The document provides an evaluation of Ethan Colman's production process for an audio project. Some key points: - Research focused on themes for young adult fiction like loss of passion and difficult emotional choices. - Planning fell apart due to delays getting voice recordings from others and a self-recorded version was used instead. - Poor time management led to delays getting feedback on voice recordings. - Audio quality was generally good with minor issues where edits were sloppy. - Peer feedback suggested using more voice actors, picking a more interesting story segment, and adding non-diegetic elements like music.

1. Evaluation
Ethan Colman

2. Production Process Evaluation

3. Research
• The research for my project helped me form more of an understanding of what
themes work best in young adult fiction and how to address them. It has lead me
to themes such as characters dealing with fading passion and trouble finding
motivation with things you used to enjoy as well as themes about abuse, toxic
behaviour and difficult choices that don’t always make total logical sense and are
based on emotions and how that is an acceptable thing to do etc.
• My research also showed me that I don’t need to shy away from extreme topics like
racism, abuse, and prejudice/violence and so some of these themes are

4. Planning
• My planning wasn’t very thorough and it fell apart quite quickly. I reached out to a
small number of people for recordings but due partly to my own waste of time
sending out the script to said people and also in part to the fact that they have
other things going on especially considering the end of the college year is upon
them as well it took a long time to get anything really back from them.
• I was however able to make a narrated version by myself so that I had a completed
piece of work however the production quality of course would theoretically be
lower.
• My planning also allowed me the comfort that I could drop off the art side of it if I
didn’t have time for it and that I already had an iteration of the script created to
work off of which would save me more time.

5. Time Management
• My time management was poor because I took too long to send out my script to potential
voice actors which meant once they found free time to do the recordings would be too late
for me to be able to critique and get another take sent to me.
• Time management had some leniency since I could remove an art side of the project and
had already written a version of my script in my spare time so I started with some
advantages.
• My time was also poorly managed when I found myself unable to do anything during days
when I was waiting to receive my recordings. If I had taken that time to begin my own
recordings, going off into a suite and taking a hand held recorder with me, I could have
saved some of my at home time that might have been better spent working on editing, or
planning or other more productive things rather than the chunk of wasted time spent in
college because of my lack of foresight.
• I think with more time I would have been able to produce a better piece of work. With this
extra time I would have liked to work further into the story or pick out pieces later on that
contained more of the mature themes such as child abuse, dependency, alcoholism etc that
play more into the young adult fiction aspects of not shying away from serious topics. I think
with more time and getting further into the plot I would have also had more chances for
natural feeling diegetic audio that could have quiet improved the atmosphere/feeling and
pace of the work.

6. Technical Qualities
• The microphone used for recording is high quality meaning it picks up the ranges in
tone from the voice actors.
• The editing software I have used it good for what I am trying to do. I was able to
cleanly cut most points where I fumbled words and redid parts of paragraphs and
by “stapling” them together make a clean run through for the final product. There
were a few times that it didn’t feel like it perfectly melded together and sound a
little choppy.
• Used software to try and remove things like small amounts of background noise and
occasional reverb from audio pieces. I did this through a piece of software I was told
about called Audacity, it has a function where if you select a piece of the audio file
where there is no speech/other audio it can isolate the soundwaves present and
remove them from the rest of the audio. The reverb function can use information
about the size of the room to calculate what the reverb would be like and then
remove it.
• The audio quality (lack of background audio, crisp tonal range) is similar to that of
other audio books I have listened to. I would also compare the pace, professional
sounding narrators chosen and quality of the emotive vocal range.

7. Aural Qualities
• Voice actor quality – Through reruns of voice lines I think that the actor I have used
for my narrator has successfully captured some of the emotion and personality
traits of the characters to make them seem a little bit more alive and realistic. I
wish I had managed to get voice lines from others for the characters, especially for
differentiation of the characters and adding that extra level of realism for the
listener, however without said voice lines does play into the design that it is like an
autobiography being told by the character later when they are an accomplished
athlete.
• Audio quality – The microphones used for recording are of high quality affording
good range in tones and crisp quality.
• Lack of background audio – Audio software was used to try and remove
background sounds captured due to recording spaces used that had uncontrollable
amounts of background sound.
• I would say that the overall quality of the audio sounds similar to that of genuine
audio books. There is no interference or background audio although the cleanliness
of some lines being edited is sloppy occasionally by under a second which can
create a slightly atmosphere breaking moment.

8. Audience Appeal
• Plot containing young characters trying to figure out what they want to do, what to
do when their passion seemingly dies, how to self motivate themselves, how to
trust people when they’ve been through trauma, how to deal with the day to day
harshness of life. Etc.
• The voice actors I am picking are based around audience appeal as well as similarity
to the envisioned character, thinking about things like how satisfying a voice is to
listen to overall and that can capture enough range of emotions.
• Diegetic

9. Peer
Feedback

10. Feedback 1
• What did you like about the product?
– Background audio being there but not too
dominating
• What improvements could have been made to
the product?
– More voices

11. Feedback 2
• What did you like about the product?
– The emotion that was trying to be conveyed
through the reading of the speech lines
• What improvements could have been made to
the product?
– More interesting segment of the story

12. Feedback 3
• What did you like about the product?
– Felt like the reading was at a slow enough pace to
follow well
• What improvements could have been made to
the product?
– Something to make it more interesting

13. Peer Feedback Summary
• What do you agree with from your peer
feedback?
– I think that it might have been a better idea to pick a part of the script that showcased the Young
Adult Fiction serious topics more
– I think the balance for the background audio was good although I do wish that I had managed to do
something with the diegetic audio to make it a little more exciting somehow or something
– I also agree that more voice actors would have been more interesting.
• What do you disagree with from your peer
feedback?
– I don't think there was that much emotion conveyed through the lines. I did try and made a decent
effort, but I just think it would have moulded the emotions better if I had, had more voice actors to
solidify a sense of different people with those emotions and I think that would have come across a
lot better

14. Peer Feedback Summary
• More voice actors would have increased interest.
• Something else could have been tried to keep it more interesting like some other
style of diegetic audio or maybe even none diegetic and put in some music on a
certain part or something
• Reading pace was good for at least some viewers
• A different segment of the story might have been better to do since I chose the
introduction which was just a choice of habitual thinking that it had to start from
a logical point in the plot rather than picking an interesting part
• Background audio was not overpowering
• Some emotion was conveyed through the lines and seemed to help the
enjoyment