Blog Post 1 : 13/10/17
For my audio project I will be making an audio tour, for the company ‘Chichester Tour Guides’ who lead a range of historical tours around the city of chichester. They have agreed to work alongside me and I have exchanged a few emails with one of the guides, Jan. However I have planned to speak on the phone with her this Monday so I will have a clearer idea of what it is they are looking for then.
As the audio piece needs to be 20 minutes long I am thinking about making two separate tours at around 10 minutes each. Jan has also mentioned that the company were looking to make a promotional package so there is potential to include something to do with this as well.
Following my phone call with jan I think I will have a clearer idea of the sort of research I need to be doing in terms of the script / content of the tour. But in the meantime I am going to listen to some other audio tours and similar content to give me some ideas about the treatment of the audio.
Blog Post 2 : 24/10/17
This week I spoke to jan on the phone about the logistics of the audio project, and we brainstormed some ideas for topic etc. My initial thinking was that the tour would include the basic roman history of chichester city centre, however we were both a bit concerned that this could be quite dry. After a little further research I became more aware of the Literary and artistic history of the city, and Chichester Tour Guides do in fact run a walk following this topic.
I am meeting with Jan this Monday, were we are going to do the tour together and she is going to talk me through the history at each point which I will record. The tour takes around and hour and a half so It will be useful to work out which are the most interesting points and cut the walk down to fit the 20 minute time frame. I will then have more chance over the next couple of weeks to record the tour in good quality with jan, and I will be able to re walk the tour and script the directions, which I will cast another person to voice.
I aim to use a range of different actuality, SFX and music to bring to life what Jan is saying and make the audio more immersive.
Blog Post 3: 06/11/17
Last Monday I met with Jan and we spent 2 to 3 hours walking around chichester city centre. We stopped at around 20 different points of artistic interest, and Jan gave me a brief explanation of what she knew about them, which I recorded on the Marantz.
Since then I have listened through to all the audio and picked out the most interesting points, as I think that 20 different stopping points would be too many for a 20 minute audio tour. Once I had decided on this I did some further research into each piece of art and began work on a script.
I am now at a point where my piece is fully scripted and I have had the information about the pieces of art voiced. I have also scripted the directions that will be included in the tour, and I am getting those voiced on Tuesday. I have taken a range of photos of each the of pieces of art that I could possibly incorporate as a visual element, and if I were to do this I would use them in a similar way to how the DeTour tour of Clerkenwell used visuals.
This week my aim is to start work on a rough edit of the piece, I plan to firstly chop it all together dry to get an idea of how long it will be and how it flows. But for my final cut I will be adding SFX, music and actuality to dramatise the piece otherwise it could potentially be very dry.
Blog Post 4: 21/11/17
This week I began editing the audio that I collected the week before, and voiced the directions.
My aim for the next week is to work on editing the audio into a rough cut, by placing it all in order and including actuality and sound effects to bring it to life. I am going to re listen to the Clerkenwell tour that we did at the beginning of term for inspiration, as I would like to create something with a simular finish to this. I am also going to challenge myself to get a couple of short interviews that can be dropped into my piece and add another layer, as at the moment it isn’t very textured.
Blog Post 5: 28/11/17
This week I put all of my audio together in order, and started to add some actuality. However after listening to it a couple of times, and showing it to Aasiya I didn’t feel like the two separate voices I have recorded work very well together. Therefore, this week I am going to re record the history sections of my piece, using the same voice I have used for my directions.
Blog Post 6: 05/12/17
This week I have re recored the audio mentioned in my previous blog entry, and I am much happier with it. I have now done the bulk of my editing , and have the rest of the week to add more actuality and find relevant pieces of audio to break up long peeves of speech.
My aim for the rest of the week is to finalise my edit and prepare my pitch, commission and tweet for submission.
Ellie Rankin
Student Number: w1540633
Digital Entrepreneurship : Individual Audio Project
LINK TO AUDIO
https://soundcloud.com/ellie-rankin-785176689/chichester-audio-tour-final-mixdown
Cue
The city of Chichester has a rich and vibrant artistic history that stretches back to Ancient Rome and continues to thrive today. For hundreds of years creatives including William Blake and John Keates have found inspiration in Chichester’s bustling city centre, and surrounding countryside’s.
This audio tour will walk you through some of Chichester’s most interesting artistic and literary offerings.
Chichester Audio Tour Pitch
Chichester Tour Guides
Delivery Date December 2017
Duration 18’00
Producer Ellie Rankin
Short Synopsis
“The history of the Chichester, stretches back to pre-Roman times and is rich and vibrant. The medieval and Georgian architecture of the City is magnificent and the Cathedral which dates back to the 11th Century boasts a wealth of ancient and modern art. But there is much more to Chichester than its past! It is an exciting cultural Centre, with an acclaimed theatre and modern art gallery which attracts exhibitions from all over the world.”
Chichester Tour Guides
Guide, Jan Davies takes you on a specialist tour of the city that allow you to discover places you’ve never seen before and uncover the history beneath them.
Long Synopsis
“Chichester is a very handsome city….. The Country is Most Beautiful, and the People are Genuine Saxons, handsomer than the people about London… Sussex is certainly a happy place ….”
William Blake extolling the virtues of Chichester at the turn of the 19th Century
“Sussex has proved a catalyst for hundreds of years worth of creative energy. Writers, artists, musicians and designers have found inspiration in the tranquility of the rolling Sussex Downs or the vibrant atmospheric towns. Chichester tours are based around the work of Eric Gill, William Blake and John Keats. Further afield we go on the trail of literary figures such as Conan Doyle, Rudyard Kipling, Virginia Woolf and A.A. Milne’s ‘Winnie the Pooh’.”
Chichester Tour Guides
A Chichester audio tour will guide you through the literary and artistic history of the roman town of Chichester. It can be enjoyed alone or in a group as detailed directions will take you to each point, where you will be met by the voice of your tour guide Sam who will unveil history and anecdotes behind them. Vivid Sound effects and actuality will be used to take you back to the town as it once was and paint a picture of the characters that resided there.
Chichester Tour Guides Commission
(Sorry, when I enlarge the image the writing goes blurry and you cannot read it, but I have transcribed it below. The image is in better quality on turn it it.)
From: Jan Davies
Hi Ellie,
I’m really happy to work with you on this.
Hilly deals with our website and telephone enquiries, as well as being a long-time guide. She’s away at present so hope you don’t mind moving ahead with me.
One of my other hats is as a lecturer at Portsmouth Uni so I know assignments have deadlines. Hope this one isn’t toooo soon.
If you have time, when would be good to have a chat about it. Or are you down South again any time soon? A chat over coffee in Chichester could work well.
Certainly we (Chichester Tour Guides) wouldn’t have a problem agreeing to you doing this. Just need to know how best we can work with you on it. We are looking at putting together a promo package and it’s possible your work could contribute to that – and we could help with your degree. Would be nice if you could reach a commercial audience with the work.
Lots to discuss – look forward to catching you – Jan
Tweet
For hundreds of years creatives including William Blake and John Keates have found inspiration in Chichester’s bustling city centre, and surrounding countryside’s.
This audio tour will walk you through some of Chichester’s most interesting artistic and literary offerings.
*insert link*
Images
