourful and interesting deisgn shall hopefully 'rope' listeners in. The feature shall then give a detailed overview of what the drama is about, whilst intriguing the listeners. The drama will then hopefully be successful, and have a great impact on our audience. From our audience feedback, we got the impression that many of the people liked strong narratives, a disruption of the equilibrium, and well-liked characters. This was a point we made evident with our piece, having 3 main well-liked characters, with one antagonist, causing a disruption of the equilibrium. However, the equilibrium for our drama is never put straight, as the drama ends with humanity's last survivor wiped out. The Scottish accent that Nick has was also pointed out via the audience feedback as being quite comical. We decided however, that the accent had to portray a sense of unjust Scottish pride, and as such, felt no need to change it.

Evaluation: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

For our drama 'Under the Mushroom Cloud' we utilised the power of a strong narrative, incorporating tense sequences, along with a memorable and unique plot. A radio drama based around a nuclear war has never been done before, and as such, I believe we have a USP.

   One of the biggest influences for me, was the 'War of the worlds' radio broadcast, which cleverly captivated an entire nation, with the fear of an alien invasion. The clever facade that H.G.Welles utilised with attempting to make it as realistic as possible was an element I found very effective. As such, our drama uses radio broadcasts from an anonymous source, which adds to the mystery and fear of the unknown. In my opinion, there are not enough action or thriller drama's these days, and as such, I feel this may increase UTMC's appeal, and get young people listening to the radio once more. The ambience was a crucial element for making this drama successful. Several factors such as SFX had to be accounted for. Of course, as most of the human race has been wiped out, obviously we had to make sure that there was no 'hustle and bustle' in the background. All that can be heard is the wind, and maybe some falling debris here and there. There is also a faded drone which we added, when the survivors are traversing the harsh terrain. I feel this adds to the mysterious nature of the drama. Even though our drama has been placed after the 9pm watershed, there is no explicit language throughout the drama. Though there is violence; the ending of our piece, with Daniel's deranged monologue is culminated with his own suicide. This was a vital element of our piece though, and reflects a man driven to his limits.

Running Date and Details for Under the Mushroom Cloud

The first episode of Under the Mushroom Cloud shall be aired Sunday 7th August 2011 at 9pm, and shall run for 6 consecutive weeks. One episode shall be aired every saturday night after this date, as once the series runs into september, I feel that 9pm on a sunday night may be inconvenient for listeners. Especially with work and school being the next morning. Yet placing it on a saturday night time slot is much more effective. Here, I believe we shall get the largest amount of listeners.

Final Version of Double Page Spread




1) Page one of my double-page spread

 





2) Page 2 of my double page spread

(The quality of these JPEG files were slightly comprimised, due to the sheer size of the items)