We looked at children's book, and how actors use their voices to create audio recordings. As a children's book is usually very visually stimulating and interesting, we have to use our voices to make it just as exciting to listen to.
For the first book, we chose an excerpt from Mr Bear's New Baby, as it had different voices for us to experiment with. There was a narrator, Mrs Bear, Mr Bear, Small Bear, and a couple of one liners from other character. My characters were Mrs Bear, and Mrs Buzz. In the story, Mrs Bear wants Small Bear to go to bed, so she needs an authoritative voice. Mrs Buzz is a bee, so I wanted to give her a high pitched voice, as that is what I imagine bees to sound like. As this piece was longer than the ones we had done before, we did a couple of read through to make sure we understood what we were saying, and got familiar with the lines. When recording, we used a phone, and placed it on a box while we all stood around it. In a professional setting, we all might have our own mics, to make sure our voices are picked up properly. We had to stop recording a few times, and start again. This was due to things like people messed up their lines etc. In the industry, if this happened, the actors wouldn't have to start again. They would restart the sentence, then it would be edited in later. As we currently don't have the knowledge, time, or equipment to do that, we had to do it in one take. This took a good few times. Because I didn't have many lines, I turned the pages while we were recording. It was difficult, because you had to be quick to make sure everyone could read their lines on the next page without having a long pause, but you had to be really careful so the mic didn't pick up the sounds of the pages turning. In the industry, actors might have a script in front of them instead of the book. Without all the pictures, it means there are more lines on a page, meaning less turning. This is the link for the recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyMmwHYj1FU
I think it went well, but if we were doing a recording of the whole book, we would need some editing software. I think we used our voices well for a children's audience, and make them clear and easy to understand, but without being condescending.
The second book we looked at was Norman the Slug with a Silly Shell. This book was more fun to do because it gave us opportunities to add in sound effects, and use foley. Foley is where you use objects to make the sound of something else. Jess and I did the voices of the snails, so we spoke together to make it seem there were more of them. We read through the book a couple of times to get familiar with it, and then recorded it. Some of the sounds we used were a light bulb noise for an idea, a bouncy noise and loud alarm noises for a shell. Also we used things for foley, such as keys in a pringles tube for Norman falling down the shells, coat arms for the wings of a bird, and a wet paper towel dropping on the floor as Norman falling. This one was more fun to do, because although I personally didn't have a lot of character input, doing the foley was interesting. I had the same problems with turning the pages, so this has shown me for my final pieces I will need to find a way to have my script so I can read it, but also not be worrying about turning the pages. This is the link for the recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpX5lwLhis4&t
Audio Unit // Radio Adverts
We did a couple different radio adverts, and learnt about the techniques we would need to use if we were doing this in the industry.
For our first advert, we were given a product and asked to sell it on the radio in an advert lasting no more than thirty seconds. Our product was a pencil. We thought about our audience, and thought children and young people would be a good idea, as we thought about using 'back to school' to sell it, as we had all seen television adverts saying this exact thing. Because of our intended audience, we decided to go down a more comical route. I looked at popular radio ads, and most of them do include a comedic element, so they are obviously popular.
I thought about radio adverts, and the ones I had heard. I knew a lot directed their words to the audience like "Do you need new writing equipment?" So we started with then, and the rest of us answered with a unanimous 'yes!' Doing this makes it seem like there are more than just 3 of us responding. Because we want this product to sell, we have to make it seem like we are really interested in it. I showed this by having an excited voice, instead of a normal dull voice. Someone will not buy your product if they think the people selling it don't care, even if they are actors. Speaking of actors, I think in this type of recording you are technically playing a character, but also yourself. (Except for the bits where we talk about testimonies from people who have used the product.) As we don't have the type of equipment to include sound effects in our ad, we used our voices to create this. There is a bit where Dylan says 'pencil, pencil, pencil' quieter each time, like an echo effect. It didn't sound as good as it could have, but this would have been added in if it was a professional advert. (Or maybe not, if someone wanted to have a comedy aspect.)
I think the pencil advert was okay. It was a good introduction to using our voices in this way, but it's doubtful an ad in the industry would use this kind of satire & cheesiness we did. If we were doing it again, I would also suggest we make our voices sound very different in the 'Here are quotes from the customers' bit, as we were meant to be different people, but it sounded the same. Also the quality is not great, so we would record it with a proper mic. Here is the recording: http://vocaroo.com/i/s1RqVazGT3w3
For our second piece, we got to choose our own idea. I came up with the idea of talking about a puppy shelter, needing people to come in and adopt a dog. I wanted to do this because it shows a contrast to our first one, as all the groups did very comical pieces, and we could use our voices in a different way than we did in the first ones. Unlike the pencil ad, this topic is something that I'm passionate about, so I don't need to 'put on a voice' of interest. I have seen a lot of adverts like this, but not really heard any. On visual adverts, it shows pictures of the dogs, which makes an audience emotional. This means for audio, we have to use our voices to do this instead.
I wanted to start off with a happy voice, introducing the dog 'Scrappy.' Jess then barked, because we don't have the effects to put in a dogs bark, so Jess did it, which was cute and got the audience interested. Then, we used our sad voices to talk about Scrappy being all alone for Christmas, without a family. The change in the way we were talking did affect the audience, as shown by doing it in front of people. For an advert like this, we want to tug at an audiences heartstrings, so we use more sombre voices as it's kind of a sad topic, and we want them to feel something. Then, we said "Let Scrappy be a member of your family this Christmas.' This made everyone aw. For this bit, we made our voices more happier, because we want to associate Scrappy having a home with happy things. I do not have the recording for this one, but it was very noisy in the background, making it hard to hear. We would have to record it somewhere a lot quieter if we did it again. We would also get a real dog barking effect, and maybe put some sad music in the background.
For our first advert, we were given a product and asked to sell it on the radio in an advert lasting no more than thirty seconds. Our product was a pencil. We thought about our audience, and thought children and young people would be a good idea, as we thought about using 'back to school' to sell it, as we had all seen television adverts saying this exact thing. Because of our intended audience, we decided to go down a more comical route. I looked at popular radio ads, and most of them do include a comedic element, so they are obviously popular.
I thought about radio adverts, and the ones I had heard. I knew a lot directed their words to the audience like "Do you need new writing equipment?" So we started with then, and the rest of us answered with a unanimous 'yes!' Doing this makes it seem like there are more than just 3 of us responding. Because we want this product to sell, we have to make it seem like we are really interested in it. I showed this by having an excited voice, instead of a normal dull voice. Someone will not buy your product if they think the people selling it don't care, even if they are actors. Speaking of actors, I think in this type of recording you are technically playing a character, but also yourself. (Except for the bits where we talk about testimonies from people who have used the product.) As we don't have the type of equipment to include sound effects in our ad, we used our voices to create this. There is a bit where Dylan says 'pencil, pencil, pencil' quieter each time, like an echo effect. It didn't sound as good as it could have, but this would have been added in if it was a professional advert. (Or maybe not, if someone wanted to have a comedy aspect.)
I think the pencil advert was okay. It was a good introduction to using our voices in this way, but it's doubtful an ad in the industry would use this kind of satire & cheesiness we did. If we were doing it again, I would also suggest we make our voices sound very different in the 'Here are quotes from the customers' bit, as we were meant to be different people, but it sounded the same. Also the quality is not great, so we would record it with a proper mic. Here is the recording: http://vocaroo.com/i/s1RqVazGT3w3
For our second piece, we got to choose our own idea. I came up with the idea of talking about a puppy shelter, needing people to come in and adopt a dog. I wanted to do this because it shows a contrast to our first one, as all the groups did very comical pieces, and we could use our voices in a different way than we did in the first ones. Unlike the pencil ad, this topic is something that I'm passionate about, so I don't need to 'put on a voice' of interest. I have seen a lot of adverts like this, but not really heard any. On visual adverts, it shows pictures of the dogs, which makes an audience emotional. This means for audio, we have to use our voices to do this instead.
I wanted to start off with a happy voice, introducing the dog 'Scrappy.' Jess then barked, because we don't have the effects to put in a dogs bark, so Jess did it, which was cute and got the audience interested. Then, we used our sad voices to talk about Scrappy being all alone for Christmas, without a family. The change in the way we were talking did affect the audience, as shown by doing it in front of people. For an advert like this, we want to tug at an audiences heartstrings, so we use more sombre voices as it's kind of a sad topic, and we want them to feel something. Then, we said "Let Scrappy be a member of your family this Christmas.' This made everyone aw. For this bit, we made our voices more happier, because we want to associate Scrappy having a home with happy things. I do not have the recording for this one, but it was very noisy in the background, making it hard to hear. We would have to record it somewhere a lot quieter if we did it again. We would also get a real dog barking effect, and maybe put some sad music in the background.
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