Audio Unit // Podcast (Final Group Piece)

For one of my group pieces, I got together with Jess and discussed the idea of a mystery/crime podcast. We listen/watch this type of stuff in our spare time, so we know the basics of what it's like. We brainstormed ideas like talking about news stories, 999 calls, conspiracy theories, crime podcasts. There are certain shows we like, such as Making a Murderer, Rob Dyke's youtube videos, and Buzzfeed's Unsolved Mysteries.

We listening to some podcasts and shows, and made notes on things we liked and didn't, to see what we could include in our own podcast:

In the first podcast, I like how he talks about a few different topics. This keeps the audiences attention. In Buzzfeed's, I liked how they set it out, with one person telling the other about the topic, and them finding out for the first time. Jess and I decided to include these elements. We would go away and research one story each, then tell each other them on the podcast. This way, it gives a more real reaction, which was shown in Buzzfeed's which we liked. We want it to be really natural, so we haven't scripted this one. We just have point to talk about the stories we have researched.
I looked at the incident at Dyatlov Pass, where 9 hikers were found dead in the Russian mountains. Here are the notes I made to bring in to the recording:

  I want it to be structured, but not seem like I am reading it out.


Jess and I discussed a little bit about how we wanted to start our podcast off. We would say something like 'Hello, welcome to this weeks podcast.' This is because we want to seem confident like we do this all the time. We also discussed our aims. This is both factual and entertaining, as it informs the audience about topics, but also might have a few jokes.


This is the final recording. 


We didn't do any rehearsals due to the nature of the on the spot recording we wanted to do (which would basically defeat the purpose). When it came to recording, I think it went quite well. We went over the time we had expected, because it flowed quite well. We also included a lot of our own thoughts and humour into the podcast, which made it easier to do, because it just felt like I was just talking to my friend (albeit with a microphone in my face). Because it was a 'live' piece, it was a bit daunting going in to, but once we did get into it, it seemed very smooth. I told my story first, and then Jess told hers, with both of our commentary's in between. We would think this to be entertaining for an audience, because this is the type of thing we would listen to. It was also easy not to move papers around, because there wasn't really any, just the note sheet which I would occasionally look at. We had to make sure we weren't speaking too loudly, as that can be quite difficult to listen to, but also not too quiet as that isn't the type of recording we want. We didn't have any awkward pauses which is really good. We made sure to both be an equal difference away from the mic, as it would be unprofessional if one of our voices was louder than the others. I also found myself talking in a stereotypical present kind of way, which wasn't planned. There were moments where it was dramatic, like when we were explaining the unsolved cases. But also humour, like when I tried explaining what a yeti was, so I think it was pretty diverse. I also think we did quite a good job of not talking over each other too much, as this was something we were worried about, and had talked about to make sure this wouldn't happen.
If we were to do it again, I would maybe write prompt questions to get the conversation flowing with Jess more. Also when I first started, I felt a bit on the spot, so maybe plan it out more, but again it defeats the object. It sounds a bit echo-y, so I would find ways to reduce this.  

Audio Unit // Children's Narrative Audio Books (Final Solo Piece)

Children's narrative books and children's picture books can be quite different. Usually narrative books are more wordy than the picture books, and provide a more in depth narrative. While both present some issues when creating an audio recording of them (for example picture books are made with the main focus being the pictures, meaning recording the book difficult to capture the attention of the listener), narrative books are something I haven't done before. I have a bit of experience with recording picture books, but none with narrative books. They could be difficult to do, because they might not keep an audience interested. The audience is children, and they have a relatively short attention span, so I need to keep them interested.




I was thinking of books I could read, so I went through the ones I had at home, and also researched some online. I wanted to have something that I could relate to, because I find it more interesting. I found a book called That's Why We Don't Eat Animals, which tells kids about animals and how they are used in the meat and dairy industry. While it had a more in depth narrative, it also has pictures, but not enough that without them the story would suffer. When thinking about ways to keep my audience listening, I thought of different ways I could use my voice. I could use voice inflection to differentiate between happy and sad points. For example, it talks about an animal in its natural habitat, then how living on a factory farm effects them. I know I can easily make this bit sad, mainly because it is anyway, but also by using my voice in this way. The story is for children, but not young toddlers. It is for more advanced children, meaning I don't have to be super slow.


I wrote out the bits I wanted to use, and read it through a few times to get used to it. After, I started making notes on how I wanted to say things. For example, I want to emphasise 'earthlings' in the sentence "We are all earthlings." This is because this is an important part, and I want people to pay attention. I've recording myself using these inflections, and I think it works quite well.


This is the link to the recording I did before.
This is the link to the final recording.


Honestly, I wasn't happy with the final recording. Because of my illness, it has altered the sound of my voice. I think I could have done so much better if I wasn't ill. But I can't change that. In the industry, it's really difficult if an actor is ill. In the worst case scenario, you may get recast. Hopefully, they will wait for you to get better, but that is not always the case. I believe I did what I could to preserve my voice before this recording (drinking certain liquids, going on voice rest), but there are some things that are out of my control. I added longer pauses between the good and bad bits of each animal, which helps make the comparison more obviously different, while also using a sadder tone to my voice. I think I did well in pronouncing all my words so that the intended audience could understand them, which is basically the aim of the piece - to help children understand how the world works.

Audio Unit // Animated Movie (Group)

Jess and I looked at movie and tv show scenes we could use for a voice over. It was strangely difficult to find things that lasted two minutes with 2 girls talking to each other, so we decided to put together the scenes with Mother Gothel and Rapunzel in it from Tangled. (I am playing Gothel. She is meant to be Rapunzels mother so I need to make her seem older. She is also really rude and sarcastic towards her daughter. She has moments which are really condescending, which I can do by using a high voice, which also sounds annoying, but this is good for her character.) This is different from the things we have done because we want to use an accent. This is because it will show off our range more. First, we printed out the script for the scenes we wanted to do. (We chose the scenes by watching the film, and picking out the scenes we liked.) We then did a read through first initially to make sure it hit the time we needed. After this, we looked at the script more to get familiar with the lines. It comes across really obvious if an actor has only looked at something a few times, so we need to be really comfortable with it. There are moments where we have to interrupt each other, and on the page it's hard to show this, so we need to remember this. I also made notes on how I wanted to say certain lines. For example, there is a part where Gothel goes to say 'Mother knows best', but Rapunzel interrupts her by saying 'no', so Gothel says 'No? Oh.' I want to say 'Oh' really deep and offended, as if she has just realised Rapunzel will not listen to her. There is also a part where Gothel shouts. To do this, I need to make sure not to stand too close to the mic.



This is the link to the recording.
When recording this, Jess and I faced some difficulties. We had previously talked about using American accents, but scrapped it because we are not very confident with them. I chose to use a more pronounced English (which I don't think I did fabulously well, as I wouldn't say accents are one of my strong suits, and I need to work on them), with Jess doing more of her natural accent. We did this because we wanted to show contrast, and show that I was the older one. There are parts where I move away from the mic to say lines where Gothel is outside of the castle. This is to give the illusion I am father away.



If we did it again, it would be nice to have some kind of background music to fit the mood. Also, we talked about putting our voices onto the video, but that brings up a lot of problems. We would have to use the exact same pacing and timing as the original actors to fit the video, which doesn't really give us a lot of creative control. In the industry, the actors record their voices then the animators make the characters say those things. Without this, it would look strange, which is why we didn't end up doing this.

Audio Unit // Archers

We looked at the Archers, which is a popular radio drama. There are lots of characters, with extensive backstories, so we researched some of this. Dylan, Jess, and I were in a group, so we looked at scripts that had 3 people in them. We found one with the characters Tom, Helen, and Kirsty. My character was Helen. We did some research on the characters, because this effects how we play them. For example, Helen and Tom are siblings, so they would interact in a different ways than strangers would. On the website there are character profiles showing their likes, dislikes, and relationships. It says that Tom and Kirtsy are exes, but in this scene they seem really civil and are doing things together, so we have to assume they are still together at this point. There are some things we don't know from the script, or from the research we've done. From our stand alone scene, we can make assumptions about the characters, and things that have happened, For example, we talked about Helen and her affair with Rob. In Kirtsy's dislikes, it says Rob, but says she is friends with Helen. We talked about this, and I said we could do the scene as if Kirsty knows about the affair, which is why she keeps changing the subject away from Rob.
As the characters are all pretty much family, we need to show the audience this by the way they interact with each other. Talking with family comes so easy, so I did a relaxed voice. Also, there is a bit where Helen's son comes in. Although in the script it doesn't state this, I showed this by talking to him like you would a child. Talking with a softer voice and a little bit slower would show this.

Next, we talked about foley. There are a lot of sounds in the script, such as throwing reeds on the trailer, moving through mud, sounds of gloves, and sounds of a scythe. We talked about different ways we could show this:

We didn't do a recording as we decided not to use it for the final piece, but it did help us gain a lot of knowledge about recording. We went through the script and talked about accents, as it's set in the country. Just because it's audio acting, doesn't mean you don't act as well as you would in person. It's different from the other types of audio we have done. It's a lot harder, and things like foley are more advanced for this.