When it comes to fiction podcasts, ‘Blackout’ is one of the most outstanding ones from 2019.
The show is set in a post-apocalyptic world and the main protagonist is a radio DJ (played by Rami Malek) who is trying to come to grips with what has happened and ensuring the survival of his family.
The series also follows the account of other survivors all of whom live in the small town.
What I like about the show is the simplicity with which it has been produced. The show begins and is partially told through Malek' character recounting the events of the past mimicked through a voice recorder.
In this piece, I briefly break down the first 5 minutes of the pilot episode to explain how the podcast sets a tempo that gets the listener hooked.
Here is how the show begins-
*Sound of a distant explosion, static noise, followed by the sound of a jet engine roaring*
Ground Control - This is ground control, maintain at 6400
Pilot- Copy that
Ground Control- Inspector 12 What is your RPM?
Pilot- RPM 64, I have a visual of white mountains now, going to start to manoeuvre in
Ground Control- Copy
Ground Control- Inspector 12 you are now approaching the border
Pilot- I have no interest in going to Canada, just one last sweep here
Ground Control- Inspector 12, what is your altitude?
Pilot: At the moment is 340 radio, the terrain is mountainous, lifting to 13,000 feet, don’t see anything out of the ordinary here
*Noise of the engines straining as the plane uses more power to climb to a higher altitude*
Pilot: now wait a second, I am not going to circle back, this is not safe territory
Ground Control- Inspector 12
Pilot- I am going to change frequencies here
Ground Control- Roger
*short burst of noise*
Pilot: I don’t have power to the right side of my panel here, panel down
Ground Control: What is your position?
Pilot- I don’t have power , I should be burning steady but it seems I am actually..
Ground Control- We cannot hear you
Pilot- Shit what is going on here
Ground Control- Inspector 12 we cannot hear you
Pilot- Something is wrong here, something is very wrong here
Ground Control- We cannot hear you
Pilot- I am holding steady
* There is a sound of a circuit bursting, alarm sounds begin to ring, there is a squeaky sound and suddenly. Sound of electrical glitches and then some rapid manual clicking sounds*
Pilot- I have no power
Ground Control - *muffled noise*
Pilot- I have no power, no power
Pilot- I am gliding up here, there is a mountain up ahead, I can’t throw my air flaps down
* a new alarm sound starts ringing*
Pilot - Mayday , mayday I am going down
* sound of a crash*
Motif music of the show starts playing for the first time & the title is introduced.
Simon: My name is Simon Athani, I am 39 years old and I am currently….well I don’t know where I am exactly, somewhere on the border of New Hampshire and Massachusetts, its eh..103 days since the blackout began and like everyone else I guess am looking for signs of life, I am not sure if anyone will ever hear this but I guess I should document what has happened these past few months so that anyone who gets hold of this recording will know the truth and you can act accordingly
Breakdown
For the initial few minutes, the show builds on the noise of the jet engine, a consistent buzz, to create a sense of anticipation. The radio noise and the gap between responses of the pilot and flight control help in further building levels of anticipation. The creators also use this exchange to cleverly describe the landscape of the town.
Within the first 5 minutes, the show manages to lay out the groundwork for all the future episodes. We know the setting, the background of the characters and a vague familiarity of the incident that starts it all. The opening sequence of the fighter jet is a key component and is used efficiently to link the story arc of all the main characters.
Within the first two minutes, you are given enough elements to imagine the town which is critical because the script leaves little scope for describing it later.
You may have noticed, the dialogue exchanges are quite brief and it is the sound design and music that really shine here. And even though there is sophistication when it comes to the use of foley, the show is essentially recorded like an old radio play.
In the show, after a major exposition, the next cut/act is eased into and not moved into. This is done often to symbolise the absence of technology and the fear it brings out and the choice of effects used are silent gaps (dead air). In the show, at one point Malek’s character describes the difference between the meaning of the words 'quiet' and 'silence', which I believe is an insight into how the creators imagined this post-apocalyptic world .
Here is what Scott Conroy, the podcast’s creator and executive producer, had to say about the writing process-
“I wanted to keep [Blackout] really grounded and not have it be this post-apocalyptic war that’s inconceivable. There’s been a lot of reporting on how vulnerable the power grid is, and that the Russians are probably already inside of it and can shut it down whenever they wanted to, which is kind of terrifying. So we wanted to present this as something that could actually happen tomorrow.
“When we have characters that can’t see what’s going on around them, it’s sort of fun to put the audience in that position as well [with] an audio-only format,” Conroy said.
This was my breakdown of the first five minutes of Blackout. Let me know what you think and if you need to discuss some of the issues you are facing while writing or editing podcasts or any other scripts.
Let’s keep supporting each other and keep the conversation going.
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