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.  

 

Audio Unit // Children's audio books

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.