Blog Post One – 10/10/2017:

For my Digital Entrepreneurship project I have chosen to focus on a charity called Racing Welfare. Their head offices are based in Newmarket which is where I’m from and also where I did a week’s work experience in Year 10 so I have some knowledge of the charity. I am yet to get in contact with them regarding the piece as the woman that I need to get in contact with, Jennie, is currently away from work but will be back within the next week.

As a charity Racing Welfare help the workforce behind British horse racing with many aspects of life such as:

• accidents and injury
• addiction and recovery
• debts and benefits
• illness and disability
• relationships and bereavement
• retirement
• retraining
• housing issues
• 24 hr helpline

I would like to offer a series of mini-docs (around 5-10 mins each) that focus on the subjects. I’m particularly interested in addiction and recovery, relationships and bereavement and their 24 hr helpline.

The only issue so far is the ethical factors behind the subjects I would like to look into. Addiction is a very sensitive subject and even though audio can be anonymous, some people may not want to have their stories and struggles recorded so I will need to gain a sense of how much access I can have when recording the piece. I will only know this once I’ve spoken to Jennie.

I will also be able to focus on the treatment of the piece once I’ve figured out the amount of access I will have to the charity and the people that they help.

I am hoping that because we have a few weeks to do it I will be able to go home and record on a few occasions rather than trying to cram everything into one day which means I can have more audio than I need and can have an in depth piece that isn’t boring by the time it gets to the 20 minute mark.

Blog Post Two – 24/10/2017:

I have been able to get in contact with Jennie after her absence from work and she has spoken to the Chief Executive of Racing Welfare in Newmarket who thinks that it is a ‘great idea’ and that they would love for me to go ahead and make the two docs. I’m currently waiting to hear from their head of communications in order to organise some dates where I can talk to present and past people that they have helped. I am also going to Newmarket this weekend (28th-30th) and will hopefully be able to pop in for a quick chat with them face to face.

Regarding production of this audio I have been listening to some movie scores to get some inspiration for music styles to put underneath the stories of those helped by RW. I do need to look into sound effects that are realistic as well just in case I want to add those to the audio as well but until I have recorded the stories it will be difficult to know what sound effects I will need but I think that the use of SFX will give it a more immersive style and capture the listener’s imagination more.

Blog Post Three – 6/11/2017

The past two weeks I have been in contact with Rachel Cawley who is Director of Communication at the Racing Welfare office in Newmarket. We discussed over email what would be possible to do regarding ethical issues and timing. The idea of focusing the documentaries around addiction and recovery as well as mental health etc was not possible due to the fact RW are going to be doing research and studies into that in a few months with a university in Liverpool so Rachel wanted to stay away from those topics. Instead, Rachel suggested that we focus on the topic of accomodation.

Racing Welfare are in the process of creating two new housing sites one in Newarmket for retired horseracing workers with dementia and another in Yorkshire for younger people aged 16-20 getting into the horseracing industry. Rachel wanted to use the audio piece alongside promotion on their social media and website for these two new housing projects.

I met up with Rachel in the office in Newmarket on 3rd November for a face-to-face meeting to discuss the project. In a nutshell, Rachel wants a 20 minute conversation between a young person in racing and one who is retired, both who are living in accomodation provided by Racing Welfare. I suggested that it would be easier for the listener, and also myself to include links and an intro and outro by a presenter (myself) to break up the audio and signpost certain topics for the listener.

Rachel had already noted down two possible people to have talk to one another, and she is currently organising a day where they will both be free for around 1/2 hours for me to go back to Newmarket to record the conversation. She also had a few topics in mind that she would want me to cover. These were:

• accomodation (this is the main topic which we will circle back to as much as possible during the 20 mins)
• apprenticeships
• yard routine
• horse care
• safety equipment
• memorable horses that they have worked with
• top 3 tips for young people getting into horseracing

Near enough all of these topics will be comparisons between young and old and the difference between what was acceptable then and now.

We have set a date for the latest I can record (21st November) which will give me 3 weeks to edit and send off rough cuts to Rachel for approval. I am aware this is quite late in comparison to what is suggested but I feel like it will give me enough time and it could be recorded before then, it is only a final date.

In the mean time I am doing some background research on RW and beginning to write up some semi-structured interview questions for the recording date which I will send to Rachel beforehand and get her to either add to them or edit them in a way she sees fit.

audio doc running time I have also compiled a rough edit of the running times and order of topics prior to recording so I know how it would run – I have sent this to Rachel for her to edit if needed as well.

Blog Post Four : 21/11/17

The past couple weeks have been pretty quiet. I had hope to have all audio recorded by this date but unfortunately have not been able to due to the interviewees’ schedules not coinciding with each other. This has led to me preparing for two outcomes for recording. One the same as before with a discussion between young and old and the other being purely a discussion with just an older person and about lonliness. Luckily I am recording tomorrow (22nd) and will have all audio recorded by next Monday (27th) to begin editing.

Myself and Rachel have been emailing back and forth about topics to include and have been able to find anohter young person to interview so we are back to the original plan of having a discussion between young and old.

In regards to the audio piece itself, I will need to record some additional audio on top of the discussion in order to make it more enjoyable for the listener. This can include location links where I am at a stable yard and also the sounds of a yard itself including shovelling, horse hooves on the ground, neighs etc. This will give it more texture and dynamic.

I hope to have a rough cut by next Thursday to send to Rachel for approval. I have mentioned that if she wants a stripped back version for promotion I am more than happy to do a simplified edit but for submission I will make sure there are plenty of layers to the final edit.

When it comes to recording tomorrow I will ask if it is possible to go and record some audio with the interviewees on location but if that is not possible perhaps ask if Thursday, Friday or Monday is a possibility as I am in Newmarket over the weekend. If that fails, I can try and record some stable sounds on my own in and around Newmarket or even when the horses are out for rides on the heaths around Newmarket and in the town centre.