Production & Layout

1. Production & Layout Shannon Wilson

2. How was the development of your cover/contents/double page spread influenced by other productions? • I had looked at several existing magazines in order to gain an insight to the types of elements that were required to produce a professional looking magazine. Firstly, I had studied separate front covers, contents pages and double page spreads to obtain a rough idea of the variety of options available. For example, a front cover from Kerrang, the contents page of Q magazine and a double page spread from NME were all different from another in terms of style, theme and layout. I decided to use a mix of each to replicate certain parts within my work, yet alter them slightly to relectthe elements of my chosen genre. This includes my images, fonts and colour schemes as well as the layout itself.This was also required for my A2 coursework when producing a poster and a double page spread for our radio drama. After analysing several other publications from dramas such as Stranger on the Third Floor, The Twilight Zone and Star Wars, I was confident in producing a poster and feature that reflects the genre. For example, the use of the colour red to connotate ‘danger’ and capital, gothic fonts to emphasise the seriousness of the piece.

3. How was your choice of music and sound effects influenced by your genre? • Seeing as our radio drama was of a mystery type genre – the sound effects we used had to establish the setting and emphasise feeling without revealing too much to the audience.The most common sound effect used throughout the piece was the echoes, which effectively gave the audience an insight to the desperation of our characters – obviously being trapped inside a large, dark cave. Followed by the rock falls that arguably insinuates their danger.It was obviously important that we refrained from using and music or sound effects that would suggest positivity as there was not really any sense of ‘fun’ within the piece (the only exception being the laughs of Joseph Hunt at the start of the drama – before the news had broken out).

4. What considerations did you have to make with an absence of visuals? • With an absence of visuals, extra consideration had to be taken when trying to portray the characters’ emotions. A main example of this is Jonny. During his monologue, extra emotion was required within his dialogue to provide the audience with his sense of anger/confusion, as obviously no facial expressions or gestures can be seen. Furthermore, the use of sound effects (mainly rock falls and echoing) was required to gain the audience’s understanding of the setting – particularly after switches from Mark’s home and the news reports. Using a wider view, during the planning process of our radio drama, we had to ensure that each character had a distinctive voice. Obviously after tackling the ‘accent’ issue, it was important to magnify which character was speaking at which time – as the audience is physically unable to see the switch in character’s dialogue, this had to be considered in order to avoid any confusion.