Task Allocation 10

Production Week 10

 

Evaluation

Production Journey

When I had first started my production, I wanted to familiarise myself with all the resources I was going to use when I was going to record my radio drama. This included; starting up GarageBand, understanding how to use the microphones and understand how to record other sounds on my iPhone. When I started to record other sounds from my iPhone, I had wanted to know how to do it, so that it would become easier throughout my production. When starting up GarageBand, I had saw different areas which showed different sections of recording which was specific to the type of sound. This was incredibly useful, as I was able to ensure that if I had wanted to record dialogue, I was able to chose the voice area. This had allowed me to ensure that the audio was nice and clear and good quality. 

When recording different sounds in my production, I wanted to ensure I was able to get them myself. This was because I wanted to ensure that I do not get copyrighted from others. I had then decided it would be best to record the audio I needed on a Sony sound recorder and my iPhone. This helped a lot as I was able to go to different locations to record and be able to get the sounds I had wanted. 

To ensure that I was able to stick to my idea as much as possible, I was able to print out all of my pre-production material. This had ensured that everything was sticking to the idea as much as possible and saved time from going back to my blogger to look at what else I had needed to film. Furthermore, when I was using the equipment, I was able to bring it outside school with the permission of my teachers. This had allowed me to record all of the audio tracks I had needed instead of going to YouTube and extracting the files from there.  

After I had completed my focus group, and analysed my feedback, I then needed to go and record some extra audio. This was because when I was discussing everything with my peers, they had mentioned that the audio was really low compared to other audio tracks that were played. As a result of this, I had to use the equipment to go and record more audio. This had included the cars on the highway, the train departing from the train station and some of the actors voices. This had allowed me to replace the files I had in my first edit and made changes to them as much as possible. However, during that weekend, I wasn't able to use the equipment due to me being busy with other personal matters. However, I was able to still continue to work and rerecord some of my audio and add them to the final draft. This had allowed me to finish off my final edit and meet the deadline that was set by my teacher. 

When I was collecting feedback, one of my peers had spoken to me and said to make my edit better, to add a music track for the beginning and the end. I had thought about this and I had decided that it would be a good idea to do this as this will get more of the audience engaged with the story. Due to me thinking of using a music track, I thought it would be a smart idea to use the BBC Radio 4 theme music. This is because everyone knows BBC Radio 4 and it would be able to increase the overall audience. However, one problem was that I had to ensure that it was copyrighted music. This was because I wanted to ensure that I didn't get in trouble. So for that reason, I had went to my teacher and asked him. He was incredibly helpful and helped me find a wild track that could be used in my radio programme. 

When editing my edits for my radio programme, I wanted to ensure that everything was done to a good standard. In order for that to happen, I had decided to ensure that I would cut clips and ensured that they all made sense and linked together. This was so that any audio and sounds I didn't want can be deleted so that I can use the rest for the edits. 

When coming to upload both of the drafts, I had exported the file using an AIFF format. This was because I felt it was most suitable to use as I was editing on an Apple iMac. This had allowed the sound to have really high quality and didn't damaged or lower the rest of the other sounds in the process. 

When looking at the sounds of the audio tracks, I had to ensure that everything was loud and clear for the audience to understand. This had meant that I had to lower down the volume on certain sound effects to ensure that it was heard clearly. As a result of doing this, I was able to click on the clips and was able to adjust the sound to the correct volume. This was incredibly useful when putting together my final edit for my radio programme. 

After everything in the production stage was completed, I was able to upload it to Final cut and placed it onto YouTube. I was able to add a background and create a screen recording to show to the audience what the radio show was about and how far they were in the video. This is shown on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlMmqELfZHk 

Final edit

 

Audio assets

 

Audio Assets	Description of audio assets
Dialogue	There will be dialogue throughout the entire radio programme which is voiced by the actors.
Sound of the train	When Harleen and Fajar are talking at the beginning, they are leaving the train station and there will be the sound of the train departing.
Sound of the automatic doors	When Yunus, Harleen and Fajar are walking into the school, the doors will start to open.
Sounds of crowd chatter	There will be a lot of crowd chatter from the beginning of the radio drama as its set in the train station and in the school.
Sounds of the Phone ringing	This will be when Yunus gets his phone out and tries to get Harleen and Fajar’s numbers.
Sounds of the cars on the highway	When Yunus, Harleen and Fajar are walking to the school, there will be the sounds of the cars passing by on the highway.
Sounds of the office phone ringing	This will be when Yunus presses the button to get the office people's attention to gain access to the school.

Sound formats

Sound formats

When recording audio, there are different types of file formats that are stored on your computer. The reason for this is that sound formats are used for different purposes.  These formats could be used for web distribution to a playlist for music and production. Some of these examples are: 

• WAV

WAV for Waveform Audio. This is an audio format that is used to store any audio bitstream on your personal computer. This file is lossless, high quality and has an uncompressed format. One advanatge of using WAV audio files is that since it is lossless, it allows the file to be close to the original audio. This can then be converted into other files such as AIFF and MP3. Despite this one disadvantage of using this is that it has a big memory space.  

• AIFF

An AIFF audio was made by Apple. This format is also lossless. This is very similar to the WAV format. Since the AIFF is lossless, it produces very high quality sound. However, this audio does take up a lot of space on your systems. 

• MP3

MP3 is the compressing and downloading of files. An MP3 is a common a lossy format. This means that there is more space available and can be supported by a range of different devices. However, one disadvantage of using MP3 is that the sound quality is reduced significantly compared to a lossless file. 

• WMA

WMA stands for Windows Media Audio. This sound format is used as an audio file container and could be served as an audio codec too. One advantage of using this is that it is an efficient audio file format. This means that it will take less storage from your computer compared to a lossless sound format. One disadvantage is that you can only use this format if you have a Windows computer as this was made by Microsoft. 

Storage

When storing audio files, it can be saved on digital drives and hard drives. When producing audio it is vital that you back it up incase the files get lost or corroded. When saving and importing your audio files it is vital that you save it in the same folder as the raw audio to prevent audio files from not placing. Some of the drives that you can save your files on are:

• Flash drive/USB 

A flash drive/USB is a small rectangular device that is placed into devices to help store files and data. Also using a flash drive allows the transfer of files from one device to another. One advantage of using a flash drive/USB is that it is portable. This means that you are able to carry this with you and be able to save everything in one place. However, one disadvantage of using the flash drive/USB is that it has limited storage. This means that there is only a limit on how much a flash drive/USB can store before running out of space. 

• Hard drive 

A hard drive is different from a flash drive/USB. Although they have the same purpose of storing files and data, hard drives are built into a computer. This means that you can only access the hard drive on a specific computer. This is a disadvantage as if there is a problem with the computer, the end user will not be able to access the files and data.  Despite this, hard drives have the advantage of having more capacity than a flash drive/USB. This means that you can save more on the computer. 

• Cloud backup services 

A cloud drive is a web-based service that holds storage online on an online server. One advantage of using a cloud drive is that it can be accessed anywhere on any device. This is useful as you can use it to save specific files and get them from another device. However, one disadvantage is that it requires an internet connection. This means that you cannot access the files without a connection which can bring a delay to projects. 

Compression 

Compression is reducing sounds that are above a certain threshold. There are different types of compressions. They are:

• DRC 

DRC stands for Dynamic Range compression. This allows the volume of loud sounds to be reduced or increases the quiet sounds. 

• Downward compression

Downward compression reduces the volume of loud sounds above a certain threshold. 

• Upward compression 

Upward compression focuses on increasing quieter sounds that fall below a certain threshold. 

Size versus quality 

• Lossy - This is where the file is compressed and the quality of the sound is reduced permanently due to some of the elements being eliminated. 
• Lossless - This is where the file is compressed and every single piece of data is still there. This shows that there is no loss of quality from the original recording. 
• Bit rates - Are a measurement of the amount of data that is processed per second. 
• File size - This is showing how big the file is on any device. There a different file sizes depending on the amount of recording it has.