There are two types of programme in radio features, these are presenter led and a montage. Presenter led is what it says it is, a presenter has the information which they give to the audience. A montage has no presenter so it must be good at communicating what is meant. A montage is very time consuming to create. However a feature is the most visual type of media, it encourages the listener to use their imagination to bring to life what they are listening to.
This lecture was based around two radio shows which had been played on BBC Radio 4 and what the process was going through the creative process in making these. The first was an Australian train journey, it is one of the most well known line’s in the world and runs from Sydney to Perth taking a massive two days to complete. The aim of this feature was to show what the train journey was like, what other people on the train thought of it and why it was so famous. As Dan said “A good feature will let you explore your imagination”. Thinking about this a good feature must have great sound qualities, it must play with the audience and make them feel like they are in the area. In the first five minutes we are gripped instantly with the sound, we hear everything that would be heard in a train station, most of these are real sounds from location the only sound from a sound library is the level crossing bell.
The second show was a ‘cut-up’. This means a range of different things spliced together over the show. This was a presenter led feature which was scripted and recorded in the studio. This is a much more conventional feature than the montage. In terms of production for this show no outside recording took place. There are a couple of issues with this type of feature. The first is the important question of what is the need for a presenter? The context is there and it can be shown to the audience.