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.