How to Write a Radio Serial Drama for Social Development- PDF

Chapter Six: Developing the Setting 93
tempting to think that graphic details of a scene’s location are of
no great importance. In fact, the opposite is true. If the audience
is to believe in the serial as an expression of real life, they must
be able to visualize clearly the surroundings in which the
characters live and work.
The writer should strive to create settings that are:
1. Familiar to the audience or that can be made familiar. A
rural audience, for example, generally would be more
comfortable with a drama set in a small village than one set
in a big city business office. An unfamiliar setting, however,
can be exciting and add interest to the story as long as the
writer provides enough details to enable the audience to
imagine it clearly.
2. Suitable to the message. Writers should choose locations
that allow the message to be presented in a natural manner.
Limiting a serial’s settings to a farm and a school, for
example, would not permit the drama to cover the content of a
reproductive health message either appropriately or adequately. It would
be essential to include a clinic or health post as one of the settings.
3. Limited in number. Listeners feel more comfortable if they are taken to
the same familiar settings on a regular basis rather than moved from one
new location to another frequently. Just as in real life, listeners may enjoy
visits to exotic places, but they want to return to those familiar places in
which they feel most comfortable.
4. Standard for each plot. It is easier for listeners to recognize where a
scene is taking place if each plot has an established, standard setting. The
standard setting for the main plot of a rural drama, for example, might be
the dining room in a family home, while one of the sub-plots is routinely
set in a farm yard and another in a local garage. Any of the plots
occasionally could move to a different location if the story required it,
but relying on the standard settings simplifies writing and makes the
story coherent and believable to the audience.
5. Identifiable by sound. Each standard setting can have some brief sound
that identifies it, so that listeners can recognize the location immediately
without lengthy explanations in the dialogue or by a narrator. The sound
of utensils being moved around and the crackling of a fire might identify
a dining room, for example, while the sounds of animals might identify a
farm yard, and the sounds of automobile engines, horns, and tools being
dropped on the ground might identify a garage.
The identifying sound effect can be used at the beginning of a scene
to establish the setting, held under softly through the opening lines of
dialogue, and then faded out. Sound effects can be made live in the
studio (by dropping tools, for example), or they can be pre-recorded
(animal and automobile noises, for example). (More information on the
use of sound effects can be found in Chapter 7.)
Guidelines for Creating
Location Settings
Location settings should be:
1. Familiar to the audience,
2. Suitable to the message,
3. Limited in number,
4. Standard for each plot,
and
5. Identifiable by sound.
6