Trick film: Neil Brand’s radio dramas and the silent film experience

Abstract

At first glance, silent film and audio drama may appear antithetical modes of expression. Nevertheless, an interesting tradition of silent film-to-radio adapta-tions has emerged on BBC Radio Drama. Beyond this link between silent film and radio drama, other radio dramas have highlighted that Neil Brand, a successful silent film accompanist, radio dramatist and composer, links the silent film expe-rience and audio drama in two of his plays, Joanna and Waves Breaking on a Shore. Using theories of sound and narrative in film and radio, as well as discuss-ing the way radio in particular can stimulate the generation of imagery, this arti-cle examines layered points of view/audition as ways of linking the silent film experience and the use of sound within radio drama