Consortium Comics10/16/2009 05:54:27 AM
So what is this about?
Way back in 2005, I had this idea: Listeners would send in theirr own radio drama scripts about superheroes in a new Comic book world. Our acting troop would produce a monthly Audio comic and put it on the show regularly. We got a lot of interest and more than a couple of characters created, but no scripts. Since airing Blue Defender on the Sonic Society, there's been renewed interest. Maybe that was the ticket. I should have gotten my own scripts out there for people to help inspire? So here are the rules I developed way back when about the universe. I've included the character form here so folks can create their own if they are still interested. But have a glance at the rules first!
Consortium Comics Rules!
0. Submission Briefs
Consortium Comics Rules and Recommendations
So you want to write your own audio cinema script?
You've come to the right place!
We break down the basics here so, let's look at the parts of the submission process.
1. Come up with a great Concept
- Make your hero an original creation.
- Street level heroes are best.
- Shy away from Super Team stories
- Keep your hero's concept and dialog rated "PG"
- Keep crossover stories between Consortium Heroes limited
- Stay away from real people, organizations, and religions. We won't accept anything opening us to libel or slander.
Before Scripts can be submitted. You must complete the Character form so we can approve your hero!
3. Format your Script
- Follow standard "Indented Format" for Radio Drama
- Episodes must either be either one part or two parts.
- One part episodes are between 10-15 minutes (approximately 10-15 pages)
- Two part episodes must be submitted as one script with 10-15 minutes per part.
- No Prologue or Epilogue (We'll add ours. We have a narrator for that purpose.)
- Straight action. You may have some comedy, romance, mystery, horror and the like, but the genre is standard comic book hero fair.
- We take care of the music.
- Contemporary Earth setting.
- No Future or Past hero stories.
- No dimension hopping. No Outer Space. No Inner Space. No Quark Space.
- All heroes have only become active in the Aughts. (2000-2005)
- Don't Interfere with History.
- Sound effects NOT described through dialogue.
- Make each scene no longer than 2-3 minutes in length.
- Ground your hero in drama, even melodrama.
- Drive your scenes.
Submit your script!
1. Heroic Concepts2. Character Form3. Script Formatting4. Consortium World5. Compelling ScriptsHow to Write GOOD Audio Cinema for Consortium Comics
There is no one single formula to write the next award winning radio drama script. However, there are several things that I believe are key to keep in mind to create a compelling audio cinema.
A. Follow a Dramatic Structure
Roller coasters would be boring if they were flat, and the best landscape displays interesting contours between mountains and foothills, dunes and vistas.
Try following the classic elements that make a good dramatic story. They are:
- Initial Conflict
- Mounting Tension
- Climax
- Resolution
B. Acts and Scenes
Since you're really only dealing with ONE Act for the most part, or TWO Acts if you are sending in a two parter, its important to focus on Scene.
Scenes need to break up your story and keep it moving. While television has turned most of our minds to a dull paste with its fast and quick imagery, it has also made us thirsty for fast paced scenes.
Keep your scenes no more than TWO minutes long. THREE minutes at the absolute uppermost. Changing scenes keeps the plot and characters moving steadily and can help with your pacing.
You can move your scenes in a straight forward matter, from A to B to C to D. Or you can switch them between different characters in circular motions as in going from A to B to C to B to A again, or some similar pattern.
C. Hooks and Transitions
Hooks are used to get the audience COMING BACK FOR MORE! and transitions are often musical transitions in radio drama designed to either signify time or space manipulation. For example, a musical transition may occur just after a character says, "Well, the bank tellers ain't gettin' prettier. Let's go!" to help signify that the next scene begins at the bank.
Hooks are lines or plot high points to give the audience a desire to ask that most important question in a radio drama "What's going to happen next??"
D. Parenthetical Directions
There will simply be times when you want to give directions to the Actors to help clue them into an emotional state or a situation that might further the mood or tone of a radio script. For the most part, experienced actors will be able to get a good feel for what needs to be done in a play and bring their own unique emotional depth to a character and a scene. But, in those rare times you will feel you MUST express something that cannot be mentioned or gleaned easily from the script, do so in capitalized parenthetical directions to help both Directors and Actors launch into the plot!
E. Sound Effects
All SFX be it sound, vocal or music should be used sparingly. That's right- I bolded and italicized that word for a reason. There's a tendency to put in EVERY sound that a writer can come up with for a script. If experience has taught me anything about SFX it is this- the less the better.
This is not a big budget action flick where the more green screen, computer generated, high rise explosions the better (if that is ever the case). With audio cinema you want to use sound the same way as you use dialogue, to further the plot, to set a mood, to establish a setting, or to deepen the character. If a sound effect has no real strength in a scene, then discard it!
F. Keep Dialogue Realistic. Don't describe your SFX.
You might be asking "What?" Of course there are times, when this is necessary.
Let me illustrate what I mean.
If you have two characters and one draws a gun, please for the love of Orson, don't write something like:
AMOS: "John! What ever are you doing with that gun!?"
This is highly melodramatic, and epically unrealistic dialogue.
Try instead to allow the sound effects to fill in the blanks, like this:
SOUND: REVOLVER TRIGGER HAMMER PULLED BACK
AMOS: "Don't do it John! Please...."
Keeping dialogue realistic means shortening your lines a whole lot. Notice the following:
From a Newspaper:
"Today two men were shot to death on the platform at Ridgeway Station in Radial City today. According to Police Chief Normal Leiter, what occurred on the passenger line was another in a long line of attempted snatch and grabs muggings- only this time the perpetrator found himself cornered by concerned citizens in the subway itself. Shooting his way out of the subway car, the attacker was eventually stopped by the vigilante who calls himself the Blue Defender.
The costumed hero of the East Side began his manhunt moments after the shooting. Eyewitnesses said that they could hear the sound of a prolonged struggle just in the south tunnel where the mugger attempted to escape. Details of the man in custody are sketchy, and Blue Defender did not remain for comment.
For Radio Drama as Dialogue:
SOUND: RAPID KNOCKING ON A DOOR
BETTY: Jane! JANE! Good Lord woman open this door now!
SOUND: LATCH OPENS. DOOR CREAKS OPEN
JANE: Yes. Heavens Betty what's wrong?! You look like you've been scared half to death!
BETTY: I have! I have! I.. I was coming home....
JANE: Come in poor dear.. come in! You're shaking like a leaf!
SOUND: DOOR CLOSES
VOICE: FADING IN THE DISTANCE
JANE: Let me get you some tea.
(YELLING FROM THE KITCHEN)
Tell me what happened...
BETTY: Oh it was awful.. simply awful... until HE came.
JANE: He? He who?
(BEAT)
BETTY: The Blue Defender
JANE: Blue- But that's imposs-
BETTY: Carol Jane Ramsey! You have known me for 47 years, have I ever lied to you?!
JANE: No.. No of course not!
BETTY: (Amazed) It was HIM, Janey. He... he was just as young... and dashing as he was on the screen.
JANE: He'd be in his seventies now Betty.. It couldn't have been him. It must have been someone who looked like him dear-
BETTY: (To herself) - Don't know if I'm scared or excited. He's back Janey.. Oh he's back.. I can feel it in my bones!
And so on... you get the idea. Dialogue is less jointed and more free flow than the kind of writing we read for information. The benefit is that you can decide to leave certain elements out of your conversations to add mystery and suspense. Notice how between the two women, the dialogue said a lot about their age, their relationship, even underlying personality traits.
G. Drive Your Scenes.
Like the scene above, make certain that you drive EVERY scene. Don't just have your characters hanging out. If a scene has no purpose to either FURTHER the plot or DEEPEN the characters toss it out. It's fluff and will only make your listeners snooze.
Keep the pace going. Keep driving your audience like a cattle hand keeps a herd moving. Don't let them stay too long in one place or they'll wander off and you'll lose them!
H. End WELL.
Having the RIGHT ending is crucial. It needs to be an ending that resonates with the listener as fulfilling all the plot hooks you left dangling earlier, and somehow having your character come to a kind of realization or ending. The right ending can be the same as having a character begin at a fork in the road of life, and ending with finally choosing the path for good or ill. Be committed to creating an ending that makes sense, and will give the listeners the sensation that they have just completed the journey with you (and not been prodded with sticks as mentioned above. You may be keeping them moving, you just have to make them feel like it was their choices!)
BBC Script readers have been required in the past to ask certain questions before recommending a play for production.
Ask yourself the same questions when you read your own work.
1. Why did you enjoy it?
2. Was it a good story?
3. Are the characters as good as the story?
4. Does it make good use of the medium of radio?
5. IS the beginning good enough?
I. Know the Medium.
Make sure you listen to radio drama before you write. Listen to the cadence. Listen to the convention. Become familiar with the way it works. That's the best way to get a feel for it.
Once you understand the limitations and the benefits of Radio Drama you can work within them. Radio Drama is an exciting medium. Play with it!
Here are some things to consider:
Ø Audience can’t see the action
Ø Scenery, lighting and costume can’t be used to reinforce the message
Ø Anything can be imagined. Even conversations between parts of the brain
Ø No budgetary constraints for time and place (Fantasy works great!)
And those are some of the considerations you should make when working on your own masterpieces.
Now get cracking and SUBMIT!
6. Submit Script