Storyline Ideas
The Kraken
The story is set on a large boat used for fishing. A crew of sailors have been out for five months in search of whales, they need to find whales due to them containing oil. Yet, mother nature takes a strike back as a Kraken takes the down the sailing boat and the sailor's occupying it. The sailors will have to decide the best way to survive, this causes conflict as the people take sides on which decision to make. Do they stay on the boat in hope of fighting away the Kraken or jump into the sea and try to swim away to safety in the vast large ocean. Due to the sailors making different decisions on what is the best for everyone there are many inner conflicts which spur out. This radio drama is told through different accounts by diaries and letters, this gives the audience an insight on who the characters are and their background story. The story is told by the invisible narrator, this means that the narrator can hint that something is going to happen, in this case being the Kraken attacking the boat. I will use this to build tension and make the audience more engaged in the drama. |
World War Christmas
Set during the first World War, the story is set on Christmas day when the German and British soldiers decided to stop fighting and play a game of football. The story begin with our main character, a eighteen year old soldier who is in the trenches he sees the white flag indicating one side surrenders. He gets out of the trench which causes conflict within the trench, the other soldiers are telling the boy its a trap and he is naïve, the boy argues back that the enemies wouldn't use the white flag in vain. This is the conflict within the drama, this is resolved by the boy adventuring out into no mans land and meeting another German soldier. They speak kind words and a ball is kicked towards him, they begin to play a game of football, the boy calls out the rest of the troops to join. Everyone indulges in a Christmas game of football. The story will be a series of diary entries and letters said in a first person narration to the audience, this will show the drama as it all unfolds as if the narrator is narrating everything as it happens. |
I created a survey on SurveyMonkey asking what radio drama I should make out of my two ideas presented. I got my peers to read through my ideas, one being the Kraken idea and the other being the world war one Christmas. From the results shown by the graph you can tell the most popular idea was the Christmas on the battlefront idea. Seven out of a possible ten voted for this idea where as three people voted for the Kraken idea. This means I will be making my radio drama on my second idea which is the Christmas one.
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Character Profiles
Music Analyses
First clip- 0:00-0:19
There is a sound effect of a police siren going off within the song. This indicates some form of police chase, due to police stationed in New York I imagine this scene takes place here. The actual song has a strong hip hop beat which indicates youth, this is reinforced by the rapper saying 'stupid dope gang' showing that he is a youth in trouble with the law. He may he running away from the law. |
Second clip: 0:20-0:40
I imagine this clip to be set during world war one, during the song having a very old fashioned sound to it. The music is light and fun. I get the feeling this song was used as propaganda to encourage soldier's during the war. The line 'goodness I am afraid' illustrates to the audience as a nation we are scared but must keep fighting. I can imagine hundreds of soldier's coming out to listen to this female singer sing. |
Fourth clip: 1:10-1:36
This song has a very dreamy psychedelic feel to it, I think this song was made around 60/70s due to the tone of the song when the hippies were around. The lyrics of the song are about a 'pill' which makes you 'bigger' and 'smaller' this is hinting at the Alice in Wonderland story and gives a very wavy and trance like feel. This is from when everyone is on drugs and high all the time. |
Fifth clip: 1:37-2:01
This song I imagined to be used within a stand off in the 18 hundreds between two cowboys/outlaws. The whistling noise throughout you can imagine to be tumble weeds passing across the floor. The strong sound of the music allows you to imagine cowboys having a stand off to see who will shoot each other first. |
Sixth clip: 2:02- 2:31
This song is a song of longing, it resembles soldier's returning home from war. It shows this through the line 'there will be bluebirds over the white cliff of dover', the first part of England the soldiers would see from returning from battle would be the cliffs of dover. Dover represents home. Yet, this song has a sad tone to it through the line 'tomorrow just you wait and see' indicating the soldiers are returning now but in the future. This gives a sense of longing for the soldiers to return, thus making the song very emotional. |
Seventh clip: 2:32-2:56
I imagine this to be a sad song about a guy in love with a girl which involve some form of heart ache. I had this image of a guy walking down the street whilst the music is playing. The song is a love song, ye it has a country western vibe to it, due to the singers accent and the guitar being played has that sound. |
Eighth clip: 2:57-3:33
The lyrics of this song say 'Sometimes its hard to be a women' stating this is from a women's perspective on her life. The song later hints at heart break from a man. In my head I imagine a women working away performing household chores, sacrificing herself for her family, whilst her husband doesn't care/cheats on her. |
Ninth clip: 3:34-4:22
This is a very tense action song. The loud music crescendo's louder thus becoming more intense and gives a more dramatic impact within the film. I can imagine in this moment the music is building up waiting for something big to happen. For example, a character walking into a room which other people were breaking into and have to escape in time. For example in a spy film. |
Music
This music sound track will be playing in the background of my radio drama in order to make it more powerful and emotion. I really want to highlight the struggles of war and the complexity behind it, for example that the British and the German soldiers weren't fighting one another because they personally hated each other. They fighted because they were told to kill for their country. This music really brings that element of softness to war by its melancholic sounds, this engages the audience and allows them to align with the characters amongst it.
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I used this sad piano music in the radio drama during the letter scene. This is scene when the main character John Alinson receives a letter from his fiancé Emily Barnett and reads it in the trench. The piano music I thought would work well with the scene due to the level of emotion it brings to the screen it really intensifies the moment and we feel the emotion form the characters and how much they miss each other. It'd also nice to have an element of juxtaposition from the war noises for example bombs. |
This audio footage is what I used as ambient sound for my radio drama, the overall soundscape of this with the overlaying music allows their to be a tense atmosphere to be built. The explosions going of and rapid gun fire makes the audio drama sound more realistic as if the radio drama does really take place on the battle front. I downloaded this footage because I couldn't recreate the sounds of war for example guns firing through Foley sounds. I wanted the drama to appear realistic and it will with this ambient sounds. |
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Script
Actor Profiles
Actors auditions
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This is Grace David's audition to play the role of Emily Barnett, I thought this audition was very successful as the actor used her voice to portray lots of emotion and illustrate her sadness. I think Grace will be a great Emily for my radio drama due to bringing that element of emotion and realism into the drama. This is what I need for it work very successfully and to engage the audience effectively.
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This is Sam Colledge's audition for the role of Steven St Clair in my radio drama. I thought this audition was very successful due to Sam portraying the character exactly how I imagined it. Steven St Clair is suppose to represent a typical soldier fighting in World War One, he is a English born and bred boy and by going to fight this is the first time he has been away from home. I think Sam showed the correct amount of curiosity, yet vulnerability in his voice to really capture the character. I also like how Sam hasn't put on a very posh accent (Middle class) so from this we can defer most soldier's were working class young men.
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This is Will's auditions for the role of John Alinson. Overall, I thought this audition was the most successful due to Will capturing the character of John most effectively. I really liked how Will made his voice very hoarse and croaky, this made the audition seem a lot more realistic as if the character was. It really enhanced the conditions during World War One and set the scene for my radio drama. I think Will's acting ability really shines through in the audition and I can definitely tell he will make a very strong lead character. |
This is Jordan's audition for the role of Sergeant Nickelson. Overall, I thought this audition was successful, this is de to Jordan playing the character exactly how I wanted it to be played. I wanted his voice to be authorative and powerful due to his higher title 'Sergeant', to do so Jordan projected his voice loud and clear which worked very well for this character. From this audition I knew for certain that I would be casting Jordan in the drama as this part. |
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Confirmation Emails
These emails are used as evidence in order to prove that my actors have confirmed to be in my radio drama. Therefore, is anyone pulls out or is ill on the day of recording I can prove that they were suppose to be in my radio drama.
Sound table
Production Schedule
First Draft
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This is my first draft of my radio drama 'The Christmas Truce' I thought this draft was successful due to where the audio was placed amongst each other, this made the drama have more continuity and actually allow the audience to gain an understanding of what was happening. However, their were many things I need to improve with the radio drama for, for example the narration through out the radio drama done by the main character sounded very flat and monotone, from my feedback it told me to re do the narration and get my actor to speak more passionately. This will make the radio drama more intense and more engaging for the audience listening. Another bit of feedback in which I got was I needed to re do all the lines for the character of Steven St Clair, this was due to the actor when acting the lines out sounded as if he was reading them of a script rather then being natural and fluent. To improve this I re casted the actor playing the role because I thought this person would be ale to act the character more naturally and make the whole drama sound better. Most of the improvements in which I received was due to the actors sounding monotoned. we need them to sound more liveliness and engaging to the audience.
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Editing process- First Draft
These are the scree grabs of my editing process from the first draft of my radio drama 'The Christmas Truce'.
This is the first stage of putting my radio drama together through the use of Adobe Audition. The top line is full with audio in which my actors spoke, this was done within the recording studio. I put all the audio in first, following the script, this allowed me to gain an basic structure of how the radio drama will turn out. Next, I added a few Foley sound effects, the second and third line, these were of explosions and typical war sounds I wanted the radio drama to sound realistic to the time it was set in, the first World War.
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This is the second screen grab during the editing process, I added in more explosions sound effects into the radio drama creating layers in such a way to make the drama sound intense and more realistic to the sounds of war. However, there is no sound track (Non diegetic noise) playing and no recordings of screams etc. in this part. The next step will to be add in these sounds and make the drama sound more like war.
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This is a screen grab at 2:00 into the radio drama, this screen grab shows only track one and two with footage in. Track one had the voice recording and track two has the general war ambient sounds. This is before anything like Foley sounds have been added to the radio drama so therefore its very basic and lain looking. Later on into the process I added some Foley sounds.
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This is after adding in more Foley sounds into this particular section, for example the Foley sound of bombs dropping and dirt/gravel flying everywhere. I did this by simply recording the sounds and when they were needed, within context of the radio drama, I put the Foley sound in in order to create realism and interest.
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Foley sounds
This Foley sound I used a lot in relation to the explosion sound effect, the gravel was used to indicate dirt flying around when a bomb goes off. This was very successfully as it worked efficiently and well when editing together. I created this sound by using my dogs dog food which was little hard biscuits chunks and I just tipped them around their box. This gave a gravelly earthy type of sound.
This Foley sound is used when the character Steven St Clair walks across the wooden planks in the trenches to give Alinson a letter. I wanted the audience to be aware that a character was entering the scene so by adding the Foley sound it made the moment more realistic. I created this sound my recording myself walking across decking floor, to give that wood floor effect.
This Foley sound is of wind blowing, I wanted to get this for the more harrowing scenes for example moments when their is no speaking in the drama, in order to create atmosphere. I did this by recording the wind outside and the leaves rustling, I also blew into the microphone quietly.
This Foley sound is when John Alinson reaches no mans land and begins to walk and sees German soldiers. This sound was achieved by simply recording me walking on different textures of grass in order to get that grass sounding Foley sound.
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This Foley sound is used when Steven St Clair gives John Alinson a letter from his wife, the Foley sound is Alinson crinkling and opening the envelope. In the scene this makes the whole thing seem more realistic and engaging to listen too. I created this sound by simply getting a envelope and taking a piece of paper out of it, I did this really close to the cameras microphone to allow all sound to be picked up.
This Foley sound is used when the character John Alinson scrambles out of the trenches into no mans land, I wanted the audience to hear the sounds of war and reality of it- the mud. The sound 0f mud squishing under the boots made the moment more realistic. To create this Foley sound I recorded me walking through mud in the garden and I also scratched the mud with sticks and leaves to achieve the correct Foley sound.
This Foley sound is when Steven St Clair gets hit at the back of the head for saying a cheeky comment about German women. I created this sound by simply hitting my arms in different places to get the right hitting sound. I then tried covering it with other objects to achieve a muffled affect.
This Foley sound is when the soldiers begin to play football and it is the simple noise of a football being kicked and dribbled between players. I got this Foley sound by recording different kicks with the ball in order to get a variation.
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This photo is giving evidence for the receiving letter Foley sound, I basically opened a letter up and then closed it up. I held it close to the camera in order to get the maximum amount of noise in the footage,
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This is a screen grab from me recording the Foley sound for the explosion gravel Foley sound, I basically moved the dog treats around in its container to achieve the sound.
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Final Draft
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This is my second attempt at making the radio drama 'The Christmas Truce'. I used my feedback from previous listeners and the teachers to improve this version. For example, I re casted one of my actors, Sam Colledge to Paris Ferguson for the role of Steven St Clair, this was mainly due to Sam sounding as if he was speaking his lines and his voice sounding too young for the part. The re casted actor sounded a lot better in the role and made the character sound more realistic to listen to rather then forced. Another thing that I improved was the narrated sections within my radio drama, in the re recording session I asked my actor to sound more passionate whilst speaking the lines, this way it sounds less monotone and more engaging to the audience. Overall, I thought the second draft was successful and went very well, I added a lot more Foley sounds into the drama to build on the realism and allow the audience to understand the action which was happening. This made the drama a lot better and made it improve a lot.
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Editing process-Second draft
These are screen grabs from my final draft of the editing process, I recorded the different things I edited in order to show my progress and how I vreated my radio drama.
These screen grabs are from the editing process of my final draft of my radio drama 'The Christmas Truce'. This first screen grab is from the beginning of the radio drama. As you can see I used multi tracks in order to get numerous tracks within my radio drama and therefore for it to have more in it. I used the general audio voice over done by actors as a base and then placed in Foley sounds such as bombs dropping and gun shots, in context, to make the drama sound more realistic.
The third screen grabs is around the time of 1:00 into the radio drama. Again this screen grabs shows the voice recording of the actors on track 1 and other Foley in the other tracks present. There isn't that many Foley sounds in this section so the next step will be to add more in. I did this by recording more Foley sounds and adding them in to the drama.
This screen grab is around the 1:40 mark of the radio drama, this section is pretty plain in terms of Foley sounds, it has a few including bomb sounds. Later on in the editing process I came back and added in more sounds in order for the drama to sound more realistic.
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This is my second screen grab from my radio drama, this is around the time of 0:35 seconds into it. Again, I have the oral sounds of the voice from the actors, this is my base for my entire drama. I edited this whole drama using my script next to it in order to get the correct order and placement for everything in the drama. Next, I added in Foley sounds which I had created previously this was such as paper rustling when an envelope was handed over and dirt/gravel flying around- creating war sounds.
This is a scree grab of the first section of the radio drama at 0:05, going back to screen grab one. However, this screen grab of the editing process shows a lot more Foley sounds which have been added to my radio drama. For example I created sound of people screaming and made some explosions sound effect.
This screen grab at 2:40 in the drama has a lot of tracks meaning it has many layers of sound from Foley to ordinary voice recordings. Overall, this made the drama sound better as you can tell where the character are (war) and what they are doing y hearing their actions, this will allow the audience to actually imagine what they are doing and thus make the drama better.
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Evaluation
Could I have improved my pre-production planning?
I believe I could have improved the entire process of pre-production planning as this would have helped me to be more organised when putting together and recording the drama initially. For example, to begin with I should have filled out the entire production schedule mapping out on what days I was going to do specific things, for example record, by setting goals for my self it enabled nothing to be rushed and everything to be done with ease. I would have needed to organise what day I was recording, the day I was re- recording and the step by step editing process I was going to undertake for it to be a success. Because I didn't have a solid plan set on how to manage my time I wasted a lot of time I could of been spending editing on doing task which were irrelevant. This caused me to actually have to rush through editing my radio drama and overall lowered the quality as I didn't have the time to make it as good as possible. Another thing I would improve is the auditions for my actors, instead auditioning just enough people for there to be a role for everyone I would audition more actors then needed. This way it gives me the decision to pick properly with a wider range of people who I want in my drama, this ensures me to get the ideal cast in my radio drama and everyone sounds how I want them to sound. Overall, this will make the drama become better and will up its quality. This is because when actually recording my drama I realised too late that some actors weren't fitted for specific roles and had to re-record using different actors. This took a lot of time which I could of spent editing the drama together. Overall, I need to be more organised. |
Was my script effective?
I found my script very helpful in terms of being organised when recording. This is down to I could clearly follow it scene by scene when recording which allowed me to work efficiently under a small-time frame, half an hour, which meant I got everything done effectively. It also helped during the editing process as I could follow where I was putting in specific Foley sounds or when the soundtrack plays. This meant the editing process ran smoothly without many major confusions of the placement of footage. However, I think to f made the script worked most effective I should of handed the script out to my actors earlier rather then on the day because it took some people longer to understand their lines, this maximised the amount of mistakes made. |
Were my actors appropriate for their parts?
When auditioning my actors I made them act out different roles in order to see their acting style, if they could act and what roles they suited. I did this in order to cast my parts correctly and therefore get the most out of the actors I had chosen. Thus, making my radio drama more successful and better to listen to. For example, when casting the role of Sergeant Nickelson I wanted someone who spoke clearly and had a very authoritative voice, this is why I got everyone to try for this role as I could see who the best at playing the role was and assign it to them. For this case Jordan got the role of Sergeant Nickelson due to him having loud projection and speaking clearly and loudly when saying his lines. This is exactly what I wanted from his character and therefore I was happy I went through the casting process. Another time with casting the role of Emily Barnett, the fiancé left home waiting for her future to be husband to return from war, I wanted someone who spoke softly and sweetly. I cast this role to Grace however because she rushed her lines through sometimes during the audition I had to give her guidance on how to play the part and get the most out of it. I told her to slow down her lines and speak with lots of emotion, this allowed her to play the part correctly and therefore she played the role appropriately. On another occasion I casted Sam as the role of Steven St Clair. During the recording of Sam’s scene he sounded as if he was reading the lines instead of saying them naturally and fluently, this was making the drama seem not very realistic. Alongside this Sam’s voice wasn’t mature enough for the role in terms of sounding like a grown man. To sort this problem I re-casted Sam’s character to Paris, this was because Paris’ voice had a deeper sound and was more appropriate for the role of a soldier in the war due to this making the radio drama more realistic to listeners. Overall, I thought by picking appropriate actors for my character helped to improve the quality of my radio drama immensely. |
Were rehearsals effective?
The rehearsal process was very effective, overall it helped in getting the actors prepared and ready for the recording of the drama, they understood the characters they were playing which is key in getting an effective performance from them. Also, doing rehearsals prior it allowed us to be prepared so when we went to record the whole of the script we worked efficiently in the narrow time slot we had. The rehearsal process entailed sitting down with all the actors in the radio drama and doing a cast read through. I would listen to how each other actor spoke their lines and tell them if they said the line well or give them feedback on how to improve the line. This worked very effective as I got to direct my cast effectively and get the lines/script said the exact way I wanted it to be heard on screen. For example, with Grace David who was reading the lines of Emily Barnett the fiancé of John Alinson she spoke very quickly which made her performance loose elements of roar emotion which would work so well within the drama. I told Grace to slow down her lines to twice speed she was saying the lines at, this meant a lot more emotion was in Grace’s line. Because of this improvement I didn’t have to re- record Grace’s part after receiving feedback for improvements. This overall helped me in saving time on improvements, because I had everything how I wanted it there were minor improvements which meant I could focus most of my energy on editing the radio drama together. |
Were my Foley sounds effective?
My Foley sounds I thought were very effective in my radio drama. I recorded a lot of Foley sounds in order for my radio drama to make sense in terms of what was happening and the audience understanding it, I also recorded a lot so the audience would find the drama more interesting and engaging to listen to. I had to experiment with different ways in creating specific sounds in order for them to sound the best they could possibly do. For example, when recording the sound effect of a football being kicked I had too many attempts in order to get the microphone position correctly to get the most amount of sound possible. This took a while because I was messing around with the angle and position. Overall, this made the Foley sound sound effective and work well within my radio drama. However, one thing I would improve was using less downloaded sounds and try and create Foley sounds for gun shots. I found this really difficult to and wasn’t able to get Foley sounds for his particular sound. If I did this unit again I would research into making particular Foley sounds to make my radio drama sound better overall. |
Did I make good use of music and ambient sound? I think within my radio drama that I used music and ambient sound effectively. I used one soundtrack to play quietly in the background at emotional moment to engage the audience more and allow them to feel lots of emotions. I also added ambient sounds such as gun fire and explosions in the background to give of a tense atmosphere and allow the audience to understand that my drama was set during the war. I believe that the use of ambient sounds and music really made my drama a lot more realistic to listen to. |
Could I have recorded and edited my drama more professionally?
When recording my radio drama ‘The Christmas Truce’ I tried my hardest in maintaining an professional shoot, I wanted to be professional when making the drama because it would make recording more professional and run more smoothly. With the recording side of the drama it was done very professionally, I recorded my drama in a professional sound proof recording studio. I did this in order for my drama to sound the best it could be and be good quality, this is from their not being any background noise and voices being clear. This was down to having large microphones in the studio. I also used professional recording software in order to capture different parts of the drama. One thing that wasn’t so professional about this part was one of the microphones were turned off when recording so some of the footage didn’t sound very good because it was too quiet. Fortunately, when we re-recorded the drama I made sure the microphones were both working so the footage was good quality and would sound good when editing the drama together. During the editing process I used Adobe Audition which is the established editing software for putting together audio clips, therefore this worked very effectively and allowed me to have that freedom to add in effects to my radio drama and make it sound exactly how I wanted it. However, when putting together my drama I could have edited my drama more efficiently by doing it in stages and putting Foley sounds in at the same time as the characters audio. This would have saved me more time overall in putting my radio drama together. |
What feedback have I received about my drama?
After I had finished the first draft of my radio drama the class and the teacher gave me some feedback in order to improve my drama and make it the best it could possibly be. The feedback in which I received was about the actors and parts in which I needed to re- record with them. For example, I was told that my narrator, Will Collins, voice was too monotone and didn’t sound passionate enough. This is because the narration is re telling a remarkable story from war and the narrator needs to sound passionate and emotional about the topic at hand. To solve this problem I had to re-record all the narrated section within the radio drama. I did this and they sounded so much better and it made the radio drama sound more interesting and engaging for listeners. Another bit of feedback in which I received was about my actor Sam Colledge sounding as if he was reading his lines rather than naturally saying the lines. To solve this problem I re-casted Sam and gave Paris Ferguson the role as well, this is because Paris had a more fluent voice. Overall, this feedback made the drama improve. Also, I have received feedback on the level of ambient sound in the background in comparison to the voice recordings, this was because the voice recordings were too quiet and were over thrown by the ambient. To solve this problem I had to sort out the level of sounds. |
These are the result a from a survey in which I created, it basically questioning people on how they received my radio drama and what they liked about it. This question is 'what do you like most about my radio drama?' with this question I got a mixed response. 60% of people asked said they liked the music and 16.67% said they liked the actors and another 33.33% said they liked the storyline. Overall, from these results I can defer that the most favoured thing about it was the music, which is good because I spent a lot of time perfecting it. |
This question was 'How much did you like my radio drama?' the answers for this question remained very positive. For example the highest response was 'lots' with 66.67% of people saying that, after that came ' a bit' which was 33.33% of people. And nobody clicked the options 'not much' 'not much at all'. This tells me that overall my radio drama was an success. |
With the open question 'What do you like most about my drama?' I got mixed views. A lot of people response with the actors, this is good to know as I know my drama sounded good and was acted successfully. Other people responded with Foley sounds and the overall structure of this. This shows to me that overall my drama was an success on how I created it as many people are commenting on different aspects of the drama. With the open question 'What do you like most about my drama?' I got mixed views. A lot of people response with the actors, this is good to know as I know my drama sounded good and was acted successfully. Other people responded with Foley sounds and the overall structure of this. This shows to me that overall my drama was an success on how I created it as many people are commenting on different aspects of the drama. |
With the questions 'What do you think could do to improve the drama?' a lot of people responded make it quicker this illustrates to me that there was issues with the pacing of my drama and maybe it was dull in some places which allowed the audience to lose focus. Another thing that came up a lot was about making my drama overall longer, at the moment the time for the drama is 4:50 which is a bit on the short compared to other typical dramas lengths. This may mean that the story doesn't appear as powerful
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What would I do to improve my work?
To improve my work I would have added in more Foley sounds into my drama. For example, the sound effects of bombs dropping, and guns being shot I would have made them by myself rather than downloading the sound effect from YouTube. I think by experimenting more in creating war sounds would have made my radio drama a lot better and more engaging for the audience listening. Another thing in which I would improve is making sure I am happy with the actors I casted for specific roles, this is due to me halfway through my production having to re-cast one of my characters which I meant to re-record all their parts again. By doing that extra research initially, in terms of researching into war and pre-production planning, I would have saved a lot of time which I could have spent editing my drama. I felt as if I had to rush through the editing process, which is the most important part of putting the drama together, therefore being more organised would allow my drama to be a lot better and improved. |