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In this essay I will be looking at two radio dramas: an episode of the
archers, this is a traditional drama. The Blind Mans Confession,

which is a postmodern drama. I will be discussing many aspects that
make up these dramas and who they work. A traditional drama
normally has a regular structure, with a story line that follows
through. They usually consist of multiple characters and sometimes
a narrator. Like most classic storys, its in order and we follow
characters within that story. This is quite different to a postmodern
drama. Postmodern drama doesnt always follow a straight story
line, can be a bit surreal, and ask more questions then it answers.
Being more ambiguous then informative with the story. The
postmodern drama I am looking at is The Blind Mans Confession, a
horror/thriller about a man in a car crash with a policeman who is
then threatened by the criminal who was in the car. The whole story
is told by the man in past tense, which makes it a flash back. The
traditional drama Im looking at the archers that is a radio soap,
about a small fictional rural village in England. It follows characters
there in daily issues they face. This episode follows two plots, we
have the main of the town. With the story of a familys farm
underneath.
Looking at the Blind Mans confession we can see that it is located
outside, as you can hear sounds of rain hitting the ground and
thunder which are sounds associated with the out doors giving us
the audience those clues. The location is a forest shown when the
he says soaring over a big black forest. Telling us exactly that. The
narrator is in the first person to us. This helps us connect to him and
the story even though we never even know his name. The narrative
builds setting, describing elements of the setting saying how he
remembers; this helps us feel how it might look. We are told he is
out riding a bike, the sound effects of the bike tell us this too. There
is a crash, afterwords we get the idea that he is laying on the floor
injured. There is a heartbeat sound effect; this creates gives tension,
as we dont know the consequences of the crash. The same person
plays the main character and the narrator, making it more engaging
as there is a more realism to the story as it feels like a testimony. It
is only one perspective this makes us connect more. Also because
they have a narrator lets them add more to a plot or scene because
they can provide extra information. Like in this we quite quickly
understand the impact of this even because the narrator quickly
talks about how this even effected him, letting us know something
big happens before it even does.
This is all a flashback, the narrator is the same person as the person
talking about his experience The narrator goes from confident which
is taken away with fear when the crash happens. Changing him as
he starts to sound depressed. The character comes across as bitter;
this is shown by tone of his voice. He speaks slowly suggesting there
isnt much hope. His feelings are well put forward like at 7.40 we
hear sadness in his voice. This builds emotion within the dialogue.
They use aural signposting in this production during the car scene,
this helps build up the atmosphere. Aural signposting is when you
tell the audience something is about to happen. In this they let us
hear tyres screeching letting us know a crash is about to happen.
Silence and music are important radio drama. It adds mystery and
suspense. There is intense music over the narration. This is to build
suspense to the story. Unlike traditional drama they wouldnt use
music to go over the action. The use of silence in this production is
used to communicate meaning. The music stops At 1.27 as he is
riding the bike; this is help build the fact he just crashed. Another bit
of silence is at 9.18 when he shuts his eyes. . The ambience in this is
created by background noises. The sounds of the traffic bring up the
point that they are on a road. Whilst he is driving the bike rock
music played making this more hyped, this music helps show us the
speed he is going. Slightly drowning the sound of his voice. Which
shows the excitement and gives a fast feeling. The music stops,
showing us he has gone to sleep from the crash. This counts as a
dramatic reconstruction because its set up to be looking at the story
like it happened and from the point of view of the narrator talking
about his past. This creates a more realistic feeling an environment
for the story.
The target audience are most likely to be teenagers, due to the use
of language and the more edgy plot line less suitable for kids and
not as appealing towards most adults. The drama is non-
chronological, this is mainly because its all a flashback. The radio
drama is a cliff-hanger, but still not typical. It ends in the hospital
with the main guy saying he they find the other character. Ending
with I shouldve known better than to fuck with God, this is goes
back to something from earlier in the episode. Unlike the Archers
episode it does not end with a question instead being an ambiguous
cliff-hanger to create thoughts more then work out what happened
next.
Im also looking at an episode of The Archers. Being about Ambridge

a fictional village. In this episode a group of the village preparing for
a play they are having later that day. With a smaller underlining
story of the fate of a familys farm. with setting it is made obvious.
They start inside in the kitchen. This shown with characters putting
something down on the table then talking about space in my
kitchen. There are no background sounds apart from the sound of
footsteps when a characters enters. At 4.15 the director shouts at
the actors from a distance, a slight eco shows us space and tells us
we are probably in a hall or another from of large space. When we
are outside it is obvious. When the couple are outside on the field,
you can hear people shouting in the background, wind and tractors.
This is creating the atmosphere; we can hear this to show us setting
and surroundings.
In this radio drama silences arent used much for story building.
Silences used as fades to break up the story and show scene
changes. Like at 2:08 to show a change in location. Going from the
theatre to a pub. Opening music to The Archers tuneful, upbeat and
iconic giving us a happy feeling instantly. Also straight away telling
us what is playing grabbing out attention. Music is only used at the
start and the end, unlike the other modern drama where music was
used to show the atmosphere and to build the story.
. At the end we get a cliff-hanger as we dont know how the play.

This is different to The Blind Mans Confession is this use not to
purely create thoughts but bring people back to the next episode to
find out what happens. Unlike The Blind Mans Confession.
Flashbacks arent used, a traditional chronological order is used,
including multiple characters on one story. A common traditional
element. Chorological order is important because its how we are
presented time in the play, chorological order means it is shown in
order which is what we have in archers. Thought out the playtime
moves forward. But the other thing they do is have all the episodes
in that time set as well. There is an episode each day and every
episode is set the next day meaning the whole set up is a daily
chorological order, which interlinks with the real world like if its
Christmas in the world its Christmas on the archers. This makes it
more relatable and easier to follow. This shows us some of the main
differences between these two types of dramas as time in the blind
mans confession is set all over the place and jumps back and fourth.
Archers is a linear narrative to allow storys to progress and we see
a non liner in the Blind Mans Confession this allows the twist to
revealed slowly and more tension to be built, but if archers did this it
would be confusing.
The overall tone is relatively informal and happy, and a day to day
life in this town. Making it easy and enjoyable to listen too as we
basically get involved in a small drama of the day with other in a
relatable and realistic world. The target audience is for older people.
Shown by most characters being that age, and discussing topics
that, that age would understand, they talk about retiring and
getting old. This is show in their choice of words and the way they
speak. Like when one of the women say, weve got some youngers
coming showing us they are older as they talk about others being
younger. They also use out-dated terms.
Both dramas have titles and credits, usually having the production
company, play name, writers and actors being said before it starts
so the audience know whos in it and what the play is. This is more
of a formal thing that happens.
The duration of both are different but close. The archers is about 14
minutes this is because they are daily and if they where longer
people wouldnt listen as it need to be short enough that people who
listen daily will have the time to every day. But it cant be too short
otherwise nothing would be able to happen. Also it being daily
means storys can build up over multiple days. With The Blind Mans
Confession, its 12 minutes, this is a short play. This time allows for
the whole plot to open up. But we have many less characters and
development of plot so less time is needed then the overall time of
the archers.
The dialog itself is important as the words being what is said creates
the interaction between characters, and then we have voices, which
is who is saying the line, by having more then one voice it helps us
identify who is talking without them having to spell it out. This is
important in something like archers because they have lots of
characters. The voice also adds a lot to the character, lets us know
gender, rough age, accent/background, class and more depending
of the voice. Like the characters in archers have rural British accents
giving location without saying. Then there is speech that is how they
say a line because it can have meant meanings depending on how
they say it. Like in archers at 6.90 when the husband and wife are
talking and she says your getting old she says it a bright light
way, but it easily could have been said in a mean way to give a
whole different meaning. We also have direct speech because the
characters are talking straight to each other and showing
information in what they say.

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In this essay I will be looking at two radio dramas: an episode of the

archers, this is a traditional drama. The Blind Mans Confession,

Im also looking at an episode of The Archers. Being about Ambridge

. At the end we get a cliff-hanger as we dont know how the play.

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