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 This week you worked on your research

What have you been asked to Develop and produce an idea for an original five-
do? minute radio drama aimed at a target audience of
16-25-year-olds.

How has analysing other It helps me to figure out what people want to hear in
productions helped you to this particular genre. It also allows me to know what
understand the genre better? people expect to hear from a radio drama with this
genre.

How will your understanding of
codes and conventions now help
you to produce a better
production?
It has provided a base for what I need to think about
in order to make my production something that is of
interest to people. For example, it teaches me the
basic needs of what to include in a radio drama and
what people expect to hear like the title and credits
or whether there is a cliff-hanger or not making room
for another episode.

What did you learn from
practising recording Foley
sounds? (Radio Drama Only)
Helps to get a feeling for what is needed to make
specific sounds and how much is used for just a small
clip. I also learned that whether you have loads of
sounds effects or even a little, either way they are
both just as effective and useful to the story, as well as
helping to guide the listener to what the characters
are doing.

What did you learn from Voice for
broadcast task? What do you
need to improve on to become a
presenter? (Broadcast only)
Your voice has to have different tones and pitches so
you don’t lose the listeners interest and bore them
with the same, dull tone that sounds like you’re bored
and don’t really care about what you’re saying. If the
story is monotone then listeners will lose interest really
quickly, but if you add in enthusiasm and really act,
your character then the drama is so much better.

What did you learn when using I need to get used to changing the volume of
Adobe Audition? What skills do different sounds when layering them and also when
you need to develop with this
software?
How did researching your target
audience help you develop your
idea?
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?
fading sounds in and out. I also need to double check
how my edits are being saved, so they don’t separate
into single tracks.
It told me what that age group is interested in and
what radio dramas they would listen to. Helps me to
understand my target audience so I know what they
like and look for in a radio drama.
No, but I’m not too far behind.
I need to finish secondary research, and complete
the reviews on students work.
This week you worked on your planning
I learnt what interests’ people and what they look for
in a radio drama. Helped me adapt my ideas to
something more suitable and relatable to my target
audience.
My idea was inspired by my friend who takes
taekwondo lessons. I decided I would do it about a
young female fighter but she takes boxing lessons
instead. Then I changed it so she was a troubled teen
who likes fighting films but has never had a lesson until
she gets into trouble and gets punished for it. I slowly
change it so it makes more sense and has a story that
flows better.
I used a template from another radio drama script to
know how to write one for radio drama properly. It
also helped me know where to start when writing the
script because that’s something that I struggle with.
Getting an idea and developing it so it made sense
was an issue that took me a while, but I looked at
other radio dramas to see what’s been done already
and the different stories and got inspiration from that. I
also had an issue starting my script which took up
most of my time and is why I’m behind on work.
I learnt that in order to get the best sound you have to
record the same sound over and over again to make
sure to have multiple and then be able to choose the
best possible one that fits and sounds better.
I completed week 1 work so I could catch up with
that, but now I’m behind on some of this week’s work.
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 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
No.
Script, Production Schedule, sound table, and I need
to get actors.
This week you worked on your production
I recorded all my Foley sounds and my radio drama.
My earlier planning helped with the script because it
gave me a better idea of what the characters would
say in a certain situation and how they would say it.
It will make it easier to think of what I want in my radio
drama and what I need. Also, for the recording
process it’s useful because my ideas are clearly stated
and all I have to do is get sounds and dialogue and
then piece them together for my editing process,
which will all run smoothly because of my planning.
This photo shows the
rehearsal process my
actors going through
and getting
comfortable with their
lines.
When recording it was hard for the actors not to laugh
when saying their lines because of the pressure. To
help with that, I gave them a lot of time to prepare
and once we got started recording it became easier
and more comfortable for them.
I kept to the schedule as best as I could, but I needed
more time to record the ambient sounds/Foley
sounds.
Almost.
I need to finish editing and send out a survey to get
feedback on my radio drama.
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.

Final evaluation on whole unit This week you worked on your production

Comparison to researched My radio drama is good but it could be better. I think

productions that it’s not at as much of a professional standard as
the radio dramas ‘The Weekend’ or ‘Ash’, but is close
to it, because my foley sounds are of good quality,
my script is good, my actors made a good attempt
with their characters, and my overall production is
okay. The storyline is fairly straight forward as well, but
there is always room for improvement.

The ambient/foley sounds were good because they

were, mostly, all recorded by me. I had recorded
each sound multiple times just to make sure that I had
the perfect sound that I needed for my drama. For
example; when I recorded the ‘gabble’ sound effect,
I had to use a wooden slab and at first I tried to make
the sound by hitting it with the side of a pencil
(horizontal), then slowly changed to the bottom of a
pen (vertical) to get the right sound and I was closer
with the pen.

My actors portrayed their characters very well, they

were all very clear, and they put a lot of energy and
effort into acting the scene and also reacting with
each other. Even with a few stumbles, they still carried
on and didn’t break character, which was very
professional.
 I was quite proud of my script considering it’s not
something that I’m comfortable or good at doing, but
it turned out a lot better than what I thought it was
going to. It also made sense and it had an easy story
to follow and it’s quite interesting as well. Although it
took me a while to actually get it completed, I think
that it’s quite professionally written.

From each of the professional works I analysed for my

research, I got inspiration from them on what a
specific type of radio drama needs to keep their
audiences listening and not lose interest.

From ‘Ash’ I understood that even simple ambient

sounds are effective and just as descriptive as other
productions with loads of ambient and foley sounds.
Either way helps guide the story for the listener with
ease.

From ‘The Weekend’ I learnt that light humour can

make the story interesting and captivating no matter
what’s happening around the characters.

Production Strengths Overall my strengths were my actors, some sound

effects, the planning and organising process, and the
editing process.

The use of my actors is a strength because they made

a good attempt at portraying their characters
emotions and showed clear distinctions from each
other, so the listeners wouldn’t get confused. My
planning and recordings are a strength because it
was fairly easy to get my actors together and get the
recordings done, other than having a few moments of
continuous laughter because of nerves, everything
went well.

Some of my background sounds were good and

effective as well as clear. For example: my
background music was a good choice as it was
emotional and “provoked sadness”.
 Another strength was the editing process. I think this is
a strength because I
had recorded each
scene fully and
separately, rather
than one line at a
time, which made it
easier to put
together. And the
foley sounds were all
done fairly quickly as well, which made the editing a
lot easier as I just had to piece them all together. This
made the editing a lot less complicated and allowed
me to finish catching up on some unfinished work.

The feedback I got from my survey I sent to my peers

were all mostly positive. More detail about my
responses have been written below the screen grabs
of the responses. All responses from the survey are up,
but the feedback I got from my teacher was very
helpful, he told me to re-record scene 6 as it had
some white noise, interference. This helped because
when I recorded the last scene again it sounded
much better than before and really improved my
production.
Production weaknesses The main weakness I faced was the script writing. I
had my idea for what I wanted to happen in my
drama but actually turning mind maps into dialogue
and a story that makes sense, was very challenging
for me and it took up most of my production time.
And because of that I had some catch-up work to
do. To improve this for next time, I just need to start
and write anything down, because once I’ve started
it, it then becomes easier to know how I want things to
happen.

Did you meet your goals? Yes, I think I have met my goals. I wanted my
Why/why not? production to be a down to Earth, relatable story that
the listeners can connect to. I think I have also met
the target age group because of my survey
respondents were all in that age range, which makes
their opinions trustworthy, as well as also having both
male and female characters in my drama to appeal
to everyone within the age range.
 Self-evaluation I think that I definitely need to work on coming up with
ideas faster as well as getting more comfortable with
writing a script. But most of all, I need to work on my
time management and making more of an effort to
get work completed outside of the lesson, so I don’t
fall behind as much as I did with this production. Also,
if I put more of an effort into my work then I think my
production could have been better and I could have
added more background sounds, as it was suggested
in my survey responses by the majority.
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.

The Henley College and the BBC would like you to develop and produce idea for an original five-minute radio
drama aimed at a target audience of 16- 25-year-olds. You will need to originate your idea and record and
edit your drama in time for the deadline on Friday 24
The January 2020. All of your work must be uploaded to your Unit 5 LO2 page by 4pm.