Hi everyone, sorry about disappearing for awhile. University has been keeping me on my toes. The start of the spring semester was chaotic. Without prior warning, we were told to write the first draft to a 12 minute, 360 sound, radio drama within 4 days. It was fun and definitely an experience.
About the drama
A 360 sound radio drama is an experimental piece. So while the drama is 12 minutes when played, there’s roughly 20 minutes of content. Speakers around the room play different parts of the drama. So as you walk around the room, the conversation one group is having becomes clearer while the conversation that you just walked past fades. It was fun to write. I enjoyed writing it. And it’s the first time in ages where I have attended a writers’ workshop.
The drama is set during the Battle of Britain and follows one family through different areas of the war. Pilot, gunner, nurse, warden.
The downside of this; it was supposed to be extracurricular. But it took up all the time we had scheduled for class. Aside from this week, I feel we haven’t covered any content for this module that we were supposed to cover… apart from a detailed discussion of the brief.
Classes – What we needed
We needed a more in-depth discussion on what we needed to do. Theatre, Film, TV, Radio… it all has different processing. Our lecturer told us we should research independently, which I understand… but all we wanted was an idea of what to research and the best place to start. So the different ways to get funding for the scripts and different ways to send the scripts to companies would have been something useful to cover.
Instead, I have had to wing my portfolio. My portfolio asks me to consider which production companies I would send my script to.
For theatre companies, this is alright. You send in your script, a pitch and why you want them to show your stage play—then they will tell you whether they will perform it or not. I will be honest, I have no idea if you can do the same with radio. However, TV and Film doesn’t work like that. You can send opportunities to the BBC, but falling short of that, I think I’d need an agent to send it to production companies for me.
I don’t know whether I should put the agent on my portfolio or not. The lecture hasn’t really been around during class time for these questions to be addressed. I can email him, and I have sent him a draft of my portfolio. But I do feel that the module has been a waste… apart from the last class this week, taught by another lecturer.
On the Up Side
The radio drama is being produced. We have a team of sound students working on it and are hoping that our lecturer sells it at some point. So I may get my first writing credit sometime soon!
The other module this semester is going swimmingly! It is Advanced Workshop, where we write 15 pages of our script and ask for improvement and suggestions from the class. I am really enjoying this module. It is my favourite module all year.
A couple of weeks ago, I was approached by one of my lecturers and a friend of a friend. My lecturer would like me to manage her website and social media accounts for her. My friend’s friend would like me to design him a website and he is paying me per the hour. He liked my custom HTML and CSS on here and my friend’s site.
I’m looking forward to this, if I get enough clients, I may be able to use this as my job while trying to get into the film industry.
Final good news! I have more time to blog, so you will be seeing more of me!
Thanks for Reading
I hope you enjoyed this post. If you have, why not read some other posts. There are plenty on here: Masters so far and Employment Fears, just to name a few. And please do follow me on here, Facebook or Twitter.
~Shannon~
What an interesting experience! Glad to hear from you again and that things are going ok ^_^
Thanks Silveryew