Starting Over

After listening to my original recording of My Sister June, I decided that I need to redo my first scene again with a new actress to play June. My director has pointed out to me that there were some sounds that were not supposed to be there in the first place.  There was a strange clicking noise at the beginning before the music plays. That could easily be taken out of the recording.  My director also advised me to have the narration done in a different voice style than my character.  I could try talking in a deeper voice for the narrations.  The main reason why I should redo the scene is the music. I used the copyrighted music of Dark Shadows in the original recording.  I heard that using the music would be illegal so I need new music that fits in the suspense genre. My director recommended using Garageband for the music I need for this project.  That program is full of music that is not copyrighted.  The main idea is a remake of my project with new music. 

I have had a difficult time making contact with my original leading lady, Ana Lopez.  She played the part of June when I did project for my Radio Practicum class.  I have talked to another friend of mine, Melissa, to read her part.  She agreed to help me with the recordings.  I cannot keep waiting to hear from Ana and I need to keep production going.  The show must go on with or without my original leading lady.

Developing The Title Character

My production of My Sister June is a repeat of one of my projects from the Radio Production I took at Shepherd University.

The creation of the title character is based on femme fatales of the suspense genre and a scorned woman.  The scorned woman I am basing this character on is Jodi Arias.  Femme fatales are women that lure men to their ruin.  Femme fatales is the definition of fatal woman.  During the 1940s and 1950s, the concept of the femme fatales was popular in suspense films. These women were narcissistic wives that manipulated men into killing their husbands.  Barbera Stanwyck's role of Phyllis Diedrichson in Double Indemnity and Lizabeth Scott's Role of Jane Palmer in Too Late For Tears are two of the most noted femme fatales in film. Both characters had men and women killed for their own selfish purposes.  My character of Ralph Wexford knows that June cannot be trusted.  I am making June so mysterious that people can't help but suspect her of a horrible crime.

There is an old saying that says "hell hath no fury like a woman scorned". Some women would take revenge against the man that wronged them. Jodi Arias is a real life woman who is currently awaiting sentencing in a murder trial.  She was found guilty of the first-degree mouder of her ex-boyfriend, Travis Alexander, in 2008.  Jodi became obsessed with Travis during their time together as a couple. Arias was extremely jealous of anyone that could steal Travis from her.  Jodi never took rejection very well and her past relationships before Travis ended because of infidelity.  When Travis broke up with Jodi, his fate was sealed.  She had stalked Travis for many months before killing him.  She is a good example of a woman scorned, which is the trait I am putting into this character. June Wexford is likely to have killed her fiance for cheating on her with another woman, but I won't reveal the ending.

My Statement of Intent for Capstone

Statement of Intent: Capstone Radio Drama

For my Capstone project I will be writing a radio drama. Kevin Williams has agreed to be my Director. I plan on getting into radio broadcasting after I graduate from Shepherd University.

This radio drama will be a mystery and suspense story. The story is about a detective who suspects that his estranged sister is involved in a double homicide.  I plan to integrate mystery elements into the story line, and have the lessons learned by the main character focus on environmental awareness. I will use classic radio dramas, suspense films, true crime cases, Dark Shadows (The TV Series), and the Investigation Discovery Channel for inspiration. I need to research those sources to get the material I need to make this a good mystery story.  These sources will also give an idea of how murder cases are solved.

I plan on producing the story using Garageband or any other programs that specializes in sounds.  I can produce this story myself as wells as reading the part of the detective. I have already cast one of my friends as the detective’s sister. I plan on having her help me again when I write another scene with her character in it. If I decide to write and create another character, I will cast another one of my friends to read the part. My story could be written for any teenage or young adult audience. I will try to keep my story as old fashioned as possible.

My first ideas about writing the story came when I was in Todd Cotgreave’s Radio Practicum Class. One of the assignments that we did was to create a radio drama.  I still have the material I made from two years ago.  I’m planning adding more to the story.  I would like to see if I could find any more radio dramas to read that deal with children yet still read well for adults.

Lights Fit For a King

For my group video, we decided to make a modern version of "Fit For a King".  It's a ballad about a man coming to a banquet for a king and ends up killing him in the end.  During production, we used a Canon 3 Camera with Magic Lantern and Cinestyle.  The cinestyle was used for the color profile to increase the flexibility of the footage.  The Magic Lantern was used to set the white balance in the camera.  The waveform was corrected to increase range and then it was warmed with an easy color corrector.  A blue hue was used to cool the condom alienation shot The deconstruction of color was done by the black and white high contrast, red channel, green channel, and blue channel.  This technique was done to make the death of the "king" more chaotic and dramatic.  A death scene should always be dramatic and the different channels made it possible

MTV: Breaking The Color Barrier

MTV (known as Music Television) is nationally known for playing rock videos 24/7.  This cable station was just getting started in the 1980s.   The first video that was aired on MTV was Video Killed The Radio Star by The Buggles.  Other bands that have made music videos in the 1980s are Pat Benetar, Rod Stewart, The Who, April Wine, Styx, and many others.  

The interesting thing about early MTV is the breaking of the color barrier.  In the early days of MTV, African-Americans did not get very much airtime with their videos.  Rick James' video of Superfreak was rejected because it did not fit MTV's format at that time.  Michael Jackson also had trouble getting some airtime as well.  The color barrier came to an end in 1983.  Walter Yetnikoff, the president of CBS Records at the time, denounced MTV in the most profane manner possible and threatened to end MTV's ability to play music coming from the CBS record label if they didn't play music from African-Americans.  After that statement, MTV decided to play Michael Jackson's Billie Jean.  In order to prevent record companies from turning their backs on MTV, MTV continues to play music from all races.  It's interesting how things work after being threatened by a major record company.

More on Jessie's Girl

Rick Springfield was one of the most popular Rock and Roll singers of the 1970s and 1980s.  His most popular and well-known song is Jesse's Girl, which was released in 1981.  The song became a #1 hit in Australia and the United States.  It also won Springfield a Grammy Award in 1981.
Springfield also performed the song on General Hospital, on which he played Dr. Noah Drake 

Springfield wrote the song about an experience he had in college. Most songwriters choose write about their personal experiences. This song deals with only one simple situation, which is being in love with someone that is in love with someone else.  Most people have had someone in their lives that they had strong feelings for and they couldn't do anything about it because they were in a relationship already.  That's the feeling that Springfield gives in his hit song.  In his college days, he was smitten with his friend Gary's girlfriend. He wanted to use Gary's name in his song but changed the name of the guy to Jessie after seeing a girl with that name on her jersey.  Springfield did not want to let his friend know about his feelings for his girlfriend, so he simply changed the name of the man in the song.

The video follows the formula of most videos where they show band and story scenes.  The shows scenes to where Springfield is watching the happy couple and him feeling low when he breaks his bathroom mirror.  In between the story scenes, the band is shown performing the song in front of the brick wall.  Each story and band scene runs one after the other, which is what most music video do.

The chart below shows the different parts of the Rick Springfield video.  It explains how the video works and what the lyrics are supposed to mean.

Codes Visualized	Illustration	Amplification	Disjuncture
Lyrics	The song illustrates a man's desire to be with his best friend's girlfriend	The smashing of the mirror represents the fustration has for wondering why the object of his affections doesn't want him	None
Music	The band consist of Springfield as the lead singer and guitarist, a second guitarist/ backup singer, and a guy on drums	"Patty Is Jessie's Girl". the writing on the wall represents what the narrator of the song wants, which is Patty	None
Performance	The band performs in front of a spray-painted wall. Sometimes the band is seen with Springfield or he plays it himself.	Other than the scenes in front of the brick wall, the video shows Springfield watching his friend and girlfriend.  Shows that he envies what his friend has.	The video shows the band performing with Springfield in between the scenes of the story

Rick Springfield-Jessie's Girl

Rick Springfield (1949-) was one of the most popular rock and roll singers of the 1970s and 1980s. He was a former member of Zoot from 1969 to 1971 before making it big as a solo artist.  Springfield is also an actor who played Dr. Noah Drake on General Hospital.

The song that most people remember from Rick Springfield is Jesse's Girl, which was released in 1981.  The song is about a case of unrequited love.  A man who falls in love with his best friend's girlfriend.  At the start of the video, Jesse (played by Steve Antin) is shown spray-painting "Patty Is Jessie's Girl" on a nearby brick wall as Springfield watches on. Most of video shows Springfield and his band performing the song in front of that same wall.  He deeply wishes that she was with him instead even though it appears that she doesn't know that he exists.  This is shown in a scene where he attempts to go to talk with the girl, but she and Jessie walk away from him without saying a word.  Springfield is left wondering why she doesn't like and breaks his bathroom mirror after seeing her image.  Knowing that someone you love is in love with someone else is a terrible feeling to have, Springfield felt the same way when he wrote the song.  The song became a #1 hit in Australia and the United States.  It also won Springfield a Grammy Award in 1981.  Springfield later performed this song as his Dr. Noah Drake character on General Hospital when Drake has to fill in for Eli Love (also played by Rick Springfield).  Jessie's Girl helped Rick Springfield become a mega-superstar.

Springfield wrote the song about an experience he had in college. Most songwriters choose write about their personal experiences. In his college days, he was smitten with his friend Gary's girlfriend.  The three of them were in a stain glass course together.  It was later revealed in an interview with Oprah Winfrey that he does not remember her name and that he was never introduced to her.  He wanted to use Gary's name in his song but changed the name of the guy to Jessie after seeing a girl with that name on her jersey.  The identity of Springfield's inspiration remains a mystery to this day.