Two Newbie Questions on Radio Script Formatting

Ok, two questions:

1. Imagine a scene from a radio play that has three parts to it. Most of it takes place in a bedroom. There is a cutaway to a few lines of dialogue spoken outside in the rain, then we're back to the bedroom. Is that technically three distinct scenes, or one scene with a CUT TO: - In which case would I still need to format it as something like CUT TO: (EXT/NIGHT) OUTSIDE MRS COOPER'S COTTAGE - POURING RAIN.

2. I have a scene where a long speech is delivered off mic, in parallel with the ongoing dialogue. Is there a Beeb-prefered method of presenting that in a radio script?

- Thanks for your help.
Tony.

BBC used to say there are no SCENES in radio plays, just a START and an END, but then Mat Carless put up examples on the writers-room website that did have SCENEs, so it got confusing.

Essentially scene changes on radio are just done by including a description of the new ambient sound.

On a submission script I guess it won't matter much provided you make it clear.

How can you have a discernible speech off mic in parallel with the main dialogue? The audience would not be able to hear what is going on.

These examples (part of my Scriptwriters' Toolkit) are based on what the Matt Carless examples used to say (before they were removed from the BBC writers room website recently). http://www.datahighways.net/dhl/toolkit.htm#BBCradiodrama

Thank you, I'll check out your link now.

The speech off mic isn't necessarily discernible, just something muttered by a guy on his death bed, I'm just giving the actor something to work with as the two main characters are discussing his predicament. If any of it is picked up by the listener I didn't want it to be ill-considered blah.

There's no 'cocktail-party effect' on Radio, listeners cannot use it to distinguish background babble from the main talk of the script.

In my opinion (and I'm NOT a radio script writer, just a listener) you would be better off with just a few discernible interjections, marked (off), from the dying man, with general Hospital background noises.

"Close your eyes" when writing a radio script and think only of the noises you can hear with one ear.

Quote: Atkin @ March 27 2012, 4:29 AM BST

Thank you, I'll check out your link now.

The speech off mic isn't necessarily discernible, just something muttered by a guy on his death bed, I'm just giving the actor something to work with as the two main characters are discussing his predicament. If any of it is picked up by the listener I didn't want it to be ill-considered blah.

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Don't bother with it, reference it in the conversation without clunky exposition and you should be fine. SFX could be heart monitoring beeps, oxygen assisted breathing etc.

Ok, thanks for the advice Bill. I would dispute the fact that there isn't a cocktail party effect in radio. Surely it's a psychological effect we all experience whether it has a visual aspect to it or not? But in any case, I am aware of not cluttering a scene and detracting from the dialogue.

I have come across a method to have parallel dialogue laid out before in a textbook on writing for radio by an established writer, but I've forgotten how it was presented. I'd better dig out my textbooks to see which one it was in.

I presented the first draft of my script to a Canadian writer who has had work broadcast on (I think) CBC Radio, and it was she who advised on a parallel layout for that section of the scene, but she went no further than that.

Quote: Marc P @ March 27 2012, 2:44 PM BST

Don't bother with it, reference it in the conversation without clunky exposition and you should be fine. SFX could be heart monitoring beeps, oxygen assisted breathing etc.

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Gotcha, cheers Marc.

As far as I am aware, the cocktail party effect mostly depends on the aural directional capability of our ears, mostly contained in the higher frequencies.

As I'm now oldish and have lost most of my upper frequency hearing, I have great difficulty listening to conversation in public places like pubs., where there is a background hubbub occurring.

So younger people listening to STEREO radio may get some cocktail party effect.

>I have come across a method to have parallel dialogue laid out before in a textbook on writing for radio by an established writer, but I've forgotten how it was presented. I'd better dig out my textbooks to see which one it was in.

Often required in phone conversations; in before-computer days, they sometimes split the page down the middle and had two script parts side by side, but most modern scriptwriting software probably can't handle it, so usually all they do is have every bit of dialogue of one of the characters marked (OOV) "out-of-View" or (ON PHONE).

It really doesn't matter too much on submission scripts (especially UK ones as they are less fussy), because if they ever produce your script, the production team will re-type your script into their production control software anyway.

I did put the side by side script stuff into the Scriptwriters' Toolkit ages ago, but it is fiddly to use so I doubt if anyone uses that facility.

Quote: billwill @ March 28 2012, 12:42 AM BST

Often required in phone conversations; in before-computer days, they sometimes split the page down the middle and had two script parts side by side, but most modern scriptwriting software probably can't handle it, so usually all they do is have every bit of dialogue of one of the characters marked (OOV) "out-of-View" or (ON PHONE).

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Surely Word is the popular piece of 'scriptwriting software' and that can handle it? Just select the button that has two columns on it.

Anyway, before computers? How difficult would it be to write a script where two things happened at the same time on a typewriter? You were prone to create errors as it was.

Quote: Tim Azure @ March 28 2012, 8:18 AM BST

Surely Word is the popular piece of 'scriptwriting software' and that can handle it? Just select the button that has two columns on it.

Anyway, before computers? How difficult would it be to write a script where two things happened at the same time on a typewriter? You were prone to create errors as it was.

View original

Prezactly... But Word is incomplete for scriptwriting. My Toolkit supplies the missing parts, to make it EASY to do scripts in MS Word. Anyone using Word for scripts without using a decent template system is just wasting time & effort.

Watch these two videos to see how easy the mechanics of the writing can be http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVzHU5_HPwU http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTTBCORBDxY

If you use the simple two column feature of Word to do dual conversation scripts, the two dialogues won't stay in sync when you alter any of the dialogue, it can be a real pain. To do it properly you would actually need to use invisible 2-column TABLES, but without double-checking I don't recall if I put that method in the Toolkit.

>Anyway, before computers? How difficult would it be to write a script where two things happened at the same time on a typewriter? You were prone to create errors as it was.

Yup! they had it tough in them thar days. None-the-less they managed and filled their waste baskets with scrapped sheets.