Write a Radio Commercial

Transcription

1 Write a Radio Commercial Using dialogue, sound effects, and your most creative ideas, come up with a knock-out, can t miss commercial that will take your audience by storm! Your commercial will be so dynamic that everyone who hears it will be persuaded to follow your recommended course of action. Steps You Need to Take: 1. Look at the questions on the Commercial Organizer. Brainstorm. Take at least 2-3 days to answer think about the questions. Once you have a direction that satisfies you, fill out the Commercial Organizer. (see sample) 2. Make up a plot outline of your commercial. Keep in mind that it is all dialogue and sound effects. (See sample) 3. Write your commercial and revise, revise, revise! Guidelines: Your radio commercial must have dialogue, which can be as few as two characters or no as many as 4 characters. Ideas for sound effects should also be part of the commercial. The commercial should be no longer than about 2 minutes from start to finish. Figure about 2-3 pages of dialogue. The commercial must be in dialogue format, like a play. See samples. Be creative! Use your imagination! Think of a way to persuade your audience in a creative fashion! Be sure to give dimensions to your characters. Think of an angle to introduce this information without making it sound like someone trying to sell the audience a bar of soap. Here are some ideas for a commercial: Visit a particular church * Visit a certain beach Attend a particular sporting event Stay at a certain hotel Visit an amusement park Visit a particular state Buy a ticket on a particular cruise ship Fly a certain airline or travel a certain transportation system Lord Baltimore advertising for gentlemen investors By a product (like a tool, soap, food item, etc.) Do not promote a movie, TV show, or a book C:\D\!Forcey\Language Arts\Writing\PromptsShort\WriteARadioCommercial.doc Page 1 4/23/2011-4:28 PM

2 Here are some sample commercial starters both good and bad: Sample 1: Hi! I d like to tell you about the state fair. Yuck! Boring! Sample 2: Gail: Hey Judy! Are you going to the state fair? Judy: The State Fair? What s that? Better, but done to death! Sample 3: A More Interesting Approach: Scene opens with farm sounds in the background. Cows mooing, chickens clucking. A squeaky screen door is heard opening and slamming shut. Judeeeee! Is that you home from school? Judy: (all excited) Hi Grandma! It s me. Hey gal! What s goin on? You look more excited than a fox in a hen house! Judy: Grandma, guess what! Our 4 th grade is going to have a state fair! A state fair, you say? Well, danged if I don t remember the state fairs I went to when I was no more than knee-high to a grasshopper! Judy: It s going to be so neat, Grandma! Getting a feel for it? Think back to some of the Odyssey tapes we ve listened to in class, or go to my website and link to the Odyssey website to hear more Adventures in Odyssey. C:\D\!Forcey\Language Arts\Writing\PromptsShort\WriteARadioCommercial.doc Page 2 4/23/2011-4:28 PM

3 Organizer for Your Commercial Name Date What are you advertising? I. Characters in your commercial and their relationship to each other: II. What event will cause the character(s) in your commercial to mention what you are promoting? III. Scene where the commercial takes place: IV. Sound effects in your commercial: C:\D\!Forcey\Language Arts\Writing\PromptsShort\WriteARadioCommercial.doc Page 3 4/23/2011-4:28 PM

4 Want Some Examples? Take a look below! Here s an example of an organizer, an outline, and a commercial that is promoting a well-known Book, The Wizard of Oz Name Date 1. Characters in your commercial and their relationship to each other: A grandmother and her granddaughter 2. What event will cause the character(s) in your commercial to mention the book? A tornado warning will bring a family down to their shelter on their farm. A little girl is terrified of the storm. She is comforted by her grandmother, who tells her about the tornado in The Wizard of Oz. The girl forgets her terror as she gains interest in the story told by her grandmother. 3. Scene where the commercial takes place: The conversation takes place in an underground shelter. One can imagine a table with a few chairs around it and a dimly lit light with the sounds of the storm heard overhead. 4. Sound effects in your commercial: Gusting winds and rains of the storm. Thunder. Dogs barking in the distance or an occasional cow mooing in the background. Perhaps metal clanking on metal in irregular rhythms. Perhaps some farm hands yelling to bolt down the barn door. Chickens squawking. Donkeys or horses braying. Munchkins singing We re Off To See The Wizard. C:\D\!Forcey\Language Arts\Writing\PromptsShort\WriteARadioCommercial.doc Page 4 4/23/2011-4:28 PM

5 I. Opening scene Plot Outline for The Wizard of Oz A. A little girl is on her farm when a tornado hits. Her family takes her down to an underground cellar for protection B. The sounds of a terrible storm can be heard in the background II. Promoting the Book A. The little girl is scared, but her grandmother comes over with a bottle of Grape Nehi soda and settles her down. B. Grandma tells how this is just like the way it happened to Dorothy, who lived in Kansas, and visited a land called Oz C. The grandmother tells her a little about the story, as the girl appears to forget her fear of the storm and asks questions about the story, which has sparked excitement in her voice. III. Cute Ending A. As the grandmother tells about the munchkins, you can hear elfish laughter in the background and munchkins singing We re off to see the wizard. C:\D\!Forcey\Language Arts\Writing\PromptsShort\WriteARadioCommercial.doc Page 5 4/23/2011-4:28 PM

6 Dialogue Sheet for Wizard of Oz Gusting winds and occasional thunder can be heard in the background. Farm hands, off in the distance are giving last minute orders to each other in muffled tones, trying to be heard above the on-coming storm. Animals sounds, such as the whinny of a horse and frantic clucking of chickens can also be heard. Gramma, it sounds just awful outside! Do you think the twister will hit the farm? Now Sara, the good Lord will take care of us. He always has. And we re safe and dry down here in the shelter. These storms usually pass over quickly. I know Gramma, but I m scared. It sounds so dreadful out there. (Begins to cry) (With care) There, there, pumpkin. We ll be okay. You just wipe those tears off with this hanky and have a cup of this grape soda. It ll settle your stomach. (A little braver now) Thanks Gramma! Ya know this storm kinda reminds me of that twister that came down in Kansas on the farm of a little girl, just your age! Really? Gee! She must have been petrified! Well, Dorothy had a lot of things on her mind when the twister hit. Like what? Well for one thing, that mean Miss Elvira Gultch was trying to take her dog, Toto, away from her, and she had just run away from home. I d run away, too, if someone tried to take Daisy away from me. Oh, well that was the least of her worries. Dorothy also had a witch trying to take away her ruby slippers. (In a surprised voice) Her ruby slippers?!? Hey! Wait a minute! There are no such things as witches! C:\D\!Forcey\Language Arts\Writing\PromptsShort\WriteARadioCommercial.doc Page 6 4/23/2011-4:28 PM

7 (Laughing now) Okay Sara. You ve got me! This is one of my very favorite stories of all time. I happen to have the book right here. It s called, The Wizard of Oz, and I think this would be a good time to read it. After all, we have nothing else to do until the storm blows over. What else happens, Gramma? Well, Dorothy and Toto end up in a far away place, called Munchkin Land. All they want to do is get back to Kansas, but that witch doesn t make things easy for them. Oh my! That s what Dorothy keeps saying, too. But at least she makes some good friends on the way to the Emerald City. Friends? Yes dear. The scarecrow, the tin man, the cowardly lion, and even a good witch who helps her along the way. Oh! And did I mention the Munchkins? The Munchkins?!? (Elfish giggles can be heard in the background) Yes. They re such cute little critters. I can even imagine them now in their dear little voices singing... (A Munchkin chorus suddenly comes in with) Chorus: We re off to see the wizard. The wonderful wizard of Oz. We hear he is a wiz of a wiz, if ever a wiz there was. If ever oh ever a wiz there was the wizard of Oz is... (fade out) Narrator: The Wizard of Oz by Frank Baum. At a favorite library or book store near you. C:\D\!Forcey\Language Arts\Writing\PromptsShort\WriteARadioCommercial.doc Page 7 4/23/2011-4:28 PM

8 Write a Radio Commercial Write a Radio Commercial Characters - Audience can relate to interesting characters Dialog - interesting and fun to listen to characters are interesting and show personality Dialog is interesting and flows smoothly characters show some personality and are moderately interesting Dialogue flows fairly well but is not that interesting characters are rather wooden with little personality Dialogue is present my yoyo has more personality than the characters No dialogue present Creativity - creative idea is used as the basic concept a Approach to commercial is creative and engages the reader/listener Approach to commercial is somewhat creative Approach to commercial is rather bland Nothing is creative about the commercial Makes sense - dialogue segments make sense throughout the commercial All dialogue makes sense throughout the entire commercial One or two minor exceptions One or two major problems or many minor problems Too many segements are unclear White space - spacing for dialogue is used effectively and makes the script easy to read Good use of white space Fair use of white space Text is jammed together and hard to read Student/Parent Signature Form Student/Parent Signature form signed by parent & student is attached Form is not attached OR not signed by parent & student Rough Draft Rough Draft attached & completed - shows corrections Rough Draft attached but not evident which is the draft copy No DRAFT copy attached Plot Outline included Plot describe what happens in the beginning middle, and end Plot describes 2 of the 3 Plot describes beginning, middle, OR end No Plot Outline Commercial Organizer Filled Out Organizer filled out giving as much detail as the model. Organizer filled out with less detail than the model. Organizer was not filled out. Assignment Attached complete assignment with directions, models, rubrics, etc Complete assignment, rubric, directions, examples attached Rubrics & directions attached Less than rubrics & directions Work is Legible - Neatly written or printer generated Neatly organized and readable Neither neatly organized nor readable 30/30 = 100 %

9 Student/Parent Signature Form: I,, do promise that the words in this (please print your first & last name) assignment are my own. I did not copy them word for word from another source 1 or use words given to me by someone else. The words in my sentences are my own or the result of my using a thesaurus or dictionary. Student Signature: Date Parent Signature: Date 1 a source of information can be anything from which you gather your information, such as a book, an encyclopedia, a person, or the Internet just to name a few. C:\D\!Forcey\Language Arts\Writing\StudentSignatureFormGeneric.doc 4/25/2011-3:59 PM Student/Parent Signature Form: I,, do promise that the words in this (please print your first & last name) assignment are my own. I did not copy them word for word from another source 1 or use words given to me by someone else. The words in my sentences are my own or the result of my using a thesaurus or dictionary. Student Signature: Date Parent Signature: Date 1 a source of information can be anything from which you gather your information, such as a book, an encyclopedia, a person, or the Internet just to name a few. C:\D\!Forcey\Language Arts\Writing\StudentParentSignatureFormGeneric.doc 4/25/2011-3:59 PM