Have confidence in your listener
Let them do the work. Give them scenes and situations to work on with their imagination.
HERE IS WHAT STUDENT EMILY ADVISES:
The first post-produced scenes that Alan (teacher) listened to
were all over-produced with too many layers of sound, and too
filmic.
"Let the words do their magic", he would say, "you're directing for radio, not television! Your scenes are too layered".
It took a lot of convincing, but after listening to more of Love Lane (student soap) and The Archers, I began to realise how true this was.
However, I found it hard to trust the listener so much.
Because I am perhaps less aware of radio conventions than television conventions, I felt a need to constantly back up the text with action and sound effects.
My first post-produced scenes were literally halved by Alan.
The sound picture was too big, too busy, too confusing. And I would say "but Alan, they need to be doing something, going somewhere?" and he would reply "no, they don't. Trust your listener. "
Even towards the end of the project, I don't think that I had completely become comfortable with such a minimalist form. I still listen to 4.2.5 and 5.4.2 and think "but that's not enough! It's flat! It needs more. The characters aren't doing enough".
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