RADIO DRAMA - Editing Process

In this session I concentrated solely on audio levels. To do this, I selected the audio section, then clicked PROCESS - ADJUST AMPLITUDE and I turned up or turned down the audio according to the piece as a whole. Whilst I was doing this, the other half of the group was working on Zane's voice sounding possessed using the Pitch Shifter tool.

RADIO DRAMA - Editing Process

I continued my work on adding distortion to Zane's voice. The section I was editing had two different character's dialogue in it. When I first tried to add distortion effects to Zane's voice it did the same for all the dialogue. To get around this I added a new track and using the cut tool cut out Zane's dialogue and dragged it into the new track. I had to make sure it was in line with the other tracks of dialogue. Using the new track, I added distortion to Zane's voice without it affecting the other dialogue. Below is a screen shot with the new track highlighted:

Another element I decided to add that we had previously overlooked was the use of scary music to add tension. Horror films always use it and it's a key convention. I decided to add it as a build up to the point where Gus scares Andy. The music suggests that something horrible is going to happen and thus builds up false tension. This is another key convention of horror films, they build up tension around points that could potentially be scary but end up just being something normal. This keeps audiences on edge. I chose a track that had a direct build up. A screen shot of the "scary" audio can be seen below:

You can hear the tension build up track on the link below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-r_vLYaaP4

RADIO DRAMA - Editing Process

We have been taking it in turns to edit the same Soundtrack Pro file to keep the project all in one piece and to make it easier for us all to have a continuous say in the editing process. Whilst looking through the script during editing, we realised that some sound effects that we had thought about adding weren't needed or made it hard for the dialogue to be heard. I went through the script and highlighted the bits that we decided to leave out. In this session I worked on adding distortion to the vocal of Zane to make it sound like he is speaking through a megaphone. Below is a screen shot of the editing panel that I used to edit the levels of drive and output.

On the link below, you can hear the dance music track that we have decided to use for background music.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wADqhQKzcSU

The sound effects that we are leaving out can be seen on the script below:

RADIO DRAMA - Editing Process

Above are some screen shots of the editing progress so far.

In today's session we considered adding music and we tried a few different classical pieces to add to the finale of our drama. First we listened to them on their own, then we listened to them added to the drama itself. We have found one piece of classical music that goes quite well but we aren't 100% sure yet. We made sure that the music piece was royalty free. We have also added a choking noise that we had to pitch shift to make it sound more feminine for the point where Teena gets strangled.

The original choking sound effect can be heard below:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYl7nzMlIRk

RADIO DRAMA - Editing Process

In this session we let our tutor listen through our radio drama to see what he thought about the editing we had done so far. He was happy with our progress and gave some positive encouragement. One point he did make was for us to watch the volume levels of the dialogue. Our focus became the volume levels for this session and we used the sound envelopes of the dialogue to change the volume of certain parts of dialogue.

RADIO DRAMA - Editing Process

We continued with our editing and sound effects work on our radio in this session. I have now developed a basic set of skills on Soundtrack Pro. I know how to add sound effects, cut audio, layer sound effects, listen to and select sound effects, save the project and proof listen to the audio file. We have made further progress in terms of editing, the session had more of a focus on this aspect. We also had all our group present to add their ideas to the process. We have started editing ahead of schedule, so we will lay off production until next week. This way we can see if there is anything we have missed from the tutorials we will be given.

RADIO DRAMA - Editing Process

Using the dialogue we recorded, myself and my team member Gus started to edit it and add sound effects and musical beds. We used the computer programme Soundtrack Pro. It was simple enough to use, which made it easy to work quickly. First off we read through the script to see what sound effects we'd need. Then we went through the sound effects library listening to various sounds to see what fit best. This is what we focused on for the session. We managed to select appropriate sounds for half of the drama and we edited them in, paying close attention to the volume levels.

For example: with the opening sequence where they are walking through the woods, we chose a woodland soundbed with crickets and frogs faintly in the background. We turned down the sound envelope slightly to give more focus to the vocals. To take the realism further, we added footsteps too.

Further sound effects will need to be added, as well as fade outs and fade ins. We are pleased with our progress. Below is a link to a sound effect we are hoping to use around the mid section of the drama. Its a crowd booing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfOkA_UvYW0