Treatment

Radio 

To Catch an English Student

A Drama programme

"To Catch an English Student" (TCES) Would be a Radio Drama show that is centred around an English classroom. The overall premise of the show would be that a group of students are told by police to stay inside of an English classroom due to an investigation having been conducted about a girl who had committed suicide in their school. It had been narrowed down to someone from that English class who cyber bullied her into doing it therefore they keep all of the students in there to try and figure out who did it. 

I would use sound in order to make the episodes more realistic for the audience. One way I'd be able to do this is by using sound effects to convey that they are in fact inside of a school, for example using a school belling sound effect at the start of each day to not only connote to the idea that they are in a classroom but also to act as a gateway into the episode as it also represents the start of a new school day. This idea was inspired from THIS episode of BBC Radio 4's Radio drama called "15 Minute Radio Drama" and their use of paper flicking noises to connote to the idea of a therapy office. This made the episode feel more realistic which is what I want to create with my radio drama in order to make a greater suspension of disbelief for the audience. Another way I would use sound in my show is through the use of dialogue. I would use dialogue to share the narrative of the episode but also to reflect the setting their in. For example, if there were to be a private interrogation of one of the children I would use dialogue so that it was just the child and the interrogator who are talking to therefore connote to the idea that they have infant moved rooms to talk more privately. This would be very effective as it creates a deeper sense of realism, therefore making it easier for the audience to understand whats happening in the episode and makes the episode much more engaging for the audience. Not only this, but I would also use music in order to create a gateway into the episode, but also to foreshadow the themes of the overall show. Due to this show having some very negative connotations the actual theme music wouldn't be very buoyant. Finally, I would also use Wild tracks and Foley noises in order to make the environment have even further realism, an example of this would be that while there are people having a discussion in the classroom in the background, this use of Wild tracks to create a sense of realism makes the overall feel much more authentic because realistically if something to this severity would of happened there would be discussions in the background. Overall the use of these sounds in this way would create a better experience for the audience as it would create a greater depth of realism for the listener and make it more engaging for the audience to listen to.

The overall target audience for the show would be Teenagers from 13 - 24 of no specific gender who are from England and are interested in investigation shows. The reason why I feel it would be targeted toward a younger audience despite having some mature themes such as suicide is due to it also acting as an informative - sound is used to Inform, Educate and Entertain, and as it is centred around cyber bullying and the effects it can have the younger audience would be much more able to relate to the show as they are more likely to more often use social media than older generations therefore having that informative effect that sound should have. As well as this, it would be targeted towards a specific gender due to there being many different gendered students in the classroom who are all apart of the investigation and therefore a much more diverse spread of characters in which the audience are more able to relate to which makes the show more enjoyable for everyone.