SCRIPTING THE BEGINNING OF A SCENE
| Get the top and tail of the scene - "Begin with a punch, end with a flurry." |
| Do not use the 'Hullo, Mary! - Hullo, June!' way of getting characters into a scene and / or opening a scene. DO NOT bring on a character and then another character, and they greet each other. This is so boring! Get involved in action (the 'punch'). Get into the middle of the scene - AT THE TOP. Do not 'begin at the beginning'. |
| For some reason, often beginners in radio drama scripting use the 'Hullo, Mary! - Hullo, June!' approach. THIS IS SO WRONG! Why is this done? Because you can think of the action beginning at the beginning - BUT IT NEVER SHOULD IN A RADIO SCENE. And because in TV soaps and serials, we so often see a scene begin like this. That suits TV - the location shot, the more leisurely approach. BEGIN THE SCENE AS LATE AS POSSIBLE, AND GET OUT OF IT AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. |
| See SCENE BEGINNINGS - snappy one-liners to start a scene off |
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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: [email protected]
This site's address: http://www.savoyhill.co.uk/soap/index.html