Week 3 (05/02 – 11/02)
Unfortunately, I was unable to attend this week’s session due to other commitments.
Week 4 (12/02 – 18/02)
After our practice session in the studio with Jeremy and Naiara, as a group we went through our script and worked out how to record each scene. Subsequently, I numbered each line and then went through my script and grouped the lines into sections and then annotated my script to work out when to record each section.
I then worked out how much time we would have to record each section and relayed this information to the production co-ordinator, so that they could make the schedule.
Week 5 (19/02 – 25/02)
This week the group starting finalising our plans for the meeting with Jeremy and ultimately the recording session the next week. All the hard work by Geneva and overall good team management and enthusiasm from Beth meant that all our plans we completed well in advance. As I hadn’t done in terms of pre-production, I offered to work out the timings for each section.
Week 6 (26/02 – 04/03)
Unfortunately, due to adverse weather conditions, the university decided to close campus and thus our drama recording was cancelled.
Week 7 (05/03 – 11/03)
This week the group worked on reorganising actors, I also readjusted the timings to reflect the new recording time.
Week 8 (12/03 – 18/03)
Earlier in the week, I went in to Studio 4 and set up the computer ahead of time, as I knew on the day we’d have to hot swap in very quickly due to a lack of a break.
Prior to our recording session, I made a spreadsheet that myself, Geneva and Beth would be using during the session. I would enter in the file name, whilst Geneva would fill out out the remaining information. When Beth is listening back to the recordings, she will also make comments as well as marking anything that needed retaking, which the spreadsheet will highlight and make evidently clear, due to the formulas.
During our recording session, I was managing the desk and also uploading the recordings to Google Drive as soon as possible, so that Beth could listen to them separately in headphones and mark anything that needed a retake. The session went relatively well, despite rushing towards the end, everyone in the studio was very calm. We had some mic drop outs and did need some retakes at the end.
Over the weekend, I started clipping up the takes and edited out the few mic drops that still remained, even after retakes. I started off by making my way through the recording log, deleting the clips marked unusable and then listen to each remaining clip and then marked and noted it on the editing log (which also pulls data from the recording log) . I believe this will come in very useful, as if a clip becomes corrupt or accidentally deleted, it will be easy to find the original recording(s).
Week 9 (19/03 – 25/03)
The following Tuesday myself and the rest of the group had arranged to meet to start editing the drama together. As I personally didn’t feel I made too much progress, I decided to rearrange for Friday and continue solely working on the drama on the day.
After meeting Jeremy, myself, Beth and Iona went in to Studio 4 and continued editing the drama. At this point the clips had been arranged in order in a multitrack and we worked on the sound effects we wanted to be used and the positioning of it.
Week 10 (26/03 – 01/04)
Tuesday myself, Beth and Iona met again to continue editing the drama. We managed to do a rough cut Scenes 1 to 4.
Myself and Iona met on Good Friday to continue our search for more sound effects. Together we spent the major of the afternoon going through and search for the perfect sound effects. Unfortunately we didn’t get any editing done.
The following day, I solely worked on editing the audio drama. I got an extremely significant amount done, including fixing the levels, re-panning some audio, adding in the sound effects and tightening everything up. I managed to complete 7 out of the 9 scenes in full. Despite a previous agreement not to add in keyboard clicks, I decided that it was necessary so I plugged in my phone and typed out what the script said. I tried it with pre recorded keyboard clicks but it didn’t quite work as the clicks didn’t match up. I was very careful when editing the drama to make sure the multitrack had an easy to understand structure. I’m very happy with how I managed this as it made the editing process much easier.
Week 11 (02/03 – 08/04)
Not much production took place this week due to Easter Monday, Assessments and the Student Radio Conference. I continued working on the audio drama on Sunday. I had previously sent a bounce of what currently existed to Beth for her feedback, so after completing the final two scenes, I went back and worked on her feedback. Before sending it off to the group for a final listen, I went over it with headphones and made sure everything sounded fine and that all levels were between -10db and -6db.
I sent the play to the group, who were ecstatic with my work. So I did one final bounce and sent it off to Beth for submission. I also provided Iona with the exact timings so that she could fill out the music reporting form:
Journey To Dignitas – Craig Armstrong – 00:00.000 – 00:16.452
Journey To Dignitas – Craig Armstrong – 01:23.441 – 00:12.186
Journey To Dignitas – Craig Armstrong – 02:30.023 – 00:12.186
Crazy in Love (feat. Jay-Z) – Beyoncé – 05:07.083 – 00:08.374
Journey To Dignitas – Craig Armstrong – 06:02.870 – 00:12.186
Journey To Dignitas – Craig Armstrong – 09:55.778 – 00:12.186
Journey To Dignitas – Craig Armstrong – 10:45.000 – 00:12.186
Crazy in Love (feat. Jay-Z) – Beyoncé – 10:57.186 – 00:49.821
Journey To Dignitas – Craig Armstrong – 11:51.003 – 00:12.186
Journey To Dignitas – Craig Armstrong – 12:42.405 – 00:12.186
Journey To Dignitas – Craig Armstrong – 15:03.670 – 00:36.329
Overall, I’m happy with the way the drama turned out. It was unfortunate that the air conditioning was very audible in the recordings but I made it work in our favour, as it really highlights when the protagonist has her internal thoughts. I was a bit concerned that the texting voices were too similar to the internal voice but the sound effects did help differentiate.