It was great to finally listen to the War of the Worlds broadcast by Orson Welles. It was something I had researched and written about a lot in VCE Media, but for some reason I’d never listened to very much of it.
From an adaption standpoint I thought it was amazingly put together, and that it was a very original and interesting way to look at, and interpret the source material. I can now better understand how the radio play was able to fool people back in 1938. At the time I can imagine not much like this had been done before, and while today ‘fake’ news coverage is more common, the broadcast still holds up well I think.
Thinking about it made me realise how much harder it would be to pull off a similar ‘hoax’ in today’s media environment. Back then radio was all we had, however nowadays if something similar was announced on tv or the radio we all would immediately check social media or news websites to find out more.
I also really enjoyed reading Roald Dahl’s ‘Lamb to the Slaughter’ and re-watching the original ‘Frankenstein’ (1931). Discussing the linearity of these different stories was interesting and it was particularly mind-opening to see how everyone’s 25 word plot summaries (for the most part) discussed a character, an action, and a variety of themes.
It’ll be interesting to see how the results of this plot summary exercise will change when we look at more complicated and less straightforward narratives. I think interactive media products such as video games and VR experiences are a more interesting and difficult medium to apply this exercise to, and this is certainly an area that I’d like to explore in the coming weeks.