Let your eyes teach your ears.

It may seem contradictory to compare film to radio. There’s the obvious reason that film is visual. Through lens, lighting, make up and other effects, it creates imagery for us. Radio can be visual. However, it’s theater of the mind. I would also argue that film isn’t a medium. It’s an orchestration of several mediums.

Yet, I’ve found that great films can inspire even greater radio.  

The film and TV productions that move me most have one thing in common.

They’re magnificent examples of minimalism.

Recently, I discovered a thriller miniseries from 2011 entitled “The Booth at the End.” This psychological drama series features a mysterious man, known simply as The Man. He sits in a booth at the end of a diner. People come to him seeking favors; parents wanting their sick children to be cured or women who want to be prettier. The Man can fulfil these requests for a price. To do what they want, he requires them to sacrifice their morals and do deeds they would normally consider inconceivable. 

What is most striking is that every scene is filmed in that diner booth. The entire story unfolds in the conversations between The Man and those who seek his service. They must report back to him their progress. And he requires them to give him every minute detail. There are no special effects, no digital enhancement. There’s very little –if any –musical underscore. It’s all about people telling their stories.

And every episode is extremely engaging.

Pulling that off requires great writing, excellent acting, and directing. And because it’s film, editing also plays a huge part.

The Booth at the End could easily be a radio drama.  

Isn’t that what we do –or are at least supposed to do?

Our productions are to be engaging stories. Like film, they can be an orchestration of several mediums: writing, directing, recording, editing, and producing.

They are for the sake of moving people on behalf of our clients.

Great stories on film do not have clichés. They don’t open with the obvious. Most have something, either visually or with dialogue that instantly grabs attention. They take a relatable situation, an emotion or scenario that everyone can relate to. Yet, they put it in a different light, evoking that relatability in a situation never thought of before.

A great film has the appropriate underscore and production value for the sake of telling the story –not because somebody said every film must have music. Too much becomes distracting.

There are many situations where I don’t want music in my commercial production. However, I must remind myself of the plethora of networks in our inventory that is voice only. And I don’t want our client getting lost in the crowd.

Heavily produced or otherwise, it is imperative that each has engaging content. It’s a challenge. I can’t win them all. But I can at least take my 35 years of experience and fight with everything I know.

And sometimes, it means writing less.

When I can, if appropriate, I like to use as few words possible. If I’m using the script timer in vCreative, I’ll write eighteen to twenty-two seconds for a thirty. If I can replace a word with a sound-effect, I will. (or at least use a sound effect to enhance the word)

When we get copy points, most of it is just raw data. And more times than not, those points are based on what the client thinks are important to them –and not what’s important to the people they’re trying to reach. It’s up to us to sort through and find which ones are most important. Don’t tell these virtues in our story but show them by evoking an emotion.

And do it all in as few words as possible

Because I consider myself a film junkie, I often read interviews and articles about great film directors.

One that stands out most was an interview with Sydney Pollack, director of Out of Africa, Tootsie, Three Days of the Condor, just to name a few. Despite having met face-to-face only once, Sydney had a longstanding friendship with Stanley Kubric, director of Dr. Stangelove, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and Eyes Wide Shut. Their decades-long friendship was expressed through letters to each other. Pollack said that Kubric became fascinated by TV commercials for Nescafe back in the late-80’s. It was an on-going series about a man and a woman living in the same apartment building. Each were attracted to each other. Yet they did not know how to approach the other. Kubric would send Pollack scripts for these same commercials as if he directed them. With each draft, the dialogue became less. By the fourth letter, there was no dialogue at all. With Stanley’s permission, Pollack shared that letter with the ad agency’s creative director -a former film student of his. By the last phase of that campaign, there was no dialogue in that commercial. It became the discussion of everyday water cooler fodder for many Americans.

Obviously, that commercial would not translate to radio. However, thinking cinematically and being an excellent storyteller for the sake of selling a product made its point.

I can sum this all up in one sentence.

Let your eyes teach your ears.

Respectfully

Mike –The Reel Architect.