AUDIO

1. Audio
Alfie Pimblett

2. Existing Products Research
• The Archers
The use of sound effects and music in The Archers is very upbeat
and ebullient, the audio clip begins with a jolly soundtrack which
did a great job of creating a cheerful tone/feel to it. The
performance by the actors in The Archers is really convincing that
it could be a real/normal conversation between people. It is
important in an audio drama that the actors must do a good job of
showing emotion in their voices, the actors emotions when
speaking were very clear to me when I was listening to The
Archers. The producers have suggested a location of a family party
by mentions of a naming ceremony and food for guests. In this clip
I can hear the characters speaking to each other, in the
background in this clip I can hear distant chattering which will be
coming from the guest of the party, I can also hear footsteps and
movement of objects whenever something gets moved around the
room.

3. Existing Products Research
• Short Cuts - BODIES
The use of sound effects and music in a episode of short cuts
BODIES seem very eerie and intimidating to me and possibly
everyone else who listens, the audio clip begins with a dark
soundtrack of slow quiet music with the sound of waves in
the sea, this is possibly a suggestion that something is being
pushed to shore by the waves of the sea. The performance
by the actors in BODIES is them describing the different
features of your body and going into great detail in
describing what those features do, the first feature that is
described are eyes, the actor speaking at this time describes
the eyes and the body in a poetic tone. The sounds behind
the actors voice are what makes it powerful.

4. Existing Products Research
• Creepy Real Life 911 Phone Calls
The use of sound effects and music in this YouTube video
that is about real life 911 phone calls do seem disturbing and
frightful to me, the music creates an atmosphere to enhance
the horror elements in the video when each phone call is
being played. The audio clip begins with a phone call about a
woman who is on the phone to the police about her husband
threatening to hurt her, the music is making the phone call
sound much more serious and frightening. The performance
by the people who are on call to the police is exceptional,
even though not all of these phone calls are real as the
quality of their voices do sound a little too clear to be
recorded on a real mobile phone, the voices do come across
like it could be a real life-threatening situation.

5. Bibliography
1. . The Archers
2. . Short Cuts (BODIES)
3. .Creepy Real Life 911 Phone Calls

6. Ideas

7. Story
• This is a Horror/supernatural story, this story is about a man who gets lost in a forest, the
man starts hearing noises getting closer to him and decides to record a last message for his
friends and family on his phone as he fears he might not make it out to see them again. The
man was with two of his friends but they had seemed to go missing, the man woke up from a
nap in his tent and they are no where to be seen, the man was searching for his friends
around the campsite but notices that they have not taken any of their things, the man shines
his torchlight looking for his friends but stumbles across a small puddle of blood by the fire
place, he then also spots more blood splattered across his friends tent. The man hears
screeches in the far distance and becomes even more paranoid. The audio footage that the
lost man had recorded was recovered by a secret government that seem to be very aware of
the strange activity happening in the strange forest, they mention this was only another
“incident” and are trying to avoid the footage being leaked to the public. The strange noises
will be coming from a creature which will remain unknown for the audience listening, the
creature will give off noises which sound like it is angry and is in pain such as screaming,
growling and screeching. Other strange noises that the lost man will be able to hear are cries
for help from people who have contact with the strange creature. This story will be about 2-
3minutes long.

8. Idea Generation/Initial Reaction
• I do think that the set brief for this project gives me an understanding on what I
need to do for my final product. I will definitely look back on the set brief if I ever
feel like I am stuck and do not know what else to do, I will check to see if there is
anything I have not included hat will benefit my product. I do think that my chosen
story will work well with this product, I think the story includes a lot of creativity
and could definitely give the audience a sense of enjoyment and entertainment.
My story’s genre is horror I think horror Is a good genre to use to make my
audience get hooked to my story, my story also has the ability to include a range of
potential plot twist within it so it can make the audience listening have different
opinions on what they think happened. The aspects in creating this product that
could be difficult for me are getting used to creating an only audio format rather
than video, I am more familiar with producing videos and do not have much
experience with creating audio files, the positives about this project are that while
working on this project I will at some point be able to do a audio experiment which
will give me the chance to explore and practise new ways on how to create and
express a story that comes from only audio and not through visual representation.

9. Idea Generation/Initial Reaction

10. Proposal
Working Title:
THE FOREST RECORDING
Audience:
My target audience is ages between 15-21 years old, the reason I chose this age group is because
I feel people these ages tend to be more interested in the horror genre than others. I do not have
a specific gender preference for this project, it is being created so that both male and female to
listen to it. My project will appeal to my audience because it will include elements from other
classic horror films such as the Blair witch project which is recorded in the perspective of the
main character and is also based in a forest, this film is now to most people within this age group.
Project Concept (approx. 200 words)

11. Experiments

12. Foley
• Include your work on foley and some writing about
what went well, what could be better and what you
have learned.
One of the things that went well on my Foley experiment is the selection of
sounds I was able to create and use for this experiment, the clip given to me was
muted so I had to create the sounds that would be there myself, I had to record in
a quiet are around college to get the best quality of my sounds, the sounds I
created are walking sounds, running, slamming, tripping, slipping and banging
sounds. The things that could have gone better with this is the way my audio clips
sound, in the are I recorded in it has a slight echo and I did not realise until I
transferred the files back to my computer, I could have chosen a better are to
record my Foley audio clips. One of the things that went well with my Foley
experiment is the way my audio clips matched with the clip, when I had finished
editing I did think the sounds matched the environment of the video.
• You should include a link and a screen shot. Don’t
embed your work, it won’t work.
FOLEY EXPERIMENT LINK

13. Recording
• Write about your experiences of recording in different places.
An experience that I had whilst recording was the distractions from other students in corridors,
me and my actors were recording in different areas in college to try and get away from noise from
the students but struggled to find a area quiet enough, eventually we went to the far side of
college under a stair case which was completely empty, this helped a lot. Another experience that
me and my actor had when recording was the natural echo effect the stair case gave off which
was really beneficial for our recordings, the echo matched the sequence that we were recording
which was based in a underground facility. Another experience we faced was the difficulty of
creating a clear recording, we did eventually get it to be clear but we did have a few takes
beforehand which did not meet the levels of clearness that our final recording does.
• What effect did it have? How will this influence your project?
The effect that our recordings had on the experiment was how clear it sounded, it was clear
enough to add effects over the recordings and will influence my main project by allowing me to
check my audio levels and to make sure the listeners can hear it properly. What also will influence
my product is the way we were able to work, we worked together relatively fast and were able to
get the recordings done in a professional amount of time and not get distracted.

14. Garage Band
• Include your work with Garage Band, and some
writing about what went well, what could be
better and what you have learned.
In garage band I have learned how to create a small section of music, this is useful
for my final product and could be used as an influence because I would like to
include some of my own music for my audio products main soundtrack. I learned
how to use the basics which are the classical piano and the drumming kit. What
could have been better when I was using garage band was the effort put into it, I
wish I was able to create a longer and more professional sound but this is my first
time ever using garage band so I was not confident at all in my music production
abilities, this is a skill that could be useful for future projects which I need to work
on.
You should include a link and a screen shot. Don’t
embed your work, it won’t work.
GARAGEBAND EXPERIMENT

15. LINKS FOR MY EXPERIMENTS!
• AUDIO EXPERIMENT
• FOLEY
• GARAGE BAND
FOLEY EXPERIMENT LINK
AUDIO EXPERIMENT LINK
GARAGEBAND EXPERIMENT

16. Planning

17. Script Draft
• Incident 307 being discussed by a secret government, the agent shows a recording
of the phone call between the man in the woods with the police officer.
• The agents become concerned that the creature might be leaked to the public and
that the police will find out that they have been hiding the creature from them.
• One of the agents will calm down the other agent and tell them that they have
nothing to worry about and that they have the creature back in the facility and
hidden.
• The phone call between the man in the woods and the police officer begins and
the man is explaining to the officer what is wrong and what sounds he is hearing;
he also says that his two friends have gone missing and that there is blood on their
campsite.
• The police officer tries her best to calm down the man in the woods but eventually
the phone line cuts off between the two and the policewoman is left confused and
suspicious as she also hears the growling coming from the creature.
• After the phone call cuts out the police officer sends out a warning to other police
officers to be aware that there is something dangerous in the woods.

18. Script Final
• In the warm summer of 2001 three young men went on a camping trip in a forest, they were never seen
again. A recording of a phone call exchange between a police officer and one of the missing men was
found the day after, the phone call was shocking. A secret government who are aware of the incident
found the recording are doing everything they can to keep it a secret. What are they hiding from us?
• Recording of Incident 307 took place on July 15th 2001 at 3:42am. The victims mobile was found at the
scene of the incident, a number of three casualties are suspected. West Yorkshire police have been
notified it was a hoax call and no longer have any interest in taking the case further.
• Do they suspect anything was wrong or were they convinced it was a hoax? We can not risk any more
disruptions involving Experiment 9
• No, we will handle it from here and now on, we just need to make sure this phone recording does not
reach the vulnerable members of the public. Experiment 9 has been rehabilitated back to the facility and is
now secure.
• What are we going to do about the forest? Do you not think it should be locked down after everything that
has happened?
• Like I said, Experiment 9 has been transferred back into maximum security, the forest is no longer a threat.
• But how can you be so sure….

19. Script Final
• 999 what is your emergency?
• Hello, hello I need help. Please I need help.
• Sir please slow down so I can understand what you're saying, what is the emergency?
• I need help, my friends have gone missing, we are in a forest, I found blood I think they have been hurt, I hear noises too. I'm really scared please hurry, please.
• Officers are already on their way, please try to relax. Where are you now?
• I, I don’t know, I’m running through the forest just trying to get away,
• Are you with anybody right now or are you on your own?
• My friends have gone, I think they are dead
• Sir What do you mean you think they are dead?
• The blood, the blood on the tent. Something killed them and I think it is looking for me, please hurry
• Okay sir don’t worry I have already sent out some officers to go to your location, can you see anywhere you might be able to hide and feel safer?
• Its too dark here I cant see a thing, I can hear the noise getting closer to me, I'm terrified
• What do these noises sound like?
• I don't know, I don’t know. It sounds like it is growling, it sounds angry
• Is this a man?
• This is definitely not human, no human can hurt my friends like this
• So you think it is an animal
• YES I THINK IT IS AN ANIMAL, THERE IS BLOOD ALL OVER OUR CAMPSITE AND THE TENT WAS RIPPED OPEN!!
• Okay sir I need to ask these questions so I would appreciate if you stay calm and do not raise your voice at me
• Sir, sir are you there? Sir.
• Its here
• What's there?
• Its big, its. Its eating something and it is looking straight at me
• Sir what is looking at you
• The thing that killed my friends
• Can you describe it in more detail sir?
• Im running away I cant stay there, I need you to hurry up please, I am going to die
• Sir can you please describe what you just saw
• I cant, it doesn’t look real
• Sir please try, this is important so we know what to do
• Its... its big, it has big teeth, it was stood up but crunched down like a man, I would say over 7ft tall, I saw its eyes had no colour in them
• Sir I hate to ask this but it this a prank call? It just does not seem too convincing to be real
• Are you serious? You think I am lying? Im terrified Please just get here quick
• Sir officers are on the way, please try and find somewhere to hide and stay calm
• Sir, sir are you there? Hello!
• Argh, *growling* *snarling*
• Sir are you okay? Sir stay with me. SIR

20. Sound Effects
Sound Effect Needed How I Will Create the Sound
Screaming, screeching, wailing. I will create this sound by getting my actors to make these
noises.
Twigs snapping, leafs blowing in the wind. I will create this sound by going into a wood and recording the
sounds of my running and walking through the woods.
Camera beeping I will create this sound effect by using beep box online.
Microphone static. I will create this sound effect inside final cut pro and put a
distortion sound effect over the voice recording.
Running noises. I will create this sound by recording sound whilst running.
Phone ringing Record my phone ringing using screen record which can record
your mobiles sound.
Footsteps Record myself walking through a college corridor.

21. Actors/Locations
Actor Role Location for recording
Jack Man in the forest A quiet room, outside in the woods
Katie Police woman A quiet room
Jack & Tobi Secret agent/Narrator A quiet room with an echo.

22. Music
Band Name Track Name Link
FesliyanStudios Background Music Mysterious Suspenseful Dark Music youtube.com/watch?v=9OnJidcj2CU
CO.AG Music Haunting Background Music – Are You In
Here With Us?
youtube.com/watch?v=68e7Yqt0q_Q&t=6s

23. Resource List
Resource Owned/Cost What sound effect will it be
used for?
Mobile phone owned Voice / audio recordings
microphone owned Voice / audio recordings
Garage band owned Creating small pieces of music for
my audio file.
Final cut pro owned Changing the pitch and adding
effects to the voice recordings
Beep Box Free online Creating small short sound effects
such as beeping.

24. Production

25. Daily Reflection Day 1
• For the first day of producing my audio project "the forest recordings" I
drafted my script, briefly explaining the plot and story of my audio project,
the draft script took me no longer than 15- 20 minutes to do. After I
finished my draft I then moved onto my official script, this took me most
of the day to complete during lessons. I completed both my audio scenes
which are the underground government sequence and the 999 sequence.
The following day I recorded one of my my audio files starting with the
999-phone call between the man in the woods and the policewoman. The
reason I chose to record this sequence first is because of the actors I had
available. I had different actors for the two sequences. Both my actors I
needed for the 999-phone call sequence were available on this day and
got through with reading the script really clearly and gave realistic
emotions through the audio recordings as if it was an actual phone call, I
recorded both characters separetly in a quiet room. During the recording
process in these audio files we did encounter some mistakes which lead to
restarting the recordings a few times, the recordings took roughly 20
minutes each as I wanted it to be as good as possible.

26. Daily Reflection Day 2
• For the second day of producing my audio project I had checked back on
my script to improve my unfinished sequence that I needed to record
which is the conversation between the two secret government members
which are aware about the incident between the creature and the missing
man. After improving my script I then went onto record this during lesson
time, this took a few takes as it was easy to get distracted by other
students' noises when walking through the college corridors, it was
difficult to find a quiet area to record this scene. After numerous takes we
both finished recording the sequence before the end of the day. We got it
all finished in an area under a staircase. This area did benefit the
aesthetics of the audio quality as there was a slight natural echo effect
which could match an underground facility base. When finished I went
back to my computer to email myself the audio files to take home as I am
editing on my own laptop as I prefer Final Cut Pro to Premier Pro, I only
have access to Final Cut Pro from my own Laptop.

27. Daily Reflection Day 3
• For the third day of production I began gathering my chosen sound effects
from my planning and research, I downloaded them all onto my laptop
before I began my editing process. I thought to myself I might as well
record some of my sound effects of my own so I had a try on garage band
to create a mini soundtrack, I also went outside with my phone and ran
through a small wood to get the sound of running and leafs blowing on my
feet, I also made my actor record them breathing when running to create
a fearful sound effect. As I collected all of my sound effects into a folder I
then began my editing process, I did the first part of my editing in college
in the learning centre with my own laptop, I did this, so I did not get
distracted. I started producing my audio project together by connecting all
of the music files together, I then inserted my recorded audio files and
started to match them with my music, matching my files with my music
was a difficult task but it came together quite well.

28. Daily Reflection Day 4
• For the fourth and final day of producing my audio project I continued to
work through my editing process, I still felt like I had to improve the way
my audio recordings fitted in with my music files. These improvements
took less than an hour and as I was doing my last day of production at
home I did not need to rush this. When I placed all my main files into the
positions I wanted them in I then had to insert in my sound effects such as
the ringing phone, running effects, breathing effects and forest sounds
effects into my audio project, this part of the editing process did not take
too long but in the end they did sound really good together with my
recorded audio files. after I finished editing my sound effects onto my
project I then had one more step to complete which was adding a built-in
software telephone sound effect, the reason for this was becasuse I
wanted the recordings to sound like an actual phone call. When I
completed my editing process I then saved my project and uploaded the
file onto my blog.

29. Evaluation

30. Research
A Strength of my research is that I had found other example products of audio
dramas similar to what I wanted to create, I watched countless videos on YouTube
about disturbing real life police calls that have been recorded. I gathered a lot of
information from these YouTube videos such as the sound effects that were being
used, the music that was put over them and also the actors performances.
Another strength of my research was how I managed to come up with my story, I
had looked at clips with hauntings in forests and the majority had stories about
people going missing due to paranormal activities in different forests. I also
watched back clips of the series stranger things which does include a monster that
is set loose in a forest, I took elements from all of these.
A weakness of my research is how long it took me to gather all of my information
to create the story I was going to create in a audio project, I spent too long on
watching videos and not gathering as much information, I was looking at videos
with completely different stories and did not really focus on one particular story.

31. Planning
A Strength of my Planning is that I presented all of my gathered information from
research clearly for me to help with the planning stags of this task, since my
planning presentation slides were done the way I wanted them to be I managed
to get my work done before the deadline and to also create it in a high standard
which I feel confident in. Another Strength of my planning is the organised script
and equipment requirement lists, for the script I had spent a good amount of time
on and I do think it was acceptable for my product, the entire script takes over 5
minutes to read/record and 5 minutes was the perfect time for how long I wanted
my audio product to be. The equipment lists help me plan which recourses I need
to create my audio product such as a microphone and a editing software.
A weakness of my planning is the lack of music choices, when filling in the
requirement forms I needed to choose music for my audio product, unfortunately
I came out short handed with only two music files picked out, I do wish I could
have expanded my music choices and made it sound like it had more creativity in
making it. Another weakness in my planning was my actors, I did not give my
actors enough notice to practise reading the script before recording, I only gave
them a few minutes to practise as I was rushing to get the recording finished and I
did not have a lot of time with the actors before they had to leave.

32. Time Management
When creating my product I did manage my time well, I used my schedule so I could know
when each task had to be completed so I could reach the deadline. I did a great job on
managing my tie with the production task in my opinion, I created my story in a reasonable
time, collected my required equipment together and recorded and edited my final product
in time for the week which was set for evaluating our products. I also managed my time
well with the planning for my product, I created my script in a short time which gave me
extra time to plan how I was going to make my product, the draft script really did help me
work faster when writing up my script because I basically explained what the story is about
in the draft and all I needed to write was the dialogue between the characters in each
section in the draft script onto my final script.
For the tasks that I did not really manage my time well with is the research especially, I
simply spent more time on this than I should have used. For the research I looked at things
that were irrelevant to what I wanted to produce, I could not seem to think of any good
ideas until the last lessons working on my research. I also did not manage my time well with
the recording process of my product, I did not give my actors that much time to record and
since I did not have enough time with them I had to rush the recording a little. Rushing my
recording resulted in a much more poor outcome on what it could have been if we
practised and took our time with it. I could manage this next time by organising a set time
when we need to be together and to practise the script before recording.

33. Technical Qualities
Compared to my product this existing product is more realistic, this audio
product is based on the real life stories of disturbing 999 phone calls whereas
my product is entirely fictional and inspired by these real life phone calls. The
similarities between the two audio products are that the audio effects sound
very similar, I tried to replicate the sounds of the recorded phone call effect
which is used in this existing product, the voices in both products are very
distorted due to the poor mobile phone microphone quality another
similarity in these products are the performance from the actors, even
though most phone calls in the existing product may be real, the performance
from my actors was very well done in my audio product. A difference in these
two audio products are the uses of music, the real life phone calls do not use
music because it is not something to make overdramatic whereas with mine
being completely fictional I felt is was acceptable to make it over dramatic
and theatrical by the strong usage of music in my product.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8ArU01Eu4Y&sa
fe=true

34. Aural Qualities
In my own personal opinion I did think that my work sounds good, I think I did
do a good job on choosing the actors that were included, they all did a good
job of speaking clearly and loudly so that their voices and performances was
were great quality when people would listen to my product. The aspects of
my audio product I am mostly fond of is the use of background noise in the
phone call sequence, I used sound effects such as screaming, leafs blowing &
trees whistling. I think that these small sound effects create a more realistic
effect for the people listening, it makes them think that it could be a real
phone call. I could improve the way I write up my next script, I felt the
grammar and punctuation was not up to a high professional standard, I do
think it made sense when reading but it just did not sound like it was being
said by an actor, it sounded like it belonged in a book and not an audio
product. I would improve this by cutting down on the big words and keeping
it simple, I would also read it all out in my head before I finish up and see if it
sounds like a person would be saying this.

35. Audience Appeal
I do think I have appealed to my target audience because the ages that
listened to the genre of my product are ages 15 – 21. I aimed to please this
age group because this is the most popular genre and has an audience that is
easily hooked to the scary elements in horror, including aspects such as dark
music and references to unnatural and paranormal creatures will definitely
attract more listeners, especially young people in this age group. I do think
that the 999-phone call content aspect appeals to my audience and makes
them want to listen to it is no coincidence, the 999 phone call audio clips on
YouTube are really popular amongst this age group, they have thousands of
viewers. I do think that my product being a horror product does appeal to my
young audience, the reason for this is because people over the age of 50 do
not necessarily watch horror movies or listen to scary podcasts, the targeted
demographic for horror products are young people between the ages of 15 to
21 years old.