Learning outcome Two

Ideas for four minute radio dramas:

How to lose friends in 4 minutes:

A kid gets up and goes to College, where he is greeted by his friends. The kid starts acting like an idiot around his friends saying stupid stuff and making harsh comments on things. Some of these things would include not offering a cigarette to someone he owes from the past, making bitchy comments about people behind their backs. He would also physically annoy his friends in childish ways such as spitballing, throwing bottles and drawing foul language on his friend’s bags. By the end of the four minutes, all the kid’s friends will hate him.

Characters: Lewis (the annoying kid). The three friends would be, Peter, Lloyd and Markus.

Where did I leave my phone?

Starts with Simon talking to Barry at Barry’s house. Simon has just said goodbye when he realises he’s lost his phone. Barry doesn’t know where it is and suggests that he calls it; they listen but hear no ring tone.

Simon decides to backtrack through his day to find his phone, so he goes to where he was earlier which was Tom’s house. Tom is in a bad mood when Simon arrives. Tom is on the phone to someone shouting at them saying that they are a chicken for backing out. Simon remains silent until Tom stops talking on the phone. When Tom has finished talking on the phone Simon will ask tom if he’s seen his phone. Tom cuts him off midsentence and will ask Simon to do him a favour. Simon will ask what it is. Tom lies and tells him that he needs Simon to ride along with him to help him collect some heavy furniture.

Simon agrees and they both leave Toms house and get in tom’s car. When they are driving they both make conversation including Simon asking if Tom has seen his phone. Tom says no. Later during the car journey Simon sees tom putting on leather gloves and a balaclava, he asks Tom why he has these, Tom responds while giving a pair to Simon saying he lied and that he needs Simon’s help in robbing a bank.  Simon’s immediate response is to not aid in robbing the bank, they argue briefly until Tom threatens Simon, who gives in due to intimidation.

They walk in to a bank and Tom points a gun at the banker who starts panicking. The alarm sounds however and Tom and Simon run out of the bank only to find police by the getaway car walking sprinting towards them. Tom forces himself and Simon to hide in a dustbin nearby. The police are searching nearby for Tom and Simon. The story ends in a humorous way because Simon realises his phone was deep inside one of his pockets. He only finds this out though because his phone rings and the police hear it and find Simon and Tom and place them both under arrest.

Doctor Dick Wickins:

The plot is about a Doctor who goes about a busy day at hospital changing between patients and doing stupid stuff too them that eh shouldn’t. In other words he’s an idiot doctor

Treatment for “Where did I leave my phone”?

Characters:

Simon: Simon is 23, and works as librarian. Simon is the main character in the drama. He is a simple minded, forgetful man. He is rather timid, which explains the why he gave in to the idea of robbing a bank when he was threatened. He is also forgetful at a point which explains how he manages to forget where he placed his phone.

Barry: Barry plays a small role at the beginning of the radio drama. He is Simon’s next-door neighbour. He is used once briefly only to set the scene for the drama.

Tom: Tom is 24 and is a handyman who drives a van. Tom plays the villain role of this radio drama. He has an aggressive and violent attitude. He uses his physic and foul loud mouth to intimidate people into doing things they want to do. An example of this is when he forces Simon to help him rob a bank.

Side characters:

Banker: Plays small role in the drama when Tom and Simon are robbing the bank.

Police officers: The police officers play a small role at the end of the radio drama when they are searching for Tom and Simon and also when they find and arrest Simon and Tom.

Plot of the radio drama

Scene One:

The location is set at Barry’s house. Simon has just finished talking to Barry about general stuff. When Simon gets up to leave, he asks Barry where he left his phone because Simon can’t seem to find his phone. Barry doesn’t know where it is and suggests that Simon backtracks to where he was earlier to help try and find the phone.

Simon thinks back and remembers visiting Tom, his friend. Simon says his goodbyes to Barry and heads off to Tom’s house.

Scene Two:

The location has now changed to Tom’s house. When Simon enters Tom’s house he hears and see’s Tom shouting down his phone at someone telling them off for backing out of something. When Tom hangs up on the phone Simon asks him if he’s seen his phone anywhere. Tom cuts him off halfway through sentence and asks Simon to help him out with favour. Simon asks what it is and Tom lies to him saying it’s to lift some heavy furniture from a nearby shop. Simon agrees and heads out with Tom to Tom’s car.

Scene Three:

The location has now set inside Tom’s car on the way to the bank. Tom and Simon are making general conversation in the car. Simon also asks Tom if he’s seen his phone. Tom responds saying he hasn’t seen Simons phone anywhere. Simon then notices Tom putting leather gloves on and also slipping on a balaclava. Simon asks Tom what these are needed for. Tom replies saying that he lied to Simon and needs his help in robbing a bank.  Simon immediately refuses in aiding Tom with robbing the bank, but Tom begins to get aggressive with Simon and threatens him in a violent manner. In the end Simon gives in and reluctantly agrees in helping Tom only because of the threatening and aggressive manner.

They have just arrived at the bank when Tom warns Simon to do exactly what he says and follow him or else there would be trouble.

Scene Four:

The setting for this scene is at a bank. Tom and Simon enter the bank where they walk over to the bank booth.  Tom is greeted by the banker behind the booth who asks him what he wants to do. Tom responds to this by pulling out a gun and pointing it at the banker. Tom demands money from the banker. The banker immediately hits the panic button and the booth locks up and an alarm sounds. Tom curses and runs for the exit with Simon in quick pursuit.

Scene Five:

The setting for this scene is just outside the bank in a public high street with an alleyway nearby.

Tom has just exited the bank with Simon and is looking for their van to escape from the bank. Tom swears when he sees police running towards them from the location where their van is parked. Tom tells Simon to hurry up and follow him and drags him along to the alleyway. Tom shoves Simon inside a bin and climbs in behind him closing the lid. They can both hear the police searching for them very nearby. Suddenly a familiar ringtone to Simon sounds and Simon feels a vibration coming from his Jacket inside pocket. Tom tells Simon to turn whatever it is off. Simon responds by saying “so that’s where I left my phone” as he pulls it out of his pocket. The police then open the lid and arrest them both.

Conflicts

Outer Conflict: My main outer conflict for this radio drama is Simon having difficulty to say no to Tom when Tom threatens him to help him rob a bank. Because Simon and Tom have been very good friends up till this point it puts Simon in a very difficult position on whether he should refuse to help Tom in robbing the bank, and if he should report his good friend to the police.

Inner conflict: An inner conflict for Simon is also the fact that he is very forgetful and timid which makes him feel vulnerable. This conflict is what gets Simon into trouble in the first place, e.g. when he loses his phone and also when he gives into Tom’s threats on him when he first refuses to aid Tom in robbing a bank.

Character Profiling

Simon:

Age: 23

Ethnicity: Simon is a white English male catholic.

Family background: Simon has a family, his mother and father are dead and his brother lives in Brazil. Simon takes after his father and is simple minded and forgetful.

Occupation: After leaving school when Simon finished his GCSE’s he moved on to find a job and is currently a butcher’s apprentice.

Connections to other characters: Simon is friends with his next door neighbour (Barry), who plays a role in the radio drama. Simon is also friends with Tom who is a close friend to him until events take place during the radio drama which results in hatred between the two characters.

What motivates them: Simon is motivated in life by rising in the ranks of being a butcher and becoming a head butcher rather than an apprentice butcher. Simon is also motivated by friends such as Barry who are patient with him and understanding when makes mistakes like when he loses his phone in the radio drama.

What conflicts do they have to deal with: Simon has to deal with the conflict of getting over the fact that he’s lost his phone? He also has to come to terms with the fact that his close friend (Tom) has turned against him and is threatening him.

Barry:

Age: 27

Ethnicity: Barry is a white English male catholic.

Family background: Barry has a family. He lived with his mum and dad until he was 26 and recently moved out to the house next door to Simon. This is how he came to know Simon and become good friends with him.

Occupation: Barry went through secondary school and went on to University. When he left University he got a job at WH Smith and quit after a month. Since then he has been living in his house unemployed. It’s Ok though because he gets money from his Mum and dad.

Connections to other characters: Barry has been friends with Simon since he moved into the house with Simon. They look after each others houses when the other person is out.

What motivates them: Barry is very low on motivation and has a low self-confidence which results in him hiding in his house most of the time and only leaving it when necessary such as to go to town to stock up on food.

What conflicts do they have to deal with: Barry’s conflict is with himself about the fact that he’s too scared of the outside world to leave his house.

Tom:

Age: 23

Ethnicity: Tom is a white English male catholic.

Family background: Tom has parents. He had to move out from home when he was caught stealing hundreds of pounds from his parents.

Occupation: Tom went to the same secondary school as Simon which is how they started their friendship. After tom finished school he became a handy man, he also did odd jobs in-between his work such as selling drugs to the local 14 year olds and stealing items from people’s cars and houses. Simon wasn’t aware of this side of Tom’s lifestyle.

Connections to other characters: Tom is friends with Simon and has been since they first met at secondary school. However when Tom asks Simon to help him rob a bank and Simon refuses, he changes into a different person and starts getting angry and threatening Simon until Simon gives in and reluctantly agrees to help Tom.

What motivates them: The only thing that motivates Tom to robbing banks is because he wants to be rich.

What conflicts do they have to deal with: Tom has to overcome the fact that Simon is his friend and treat him as any other person, which is how he mentally allows himself to threaten his best friend into something they don’t want to do?

Budget

I have been given a budget of £20,000 per hour. Since my radio drama limit is only 5 minutes long that gives me a total budget of £1666 for my radio drama production.

Voice actors: My costs have been based of prices I found on this website. http://thevoiceovervoice.co.uk/rates/

Each voice actor’s costs £20.83. I have three voice actors included in my radio drama which will total to a cost of £62.50.

Foley artist: My Foley artists cost for a five minute drama is £5.86. I found the standard payment per hour at http://www.ehow.com/info_8626178_salary-foley-artist.html

Writer: The cost of a writer would be £4000 for a 30 minute script. However because my script is only 5 minutes long I would feel ripped off by that and would only pay a maximum of £700.

Hiring a radio studio: This would cost £312 per hour.  However because I am only recording a 5 minute script I would not pay the full price and would pay £112 instead. Prices found from this website http://www.radiofacilities.com/#/radio-isdn-studio/4541911462

Equipment and props: The full price for both of these for my specific radio drama would cost £550.

Total spending costs: My total spending costs would be £1430.36 leaving me with £235.64 to use in emergency.