UNIT 39 Assignment 3: Chencang Radio Script

SFX                                            Noise can be heard in the distant background from the camp.

NARRATOR                            The gentlemen and generals are arranged in single file lines, 

                                                 either left or right. JIN XIANG is on his knees once more 

                                                 before ZHUGE LIANG, appearing both distraught and guilty. 

JIN XIANG                               Chancellor, please forgive me. But the general Hao seems 

                                                 unyielding.

WEI YAN                                  Hao Zhao’s intentions are clear: he will not yield and intends 

                                                  to holdout. Chancellor, please give the order to attack.

JIN XIANG                               Chancellor, I would like to try one last time. I could not bear 

                                                  to see my friend face certain death.

ZHUGE LIANG                        I shall grant you one last chance, in hopes of your success.

WEI YAN                                 My lord, please. We shouldn’t waste any more time on 

                                                 diplomacy. It is as I warned, Hao Zhao will not surrender. An 

                                                attack is advised.

YANG YI                                 Eager to earn glory now, are we?

WEI YAN                                Watch your tongue sycophant! 

FEI YI                                      Both of you, enough. Chancellor, if Jin Xiang wishes to 

                                                attempt once more, I think we should give him that kindness. 

                                                For the sake of his friendship with Hao Zhao, if nothing else.

ZHUGE LIANG                       Very well, Jin Xiang, since you have petitioned for it and have 

                                                been endorsed by Fei Yi, I shall grant you one last attempt, 

                                                but know that should you come back with another rejection, 

                                                we will begin battle.

JIN XIANG                              My lord is most virtuous. Thank you.

SFX                                         Footsteps can be heard as JIN XIANG makes an exit.

WEI YAN                                This is folly! We are wasting time with such tactics. The 

                                                enemy is Hao Zhao, and you know as well as I Chancellor 

                                                that he will prove to be a cumbersome opponent. If we are to 

                                                overcome him it must be done now, swiftly.

JIANG WEI                             General, you must not speak out of turn. Show the Chancellor 

                                                due respect.

WEI YAN                                 Don’t proceed to try lecture me boy, for I have fought more 

                                                 battles that you ever shall have to in a lifetime. This campaign 

                                                wasn’t of my making, but those who have orchestrated it are 

                                                doing a poor job of it. Had we agreed that I lead 10,000 men 

                                                across Ziwu Valley we would not be facing our current 

                                                predicament.

YANG YI                                     Such arrogance! And you think your plan your plan of 

                                                    copying the great Han Xin of Han would prove better? 

                                                    Nonsense. You only mean to seek glory even if it is at the 

                                                    expense of our men’s lives. Your over ambition would 

                                                    surely cost us.

SFX                                             Sound of sword being unsheathed. 

NARRATOR                               Having had enough of YANG YI, WEI YAN draws his 

                                                    sword and points it towards the logistics officer.

WEI YAN                                    You would do well not to repeat those words, worm.

NARRATOR                               FEI YI, once again, comes in between WEI YAN and 

                                                    YANG YI, and begins to admonish the general.

FEI YI                                         Wei Yan, that is enough! What good is this in-fighting? 

                                                   Sheathe your blade, for you will need to save it for the 

                                                    coming battle.

SFX                                            Sound of a sword being sheathing.

NARRATOR                              WEI YAN complies with sheathing his sword, but is still 

                                                   angered with circumstances. 

WEI YAN                                   Then you agree! There will be need of a battle. Then what is 

                                                   the point of sending back Jin Xiang?

NARRATOR                              The tent is left with awkward silence and a thick air of 

                                                   tension hovering overhead of the Shu army commanders.

UNIT 39 Assignment 3: Blood Meridian Radio Script

SFX                                               Crackling of a campfire can be heard throughout, as well 

                                                     as the sounds of the night typical of a western desert.

NARRATOR                                The mountains to the north lay sunwise in corrugated folds 

                                                     and the days were cool and the nights were cold and they 

                                                     sat about the fire each in his round of darkness in that 

                                                     round of dark while the idiot watched from his cage at the 

                                                      edge of the light. The judge cracked with the back of an 

                                                     axe the shinbone on an antelope and the hot marrow 

                                                     dripped smoking on the stones. They watched him. The 

                                                     subject was war.

JOHN JACKSON                        The good book says that he that lives by sword shall 

                                                     perish by the sword.

JUDGE HOLDEN                        What right man would have it any other way?

IRVING                                        The good book does indeed count war an evil, yet there’s 

                                                      many a bloody tale of war inside it.

JUDGE HOLDEN                        It makes no difference what men think of war. War 

                                                     endures. As well ask men what they think of stone. War 

                                                     was always here. Before man was, war waited for him. 

                                                     The ultimate trade awaiting its ultimate practitioner. That is 

                                                      the way it was and will be. That way and not some other 

                                                     way.

SFX                                              Whispered slur or demurrer.

NARRATOR                                He turned to Brown, from whom he’d heard some 

                                                     whispered slur or demurrer.

JUDGE HOLDN                           Ah Davy, it’s your own trade we honor here. Why not 

                                                      rather take a small bow. Let each acknowledge each.

DAVID BROWN                           My trade?

JUDGE HOLDEN                        Certainly.

DAVID BROWN                          What is my trade?

JUDGE HOLDEN                        War. War is your trade. Is it not?

DAVID BROWN                          And it ain’t yours?

JUDGE HOLDEN                        Mine too. Very much so.

DAVID BROWN                          What about all them notebooks and bones and stuff?

JUDGE HOLDEN                        All other trades are contained in that of war.

DAVID BROWN                          Is that why war endures?

JUDGE HOLDEN                       No. It endures because young men love it and old men 

                                                    love it in them. Those that fought, those that did not.

DAVID BROWN                         That’s your notion.

JUDGE HOLDEN                       Men are born for games. Nothing else. Every child knows 

                                                    that play is nobler than work. He knows too that the worth 

                                                    or merit of a game is not inherent in the game itself but 

                                                    rather in the value of that which is put at hazard. Games of 

                                                    chance require a wager to have meaning at all. Games of 

                                                    sport involve the skill and strength of the opponents and 

                                                    the humiliation of defeat and the pride of victory are in 

                                                     themselves sufficient stake because they inhere in the 

                                                    worth of the principals and define them. But trial of chance 

                                                     or trial of worth all games aspire to the condition of war for 

                                                    here that which is wagered swallows up game, player, all. 

                                                    Suppose two men at cards with nothing to wager save their 

                                                    lives. Who has not heard such a tale? A turn of the card. 

                                                    The whole universe for such a player has labored clanking 

                                                    to his moment which will tell if he is to die at that man’s 

                                                    hand or that man at his. What more certain validation of a 

                                                     man’s worth could there be? This enhancement of the 

                                                    game to its ultimate state admits no argument concerning 

                                                     the notion of fate. The selection of one man over another is 

                                                    a preference absolute and irrevocable and it is a dull man 

                                                    indeed who could reckon so profound a decision without 

                                                    agency or significance either one. In such games as have 

                                                    for their stake the annihilation of the defeated the decisions 

                                                    are quite clear. This man holding this particular 

                                                    arrangement of cards in his hand is thereby removed from 

                                                     existence. This is the nature of war, whose stake is at once 

                                                    the game and the authority and the justification. Seen so, 

                                                    war is the truest form of divination. It is the testing of one’s 

                                                    will and the will of another within that larger will which 

                                                    because it binds them is therefore forced to select. War is 

                                                    the ultimate game because war is at last a forcing of the 

                                                    unity of existence. War is god.

DAVID BROWN                          You’re crazy Holden. Crazy at last.

IRVING                                        Might does not make right. The man that wins in some 

                                                      combat is not vindicated morally.

JUDGE HOLDEN                       Moral law is an invention of mankind for the 

                                                    disenfranchisement of the powerful in favor of the weak. 

                                                     Historical law subverts it at every turn. A moral view can 

                                                    never be proven right or wrong by any ultimate test. A man 

                                                    falling dead in a duel is not thought thereby to be proven in 

                                                    error as to his views. His very involvement in such a trial 

                                                    gives evidence of a new and broader view. The willingness 

                                                    of the principals to forgo further argument as the triviality 

                                                    which it in fact is and to petition directly the chambers of 

                                                    the historical absolute clearly indicates of how little moment 

                                                    are the opinions and of what great moment the 

                                                    divergences thereof. For the argument is indeed trivial, but 

                                                    not so the separate wills thereby made manifest. Man's 

                                                     vanity may well approach the infinite in capacity but his 

                                                    knowledge remains imperfect and however much he 

                                                    comes to value his judgments ultimately he must submit 

                                                    them before a higher court. Here there can be no special 

                                                    pleading. Here are considerations of equity and rectitude 

                                                    and moral right rendered void and without warrant and 

                                                    here are the views of the litigants despised. Decisions of 

                                                     life and death, of what shall be and what shall not, beggar 

                                                    all question of right. In elections of these magnitudes are 

                                                    all lesser ones subsumed, moral, spiritual, natural.

NARRATOR                               The judge searched out the circle for disputants. 

JUDGE HOLDEN                       But what says the priest?

TOBIN                                        The priest does not say.

JUDGE HOLDEN                       The priest does not say. Nihil dicit. But the priest has said. 

                                                    For the priest has put by the robes of his craft and taken up 

                                                     the tools of that higher calling which all men honor. The 

                                                    priest would be no godserver but a god himself.

TOBIN                                        You’ve a blasphemous tongue, Holden. And in truth I was 

                                                   never a priest but only a novitiate to the order.

JUDGE HOLDEN                     Journeyman priest or apprentice priest. Men of god and 

                                                    men of war have strange affinities. 

TOBIN                                        I’ll not secondsay you in your notions. Don’t ask it.

JUDGE HOLDEN                      Ah priest. What could I ask of you that you’ve already 

                                                   given?

UNIT 39 Assignment 3: Edit Written Copy for Different Contexts and Audiences

Scenario: You have been commissioned to work on 2 pre published existing scripts and transpose this work into a piece for radio you can use 2 scenes from the screenplay you have recently written, a theater script or adapt a passage from a book. You are to edit adapting the work to a target radio audience different from the original intended audience.

TASKS

• Copy - for built items (programmes, packages, features or billboards); cue sheets; promos.
• Audiences - differentiation by demographic (including age, ethnicity, gender, socio-economic group, geographic location).
• Edit - fitness for purpose (censorship, simplification, change of emphasis or approach, conformity with house style, compliance with regulatory requirements in a different time slot).

To be written and handed in via Word document.

---

Chencang

In 228 AD, Chancellor-Regent of Shu-Han, Zhuge Liang, musters a large force for his 2nd Northern campaign. He advances on upon the heavily fortified yet isolated Chencang, defended by approximately 1,000 men under General Hao Zhao of Cao Wei, veteran on the famous Battle of Xiaoyao Ford. Surrounded and isolated, General Hao and his men must face the near impossible task of holding Chencang at all costs until reinforcements arrive. Chencang is a Chinese historical-epic concerning the Siege of Chencang fought between December 228 to early 229 by the states of Shu-Han and Cao Wei, the former army led by Chancellor-Regent Zhuge Liang and the latter by General Hao Zhao.

Audience

The original target audience was a majority Chinese demographic. With this being a radio play however, and a lack of space for “expansion” in such a market, the best way to gear it towards audiences would be something along the lines of a historical drama, given the heavy dialogue and setting. An apt comparison would be Infidel, a similar historical drama that concerns the crusades and Holy Land.

Edit

The only edits made were simply the directions changed, where necessary, to dialogue for the narrator, in order to give context for movement in the story.

Characters

Jin Xiang - from the same village as his friend, he is used by Zhuge Liang to try and convince General Hao to surrender to the overwhelming military force that faces him.

Wei Yan - a boastful and arrogant individual, yet charismatic and well liked by his men and most of the army. He was, historically, one of Shu’s best generals; however, he would often butt heads with the Chancellor-Regent Zhuge Liang over affairs of the state, and was outcasted by him in favor of placing his own men in positions of power.

Zhuge Liang - the de-facto ruler of Shu, he attempts a 2nd Northern campaign in the form of his siege of Chencang, having failed back in 228 AD with the decisive Battle of Jieting. While historically a brilliant administrator, he was the epitome of an armchair general and prone to cronyism in his ranks.

Yang Yi - served as an army adviser and would quarrel frequently with Wei Yan, often leading Fei Yi having to calm tensions between the two. He was in charge of logistics and supply lines during his lord’s campaigns.

Fei Yi - served Shu as an ambassador as well as being one of Zhuge Liang’s most trusted aides. In later life he would rise to his lord’s former position, assuming the running and administration of government.

Jiang Wei - groomed for command by Liang and serves as his protege. He is young and eager to learn, yet also eager to fight for glory’s sake.

SFX	Directions	Narrative
Noise can be heard in the distant background from the camp. Footsteps can be heard. Movement can be heard as JIN XIANG makes his exit. The sound of a sword unsheathing. Sound of a sword being sheathed. Murmurs amongst the gentry are heard.	NARRATOR JIN XIANG speaks nervously WEI YAN speaks boldly JIN XIANG ZHUGE LIANG WEI YAN steps out of line in protest to the decision YANG YI WEI YAN FEI YI ZHUGE LIANG JIN XIANG JIN XIANG arises and makes his exit once more, making haste. WEI YAN makes his grievances known again. WEI YAN speaks with frustration JIANG WEI WEI YAN YANG YI NARRATOR WEI YAN NARRATOR FEI YI NARRATOR WEI YAN NARRATOR	The gentlemen and generals are arranged in single file lines, either left or right. JIN XIANG is on his knees once more before ZHUGE LIANG, appearing both distraught and guilty. Chancellor, please forgive me. But the general Hao seems unyielding. Hao Zhao’s intentions are clear: he will not yield and intends to holdout. Chancellor, please give the order to attack. Chancellor, I would like to try one last time. I could not bear to see my friend face certain death. I shall grant you one last chance, in hopes of your success. My lord, please. We shouldn’t waste any more time on diplomacy. It is as I warned, Hao Zhao will not surrender. An attack is advised. Eager to earn glory now, are we? Watch your tongue sycophant! Both of you, enough. Chancellor, if Jin Xiang wishes to attempt once more, I think we should give him that kindness. For the sake of his friendship with Hao Zhao, if nothing else. Very well, Jin Xiang, since you have petitioned for it and have been endorsed by Fei Yi, I shall grant you one last attempt, but know that should you come back with another rejection, we will begin battle. My lord is most virtuous. Thank you. This is folly! We are wasting time with such tactics. The enemy is Hao Zhao, and you know as well as I Chancellor that he will prove to be a cumbersome opponent. If we are to overcome him it must be done now, swiftly. General, you must not speak out of turn. Show the Chancellor due respect. Don’t proceed to try lecture me boy, for I have fought more battles that you ever shall have to in a lifetime. This campaign wasn’t of my making, but those who have orchestrated it are doing a poor job of it. Had we agreed that I lead 10,000 men across Ziwu Valley we would not be facing our current predicament. Such arrogance! And you think your plan your plan of copying the great Han Xin of Han would prove better? Nonsense. You only mean to seek glory even if it is at the expense of our men’s lives. Your over ambition would surely cost us. Having had enough of YANG YI, WEI YAN draws his sword and points it towards the logistics officer. You would do well not to repeat those words, worm. FEI YI, once again, comes in between WEI YAN and YANG YI, and begins to admonish the general. Wei Yan, that is enough! What good is this in-fighting? Sheathe your blade, for you will need to save it for the coming battle. WEI YAN complies with sheathing his sword, but is still angered with circumstances. Then you agree! There will be need of a battle. Then what is the point of sending back Jin Xiang? The the tent is left with awkward silence and a thick air of tension hovering overhead of the Shu army commanders.

Blood Meridian

The majority of the story follows a teenager referred to only as "the kid," with the bulk of the text devoted to his experiences with the Glanton gang, a historical group of scalp hunters who massacred Native Americans and others in the United States–Mexico borderlands from 1849 to 1850 for bounty, pleasure, and eventually out of nihilistic habit.

Audience

Blood Meridian, its content filled with violence and philosophy, is no doubt intended for a more mature and older audience. It fits the genre of epic western/anti-western, with elements of horror, drama and action. The radio adaptation would be no different, having to stay true to the magnificent source material, as well as its heavy use of dialogue, though perhaps in the long term, certain descriptions would need be left out due to length.

Edit

As with my previous adaptation of a script to radio, the few changes made were only applied to the narrator having to act as the descriptor to events, whenever actions take place outside of dialogue.

Characters (Reference)

John “the black” Johnson - two men in the novel are named John Jackson, one white, the other black. Although the family of magicians foretells that the black Jackson can begin his life anew and change his fate—and despite a failed attempt to desert the gang—the black Jackson stays the course of ruthless violence. He seems to have become something of a disciple of the Judge.

Judge Holden - often called “the Judge”, a totally bald, toweringly gigantic, supernaturally strong, demonically violent man. He is a studious anthropologist and naturalist, a polyglot, an eloquent lecturer in fields as diverse as biological evolution and jurisprudence. He is an expert fiddler and nimble dancer. He is also a liar, a sadistic killer, and very possibly a rapist and murderer of young children. The Judge has pledged himself absolutely to the god of war, going so far as to claim that war itself is God.

Irving - presumably a medical doctor at one time, Irving refuses to help David Brown when he takes an arrow to the thigh, knowing that if he doesn’t get the arrow out cleanly Brown will kill him. He also claims, in disagreement with the Judge, that might doesn’t make right.

David Brown - often called Davy Brown, an especially violent deputy; he comes to wear a necklace of human ears. When the gang first came upon the Judge in the desert, David Brown wanted to leave him but was overruled. Brown later dismisses the Judge’s lecture on order and purpose in the universe as “craziness,” and calls the Judge crazy again when the giant declares that war is God.

Tobin - often called the ex-priest, but he later tells the Judge that he was merely “a novitiate to the order.” To some extent, he and the Judge compete with one another spiritually.

SFX	Directions	Narrative
Crackling of a campfire can be heard throughout, as well as the sounds of the night typical of a western desert. Whispered slur or demurrer	NARRATOR John “the black” Jackson Judge Holden Irving Judge Holden NARRATOR Judge Holden David Brown Judge Holden David Brown Judge Holden David Brown Judge Holden David Brown Judge Holden David Brown Judge Holden David Brown Judge Holden David Brown Irving Judge Holden NARRATOR Judge Holden Tobin Judge Holden Tobin Judge Holden Tobin Judge Holden	The mountains to the north lay sunwise in corrugated folds and the days were cool and the nights were cold and they sat about the fire each in his round of darkness in that round of dark while the idiot watched from his cage at the edge of the light. The judge cracked with the back of an axe the shinbone on an antelope and the hot marrow dripped smoking on the stones. They watched him. The subject was war. The good book says that he that lives by sword shall perish by the sword. What right man would have it any other way? The good book does indeed count war an evil, yet there’s many a bloody tale of war inside it. It makes no difference what men think of war. War endures. As well ask men what they think of stone. War was always here. Before man was, war waited for him. The ultimate trade awaiting its ultimate practitioner. That is the way it was and will be. That way and not some other way. He turned to Brown, from whom he’d heard some whispered slur or demurrer. Ah Davy, it’s your own trade we honor here. Why not rather take a small bow. Let each acknowledge each. My trade? Certainly. What is my trade? War. War is your trade. Is it not? And ain’t that yours? Mine too. Very much so. What about all them notebooks and bones and stuff? All other trades are contained in that of war. Is that why war endures? No. It endures because young men love it and old men love it in them. Those that fought, those that did not. That’s your notion. Men are born for games. Nothing else. Every child knows that play is nobler than work. He knows too that the worth or merit of a game is not inherent in the game itself but rather in the value of that which is put at hazard. Games of chance require a wager to have meaning at all. Games of sport involve the skill and strength of the opponents and the humiliation of defeat and the pride of victory are in themselves sufficient stake because they inhere in the worth of the principals and define them. But trial of chance or trial of worth all games aspire to the condition of war for here that which is wagered swallows up game, player, all. Suppose two men at cards with nothing to wager save their lives. Who has not heard such a tale? A turn of the card. The whole universe for such a player has labored clanking to his moment which will tell if he is to die at that man’s hand or that man at his. What more certain validation of a man’s worth could there be? This enhancement of the game to its ultimate state admits no argument concerning the notion of fate. The selection of one man over another is a preference absolute and irrevocable and it is a dull man indeed who could reckon so profound a decision without agency or significance either one. In such games as have for their stake the annihilation of the defeated the decisions are quite clear. This man holding this particular arrangement of cards in his hand is thereby removed from existence. This is the nature of war, whose stake is at once the game and the authority and the justification. Seen so, war is the truest form of divination. It is the testing of one’s will and the will of another within that larger will which because it binds them is therefore forced to select. War is the ultimate game because war is at last a forcing of the unity of existence. War is god. You’re crazy Holden. Crazy at last. Might does not make right. The man that wins in some combat is not vindicated morally. Moral law is an invention of mankind for the disenfranchisement of the powerful in favor of the weak. Historical law subverts it at every turn. A moral view can never be proven right or wrong by any ultimate test. A man falling dead in a duel is not thought thereby to be proven in error as to his views. His very involvement in such a trial gives evidence of a new and broader view. The willingness of the principals to forgo further argument as the triviality which it in fact is and to petition directly the chambers of the historical absolute clearly indicates of how little moment are the opinions and of what great moment the divergences thereof. For the argument is indeed trivial, but not so the separate wills thereby made manifest. Man's vanity may well approach the infinite in capacity but his knowledge remains imperfect and however much he comes to value his judgments ultimately he must submit them before a higher court. Here there can be no special pleading. Here are considerations of equity and rectitude and moral right rendered void and without warrant and here are the views of the litigants despised. Decisions of life and death, of what shall be and what shall not, beggar all question of right. In elections of these magnitudes are all lesser ones subsumed, moral, spiritual, natural. The judge searched out the circle for disputants. But what says the priest? The priest does not say. The priest does not say. Nihil dicit. But the priest has said. For the priest has put by the robes of his craft and taken up the tools of that higher calling which all men honor. The priest would be no godserver but a god himself. You’ve a blasphemous tongue, Holden. And in truth I was never a priest but only a novitiate to the order. Journeyman priest or apprentice priest. Men of god and men of war have strange affinities. I’ll not secondsay you in your notions. Don’t ask it. Ah priest. What could I ask of you that you’ve already given?