See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/380167541

Essential Elements of Drama and Documentary Production for Broadcast Media

Chapter · January 2022

CITATIONS READS
0 92

1 author:

Oba Abdulkadir La'aro

University of Ilorin
23 PUBLICATIONS 36 CITATIONS

SEE PROFILE

All content following this page was uploaded by Oba Abdulkadir La'aro on 29 April 2024.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

Essential Elements of Drama and Documentary Production for Broadcast Media

Oba Abdulkadir La’aro(PhD)

Dept of Mass Communication,
University of Ilorin, Nigeria
E-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]
Telephone No: +234-81-0233-6636

1
Objective:
At the end of this section, you should be able to
 define drama in generic term
 contextualize drama across message type on radio and television production
 have general understanding of the importance of drama as programme on radio and
television
 identify the essential elements expected in drama production.
 Produce drama for radio and television.

Introduction
Defining drama and putting drama in perspectives
To have a good and succinct description of what drama is, let us recall these lines by Musburger
(2007). According to him,
a drama is a story told in prose or verse written to portray life, characters, or
relationships involving emotions and conflicts through action and dialogue
designed for distribution on the stage, in motion pictures, on radio, television, or
via any digital medium (p.129)

Musburger’s definition is ample enough to provide sufficient components that illustrate the
structure, requirement and media in which drama can be distributed. By this description, we
understand that drama is a written endeavor and not just orally delivered. This point is important
in the context of broadcasting (radio and television) production. It points to the fact that drama that
is meant for radio and/or television production must be scripted both as an idea and as a technical
tool for production. This point will be elaborated upon in the section that discusses scripting for
drama
The next illuminating point of the definition is that drama is oriented as a portrayal of life,
characters, or relationships. That life or character may be human or animal. It does mean that drama
is a representation which places it in the fiction genre of production. As noted by Milne, (2008)
“drama is a representational art, a visible and audible narrative presenting virtual, fictional
characters within a virtual, fictional universe” (p.ix). However, the fictional nature of drama is
made visible and involving through effective use of emotional and conflicting moments cleverly
acted out using dialogues.

2
Drama in the context of radio and television production
For analytical purposes, let’s take drama in the context of each medium separately. Drama on radio
is the use of drama techniques to turn around the thoughts of the producers, script writers and
directors into words and actions that provide satisfactions in the minds of the listeners. Any radio
production must succeed in painting picture of idea, actions and thoughts in the listener’s mind.
The reference to radio as a theater of the mind or as a blind medium is in recognition of its
characteristics of relying on two sides of one thing- sound and silence which is the absence of
sound.
Drama in the context of television includes all the features of radio and adds the elements of
visual characteristics.

Understanding of the importance of drama as message type on radio and television

Radio and television messages are the visible connection between the station and the audience.
These messages, in concrete terms, are the programme, announcement and commercials that we
encounter on daily basis as we listen to radio or watch television. The principles of drama that are
laid out in this chapter are applicable to all the main three message-types of radio and television.
Drama is scheduled as programme on radio either as serial or series. We also see commercials
(advertisement) that are dramatized to pass the message of the sponsors in an interesting and
engaging manner. The same principles of drama are employed when the station want to
disseminate social responsibilities messages refer to in broadcast parlance as public service
announcement(PSA) or when the individual member of the audience use the media of broadcasting
for dissemination of information that are meant for the public which is dubbed personal paid
announcement (PPA.

Classification of radio and television drama

Drama is classified into a number of types. Aspinal (1971) identify three categories based on how
they are presented to the audience. A drama can be self-contain, a kind of one-time-off play that
addresses an issue for a particular occasion, for example, a country’s independent anniversary or
a ceremony in a community. Such drama on radio or television usually last for about 30, 45 or 60
minutes. They are not usually scheduled on the quarterly programmme line-up but inserted into it

3
to meet the mood and need of the moment. Drama can also be a serial in which the action of the
story “goes forward from one episode to another”. In terms of length, it can be 15 minutes
especially on radio or 30 minutes on television. Drama is at times presented as series of a continued
story. Each broadcast may last for a length ranging from 15, 30, 60 minutes where one episode is
completed but the “principal characters reappear in new situation in each new drama in the
series”.(Aspinall, 1971, p.120). Super story will be an example of Serial drama in the sense that
the whole story is presented in a continuous manner from on episode to the other until the end of
a quarter. On the other hand, Papa Ajasco, is an example of drama presented in series where the
principal characters reappeared in the series. Both of them are production by Wale Adenuga
Productions as …………across television stations in Nigeria.

Producing Drama—Process and Principles

Producing involves the activities of bringing forth something. What we bring forth in drama
production is the act of telling story about life’s events. Drama offers a framework for
understanding and interpretations of life’s events. In dramatizing life’s events the story teller
attempts to help the audience see themselves through actions, motives, faults, failings and
fallings. According to McLeash (2007), drama offers life mirror to the audiences.
Drama is about conflict and resolutions, relationships and feelings and people
being motivated by them, both driving and driven by events. What happened
should be credible; the people believable and ending have a sense of logic,
however unusual and curious, so that the listener does not feel cheated or let
down (p.243)
The process of producing drama is similar to all production for broadcast media with its own
elements as follows:
1. Introduction of the story idea/theme,
2. Setting
3. Contextualization
4. Establishing the characters.

Each of these elements is explain below.

4
The idea/theme

Idea for drama may be original to the creator, a story brief supplied by a client or an adaption of
an existing work. A story for drama is original when the creator brings out a story out of his own
observation or encounter with the life’s events. The drama writers may base his story on a brief
supplied by a client such as a company who wants a particular story dramatized for a particular
purpose. This is common when an individual or a company is contracted to use the principles of
drama to pass a message. Advertisers, United Nations agencies, Non-governmental organizations
(NGOs) and government agencies are to be found in these categories of relationship with a
professional drama writer. The third type of sources of drama idea is an adaptation of a literary
work like the novels, media content in newspapers or magazines etc.

After having idea of what you want to dramatize, two important interrogative phases must be
tackled effectively and efficiently. The producer must determine what McLeish calls the (1)
material suitability of the idea for the target audience and (2) the technical suitability of the idea.

(1) Material suitability of the idea for the target audience: An idea may be good “looking” but
badly presented if the producer failed to clearly conceptualize what purpose is to serve for
the audience. What is the broad purpose is to serve, to make the audience laugh, to explain
something, to persuade them alongside certain desired behavioural line, etc. Connected to
this is the plotting and characterization. Do I tell the story in sequential order or what? Who
do I use to tell the story, in other words what character do I need to create or to project?
(2) The technical suitability of the idea: Radio and television are technological devices with
their own characteristics. Using them as media of dramatising idea required an
understanding of their potentials and limitations. A thorough examination of the story idea
will reveal how to use the elements of production in radio and television creatively. One
principle of production that guides the use of the elements of production in broadcasting is
the principles of texturisation which informs what to foreground and what to
backgrounding. Texturisation is the decision on the “thickness” or “thinness” of each
segment of the production and in the case of drama, each scene in a setting. It has to do
with how many elements of production can the audience absolve that will not result into
perception riots. A combination of the sound effects, speech, echo in a scene may serve
the purpose of creative portrayal but may result in the audience having difficult in focusing

5
 on the particular focal elements that is germane to that aspect of the story. Experience
drama producer will have little or no difficult in appropriate and proportionate use of the
elements of production, but beginner must develop sensitivity in handling them.
But that is not all about what to consider at this stage.
There are still the issues of cost limitation and capability limitation. Broadcast production
are done within certain budget limitation. The drama producer competes with others within
the station hence there is always the limits to available fund. The relevant question to ask
is if the story idea can be effectively being produced within the available budget from the
station or sponsors of the drama production. Aside the cost limitation, producers must be
sure there are capable hands that are able to translate the drama script into reality. If your
script needs your character to cry intermittently, do you have an actor capable of acting
that within your crew? Furthermore, are your technical personnel able to operate the
required necessary equipment? And is the necessary equipment available and affordable if
you are to procure one? These are interwoven with the issue of cost limitation.
To recap, a theme is basically a significant statement that a work of fiction asserts or an
important issue that it raises. Themes generally emanate from the values, beliefs, and
goals of the central characters, but a general theme may be much broader and universal
than the attitudes of any single character.
The setting

Setting is an important element in the process of story construction for drama production. It refers
to an environment or surrounding (an office, a correctional Centre, an hospitals, a market place,
motor park, a shop, a studio) in which an event or story takes place. Setting is composed of three
aspects, a place, social environment and time. In addition, a whole geographical location like a
city, a town or region could be the setting. Whatever, the appointed setting of drama, the story
writer must situate the functions very well. The functions of the setting are to help set the mood
and influence the way the characters behave as well as affect the dialogue between actors. Setting
may also function to foreshadow events in the story, invoke an emotional response, and reflect the
society in which the character live and it may, at times; play a part in the story.

6
The plot
Plot is a central idea to story construction. It is in plot that we see the sequence of events of a story;
we learn more about the characters, the setting and the moral of the story. The story writer, through
the plot, constructs series of events that are deliberately arranged to bring out the dramatic, the
thematic and the emotional significance of the story. The plot of a story comprises five building
blocks or elements-Exposition, Rising action, Climax, Falling action and Resolution/denouement

McLeash(2007) provides an elaboration of the foregoing elements as follows.

Exposition: where you introduce your story, the setting, context and characters are
established. Also here the primary conflicts which is the events resulting from characters of the
story are brought in. Technically, in television the scriptwriter and the director use the
establishment shot to reveal the setting, context and characters.

Rising action: beyond the exposition, there is the rising actions that bring complications,
suspense. This is important to gain the attention of the listeners or the viewers earlier enough to
build interest in the story.

Climax: After the gaining attention of the audience, the writer provide the complications
and suspense that will lead to maximum tension and crisis that will lead to reaching the climax
of the story

Falling action: What is the nature and response of the characters to the complications
and suspense points of the story? The “How” of the character response is the falling action. In
other words, the actions of the characters after the most dramatic—rising action, the climax –has
happened is what is referred to as the falling action

Resolution: How the actions, intrigues, reaction of the characters are concluded is the
resolution aspect of the drama story. At this stage the story plot begins to slow down and move
towards ending, the loose ends of the plot are tied up.

Denouement: Is another terms for resolution except that it is more appropriate term to
use when another twist is introduced at the point of resolving the rising tension of the story. Such
devise is common in commercial oriented drama where the script writer or the producer desires
continuous patronage.

7
Characterisation and character
Characterisation and character are central concept in drama that need to be understood and their
positon in delivery of the drama story. Let’s have insights into the two related concepts as portray
in this passage
Developing strong, believable, and interesting characters is just as important as
creating an exciting series of actions and events. Complex characters give a story depth
and three-dimensionality. A character’s values and beliefs lead to conflicts with other
characters who hold opposing values. If these values are significant and strongly held, the
entire fictional experience is enhanced (McLeash,2007),.
The above passage encapsulates what characterization is all about- the development of personality
in a story in a way that gives live, believability and credibility to fictional characters. In creating
characters, McLeash (2007), quoting Gavigan advised the writer to pose and attempt to provide
answer to these questions—who is the hero or heroine? What does he or she want? Why should I
care? The answer to these questions will lead to creating a drama where “human motivations and
behavior is familiar, the audience will meet recognizable people—fallible, courageous,
argumentative, greedy, fearful, compassionate, lazy and soon” (p.247).
The last question by Garvigan (why should I care?); is emphasizing the need for the main character
to develop rapport with the audience. This point needs further attention. Because if the audience
cannot relate with the plight, aspiration or struggle of the main character, the chance of the story
been believable, an important criterion for credibility; will be undermined.

In developing characters, it must be borne in mind that our characters will be imbued with
characteristics of a fallible personality, i.e they fall in crises, possess internal contradictions and
illogicality in their actions. In short, a compelling drama must develop characters that exhibit this
human trait, that’s internal conflict when there are inconsistencies in what we say and what we
actually do. Both ‘devilish’ and ‘angelic’ characters will have these inconsistencies. The foregoing
logically means that for the writer to effectively develop his characterization he must be familiar
with the portrait of the character meant to play role in terms of their demographics and
psychographics traits, career aspiration and preferences, social connections etc. At this stage, the
writer must feel confident enough to select (casting) his actors and actress and write the dialogue
which is an ingredient of drama that set it apart from narration.

8
CONCLUSION
In radio and television production, drama serves a number of production objectives. Drama can be
a programme on its own scheduled on the programme belt. The orientation of such programme is
usually to entertain, amuse, or relax the audience. Such drama may be in series that run for a
number of weeks and address a social theme. It can be serial that contained in it one off delivery
of a particular message. Further, drama can serve commercial or advertising production and also
serve public service announcement. Drama in radio and television production has certain essential
feature common to all other media but requires effective use of the sound and visual elements
peculiar to broadcast media.

9
SECTION TWO
Documentary in Perspectives
Objective: At the end of this section, you should be able to:
 have good grasp of what is meant by documentary production for broadcast media
 classify documentary for broadcast media
 identify the essential elements of documentary production
 master the procedure and production of documentary for radio and television

INTRODUCTION
Documentary in perspectives
Among the messages of broadcast media, some are oriented towards information-news, some
towards entertainment--drama. But the documentary is factual in nature, a characteristic it shares
with news but unlike news, it is not a NOW thing. Documentary, according to a description;
provided by Aspinal (1971), is a “factual broadcasting that has informational character but more
often is directly educational in intent”(p.102). However, a more panoramic view of what
documentary is and the subject of interest to documentarian and how it is presented can be gleaned
from this passage by Mayeux (1985)
Documentary present facts about a relevant subject from actual or real events,
persons or places to reflect, interrelates, creatively interprets, or comment
upon current concerns and realities. Documentary should be designed to create a
cohesive, dramatic presentation with intellectual impacts. Reality is the basic
criterion for a documentary (p.163) emphasis added.

Documentaries are produced to capture fragments of actuality, the creative treatment of actuality,
the interpretation of recorded images and sounds, and the selection of a socially important topic
for clarification.

In the context of broadcasting media, documentary is the use radio and television techniques to
capture a reality. As a programme on radio and television schedules, documentary avail the station
the opportunity of focusing on an issue in a revealing and interesting manner about a phenomenon.

10
Etymologically, the word documentary is from the French documentaire which was adapted by
earlier film makers to refer to the arts of filmmaking that was not wholly fictional nor wholly
factual. Documentary was use to portray events in a way the brings realism. Documentary have
been produced about different events or persons that are historical, like the ones on great prophets
and sage, scientists, leaders, world wars. Some documentaries focus on subject matter like health,
education, human rights etc. The important point about documentaries is that they are based on
fact or reality; they are not imaginative, fictional production. They are not make-up even if they
are about past events.

Classification of documentary
Documentaries are classified in variety of ways. The classification may be based on function of
objectives or subject of interest to the documentary.

Classification based on function: when the producer intends to explore and organise facts about
an issues, as objective as possible, such documentary will be classified as informational
documentary. If the orientation is aimed at performing interpretative functions, it will provide
insights and perspectives into the subject matter. On the other hand, a documentary that is designed
to bring out behavioural change among the target audience is persuasive documentary. A
persuasive documentary should be based on objective facts that are clearly outlined and delineated
to serve as basis for the persuasion. Educational documentary attempts to teach something through
instructional approach. It takes the audience through the nitty gritty of the subject which can based
on formal curriculum or informal outline.

Classification based on Subject of interest: The subject of interest to producer of documentary

programme could be as many documentaries that have appeared or may appeared on the stable of
broadcast production. However, the list that follows provides insight some of them.
Life documentary: this attempt to inquire into a social, cultural or political issues or
problems. Documentary on relationship between the opposite sex, between one communities or
the other or on how a human settlement are coping with the challenges of life in their environment
as well as politics are examples of this classification.

11
 Historical documentary: Here the documentary focuses on or recall important events that
are of historical significance. Documentary on the struggles and processes that led to attainment
of independence among colonised territories, the prophetic mission of great prophets like Jesus
and Muhammad (SAW) and similar attempt at providing informative fact that educates the
audience about what has happened in the past belong to the category of historical documentary.
Biographical documentary: is about tracing the evolutionary trajectory of a person by
capturing his birth, growth, life experiences, his thoughts, and perspectives to life. Examples of
this abound on the programming schedules of broadcast stations.
Project documentary: There are situations where a producer is contracted to produce
documentary on variety of issues, subject and life processes such as environmental degradation,
and public relations challenges of a company, social issues arising from cultural practices or
conflicts in society. In this regards the producer must seek proper clarification of the briefs from
the client in order to properly situate the functional approach to the documentary.

Classification based on presentation: Authors such as Mayeux (1985) and Musburger

(2007) have identified other types of documentary which can be approached to presenting the facts
and materials gathered for the documentary.
Dramatic documentary presentation: this approach presented the documentary without
narration, the producer just allowed the camera and the microphone to show actualities but follow
dramatic story telling pattern. Similar to this is what Mayeux (1985) called the cinema verite.
In this approach the audience is presented the facts through visual or audio and left to make
their own inferences, perspectives and interpretations. Though the two approaches give the
audience the ultimate determiner of the impact of the documentary, the producer still exercise
control on the flow through selection and editing of the materials.
Docu-drama documentary presentation: This approach adopts the fictional account
based on actual events, persons and situation using the drama techniques of plot development.
Musburger (2007) says docu-drama take two forms.
1. An actual historical event, time period, or incident, dramatized
using people who may only represent the actual participant’s in
the incident.

12
 2. An actual single person or group of people placed in a created
series of events that represents what may have happened at
some point in time.

Techniques and process of producing documentary

Selection of the subject: In the process of producing documentary, what should be given
adequate attention is the selection of the issue or topic. The producer or writer needs to know the
subject thoroughly. He must select an engaging subject. What makes a subject or issue engaging
is the level to which it can provoke interest, stir curiosity and provide opportunity for reflection.
Historical issues of contemporary relevance or contemporary issue with impact on health,
environment, culture and economy are potentially good for documentary production.
Developing the subject: the subject can be developed by gathering basic facts and data
about topic; not at surface level but deep and extensive. It does mean that the documentarian must
strong interest in research and research. Once enough information, knowledge and understanding
is gained through research, the next is treatment of the fact meant for documentation on broadcast.
Treatment of the materials: At this stage the documentarian begins to give myriad of
information and materials a concrete shape by providing a descriptive statement on the purpose,
the target of the documentary. For example a statement on a documentary on impact of charcoal
business on the environment goes thus: “The indiscriminate felling of the trees in the rural areas
will lead to irreparable damage to the environment” The sequence and structure of the documentary
will then revolve around or expansion of the idea and argument in the statement. Still, at this stage,
a re-look of the materials gathered is in order with a view to interrogate them for factuality,
accuracy and refinement.
An Outline: at this stage a mental outline or better still a lay out of the sequence of the
programme on paper is done to give clear, concise and cohesive picture of the documentary. This
outline should not be rigid but dynamic, a living document that can be adjusted to suit new
information and new perspectives.
A format: A decision may be made here on the format to adopt in terms of the length. Is it
going to be long format or short format? Long format of about thirty minutes to one hour are
suitable for documentary schedule as programme on a broadcast station. On the other hand, short
format of between 5 minutes to fifteen are often preferred for documentary that are meant to

13
explain, exhort, persuade or motivate audience along certain behavioural lines. Also, short format
is suitable for documentary that are to be tucked-in into other formats like news and magazine
programmes.
Structure of documentary: Similar to drama, documentary has a beginning, middle and
an ending. The beginning must capture the audience attention and clearly indicate the focus of the
documentary. The middle explores the subject in depth and in a compelling manner while the
ending provide the essence of the documentary, adds meaning and suggest a course of action or
give directions.
The script: In actual fact, the documentary scripting process starts from when the outline
is written but which is fully developed after the field work. Being a living document, the script
permits future creative tinkering that will mold and shape the final documentary. Due to the nature
of documentary, the script can be in the form and proceed from “No script; semi script and fully
developed detailed shooting scripts with complete narration, sound effects, and music. Narration
is central to most documentary; hence it merits a separate discussion.
Narration: In documentary, narration serves a number of useful purposes: that can be
summarized as (1) to establish a scene or situation, to make the effective transition between ideas
in a segment to another one, to keep audience on track and provide additional information; to call
attention to something that can easily be over-looked or misunderstood; to preview and review
what is presented. An important point that need to be called attention to is that the language of
documentary is not a reporting language. The use of “said” as common and required in news
presentation should be avoided in documentary. Narration, in summary, is the use of human voice
on radio or television to deliver information, provides point of view of an unseen character or to
comment on the acts in the radio or television.

CONCLUSION
Documentary is a kind of broadcast production that attempts to tell non-fictional story even though
it may employ the style of drama refers to as docu-drama. However, documentary is based on
factual event not imagined event. Documentary tell its story by the use of actual human voice,
the visuals containing their own action and activities are not represented but a presentation of
factuality. Of course, it admits the technique of narration where the narrator uses his/her warmth
of the voice to tell a captivating story that is imaginative and dramatic. It must be emphasised that

14
 “narration in documentary is NOT news reading or link-announcing: It is story-
telling”.(Aspinall,1971, p.104)

Reference
1. Aspinal, R. (1971), Radio programme production, Paris, UNESCO.
2. Mayeux, P.E.(1985), Writing for the broadcast, Boston USA, Allyn and Bacon Inc pp283-
-293 ISBN 0-205-083545-9
3. Uyo, Adidi (1987), Mass communication media classification and characteristics; New
York, Civiletis International.
4. Uyo, Adidi (1989), Mass media messages in a nutshell, New York, Civiletis
International.pp34--40 ISBN
5. Wutzel, A. and Acker, S.R. (1989) Television production, New York, McGraw Hill Book
Company ISBN 0-307-1172121-2
6. Lee, Roberts and Misiorowski, Robert, (1979), Script Models A Handbook For The
Media Writer
7. Robert McLeish (2005), Radio Production, fifth Edition, Focal Press Linacre House
Jordan-Hill Oxford, pp 264-274 ISBN 0-260-51972-8

15

View publication stats