This week I worked on my production which was based on thriller and set in a haunted

school with disappearances throughout years and years of history. I personally don’t believe
my work is up to professional standard as there is many things I could improve. First off, a
lot of my Foley sounds were used from the internet as I had rushed myself and not given
myself enough time to record them all, which professionals start from scratch to create
those sounds instead of finding something offline. I definitely next time need to plan out my
time better so that I can record every sound and purchase all the things I need to make that
possible, to create the most realistic sounds by myself. Secondly, I think I needed to look for
better voice actors and put effort into giving them an accent, all making them sound a bit
more interesting. This would’ve added more character depth and presenting they’re all their
own people in my production. Though however I kept the setting as three British students
who are trying to sneak into school at night. The voice actors I chose were okay but I feel as
if some could’ve had more emphasis on their lines, which when Lily is dying Eva simply
sounds calm about it, partially that was my fault as I need to act better on my directing
instead of relying on the voice actors to know what they’re doing. The screams were
performed well though there wasn’t much build up to them, such as a struggle or slowly
bleeding out squeals and that is what I need to next time direct my voice actors on, which if
they can’t I should locate some new ones.

Overall, I believe my strengths of this production was my story ideas, planning ahead, and
the tom and jerry clip. First off, I enjoy creative writing with anything a bit spooky and
horrific. This was a strength for me in English language as I knew how to create a whole new
atmosphere just by looking at a still picture. I like to create scenarios in my head and being
able to bring them to life only inspires me to make more. Which the two ideas I had I both
enjoyed and would’ve been happy creating either. The first idea was completely from the
top of my head as it was something basic but easy for the audience to understand, my
second idea was a bit harder to think of though it would’ve needed more introduction and
background added to it. However, the first idea, roam, had met the required time limit for
my production, with a quick introduction and an easy plot to understand that slowly ties in
with the middle and end, leaving the radio drama on a cliff-hanger as history repeats itself. I
wanted to add this effect so that it presents how radio dramas that have multiple episodes
or seasons leave their audience wanting more and slowly overtime reach a bigger crowd. As
on the other hand, blinded by fear would’ve been a lot harder to separate out into a start
middle and end as there is a lot of backstories that would need to be imported into the
radio drama and would cause confusion, making it hard for the audience to understand.
Therefore, I decided to keep with something snappy and simple, just so my audience will
enjoy it.
Secondly, planning ahead is something I think is quite useful to do because I tend to always
distract myself in social surroundings. I planned my sound effects and music ahead, all
adding them to my usb along with sending myself each non-foley sound link. This was so
that I could instantly edit without worrying about the fact I could be running out of time, but
instead this was very handy as it relieved that stress and only gave me the time to focus on
the task at hand. Planning ahead also helps me develop my ideas as it gives me time, such as
story plots, I could come up with such base but sooner or later add to it to make it
something more interesting, which will develop my production even further for the better.
In overall, I think a strength of mine is to plan ahead as it helps me get the work done and
gives me time to work on other classwork that I need to catch up on.
Finally, I believe my last strength was the tom and jerry silent video that I was tasked to add
sound effects and music to. I enjoyed this task particularly well as I grew up watching tom
and jerry which brang back memories, not only that but I liked the small practice it gave me
learning to use audition, which helped me work ahead so that I would be ready and have
the knowledge on how to edit my radio drama the way I specifically want it. I have been
very familiar with tom and jerry and how their episodes sound like, which I wanted to grasp
that effect and make mine sound as believable as possible, firstly I found the original
episode and listened to it, grasping each sound that was used and locating similar ones. I
then searched for music that matched up with the timeline, such as when tom started speed
walking away to jerry’s cousin, the music became more fast paced, and then as he was hit it
changed to a much slower tone as he had lost the fight. I believe that with all of these
combined together I was able to create a realistic sounding tom and jerry episode, and that I
had reached the goal that hopefully you would not be able to tell that the sounds and music
are fake and not made by the professionals. This led me to recognise how to edit sounds
and music together at the correct timing, and giving me some practice on audition, which
helped me in the future time to edit my production and where to add the foley sounds
along to the music there and then.
Overall, I think that these three things for this unit were my strengths and that, story
making, planning ahead and getting practice in beforehand with things I am familiar with
help me in the long run. Next unit I wish to do the same but to work on the things I was not
that great at this unit and the last. I can go on in the future tasks that I must complete with
my knowledge of audition and use my skills to improve my work as much as I can and show
my understanding foley.

I personally struggle to recognise my mistakes and weaknesses, which I need someone to

tell them for me. As a result, when I was given my feedback there was not much to change
other than the same from my last unit, which was lowering the foley sounds. I have realised
that I have a habit of making things loud, such as my music from our last project. I went back
to lower the volume levels but I still struggled to recognise where my mistakes were and
hoping that I managed to do what was pointed out to me. I do believe I should’ve gone to
the radio booth before recording my production as when I got there I already started on a
delay, let alone I had to have Emma teach me how to use it and spent around five minutes
discussing on what to do and what not to do. Next time I should think about my time wisely
and use the empty space I have to improve or get a start ahead so that I’m ready for when
recording day starts, and make sure that nothing will get in my way. This was because it
became stressful and I went over my time especially, then resulting in me losing Noah’s
recording and completely forgetting about my side character's role and Dorothy's, which
had to all be done at another time.
I believe another weakness of mine is procrastinating and I did not record all the foley
sounds I needed for my production, so instead I used sounds from the internet which I
shouldn’t have and actually given myself the time to create some realistic sounds all hand-
made by me. Next time I need to actually not procrastinate but to plan my foley sounds and
record each and every one at reasonable times, no matter how hard to recreate but to also
research on how to create them.
Additionally, I am not a very loud person but can grow shy when directing people, which I
learnt from comparing myself to Noah in my last project and this one, as I am very quiet and
don’t like telling people what to do or criticising their efforts, while Noah is quite loud and
gets straight to the point. I believe I need to work on this as my voice actors did not have the
best acting as when they were dying, they sounded calm about it but not traumatised, and
that does not add to the suspense but only make It calmer, which If you listened to it
without music and foley sounds, it would just give the wrong idea to the audience and set a
completely different scene into their head. In total, I must work on my directing skills so that
I can let my actors know what is wrong and what isn’t, telling them their strengths and
weaknesses along with what I really want them to aim for so that my productions can be the
best of the best in the future.

In the end I believe I reached my goal and the success I needed to finish my radio drama at
3:00PM sharp. I was pleased but stressed on the day as audition kept buffering and I was
scared I wasn’t going to finish on time; however, I am happy that I did and everything was
completed and handed in on time. I am most pleased with the fact I was able to make my
storyline happen and present my ideas, inserting them into an actual radio drama. Though
however I don’t believe it was set up to a professional standard as I mentioned due to the
fact the voice acting was sort of poor, along with how I had written my scripts. I personally
think when I am creating a story I have it planned out but I tend to rush my plot lines and
scripts, which sometimes don’t add up but skip important parts of the story even if they may
not be that big to me, but can to the audience and create depth and meaning. So next time I
wish to plan my script ahead, presenting many ideas of the same story, adding and deleting
slight changes to everything to make it sound as professional as it can.

As a whole, this unit was not my favourite as I prefer filming and the lighting basis, along
with being able to present my ideas through acting more than voice acting, however I shall
use what I learnt in my next project. Giving myself this self-analysis helps me recognise my
faults but also the things that helped me. I do not believe I could present this for a real
audience and have it mainstream though however it shows my learning process and the way
that I want to work my way up to make sure I achieve my dreams in the future. Though I do
need to reach out of my comfort zone to achieve total satisfaction and make sure
everything is perfect, as I said I have not been the best director at time since I grow quiet
and don’t like to speak my mind a lot. This way if I work on myself, it will also help me
improve my work, though working from home also helps me as I am alone and that really
gives me the space I need to focus. If I were to do this project again, I’d defiantly work on
my script along with how well I can direct actors and make sure to give myself a lot of
editing time to recognise my faults. Wrapping this up, radio drama is a fun project to do
however it is something I would not wish to pursue in, in the future.