Weekly Journal
Regular evaluation updates are required, as with every unit. Please
remember to take photos and get behind the scenes footage as you film.
You might find it easier if you note down a record of what you did each day
in a diary form.
Please use the following guidance to help you with each week.
Week 1
What have you been asked to
do?
How has analysing other
productions helped you to
understand the genre better?
How will your understanding of
codes and conventions now help
you to produce a better
production?
What did you learn from
practising recording Foley
sounds? (Radio Drama Only)
What did you learn from Voice for
broadcast task? What do you
need to improve on to become a
presenter? (Broadcast only)
What did you learn when using
Adobe Audition? What skills do
you need to develop with this
software?
How did researching your target
audience help you develop your
idea?
This week you worked on your research
I have been asked to produce a radio drama that will
appeal to an audience aged between 16 and 25 for
the BBC.
Through analysing other productions, I understand the
basics of what makes a radio drama a radio drama.
From voice actors, narration, music, and Foley, I have
begun to create a stable idea of what I want and
what needs to be done.
Understanding codes and conventions will help me
structure and set my radio drama. Codes such as use
of words and how they are spoken can determine
important aspects of the drama such as the genre,
scene, and emotions the characters are feeling.
I learned that accurate Foley design is very important
to a radio drama. Having sound effects that don’t fit
the scene and/or are not convincing can ruin the
audial immersion I will attempting to create for my
audience.
I learned its similarities to Premiere Pro such as the use
of cutting tools and edits. I will need to develop my
overall efficiency with the programme, though I
believe I have the excuse of never using it properly
before.
Researching my target audience helped me narrow
down the sort of genre/s I need to use in the creation
of my radio drama. I now know that a decent
majority of people in my targeted audience would be
willing to listen to a radio drama, and that I should dip
into a drama with hints of comedic relief.
Are you on track for this week? If
not, how far behind are you?
What work do you need to
complete outside of lessons to
stay on track?
Week 2
What did you learn from your
planning? How has it helped you
to progress your idea?
How has your idea
developed/changed during the
planning stage?
How did you ensure that your
script was to a high standard?
What issues did you have when
planning your production? How
did you overcome them?
What did you learn from the
recording of your Foley sounds?
How much work did you
complete outside of the lessons?
Are you on track for this week? If
not, how far behind are you?
What work do you need to
complete outside of lessons to
stay on track?
I am decently on track for this week; I just need to look
through my current work to see if there are any gaps
that need filling.
I will have to continue editing some sounds from my
Adobe Audition lesson in order to remain on track for
Week 2.
This week you worked on your planning
Planning helped me choose who I had to go to for
voice actors and what I needed to do to get the
correct sound effects. I had to pick actors who were
capable to sound believable in their roles; for
example, I needed someone with a deep, gritty voice
to play Detective Taylor.
I added a female character in the news reporter in
order to keep up with the BBC’s regulations on
diversity and equality.
I proofread my script multiple times and checked with
my teachers for critiques; this helped me realise my
mistakes and gave me advice that I didn’t just use for
this script, but I can also use for scripts in different units.
I had the issue of finding the right voice actor for my
detective character due to the character being a lot
older than most of the people I knew and/or were
available. I overcame this by asking one pupil to
stretch out their voice acting talents and get as close
to my original idea as possible.
I learned that retakes or doing one long take can be
very useful in collecting a nice range of sound effects
that I can use and edit; because of this, some of my
recordings lasted over a minute and some were only
a few seconds.
I didn’t have to complete anything other than
character development due to being unable to go in
on Wednesday.
I’m on track for this week.
I may have to begin recording Foley sounds during
the weekend if I want to get work done early, but
other than this I am fine.
Week 3 / 4 Production
What practical work have you
done and how helpful was your
earlier planning?
How will this be useful as your
production process continues?
Upload your behind the scenes
photos and videos (explain what
they show)
What issues did you encounter
when recording and how did you
overcome them?
How well have you worked to
your production schedule?
Are you on track for this week? If
not, how far behind are you?
What work do you need to
complete outside of lessons to
stay on track?
High Grade Tips
Use screenshots to support your analysis – especially when comparing your work to other
pieces.
This week you worked on your production
I have recorded the lines of my actors and collected
several more sound effects that I could not recreate
myself. The use of creating a script with sound effect
cues and the emotion the characters should be
feeling written into it was a very useful tool; having a
copy of this in the booth was very helpful for all three
actors. I was also very time efficient whilst in the
studio; I had a whole hour booked in the recording
booth, but I managed to finish in under half that time.
This will be useful since I can create both a first and
final edit in the third week and be prepared for the
feedback I will receive on the fourth.
The screenshot above shows me editing the audio of
my radio drama in Adobe Audition. In this capture
specifically I am looking through various effects to
change and distort the voice of the serial killer in my
drama, played by myself.
I had the trouble of editing out outtakes and chatter
between the lines being said. Each actor recorded
their lines separately, one take for each; because of
this, when editing I had to take each file apart in
order to collect what I needed. I overcame this by
giving each of the files a listen at a time before going
into deeper edits with things such as effects and
music.
I have worked very well to my production schedule.
All activities I was scheduled to do I completed on the
days, the only time I didn’t was with the Foley sounds,
which I had completed the week before.
I am on track for this week.
I may have to look back on my LO1 and LO2 work
with my newly given feedback and add more detail
to it.
Considered and capable demonstration of processes – detailed documentation of your
production process – such as still images, and annotated screenshots of your specific
production and editing process – including ‘what’ and ‘why’ and not just ‘how’.

Specific – be specific! Don’t just say e.g. ‘the lighting was good’ – show us where the
lighting looked good and why you think that.

Final This week you worked on your production

evaluation
on whole
unit

Compariso In comparison to productions that I had looked at in the past for

n to research/inspiration, I believe that I have made something that is around or a
researche little under their level of quality. I believe this because productions that I
d looked at had better sound quality and mixing, mostly likely due to their
production higher budget; productions with higher budgets tend to also get a wider and
s more accurate range of actors, something that I was unsuccessful with.
Another more obvious difference would be that these productions were
created by and starred professionals with years of experience, whilst this was
my very first time using a sound booth, even more so creating a full radio
drama.

If I were to create another radio drama, I believe I could make the quality
more akin to the productions that I researched and was inspired by due to
my previous experiences with creating them. Depending on the characters
of this next project, I would hire professionals who would be able to give
performances more accurate to my ideals than a few inexperienced pupils in
my class could. Having professional actors would add a layer of detail in the
production which would help it become as accurate to my original ideas as
possible, all whilst keeping the listener immersed in the story.

One of the professional productions I took inspiration from was ‘Black

Stockings and Broken Mirrors’ by Bernadette Crosthwaite, a BBC Radio 4
drama with plentiful dialogue between two characters with a contrast
between them which keeps said dialogue interesting throughout the
production. (https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000d020) I took this idea
and changed it from a young woman and pensioner to a detective and a
murderer, contrasted by morals instead of age, and, with the killer’s teasing
on the tapes and the then written in mutters in response from the detective,
recreated the verbal conflict from my inspiration.
Production My overall use of music was praised by my teachers and I believe rightly so. I
Strengths see my choice of music as atmospheric and unsettling in the places that it
needs to be; my personal favourite piece that I used was the theme song to
a noir detective/thriller video game set in 1940s Los Angeles.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biv68BD8EQQ)

The overall story in my opinion was clever, though it could’ve been better if
the radio drama was allowed to be longer in length and therefore had
enough time to build even more tension. I still think the twist of an innocent-
appearing character that’s close to the Detective being the killer all along is
good despite its usage in other types of media such as films and television.

I received a lot of positive feedback through a survey I created on

SurveyMonkey. When asking if the listeners had understood the storyline and
if it was clear all but one person said yes, with some even going on to praise
the writing of the story with added detail. When asking my listeners what they
enjoyed specifically about the radio drama, I was given praise for my use of
sound effects, the performance of the main character, and, as previously
mentioned, my choice of music.
 The final question of my survey was to rate the radio drama on a scale from
one to ten; I receive two scores of seven, two scores of eight, and one score
of nine, giving an overall weighted average rating of eight.

Production In my opinion, one big flaw was not getting the exact voices I imagined for
weakness the characters. For example, Chance’s youthful tone and accent did not
es matching up with the image of a detective in his late thirties. I could’ve
requested my voice actors to rerecord a few of their lines in order to control
quality, but I wanted to get the recordings done as soon as possible in order
to stay on track; I recognised this instance of carelessness whilst editing,
noticing that some lines of dialogue were slurred or not accurate to the
script, but I continued anyway for the sake of keeping time as they due date
drew closer, alongside the both sound booths being used at the time.

When looking for critiques in my feedback, I was told by one listener that the
distortion/voice changer of the serial killer’s recorded voice was loud and
distorted enough for some lines to be unintelligible. Although I personally
disagreed with this, I should have considered toning down the effects to a
middle ground of distorted enough to mask the voice and not too much to
make it unpleasant to listen to and/or unable to understand. This was yet
another on-the-spot piece of editing after receiving feedback from by
teacher after they listened to my final edit, saying that the twist was given
away by the voices of Kenneth and the serial killer being similar from the
 beginning.

Did you I believe I met the majority of the goals I set when planning out the
meet your production of my radio drama. My main overall goal was to create a
goals? production that had a unique intensity to it that built up as the story
Why/why continued before concluding with a cliff-hanger ending; my two biggest
not? inspirations for this idea were the mystery/crime movies ‘Seven’ and ‘The
Usual Suspects’, both known for their iconic twist endings.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znmZoVkCjpI)
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiXdPolca5w)

Though I believe the twist ending of my radio drama is good, it could’ve

been improved by some additional dialogue between the characters of
Detective J. Taylor and Kenneth to further show their bond as friends and
work colleagues; this would have made the reveal of Kenneth’s true colours
and identity much more impactful and shocking to the listener.
Self- After looking back at my work on this unit, I now see myself as an efficient
evaluation practitioner; I tend to get the work done quickly, though that can have an
effect on the overall quality of the productions I am creating. One example
that shows this was my time in the recording booth; I knew that the actors
were making some mistakes but continued anyway for the sake of time.
Going forward into future units I plan to be more assertive and focused when
having to work with others, especially when having to do various takes;
though this will bring me out of my comfort zone in terms of social interaction,
I think it will do both myself and my work a great deal of good.

One other thing I tend to do is skip over research in the early stages of a unit.
For example, in my teacher’s feedback I have been told several times that I
haven’t gone into enough detail with secondary research, only adding a
quote and a Harvard reference on multiple occasions. It’s this lack of detail in
some aspects that keep me from moving on and finishing units as quickly as I
could. If I took the time in and out of lesson time to go in depth with my
research, I would gain more knowledge that I could use in order to create
the best production possible with my current set of skills.

Overall, Unit 5 in my opinion has been a success in both pleasing my target

audience, and pinning down flaws that I have shown during the production. I
plan to take these flaws and change them in the coming units.
High Grade Tips

Use screenshots to support your analysis – especially when comparing your work to other
pieces.
Considered and capable demonstration of processes – detailed documentation of your
production process – such as still images, and annotated screenshots of your specific
production and editing process – including ‘what’ and ‘why’ and not just ‘how’.

Specific – be specific! Don’t just say e.g. ‘the lighting was good’ – show us where the
lighting looked good and why you think that.