Point of listening in a radio fiction: the eternal problem

Abstract

One of the fundamental elements to construct a radio fiction product from the point of view of the sound is the denominated point of listening or ‘point ici’ of Souriau. The point of listening represents the space relation existing between the listener and the rest of the sound objects of the scene. Its importance is then in which it determines the place from which the sound perspective settles, forming the space and expressive meaning. For all these reasons, it is decisive in the perception process that the listener makes of a radio product. In spite of this, years of experience in the realization of fiction products on radio demonstrate that the suitable location of the point of listening is one of the most complicated aspects: the eternal problem. Therefore, the preoccupation by this aspect has taken to us to analyze 30 fiction stories on radio with the objective of finding the main problems of location of the point of listening and establishing a catalogue of errors that helps in the education of the radio production. The results indicate that 25 of 30 stories contain some error in the positioning of the point of listening.