Alex Jones- Producer (Paul) 

https://soundcloud.com/alexandra-jones-552435924/paul-audio-drama-drama-angels-production

I am the producer for our audio drama which is called ‘Paul’, it is about a man (called Paul…) who works for a radio station in London. The play follows his day to day life however he is being contacted by his ex- girlfriend who eventually phones into the radio station to finally get in contact with him regarding a huge life changing situation.

24th January

We were sent some scripts from Jeremy and we read them as a class which gave us an understanding on how audio drama works and what we can expect from our audio drama scripts (which were written by someone else but we were to produce and make them). We were also placed into our small groups which we have to work together on a script and produce a final audio drama piece.

31st January

Jeremy sent the final scripts to us and as a group we decided that we would produce ‘Paul’. We chose this as it is set in a radio station which relates to us as radio students. As the producer, we spoke as a team and discussed different ways we could make the play and what ideas we had for our final recording which is due to take place on 6th March.

7th February

As a class, we worked on smaller scripts and I had a go at directing some actors. This was when I discovered that directing is not for me and I shall leave that to our director (Chloe) when it comes to recording our final piece.

We then went into our smaller groups and we recorded another script using a microphone already set up in the classroom, this gave me a good understanding and what to expect on the day of recording and how to handle actors. It also gave me some ideas for our own script and we discussed these as a group.

14th February

I was unable to attend this class due to a dentist appointment back home in Derby however I did receive an email from Jeremy which had an updated script and I believe the names of the actors who shall be playing the characters in our play.

21st February

We had a guest lecture from John Wakefield who spoke to us about different audio dramas that he had done, and gave us some good advice for our own audio dramas that we will be recording on the 6th. Me and Yutong also sat and planned some more for Paul and I showed her how to add different effects in Adobe Audition so she had an idea how to use the programme in post production.

25th February 

Today we got an email from Jeremy which included the final cast for our production as well as the email for the writer of our script, Ade Slack. As the producer, I took responsibility and emailed him with the details for recording, should be wish to join us as well as the names of the cast and what characters they will be playing.

28th February

Today we had our last lecture from Jeremy and we also had a team meeting at 2pm to finalise details for next week’s recording. We finalised the recording schedule and I also took responsibility and emailed our actors for our play. I have so far only heard back from 3 of the 6 so I will email the others shortly to make sure that they understand the procedure for Friday morning.

6th March

Today it was our recording day! We were one actor short so we had to change the actors around last minute however we worked around this and everything worked out in the end.

Ben Lee– Paul

Jezebel Simpson– Janet/ Aussie Coffee shop girl/ WGR Listener 2/ WGR Listener 5/

Sam Page– Work Experience Sam

Georgia Silver– Lady on Tube/ Charity Collector/ WGR listener 4, Sophie

Owen Landon– Gareth/ Alex/ Travel Announcer/ Enfield Arnold/ WGR Listener 3

My role as the producer included emailing the actors and collecting them from the University reception in the morning, and showing them to the room we were recording. The day went according to the schedule which can be seen below.

Schedule (9:30-13:00) 6th March 2020

9:00 – production team arrive

9:15 – actors arrive

9:30 – first read through (30-45 mins)

10:15 – record Scene 7 (all actors) (30 mins)

Scene 7

• Sam
• Paul
• Enfield Arnold
• Janet
• WGR 2/3/4/5
• Sophie

10:45- Scene 6 (20 mins)

• Janet
• Paul
• Sam
• Travel Announcer

11:05– Record scene 2 (20 mins)

• Janet
• Paul
• Alex
• W/E Sam

11:25 –Scene 4 (20 mins)

• W/E Sam
• Paul
• Aussie girl

11:45– Scene 5 (20 mins)

• Paul
• W/E Sam
• Janet

12:05- Scene 3 (20 mins)

• W/E Sam
• Paul
• Charity Collector

12:25- record scene 1 (20 mins)

• Paul
• Gareth
• Lady on tube

12:45 Scene 8 (15 mins)

• Lady on tube
• Gareth
• Paul

13:00- finish

I had to take on the role as director as well as producer so I was managing the actors which was a new experience for me, as well as produce and keep time. This experience was exciting and I enjoyed the morning of recording and I believe our team did very well.

To do:

• edit final drama together, meeting on Wednesday to do this as a group.

13th March 

Over the last week, our team was working on our final edit. Unfortunately I couldn’t make the meeting with Jeremy on Friday so I made the decision to put together the first edit. I put all the clips in order and I put effects on the phone in lines. This was then passed onto the rest of the team to work on during the week so they could add sound effects and put the finishing touches on it.

We have all played a part in the editing, me putting together the body of the edit, Yutong doing the sound effects for a couple scenes and Ryan and Chloe working on other scenes. Unfortunately we could not meet as a group and meet together at one time due to other commitments but I think our plan of individually working on scenes worked best as we can do it in our own time.

18th March

We have updated the editing process so we have everything done in time for our deadline tomorrow. I have edited scenes 1 and 8, Yutong has done scenes 2 and 3, Ryan is doing scenes 4 and 5 and Chloe is doing scenes 6 and 7. This seemed like the fairest way of doing things. Ryan is recording the voiceovers today and once all the scenes are done, it is being put onto the drive ready for me to stitch together and upload to sound cloud ready for submission.

19th March

As a back up, I made an edit of scenes 6 and 7 in case Chloe didn’t get them done in time before the deadline. We are using this as a back up edit to send in. We all worked as a team to complete this edit, as we took on certain scenes each to edit. I took the responsibility to put them together and upload them to sound cloud. I have been pushing the team to meet deadlines and have a final edit done by 10am the day of submission.

We found out that the deadline was extended so we had a bit longer to work on the edit. We are proud of our finished edit and we worked well as a team to produce a well edited, finished piece!