Developing radio documentary concepts

Once you have identified a radio documentary concept with legs - the next step is to put it through its paces and develop it into something more substantial that a brainstrom cloud…

The most important thing to ascertain from the outset is where this radio documentary will end up - where it will be presented - followed quickly by the question, 'are you barking up the right tree?' As in, are you pitching the idea to the most appropriate ‘host’ program? Ensure you listen to and are familiar with the program you are pitching to – and make sure you look though their ‘past programs’ to see if they have covered the idea previously. (Check out long-time RN executive producer Matthew Leonard's post, notes from the thought police for an insiders viewpoint)

Developing the program means that you know and have identified the program:

• focus
  
• a strong hook - you know who will be interested in your story and why
  
• characters, what they will say and do why they are interesting
  
• story, how it unfolds and resolves, how you will capture it and why it is good
  
• why it’s a good story for radio and how it is relevant and contributes to your host program
  
• have a sense of how you will structure the program, its style, the best length for the piece
  
• Know the project is doable - and have a draft production schedule and a sense of potential difficulties

Getting to this stage means you have done things like:

• Research background & context
  
• Ensure you have access to materials and program participants
  
• Conduct a reconnaissance mission & preliminary interviews
  
• Identify useable textures and sound materials
  
• Sort out the logistics of the program
  

The program concept you propose is not ‘set in stone’ – there is room to move once the process is ‘in its stride’ – and the idea may not turn out exactly as you thought it would in the beginning… but you need to write a proposal in ‘good faith’ in the light of the best information you can gather at the time.

RELATED

• post on Pitching & writing radio documentary proposals

• the delicious links under the tag project_development