Evaluation

Evaluation

At the beginning of my radio drama project, I conducted research into the scheduling and types of radio dramas on the BBC and the target audiences for each of these radio slots. Doing this research was advantageous for me because it gave me an idea for what sort of radio drama I wanted to do and also the type of audience a certain type of drama would receive. From this research, I chose to create a whodunnit, murder mystery drama and to give it the “Afternoon Drama” slot on BBC Radio 4 because at this time because it will entertain a wide audience and it will be easier for them to access the genre. After having chosen a genre and a timeslot, I decided to do research into three BBC radio dramas such as The Archers to see how each of them used sound and dialogue to make the audience feel certain ways and also how sounds can be used to make the audience feel like they are at the scene, for example, in one of the radio dramas I researched, I discussed how sounds such as Christmas music and birdsong can give the audience an idea of the time of year in which the radio drama is set and to inform the audience that this scene is set outside. However, if I was to improve on my project, I would have focused my research on to radio dramas that fitted my chosen genre, which was murder mystery.

After having completed my research, I decided on a story about how three young people try to find out which one of them killed their friend and wrote a script for radio drama called Confessions Around A Dead Body. After having completed the script, I made notes on how to edit my radio drama together, what types of sound were required and where that sound would be recorded. This was beneficial for me because it would help me when my radio drama reached production and post-production stages as I would know how to edit certain sounds in, the sound I would need and where to get it from. Secondly, I completely two pre-production documents, which included a sound list and a production schedule. Completing these documents was beneficial to the production because it helped me organise what I would need to get certain sounds, for example, whether I’d need to record something in the sound booth or whether I'd need to record something at home.

After having completed my research and pre-production preparation, I recorded dialogue in the sound booth with two other actors. As well as directing the other actors, I played the main role of Jay. I originally planned to use canned sounds, but I was unable to due to copyright infringement so therefore, I rectified this issue by recording several sounds at home such as a door opening, a splash and a light switch using a voice recorder on my phone. If I was to improve on my project, I would have used higher quality recorders to capture the sounds I wanted. If I was to improve on this part of the process, I would have perhaps done two recordings of the dialogue between the three characters so then, I would have a choice of using different takes in the final edit.

After recording all my dialogue and sounds for my radio drama, I started the post-production stage by editing everything together using Adobe Audition. I used the Multitrack setting and I used two tracks, one for my dialogue and then one for all my background sounds that I used. Due to copyright reasons, I had to use royalty free sound for the first sound, where the sound of a London street and the sound of Big Ben is heard. I used a lot of effects such as fade out, which helps to signify the change in location and to mark where the first scene ends and the next scene begins. I used this transition again at the end of my radio drama, which helped to give my radio drama an eerie feel, which would in turn, make the audience feel very uncomfortable listening to it. I merged a lot of sounds together, which helped me to conceal all of the cuts that I had made in the sound clips because I cut out various mistakes and bloopers made in the recording of my radio drama and I cut out lots of unintended quiet gaps in the dialogue recording. Also, I cut the music to fit the timings of my radio drama and to make sure I have the type of sounds that I want for the scene that’s being edited. The advantage of using fade out effects and the razor tool to cut out pieces of the recording enabled me to create a polished final piece that was almost exact to how I originally imagined it with sounds and different effects. If I was to improve on the post-production of my project, I would have experimented with different background sounds to make certain elements of my radio drama sound more real, for example, in the second scene, which is set in a house's kitchen, I would have used a domestic background sound such as the kitchen sink or a washing machine etc. 

Overall, I am very pleased with my final piece but if I was to improve, I would have included a more varied selection of sounds including environmental and domestic sounds to give my radio drama a sense of realism.