Ryan Brannigan– Studio Manager/Tech Op

I am the studio manager for the audio drama Paul. Paul is about a man named Paul who has a standard daily routine and goes to work every day whilst battling his problems in life. One day the past becomes a massive problem for him!

24th January

Jeremy gave us all scripts for the audio dramas and we all read extracts from each one to get a flavour of each drama. I was placed in a group with Alex, Chloe and Yutong to get to the end goal of finalising a script and producing an audio drama.

31st January

We decided on the group name the Drama Angels and and decided on Paul as our chosen Audio Drama to produce! We related to the drama as it features radio elements and the protagonist is a radio DJ. It was confirmed that our recording session was to take place on Friday 6th March.

7th February

We all had a chance to read out some scripts as actors and practice recording techniques both in the studio and the booth. Directing for me was out of the question so it Chloe took on that role in our group. After this session not much was finalised in terms of roles but as a group we were confident with the recording process and the inevitability of handling actors.

14th February

We had confirmation of our script for Paul and we were given the full script. Their was some confusion with the actors on the script as they were not the actors that took part in the production of the play.

21st February

I was unable to attend on this day as I was back home at a wedding but I know that we all had a guest lecture from John Wakefield.

28th February

Today we had our final lecture with Jeremy. I had more chances to go on the desk as my role was confirmed as studio manager and essentially tech op. Whilst others were recording I found it tedious at the beginning to keep doing talk back with faders but over time it got easier. We were fully prepared with a script, schedule and actors raring to go next week to record.

6th March

This was the big day, the recording of our audio drama. We were told to come in early at 9am and refreshments for the talent were provided. The majority turned up on time but only one was late but we had more than enough time to go over things so it was perfect.

It started with a table read and the actors merged into their roles seamlessly and gave me great confidence for the recording session. Once we got into the studio everything was set up and all we needed to do was record. I saved everything in Audition as Scene 1 Part 1 Take 1 for example. Just so we wouldn’t get confused when it came down to the editing process.

We recorded in this order:

Scene 7,6,2,4,5,3,1,8

We had at least two takes of everything and then it was saved immediately and backed up onto a google drive which I created. I shared the drive with my 3 group mates and we finished for the day. The session lasted for around 4 hours and all of the takes sounded great. We had more than enough material to work with.

Overall I was satisfied with the experience that I had making this drama and now all we needed was the final product.

13th March

Unfortunately due to circumstances we couldn’t have a meeting with Jeremy as some couldn’t attend and some were ill. We then decided as a group to work on different parts of the drama. Alex had put together a rough draft which sounded great and Yutong got to work on Scenes 2 ans 3 to fully edit.

18th March

I was assigned scenes 4&5 to edit together for the final project and overall I was satisfied with the work that I had done and the edit that I had created. It was sent to Alex to sync up with the other audio and once I played it back I was happy with the result of the drama.

19th March

I woke up to the news of an extension of the deadline from the 19th March to the 23rd which I was pleased about. This has given me more time to complete the necessary paperwork required for this module. I am proud to have the submission of the edit uploaded on time and I’m proud of everyone. The paperwork will be uploaded before the new deadline!