Radio Soap - HOW TO MAKE IT
Five-minute episodes - or short episodes with short scenes.
This is how to make a short-form soap - entertaining (above all) and you can include issues (issues that could influence the listeners' behaviour).
Further: production, post-production, scripting, web site, marketing, focus group meetings, drop-in script, copyright material logging, trails, soap launch.
What you do:
Contact: radio@savoyhill.co.uk
This site's address: http://www.savoyhill.co.uk/soap/index.html
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Some student soaps
'The Canterbury Vampires'
| 'The Canterbury Vampires' Clump 10-1 |
| 'The Canterbury Vampires' Clump 10-2 |
| 'The Canterbury Vampires' Clump 10-3 |
| 'The Canterbury Vampires' Clump 10-4 |
| 'The Canterbury Vampires' Clump 10-5 |
Script of 'The Canterbury Vampires' 2003
'Crime Crackers' - radio soap 2005
| Episode 1 | Episode 2 | Episode 3 | Episode 4 | Episode 5 |
| Episode 6 | Episode 7 | |
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Episode 10 |
| Episode 11 | Episode 12 | Episode 13 | Episode 14 | Episode 15 |
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Episode 20 |
'Wrap Pack' - radio soap 2005
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'Space Rocks' 2002
| 'Space Rocks' 3-1 |
| 'Space Rocks' 3-2 |
| 'Space Rocks' 3-3 |
| 'Space Rocks' 3-4 |
| 'Space Rocks' 3-5 |
| 'Space Rocks' 4-1 |
| 'Space Rocks' 4-2 |
| 'Space Rocks' 4-3 |
| 'Space Rocks' 4-4 |
| 'Space Rocks' 4-5 |
| 'Space Rocks' 5-1 |
| 'Space Rocks' 5-2 |
| 'Space Rocks' 5-3 |
| 'Space Rocks' 5-4 |
| 'Space Rocks' 5-5 |
Some ideas
| Drop-in script - you script the introduction that the programme presenter is to give for each episode when it is broadcast. This will go on the web site. If you are marketing this soap to a range of radio stations, the information is immediately available there for the presenter. |
| Focus group meeting You arrange a test of two episodes (for example) for a focus group. You invite a range of listeners and play them the episodes. You take notes of their discussion and responses. You give them an evaluation form to fill in. You thank them! You do this early on in production for the first time. You may wish to do a lot more focus group meeting work if you are producing an 'issues' soap. |
Note:
'Clump' means the group of five or more or less episodes that make up a week. (You may be broadcasting Monday through to Friday (= five episodes), or less or more.)
Each weekly clump has a working name (as 'Valentine', 'Planet Talent', 'Rag Week' - titles from Alan Beck's previous soaps.)
The working name helps us all refer to the clump speedily and to place it overall in the scheme.
Numbering:
Each clump has a number, and each episode has a number, and each scene has a number.
So the first episode of the whole soap is 1.1.1 = Clump 1, Episode 1 (of 5) of that clump, and Scene 1 of that episode. This numbering system is so essential! It avoids confusion, and it gives an immediate signal where that scene is in the whole scheme.
Making a soap is like building and running a factory.
We go to a lot of time and trouble designing and building the factory (script development, character development, plot and research), and then we get the factory running. The aim is to be efficient!
Various techniques
| Time-space rule: In going to the following scene, this rule has to be observed. The same character or characters cannot be in another location in the immediately following scene. You cannot have a leap forward in time and space through a scene boundary. This is a difficulty for scripting. The solution is to have a small scene in between, and often to slice another scene into two. And use part as an insert. It is stylish to divide a scene so - often!
You might find - rarely - that it is broken in a radio play, or very rarely in 'The Archers'. But those exceptions are for the professionals. We have to stick to the 'time-space rule'. There are some exceptions:
But do not make this obviously so at the top of the scene. Do not puzzle your listener. For example, a vampire can express the intention of meeting a human in one scene. That vampire will be in the following scene. But begin that following scene with the human first, and then with the vampire arriving to confront. It gives just a little time for the vampire to travel.
Almost a rapid montage ... we cut from one to another, or we are in the cops' car, and then crossfade with a small leap forward in time, in the same cops' car, and we are that little ahead in time in the exciting chase. Make sense of this by genre (that is what is done in film and on TV), and by description).
(c) Very exceptional circumstances You can break the time-space rule for a human character in very exceptional circumstances. You must seek advice from teacher. Even so, a music bridge covers the sin! But there must be a very particular plot reason for this - for this leap forward in time and place.
(d) A leap in time - and NOT in place You have permission - with a suitable scene boundary (music bridge or fading up and then down some FX relating to the location or activity) - to script the character in a scene and then in the following scene and there is a leap in time, but NOT in the location. Your character is in the same location - we have just moved forward in time for a particular plot reason. |
| Balancing the atmos against the dialogue Students have difficulty with this. You have to listen to radio plays, and gain experience. |
| Choice of background atmos: (1) (2) An atmos with sharp peaky noises in it - USE WITH CAUTION - BUT DEFINITELY USE THIS. Examples are a wood fire (with crackling flames), and (in 'The Canterbury Vampires'), in the chemistry lab, the bubbling of a test tube. This very distinctive atmos is really worth it for establishing the scene at the top - signposting. But the problem is that the sharp little peaky sounds can become annoying to the listener. The bubbling in the chemistry lab is a good example. |
| RULE - BACKGROUND ATMOS: (1) Bring in and establish as signposting. (2) Fade under dialogue, but not out - so that it is still present. (3) Balance the atmos against the dialogue - not easy to do. Listen carefully to examples from broadcast radio plays. (4) Bring up or 'tease up' the atmos a little - up a little from its usual level against the dialogue - and then down to the previous level. This nudges it into the listener's attention. There is a LAW OF DIMINISHING RETURNS about the background atmos. After a shortish while, the listener will cancel it out, and disregard it. That is the ear-to-brain mechanism. |
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| How many plots exist out there? Look at |
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Radio Soap (serial drama) - HOW TO MAKE IT
Five-minute episodes - or short episodes
Step by step instruction from Alan Beck.
Learn about radio drama on this site along with my book - Beck, Alan, Radio Acting, London: A & C Black (1997) ISBN 0-7136-4631-4
This is how to make a short-form soap - entertaining (above all) and you can include issues (issues that could influence the listeners' behaviour).
Further: production, scripting, web site, marketing, focus group meetings, drop-in script, copyright material logging, trails, soap launch.
LINKS WITH OTHER SITE
Radio Drama - directing, acting, technical, learning & teaching, researching, styles, genres
This is a complete curriculum of scripts, techniques, advice, sound files - effects and atmoses (with no copyright and so free to use), detailed script commentaries, etc. -
Contact: radio@savoyhill.co.uk
This site's address: http://www.savoyhill.co.uk/soap/index.html