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

44 Chapter Three: Characteristics of Radio Serial Drama
4. NARRATOR: In our last episode, Tom stormed out of his home in anger because
his mother-in-law had criticized him for spending so much money
on alcohol. His wife, Judy, is left alone with three small children and
a furious mother.
5. MUSIC. SIG. MUSIC UP:05. CROSS FADE TO FX.
6. FX. CHILDREN CRYING IN BACKGROUND.
7. MOTHER: (SHOUTING) And if you’d listened to me before you married that
idiot, this would never have happened...
8. JUDY: (PLEADING) Mother, please...the children...
9. MOTHER: (INTERRUPTING) Don’t you “Please” me, young lady. You
should listen to me.
The recap usually is not read by the station announcer, but rather by a
narrator whose voice opens and closes each episode of the serial. (More
information on the use of a narrator in serial drama can be found in
Chapter 5.)
4. Three or four scenes. To keep the serial active and exciting, the scene
should change at least three times in each 15- to 20-minute episode. This
is easily done if various plots have been mapped out in advance and
outlined in a full treatment. The treatment is written and approved
before any script writing begins. (Information on developing plots can be
found in Chapter 4.)
5. Closing comments from narrator. Typically, the narrator makes a
closing comment about the story and invites the listeners to tune in next
time. The narrator’s closing comments should be kept brief so that the
audience is left on the note of suspense with which the episode
concluded.
EXAMPLE
NARRATOR:
And so ends today’s episode of Happily Ever After. Be sure to tune
in at the same time next Thursday to find out if Marta will ever see
her baby again.
Occasionally, it is the narrator who provides this suspense as can be
seen at the end of the episode of Life in Hopeful Village presented in
Chapter 12.
6. Signature tune. After the narrator’s final words, the signature tune is
played to signal the end of the episode.