REFLECTIONS ON RADIO MEDIA
by Michelle Stevenson
CHAPTER 1- THE STRUCTURE
CHAPTER 2- THE NARRATOR
CHAPTER 3- THE TIME ELEMENT
CHAPTER 4- THE ENDING...
In "Witness to an Execution," by Soundportraits, the structure is not hidden but rather magnified to heighten the awareness of the relationship between it and the very precisely calculated event of an execution. A slow bombardment of people stating their names, occupations, and the number of executions witnessed starts to growing to an alarming speed until the only thing mentioned is the number of executions. There is a certain point where the climax is reached and the audience feels a shift to a slower paced rhythm. A brief synopsis of the history of this particular Texas state execution grounds stabilizes the listener to reach a comfortable plateau after the hysteria of the opening sequence. Warden Jim Willett continues by speaking about first the time of the day and then about the stage of the execution process that correlates with the time. One or two speakers speak about their past experiences and reflections and then there is a short pause or faded background music piped in. The familiar voice of Jim Willett follows with an update of the time and next calculated move. This rhythm of blocks of dialogue perceived by Jim Willett and ended by a silent pause becomes a recognizable form. Music fades in and out during some dialogues as seems to monitor the pace of the overall piece by slowing it down if the emotions of the speaker start to create a tension, either in the material or in the way it is presented. The ending block of dialogue follows all the established rules of Jim presenting the time of a procedure and then following with a personal story and supplemented with another speaker's experiences. This time there is a difference in the tone of the speakers and the audience begins to recognize the subtle clues that the end of the story is approaching. The body of the story is consistent with the notion of repetitive action/reflection that Ira Glass refers to. In any cyclical pattern that ultimately ends there needs to be a way of signaling the end and in this case it is done through a change in the underlying pace.
It becomes apparent fairly soon after the start that one of the people interviewed assumes the role of a passive narrator. Jim Willett begins to interact with the listener and coordinates his speech syntax accordingly rather than distancing himself as a part of the story. He starts to become integrated into the story line as a familiar constant which brings a new chapter and commands a type of authority and respect. The listener occupies a space in the same place as him, and thus unconsciously becomes more involved. As Robert Cole mentioned in his theory of "locations", the location of the audience in relationship to the narrator provides a particular type of interaction between the two that can allow for an audience to be more evolved with the context of the story even if they are not familiar with it on a close basis.
"Witness to an Execution" is a premier example of a simple, methodological way to explain an event. There is a start and a conclusion with a well paced body in between. The use of a timeline in the form of a clock correlates well with the notion of a precisely calculated procedure. Using a time stamp as a common variable also allows the story to progress in an almost intuitive way so that the listener can understand the linear movement of the events without having the steps numbered or ordered. The way that the story progresses in rhythmic waves of hourly time, regulated events, supplemental stories (with even a type of moral installment), and point of reflection behaves in the same manner as time. Each step is a carefully measured movement that brings the reader back to a starting point to start the next cycle.
The last block of the dialogue slightly differs from the previous ones. From the first interview there was a careful treatment of the unfolded events which treated the process of an execution as a job but did not ignore the human aspects that were very much involved. There seemed to be an invisible moral boundary that consistently came into contact with the job description and the people interviewed attempted to extract emotion from their job duties. Many spoke about both aspects, but carefully separated them as two entities. During the last segment, there was the first sign of failure to segregate emotion from job. In this case the speaker diverted from speaking about his experiences as a part of the process but instead described his inability to cope with them. A feeling of desperation, unlike the aloof tone of the previous parts, changes the pace of the piece-recalling the fast paced introduction. The dénouement acts in a curious fashion that parallels the beginning sequence. There is an interest contrast between the impersonal, void of emotion, introduction of a large number of unknown people to the inner confessions of one man breaking down. The machinelike qualities of the introduction really does seem to speak about the method in which an execution is carried out. Thus the ending brings back that human touch that we desperately seek in the body of the story.