Learning from Erik Barnau – Part 9

Hi folks,
I’m taking another look this week at the advice offered by Erik Barnouw in his Handbook of Radio Writing (1947). The attention is focused on “setting the scene” of a radio drama. The techniques are common sense but nonetheless easy to overlook.

Routine Technique

The scene setting moment

The scene setting moment is concerned with the transition from the first narration to actual dialog.
The crucial need of this moment is to create an immediate sense of the reality of the scene.
Some scenes set themselves with little effort because of their familiarity ( a train station or police headquarters for example).
Other scenes may require more assistance.

A scene-setting sound

Sounds can provide sudden dynamic evidence of a physical world. Adding the click of a typewriter to the mention of a newspaper office, or a car horn to a street scene helps establish it solidly in the listener’s imagination.

Atmospheric Dialog

The narrator can employ a few well-chosen words for the establishment of a scene as well, describing the warm breeze blowing through the grass that stretches across the park through which our protagonists are taking a walk. Our protagonists then spend a moment or two commenting on the nice weather etc. in order to further cement the scene for the listener.
Obvious versus implied scene-setting
Serials often begin with an obvious scene setting moment; “… Today we find our heroes at …”
No words are wasted and the action gets underway immediately.
Less obviously the scene is established by the dialog of the characters and underlined by the sound design.
Eg.

SOUND: DOOR OPENS AND BITTER WIND IS HEARD BLOWING.  DOOR CLOSES, CUTTING OFF WIND AS JIM ENTERS THE ROOM.

JIM:	It’s  @#!*%  cold outside today Bob.  How’re things in your lab.

BOB:	It’s a biologist’s nightmare Jim.  The three white mice are so cold their chattering teeth sound like a craps game on a tin roof.  And my goldfish, Chester?  Well, he’s so cold he’s turned blue. How’re things over in administration?

Here the essential information (cold, biologist, lab, mice, goldfish, Bob, administration, and Jim) is given to the listener indirectly yet very effectively via the sound and dialog. We’ve learned the scene takes place in a biology lab, that Jim is a biologist and has mice and goldfish on hand, and that Bob is from administration

Overlapping of narration and scene

This can be a little complex to describe so I’ll give an example. It’s a technique that allows you to use a sound effect (or occasionally music) to overlap the narration with the new scene.
For example

NARRATOR: On the mean streets of Star City crime is an ever present reality.

SOUND: POLICE SIRENS IN THE DISTANCE – GROWING NEARER. FADE IN AND REMAIN UNDER.

NARRATOR: On this particular winter’s night Police Detective Jack Wilson and his partner are engaged in a high speed chase with a murder suspect.

SOUND: BRING SIRENS UP AND ENGINE NOISE – MUFFLED AS FROM INTERIOR OF CAR. ESTABLISH AND UNDER.

SOUND: SQUEAL TIRES – LET IT FINISH.

JACK:	 @#!*%  Phil, don’t get us killed!

PHIL:   Sorry, Jack, but he’s getting away!

Keeping the setting alive

Without cues to keep us in the moment, our mental picture of the setting of a scene will fade and recede. In long scenes it is therefore sometimes necessary to revive this image.
The writer can do this through dialog; commenting on the room or location etc.
Generally speaking, this is better accomplished through the use of a sound effect. The effect is unobtrusive and repaints the picture in a single stroke.
Here the use of the sound effect is the equivalent to the way in which a book writer inserts a descriptive moment into the middle of dialog in order to reinforce the picture in the reader’s mind.

If you’d like to see some examples of how scene setting is handled in the scripts we publish be sure to visit http://weirdworldstudios.com/product-category/our-products/. We have some free samples you can download.
See you next time.
– Philip Craig Robotham

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