Treatment for Midnight Murders

Basis:

A young man, Dale, in his newly bought house moving in with his brother, Brennan.
The brothers go through the first few nights hearing strange noises and having nightmares, waking up in the middle of the nights in a cold sweat panting for breath.
They invite friends over for a house warming party, a woman arrives whom Dale has been getting friendly with, Brennan is jealous because it’s always just been the two brothers. With strange things going on throughout the night like guests disappearing and furniture being moved, things get suspicious.
At the end of the night all but one guest is missing, leaving Dale and Brennan to question that person, the person in the end is found to be a poltergeist.

Introduction of main characters:

Dale:

 Dale is 42 years old and single, keeping things with his brother as they always have done – just the two of them. He is the Managing Partner of a successful law firm in the city, a very tall and ‘clean’ man, keeping up his appearance well and always remaining positive about situations. Very close with his brother, Brendan. Parents had died during their childhood; the two brothers had spent their childhood in care homes, but sticking together.

Brennan:

  Brendan is 39 years old, the younger brother of the pair and always looks up to Dale. A more ‘rough’ looking man than his brother though tends to keep his appearance well. Brendan is unemployed, supporting of his brother, Dale. He Helps Dale with any extra work that he can such as minor help with documents for Dale’s law work. Brendan is the more ‘emotionally supportive’ brother, whereas Dale is the ‘practically supportive’ brother.

 

 

Rosie:

Rosie is the sweet and friendly woman who works with Dale at the law firm, getting flirty and close to Dale with every working day that passes, she suggests to Dale to have a house party and invite everyone to give it a welcome feeling. Little does anyone know, Rosie has in fact been deceased for 100 years, she died in Dauhnet Manor at just 32 years old. Rosie feels the need to protect the manor from anyone as she feels it’s still her rightful home.

Intent:

At first I began to develop the script of the entire radio drama, Midnight Murders. I decided to go with the idea of a murder mystery but with a slight modern twist and an intimate relationship within the drama, the brothers that look out for each other. I liked the idea of a ghost being heavily involved in the story, being the turning point of the whole drama, similar to the book ‘An Inspector Calls’ where Inspector Goole (sounds like ghoul) is in fact a ghost.

After I’d decided all the ideas that I liked, I began to ‘fine tune’ the ideas and work them out to create a more dramatic to the story, for example the ghost within the story being a woman that one of the main characters becomes involved with, giving more intimacy to the drama.

Once everything was scripted in terms of the storyline, I began to write a rough list of sound effects I could use, music choices and whom to use for voice acting and how to differentiate the characters in different circumstances. For example a crack of lightning I’d use a mix of a car engine starting, the wobbling of a sheet of metal and scraping card against stone.

After I’d gotten a rough idea of the things I’d want to use for audio props, I finalised these choices and put up my final listings for everything to be used to bring this radio drama to life.

Then came recording, and finally the whole broadcasting.

Midnight Murders Presentation

Notes:

1st slide:

Hey guys, I'm Ryan and this is my presentation on my Unit 42 radio drama Midnight Murders.

2nd slide:

Dauhnet Manor is Dale and Brennan's fantasy home. They've dreamt of living in the enormous house since they were kids.

3rd slide:

At first I began to develop the script of the entire radio drama, Midnight Murders. I decided to go with the idea of a murder mystery but with a slightly modern twist and intimate relationships within the drama, the brothers that look out for each other, and the love interest with Dale and Rosie. I liked the idea of a ghost being heavily involved in the story without the protagonists knowing, being the turning point of the whole drama, similar to the book ‘An Inspector Calls’ where Inspector Goole is in fact a ghost.

After I’d decided all the ideas that I liked, I began to ‘fine tune’ the ideas and work them out to create a more dramatic sense to the story, for example the ghost within the story being a woman that one of the main characters becomes involved with, giving more intimacy to the drama.

Once everything was scripted in terms of the storyline, I began to write a rough list of sound effects I could use, music choices and whom to use for voice acting and how to differentiate the characters in different circumstances. For example with a crack of lightning I’d use a mix of a recorded car engine starting, the wobbling of a sheet of metal and scraping card against stone. Then to differentiate characters with one voice actor they could be stood close to the microphone for one character, then for the next stood back with something slightly covering their mouth.

After I’d gotten a rough idea of the things I’d want to use for audio props, I finalised these choices and put up my final listings for everything to be used to bring this radio drama to life.

4th slide:

The fund will be distributed equally between all people involved, though with the actors and writers getting a slightly higher percentage of payment; on average actors and writers gain about £4000 per play. The studio hiring for broadcasting will cost roughly £60 per hour, though set amounts of time can be booked at studios for £350-500 for 10 hour sessions, obviously not needed for a radio drama though. Costs for props will depend on what prop is actually being used, many foley artists can use homemade things to implicate the sound of anything they desire.

5th slide:

Dale:

Dale is 42 years old and single, keeping things with his brother as they always have done – just the two of them. He’s the Managing Partner of a successful law firm in the city, a very tall and ‘clean’ man, keeping up his appearance well and always remaining positive about situations. Very close with his brother, Brennan. Their parents had died during their childhood; the two brothers had spent their childhood in care homes, but sticking together no matter what. Dale is confident and caring, his loving nature keeps him back slightly from being strict on his brother.

Brennan:

Brennan is 39 years old, the younger brother of the pair and always looks up to Dale. A more ‘rough’ looking man than his brother though tends to keep his appearance well nevertheless. Brennan is unemployed, but very supporting of his brother, Dale. He Helps Dale with any extra work that he can such as minor help with documents for Dale’s law work. Brennan is the more ‘emotionally supportive’ brother, whereas Dale is the ‘practically supportive’ brother. Brennan isn’t a very confident person and lacks much self-esteem; these traits in his personality make him feel as though he needs his brother all to himself.

Rosie:

Rosie is the sweet and friendly woman who works with Dale at the law firm, getting flirty and closer to Dale with every working day that passes, when Dale and Brennan buy their childhood dream-home she suggests to Dale to have a house party and invite everyone to give it a warm welcome feeling. Little does anyone know, Rosie has in fact been dead for 100 years, she died in Dauhnet Manor at just 32 years old. Rosie feels the need to protect the manor from anyone as she feels it’s still her rightful home. Her charming character allows her to manipulate Dale easily into having the first and possibly last house party he’ll ever have.

Others:

Other characters that are heard throughout the drama will be easily distinguished by their tone of voice and accent. For example Dale’s boss in a certain part will sound well spoken and posh, this ensues the idea of a dominant figure in the audience’s mind if he’s saying something such as “Dale I need this paperwork done by tomorrow morning, get it done.” These characters are not major influences within the drama so cannot be considered as main characters above.

6th slide:

 

My target audience for this is mainly going to be people of the wide age range from 25 – 50, mostly expected to be in the older regions of that age audience though. The typical class intended for this drama is expected to be the middle and upper people of society, the drama should also appeal to both a male and female audience with it’s genres of horror, romance and mystery. From the graph, the stereotypical expected audience will be from A to C1.

END