Planning Process 

The practical work that has been done this week includes recording my final draft of my script, I recorded multiple takes. 

The multiple reasons why I recorded different times; 

• Try different styles of speaking, make it conversational, serious, etc. 
• To avoid making mistakes 
• It improves the quality 

• Be able to listen to it from and audience perspective. 

The earlier planning was useful as it allowed me to read off a script that was produced during the pre-production phase. By researching all the topics required for my project it gave me the freedom to speak about the controversial topics but have evidence to back up the disputable statements. 

I have encountered diverse issues during the process of this project, some being, not receiving constructive feedback on the second draft of my script, and waiting 2 weeks before finally going through with recording my audio,  how I overcame this problem is that I sent my raw audio to multiple people as you get a better feel for what the piece will sound like over reading the script and not knowing how the dialogue will come across. 

 Production  

The production process has been a difficult and challenging period, the ways in which my work has been demanding include these factors; 

•  My editing software adobe audition kept crashing and losing all my edited work 
• My Vox pops (answers given by the public that answer my queries) some of my clips, the quality was not at a professional standard as in some of the clips you can hear background noise such as conversations and air conditioning and footsteps 

• My script being too long and containing information that wasn’t relevant to the topic. 
• I have faced a lot of criticism on my work due to it being a controversial topic, however I have overcome this by approaching the topic carefully and appropriately. 

There were many positive elements to my production here are a few of the positives; 

• All the interviews found for my audio documentary support all the statements in my script 
• The way my finished product sounds, the bed chosen, is perfect and sets the tone throughout my podcast, making it clear that it is a dark and a serious topic that needs to be heard by the public. 

• My idea  
• I learnt how to deal with topics sensitively and be objective. 
• I learnt how to consider viewpoints different to my own 
• I leant how to research both sides of an argument 

I believe that I will release my audio documentary on SoundCloud as it is a free platform that is easily accessible. First, while both SoundCloud and Spotify have large user bases, Spotify has only 75 million active users compared to SoundCloud’s more than 175 million monthly listeners. 

I developed my production from my original idea, initially I wanted to have one long podcast that would have the beginning, middle and end for the untold truth of MeToo, but was suggested to me by a mentor that I should instead do a  documentary series (a several part documentary of short audio clips) of the untold truth of MeToo, but dedicate each part to the certain topic of my series. I have adapted my podcast by forming a new script with the most important elements of unveiling the truth of false allegations and sexual assault. The audio that I have produced is the final episode of the  series, revealing the end product of what I wanted my demographic to hear, and as a result of what they have listened to it will hopeful open their eyes and make them question their opinion. 

The skills that I have developed include the following 

• Receiving critique and taking it into consideration and making changes to my work where it is required. 

• Editing skills on the software adobe audition, being able to fade interviews and audio, control the levels to ensure that the audio doesn’t peak and sounds sharp and unprofessional. 

Technical issue and Problem solving: 

• Lost edited footage – Started fresh and saved my work every 5 minutes to ensure that I wouldn’t lose a significant amount of work in future. 
• Couldn’t find sources that provided information that was useful to my podcast – used several different sources such as news articles, YouTube clips. 
• Equipment found it difficult to record on a Tascam, (is a device used to record audio), always end up clicking record and it turns out the audio did not record. Furthermore, the quality of audio was never crisp or clear.-  How I solved this problem was I used the mic foam, this stops the sound form peaking when people use words that include the letters ‘p’ and ‘t’, to add on this addition to the Tascam allows cancels out background sounds. 

The next steps for this piece is to collate feedback from the audience, and how I am going to do that is that I am going to have a focus group where I will have a small group of induvial ranging from 4-6 and I will play my podcast, then get them to write feedback on the piece, mentioning what they liked, what they didn’t like and why, and bits I should have included and shouldn’t have included. 

This is how I am going to develop my project as it will allow myself to make the final altercation which best fit my piece to allow full engagement with my target audience. Moreover, this will allow me to include how I would improve my work in future in my final evaluation. 

My concerns are that my final piece is quite long, (18minutes) which I feel will ensure the audience to stop listening and not be engaged, however, I believe that with the topics explored in my piece that they will be interested and will listen to my full short documentary. In future, I will be more strategic and realistic with my timings for my documentary, as for this project I wanted to squeeze a lot of information into a short time frame. 

The main issue I encountered was the small elements in my piece such as transitions, (how a piece of music and dialogue smoothly form together) and accidently cutting off the ends of words, and my dramatic pauses. But, how I overcame these problems was I got a second pair of ears to listen to my work and help me make the changes by cutting out small breaths, or turning down or turning up the volume, as those small adjustments can change the quality of your audio from good to great. 

(myself editing) 

(second pair of ears)