PRE- PRODUCTION WEEK 1 – 22/2/19

Final year at uni had myself wanting to explore different lengths of the media world, find out what else the university has to offer and sheer curiosity of simply wanting to check out the radio studios. As I’m a musician myself, and having took a music class during second year at uni, I wanted to explore what most of the radio and music students at uni had always been getting up to, quite frankly its all been very interesting to me.

To be frank, I desperately wanted to do practical work at uni at least once before graduation. Unbeknownst to me, ”Producing Audio Drama” was a module I had not expected to have taken. Being assigned to my group, and having taken the role of Producer, I channeled all the knowledge of acting in school plays, performing on stage at concerts, and music production knowledge into producing Trawler, by Tessa Franklin-Mann, along with the group assigned to me.

The first week, as producer, I had simply wanted to integrate myself amongst peers and an environment completely different to what my degree of Digital Media and Communications had me experience over my time at uni. A web design student, felt almost completely out of place amongst the radio students. Anyway, I had asked my group mates to add me to a group chat, where we all further coordinated and discussed the plan for the next coming weeks. The first week had me researching several podcasts such as The Walk, The Black Tapes, and The Message.

PRE-PRODUCTION WEEK 2 – 1/3/19

Essential checks with the group, making sure everything is in running order, and gathering material for post and live recording, along with meeting and discussing with the group were all part of the final checklists of pre production week. Reminders of group meetings before and on the day of the meeting were essential components to make sure nothing was left out. Liaising and consulting with the group, and finding a time that works best for everyone is an important part of communication as a group, in order to make sure we all participated equally.

Constant consultation with the production coordinator was a must, specially since they were in initial contact with our playwright Tessa. Meeting with Tessa at Regents Campus, hearing her thoughts, opinions and suggestions about the play, and deciding character profiles amongst the group and finalisation of scripts were all part of the final week before production.

Meeting with the director and studio manager of the group pre production was essential, as we had planned and discussed important sequences and sections in consideration to direction and production of the audio itself. Props were also discussed, reminded of on the day of the recording and before, and personally bringing a sheet, tray, and towel for live recording was also another fun aspect that I would not gotten to do if I had not chosen this module.

STUDIO WEEK – 

Studio week had finally dawned upon us, we all had met at 9:30 am, I had previously consulted with our production coordinator and they were already present at uni beforehand and had greeted our playwright and actors. Production of the audio itself was an interesting experience to see skilled actors bringing the script to life. I had aided our director in guiding and providing our actors with context. Live sounds such as plates and scuffle noises were also an interesting experience in helping with live recording of the production.

EDIT WEEKS AND FINAL SUBMISSION

Our studio manager and director had the responsibility (and expertise) to handle all editing and work relating to the studio. I had aided in creative direction, suggestions as to what I thought should be put where, and what sounds worked better against the scenes. Both the draft audio as well as the final audio worked on by our studio head and director were sent for checks and suggestions before finally being sent by myself for final submission. Pre production documents were worked on alongside the production coordinator while the rest of the team worked on edits. The draft for the intro and outro credits were written by me, and spoken and recorded by our director before being finalised into out audio and sent in for submission.