Production Process Of A Radio Play

Overview

About 2 months ago I was approached by a good friend of mine Arran Dutton, asking for some advice on adapting and producing a radio play from a sit-com script he had written called Unholy Behaviour.
We had a couple meetings discussing the project and decided to put are heads together to see what we could come up with.

Radio Plays have been running since the 1920s however it is not until recent years that they have been so readily available. This is mainly due to the use of podcasting and home recording equipment which allows anyone to produce their own radio play.

I am writing this blog and blogs to follow to provide people with an account of the process taken to produce a podcast based radio play. I believe this blog will also serve as a sort of production process diary, detailing all the aspects of the production.

Production So Far

So far Arran and I have reviewed the script discussing which parts would and wouldn’t work when converted to a radio play. Obviously a lot of visual humour would not work for a radio play. After reviewing these parts of the script Arran set about re-writing and adapting the script for radio production.

Currently the idea for Unholy Behaviour is to produce it as 20 minute podcast episodes. The series is likely to be somewhere around 10 episodes.

Radio Script Layout Explained

A radio script is laid out differently than a stage or film script, however there are also some similar elements. Here is a brief overview of the different elements that go into a radio play script.

Character Expression

Character Expression is used to aid the voice actor in their performance. It will sometimes be an emotion and sometimes other things like a character action.

Sound Effect (F/X)

F/X are used when a sound needs to be added. Either during the recording or after in post-production. When recording the voice actors, any sounds to be added in post production will simply be shouted by one of the production team. For example if there is a ringing telephone to be added in post-production someone will shout “ring!”. This helps both the actors with their timing and the engineer when they come to add the sound effect later.

Scene Number

Scene Numbers signify the end of one scene and the start of another. Scenes are generally a change in time and/or location.

Atmosphere (Atmos)

Similar to an F/X, Atmosphere describes the ongoing sound effect playing during a scene. This maybe traffic noise, or the sound of birds singing outside of a window.

Lines in the above script are censored for copy protection.

Examples of radio comedy scripts can be found at http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/insight/radio_comedy.shtml

Voice Talent

It is important when producing any script to find actors suitable for each role. There is an even higher importance of choosing actors with the right voice for a radio play because it is the only tool the actor has to play with. They need to be able to convey a wide variety of emotions using only their voice. For some radio plays actors will portray more than one role. This is unlikely to be the case however for Unholy Behaviour.
Arran and I have already started looking for voice actors. We have been recording a read through with them so that the different actors can be compared at a later point. This process also helps the writer determine any changes that maybe necessary for the script.

There will be blogs to follow this one detailing more in depth aspects of the planning and technical requirements for producing a radio play.