Writing a script... For one?

One the outlines and alter ego were in place, it was time for the meat and potatoes of the whole project; the script.  Most of my experience in writing has been in short stories or the occasional play-style script, and radio turned out to be a different monster entirely.

The first of many requirements of the script was that it had to sound natural.  Radio hosts are seldom scripted in what they say, and generally go with the flow of the conversation, or talk about points of interest.  At most, they have guidelines or a schedule to follow, but never read anything verbatim, other than a direct quote.  The use of pauses (sometimes awkward) or slang gives the script a natural feel, and will hopefully keep the listener from thinking that everything has been pre-written.

The bulk of my research for the script was essentially a part of my daily routine.  I'm a bit of a radio addict, especially talk shows.  101.5 Bob Rocks is by far my favorite, and the easy and somewhat comical style that they interact with each other and more importantly the audience (more on that later) inspired my own Rick Nelson character, and his laid back attitude.

By far the most difficult part about writing the script was doing how the dialogue would flow without another person in the room.  Other than a couple phone calls and an interview, the vast majority of the radio show will be Rick talking to the unseen and unheard audience.  I had to write in such a way to keep things interesting, and involve the listener in what's going on.  Using phrases like "you guys" and other ways of addressing the audience directly will (hopefully) do the trick.

Crafting an Alter Ego

Once the outline for the 5 radio broadcasts had been penned, and a timeline had been written out, the first major step towards making a believable (but ultimately fictional) radio broadcast was to create a living person.  This may sound like some kind of mad science experiment, but was more an exorcise in literary strength.  This individual, the host of the radio show, needed to be as real as possible.  Every last thing about him needed to be unremarkable enough to pass off as real, but interesting enough to grab the readers attention and inspire empathy.

But first, a name.  I knew the host was going to be a man (I'm doing the voice, and I can't very well be a woman), and his name needed to be short, concise, and have a quality that rolled well off the tongue so it would be easy and natural to say over the airwaves.  John is good, but too stereotypical.  My own name is a little awkward sounding, so I settled on Rick.  It sounds like a casual nickname for a casual show, and follows all the requirements I needed it to.  Since I had a first name with one syllable, I wanted a last name with two.  Nelson offset the hard consonants of Rick, and when said together sounded fluid and easy.

The name and sex were out of the way, so now it was on to the place of residence.  This area had to be near enough to a major city that a zombie outbreak would be a threat after a week or so, but far enough away to buy some time.  Furthermore, this area couldn't be too close to Washington D.C., as military action would be immediate.  It was for these reasons that I chose Grand Rapids, Michigan.  It's a nice suburban area with a thriving radio scene, and is only a few hours out from Detroit.

The rest of the information was required to add depth and a sense of empathy to Rick.  Most characters in movies that the director wants to make more sympathetic have dogs, so mentioning that he has a Shiloh Shepherd named Aragorn gets that job done.  A wife and unborn child complete the picture, creating a person who you would want to meet, and who you feel sorry for in the end.

Strange times indeed

We live in an era where social media is a huge factor of everyday life.  You would be hard pressed to find someone in a modernized country who doesn't have facebook, twitter, or the like.  Such an easy and common connection with people across nations has made the sharing of information and events easy, and the suppression of such information rather... problematic.  Simply barring reporters from witnessing an event or crisis does not mean that information does not get around.  A single picture or post can go viral in a matter of hours, and what was once classified information becomes common knowledge.

It was this key factor that made me realize the importance of social media in the early stages of a "zombie apocalypse".  Where traditional news sources such as radio and television fail or are controlled by the government, social media is too big to keep track of.  In my series of podcasts, a media blackout is set in place in order to contain the reports of "rabies-like" outbreaks in major cities (particularly Detroit), mostly to stop a national panic.  However, reports via twitter and facebook begin popping up, most of which have some very disturbing things to say.  Here's an example...

Travis Jennings
Just Now
Saw two dudes in an ally eating another dude...  Kept my distance and called the police.  A black van showed up and guys in gas masks ran me off.  What the f*ck is going on here?

Leaks such as this will be a huge source of early information regarding the outbreaks, and will create a sense of dread that will mount as the podcasts (and the disease) progress.

The Zombie Proposal

Zombies.  Of all the horrible monsters that humans have come up with in our time on this earth, zombies are my favorite.  Whether they are the shambling masses of early cultural legends and horror films, or the Romero modern zombies who charge at you in a dead sprint (pun intended), I love them all.  My first love, however, has always been politics and government.  But how to combine the two into a capstone that will merge my experiences in both the political science and mass communications departments?

The answer was found in the original radio broadcast of "War of the Worlds".  Presented as a believable new broadcast, it chronicled an alien invasion and hostile takeover of our planet.  It was so legitimate in its presentation that people panicked, believing that the human race had come under attack.  Adding to this, I've always enjoyed the medium of radio (I have the face for it, apparently), and knew almost as soon as our first capstone class started that I wanted to do a WotW style series of podcasts chronicling the zombie apocalypse in the United States.

Most of all, I want this to feel real enough that an outside listener would believe that the zombie apocalypse (or some other rabies style outbreak) was upon us.  To add this sense of realism, along with added depth, I want to show how social networking such as facebook and twitter would play into the scenario, and how the government, people and media would interact with one another.