The Writer - 05.2020_

26 | The Writer • May 2020

8 SFX: GUNSHOT

9 SARAH: (SCREAMS)

10 SFX: BODY THUDS AS IT HITS CEMENT FLOOR

11 SFX: CLANG AS GUN HITS CEMENT FLOOR

12 SFX: LIGHT FOOTSTEPS HURRY AWAY

The sound cues are written to be specific in the type of

sound and to orient the listener (and the actors, director,

and crew) in the scene. The floor is made out of cement, so

a body and a gun sound different hitting cement than they

would a wooden floor or a dirt floor. The character of Sarah

is assigned the scream, so the actor performs it instead of

the Foley artist. (In some cases, the Foley artist might be the

one providing the scream if the screamer wasn’t a character

with actual lines in the play or the director decided not to

assign the scream to an actor.)

From the way the scene is written, we suspect Sarah was

followed into the warehouse. We’re not sure who fired the

gun, although we assume it was Sarah, since she screamed

and we hear her lighter footsteps hurrying away at the end.

In a good script, those points are clarified later in the story,

via dialogue and more active sound cues, so it’s all wrapped

up by the end of the piece. This is only the first scene, which

sets a mood. If it were a scene later in the script, there would

already be much more context as to why Sarah is followed

into the warehouse and who she shoots.

Example: Sound cues establish place & character dynamics

The opening of the radio drama Horace House Hauntings

leads with sound cues designed to underline the antagonism

between the two lead characters:

1 SFX: THEME MUSIC FADES IN, SWELLS,

FADES OUT

2 SCENE 1: OUTSIDE OF HORACE HOUSE

3 SFX: TWO CARS APPROACHING EACH OTHER

ON THE ROAD

4 SFX: ONE CAR HONKS

5 SFX: THE OTHER CAR RESPONDS

6 SFX: SCREECHING BRAKES

Narration: To use or not to use?
Older radio shows such as The Adventures of Philip
Marlowe relied heavily on narration, often by the
lead character. Modern radio drama uses it less. As
a writer, I prefer to use active dialogue and specific
sound cues to set the scene for the audience.
Wicker agrees. “Narration, if used at all,
should reveal character as much as it provides
exposition. Traditional, omniscient narration can
be a trap, as it tends to take the audience out of
the story’s action. The use of character as narrator
rather than an outside observer can establish a
close identification between audience and charac-
ter when it places the listener in the mind of the
character. It should not serve as a substitute for
action or a crutch for weak writing.”

Format and translating visual cues to aural cues
Radio script format is different than other script
formats, and there’s variation within radio format-
ting by company. BBC Radio format differs from
U.S. radio format differs from U.S. numbered radio
format, for example. Some companies want music
cues written in as “MUS,” and some want them as
sound cues (“SFX”). Some companies want the
music cues numbered (“MUS 1”, “MUS 2”, etc.).
Let’s look at the opening of this very article
and see how these sound cues could be inter-
preted. For production, the script needs to be
very specific. In U.S. numbered format, it would
look something like this, with bolds, underlines,
capitalization, and double-spacing as shown:

1 MUS: THEME MUSIC RISES AND

FADES OUT

2 Scene 1: The Warehouse, Night

3 SFX: FOGHORN BLAST

4 SFX: LIGHT, HURRIED FOOTSTEPS

5 SFX: A SECOND SET OF FOOT-

STEPS, HEAVIER, MORE MEASURED

6 SFX: DOOR HINGE CREAKS

7 SFX: BOTH SETS OF FOOTSTEPS,

FASTER THIS TIME