The City Speaks
The starting point forThe City Speaks, which is broadcast over two Afternoon Plays on Radio 4 this week, and also available to viewers on interactive TV via the 麻豆官网首页入口 Film Network site and on the Big Screens, was a challenge for filmmakers to create a 鈥渧isiontrack鈥 to a series of fifteen minute radio dramas.
I was one of the radio drama directors drafted in to work with a filmmaker on this project, and then when Conor Lennon, , left the 麻豆官网首页入口, I was given the task of making sure that it all got on air.
In the spring and early summer of 2007, six filmmaker teams were working closely with radio writers to develop scripts which were then recorded for radio before the films went into production. Peter Ackroyd had been approached to write a short story, which provided a starting point for the writers. I worked with writer Mike Walker and filmmakers Rose Pedlow and Joe King on I am Not You Are Not Me, a solo voice piece about a man who wanders up and down the Kingsland Road piecing together bits of his life.
Our starting point was the road itself, and the many ways in which it has changed over the last half century. Rosie and Joe became fascinated with the way in which old shop signs and advertisements had been remade and painted over, but still revealed part of the past. This became a key theme in Mike's play, which was voiced by Jim Norton. Rosie and Jim took the deliberate decision not to include the character played by Jim in the film. Other filmmakers did use actors, but none of the films attempt to synchronise dialogue from the soundtrack with actors in vision - just as well, I think. After all, this is not television.
You can watch the films online at the 麻豆官网首页入口 Film Network site.
We had the film premi猫re in front of an audience of 400 at the BFI Southbank last week. There was no red carpet, but it was great to see such a good turn out for a radio drama event.
Initial response to the broadcasts on the Radio 4 Drama & Readings message board indicates that some radio listeners had a few problems accessing the interactive TV broadcast - and it certainly was counterintuitive to hear the Radio 4 continuity announcer ask listeners to "turn off" their radios in order to continue listening (and watching) the Afternoon Play.
We hope to bring another film for radio to Radio 4 before too long.
But what do you think: is the City Speaks a bold development in visualising radio - or just a bastardised hybrid of television?
Jeremy Mortimer is Executive Producer, 麻豆官网首页入口 Radio Drama.
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