A Deserted Place : Sound and Collaboration

Groups with whom I've tried this have variously produced staged presentations, GCSE Drama coursework, a short CD, and a printed anthology/display with artwork

1. Writing to Sound - the simpler version

Choose a sound effect (1- 2 mins) with no voices - e.g. rainforest, clockmakers' workshop, ship's bridge, thunderstorm, creaking sailing ship, dripping water in enclosed space, etc etc. Play the sound to the whole class - insist that they close their eyes while they listen, no writing: imagine this location as deserted. As you listen, what do you see in your mind's eye?

Now, give students 2 minutes to write down as much detail as they can about what they saw - give prompts if necessary. Next, write a list of similes/images to describe three of the sounds they heard, or which might have been just off-mic.

Play the sound effect again. This time, imagine somebody starts to speak - there is someone there. They are alone. They seem to be waiting. What for? Or perhaps it's the voice of one of the objects, or part of the landscape.

Students use the next 20 minutes to draft a first person interior monologue or narration for this voice, to be read over the sound effect, using their notes as starting point. They must allow pauses for the sound to have its own space. Overall, it must fit the length of the FX. For younger groups you could set a line limit, but older students can usually practice using their watches.

After their first draft, suggest they experiment with changing the 'I' to 'he/she/it/we/you/they', before writing out a further draft. At this stage, students who are keen can then perform their poem to the class, controlling the volume on the FX for themselves if they prefer. It's never happened that everyone has wanted to readback, but in a big class it might be best done over a couple of sessions.

2. To each student, their own sound effect - much more fun...

A variation or extension on this which is more fun, but takes more organising, is to pre-record a class set of tapes each with a different sound effect and set up every individual student with their own tape and audio player/walkman/headphones (a class set is usually a mixture of students' own plus school equipment/staffroom loans). Having written their drafts as above, students are then able to take much more control practising the timing and delivery of their poem over the sound layer. A much greater number of writers usually want to 'perform' what they've written - and the readback is that much more interesting for the audience!

3. Collaborative sound pieces

If you can organise the class each with their own audio set as in (2) above, try arranging them in pairs or groups of three, with everyone in the pair/group given the same sound effect on tape. This time, the locations can be anywhere, not necessarily deserted as in (1) or (2).

Let them listen to their sound effects on headphones, then as a group they have 4 minutes to agree on two (or three) characters who have come to that place: who are they? They are strongly contrasted in some way. They have come to meet each other, but have not met up yet. Each character has their own expectations of the meeting...

Each group member is then assigned one of the invented characters. As individuals, and without consulting the others, each writes a maximum 12-line interior monologue to be laid over the sound, in the voice of their assigned character on the way to the meeting. The pairs/groups must then reassemble and devise a way to inter-cut their monologues for performance over the sound tape. Again, timing and rehearsal is important, and they may have to be willing to make cuts, or to explore the possibility of overlapping voices or repetition in a third layer of sound.

© Jane Draycott

*Sound Effects CDs and tapes are generally available for loan at libraries with music sections, or from book/record shops, and online bookstores. Also from BBC Video on 01733 232800, www.choicesdirect.co.uk 

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