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

Chapter Eight: Scene Development 127
7. Identify the emotion of each scene. One or two scenes in each episode
should express a positive emotion, but perhaps not the opening or
closing scenes. The opening scene needs to attract the audience with
immediate action, and the closing scene should end on a note of
suspense. In the episode treatment of Too Late, Too Bad, scenes 3 and 4
express positive emotions, while the others are more negative.
8. Pace each scene so that it gathers momentum towards the end. After
attracting the attention of the listeners with a hook at the beginning, the
scene can slow down and the dialogue proceed more deliberately.
Individual speeches can be a little longer in the middle portion of a
scene, and this is where any major message information should be
conveyed. The dialogue should speed up at the end of the scene to
heighten the action, the emotion, and the tension and to end the scene
on a note of expectation or suspense.
9. Keep the scene on real time. Serial dramas proceed slowly, at the pace of
real life. As much as possible, the action of each scene should occur
within real time. In other words, if a scene lasts five minutes on the
radio, then the characters should carry out only as much action as is
possible in five minutes in real life. The use of real time encourages
listeners to believe they are listening in on real life. (More information on
indicating and controlling time in a serial can be found in Chapter 6.)
10. End each scene on a note of suspense or, at least, with an unanswered
question. Leaving the action incomplete holds the audience’s attention as
they wait to find out what will happen next in that particular plot. A
suspenseful ending at the end of an episode is sometimes called a
cliffhanger, a term that originated in early adventure serial movies. These
films frequently ended with a chase scene in which the hero, trying to
escape the villain, slipped or tumbled over a cliff. There he would be left,
literally hanging by his finger tips, as the episode ended. The audience
would be forced to wait until the next episode to find out if the hero
would fall or be rescued. Today, the word cliffhanger refers to any
suspenseful ending.
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EXAMPLE
18. MOTHER: (COMING IN, SCREAMING) My baby...my baby... Oh
God...my baby.... Somebody’s taken my baby. Help me!
19. MUSIC. CLOSING SIGNATURE MUSIC UP :05 AND OUT.
20. NARRATOR: And so ends today’s episode of our story. We’ll have to wait till next
time to find out what has happened to the baby. Be sure you’re
listening.