for college

1. Audio
James

2. Existing Products Research
Nexpo- Strange Sounds from 96.7FM
– Narration- The narration on this video is unique when it’s put up against the
other ‘horror’ themed YouTube channels. The person narrating isn’t trying
his hardest to sound scary instead he just let’s his voice go with the tone and
atmosphere of what he’s talking about. Which most of the time is something
unsettling or scary. The background music and sound effects don’t go over
the commentary either, it’s all balanced out really well and as a result
sounds really clean.
– Acting- There isn’t actually much in terms of acting when it comes to this
kind of video. When he takes on another persona it’s when he’s reading any
quotes in the story, and to make it obvious he puts a filter over his voice and
acts how someone in a particular scenario would act, which helps make the
story more convincing as a whole.
– Diegetic Sound- The use of sound is really done on this video in particular.
Since it’s around 26 minutes long, the creator had to make sure the sound
effects go a long with the story, and you don’t have to be watching the
visuals to still understand it. Which you can, you can only listen to the entire
video, and you’ll still understand everything that’s going on. Sometimes he’ll
use some sounds that are relevant to the thing he’s telling a story about,
which in turn makes the story feel more real and memorable. Other time
he’ll just use ambience which helps build tension while also keeping the
video engaging.

3. Existing Products Research
• Soundtrack- The usage of music varies depending on the topic but most
of the time he does use music, mostly it’s when not much is going on and
there’s room for it. It’s never in the way or annoying though, it’s always
low-key and most of the time adds something to the video. Like if he was
just talking with nothing playing in the background it would be noticeable
and would also be far more boring.
• Sometimes he even puts music into the context of the story, like if
something takes place at a specific place then the music might change to
be fitting to that particular place, not only does this just make sense and
betters the video as a whole, it also keeps the video feeling fresh and new
every few minutes.

4. Existing Products Research
– Supermega- SuperMegaCast - EP 115: Dan's Big Secret (ft. Dan
Avidan)
– Narration- The narration in this is different compared to the other things that
I’ve looked at so far for research. I wanted to look at how a podcast can remain
interesting for as long as they should, without being too boring. So for one of
the best examples I looked at one of my favourite comedy podcasts. They
always talk about whatever topics come to mind, or tell stories of stuff that they
went through recently, while keeping it funny and interesting. There’s normally
2 so they keep bouncing subjects off each other. Sometimes they have a feature
as well which keeps things fresh every few episodes.
– Acting- Sometimes when telling a story they’ll quote something that someone
said, it’s not exactly top quality acting given the nature of the podcast, but they
still do a good job at making a certain scenario feel realistic. When talking from
the perspective of someone else, they’d normally just put on a different voice,
one that clearly isn’t their own.
– Diegetic Sound- Sometimes they’ll edit in some sound effects or just noise that
keeps the podcast engaging. They normally have a song that’s just low-key
playing in the background. They won’t even edit in the sound effects a lot of the
time, they have a habit of making noises into the microphones themselves,
most of the time it’s for the sake of a joke but the point is they make noises in
real life to achieve a goal for the sake of the listener.

5. • Soundtrack- There is a song that they sometimes use in some of their
episodes. It’s nothing that’s unique to them it’s most likely a song that
already exists, however they use it really well. They used to use it to open
their episodes which would then segway into the episode , the song still
playing faintly in the background, so the episode won’t feel boring. They
only used this song if there was only the two main people, as a way to fill
the few empty spaces they had. If they used it for the ones with 3 or more
people then it would start to sound really crowded.

6. Existing Products Research
• Royce 5’9- Protecting Ryan (Skit)
– Narration- The narration is actually really calm on this skit, which, considering what the artist is talking
about is really surprising. He’s talking slowly which is because he really wants the audience to actually
listen to what he’s saying. The tone of voice matches really well with the piano going off in the
background as well, which only makes the track more entertaining.
– Acting- The artist takes on multiple personas during the skit. When he isn’t narrating over something that
happened he’s quoting someone else in the story. He’ll normally put on a different voice, each one
completely different from the last, which only makes the story even more convincing. Near the end of the
skit he layers some of the voices over each other to make the argument seem more realistic. What makes
this even more impressive is all the voices are him. He adds vocal effects to some parts to really create a
realistic image in the listeners heads.
– Diegetic Sound- This skit has used more diegetic sound compared to the other two examples I’ve looked
at for this research. The reason it uses so many different sounds is, the artist is trying to create a really
clear and concise image in the listeners heads, so it has to use as many sound effects from the real world
as possible. Things like, police sirens, birds chirping, people talking in the background, and just cars
passing by.
– Soundtrack- There’s a constant piano balled going on in the background. The way the track opens gives
the impression that it’s going to be a song, given it’s from an album that would obviously be a fair
assumption to make. However when the artist starts talking and telling a story it’s obvious that the piano
track is meant to only keep the audience engaged and paying attention. It does have a few switch ups and
key changes to not only keep the entire track fresh, but it also changes depending on what the artist is
actually talking about. One thing does stay consistent with it though, and it’s that it’s calming and does a
really good job at setting the tone of the entire skit, if the background music changes then the mood of
the whole skit changes as well.

7. Bibliography
1. Nexpo- Strange Sounds from 96.7FM-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7aBITkr3W4
2. Supermega- SuperMegaCast - EP 115: Dan's Big Secret (ft. Dan Avidan)-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKOJQ9avHhg
3. Royce 5’9- Protecting Ryan (Skit)-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AZl5EhdAxk

8. Ideas

9. Story
• The basic summary of the story is it’s a retelling of an experience
someone had, it’s going to be stylised as a podcast so it’s me as a
version of myself as if I was actually talking to someone else.
• It’s a retelling of an experience someone had recently, it’s a horror
story and the tone of the podcast here will be completely different
as the story progresses.
• The premise of the story is the protagonist was walking down a
dark woody road on his way to the store on his way back from
work. He felt someone breathing down his neck and fanitly
whispering but when he turned around there was nothing there,
but he still felt a presence which makes the protagonist really
uncomfortable. As the story goes on the events that happen get
more unnerving and violent. He doesn’t want to turn back and run
since he got this far to the store and to give up at this point would
be pointless, however there a few things that happen that make
him want to give up and run back home.

10. Idea Generation/Initial Reaction
Initial
reactions/idea
s
When we got the briefing
for an audio project my
mind instantly went to a
horror themed project,
since the format works so
well for something like that
it’s a perfect chance to use
as many sound effects as
possible, I can also use a
variety of different ideas
and apply them to an
audio only horror story.
The difficult aspects of this project will be either recording
or finding all the right sound effects, and trying to create
the right kind of atmosphere, since it has to be pretty long
and engaging the whole way through as well, keeping
track of time might become an issue. Finding people if I
need them for specific segments will be challenging as
well since they all have their own schedules as well
One of the standout positives of
the format is I can write the
story and script to fit specific
sound effects that I’ve already
thought out before even writing
anything.
Another is I get to use a wide
amount of ideas that I’ve
randomly had throughout the
last year or so, and try and
combine them into one story.

11. Idea Generation/Initial Reaction
Initial
ideas/reacti
ons
When I figured what genre I
was going for and how I
roughly wanted the style to
be like, I have to start
thinking of what the actual
story is going to be. I had a
few ideas instantly but they
all seemed to be either too
short or seemed like the
were all going to go too in
depth and would be boring,
and none of them really had
much of a consistent theme.
So I settled on getting ideas
form a few of the different
stories and putting them all
into one idea that is fully
fleshed out but not too in
depth.
Trying to create the right kind of atmosphere
for this kind of thing is easy to lay the ground
work for but is difficult to keep consistent for
the entire duration, it can fall apart really
easily. So doing research and looking at what
other people have done with this format will
help me structure mine. Using relevant sound
effects will also help the product over all.
Writing the story/script to fit the
time limit is going to be difficult, I’m
going to have to go over a few drafts,
I also have to keep in mind how
quickly I read out the story since I’m
going to switch up the speeds a few
time, since reading at the same pace
through the whole run time will get
really boring and tedious for both me
and the audience. The whole
recording process is going to be
really trial and error anyway.

12. Proposal
Working Title:
The title is Unseen Intruder
Audience:
The audience I’m aiming for with this project is horror fans, middle in social class, and will
probably be male teenagers, or young adults. Since looking at the amount of people that talk
about horror online seem to be this exact demographic, there are obviously exceptions to this
but this is what I see to be the main audience for things like this.
While a lot of them don’t seem to mind sticking to a strict formula a lot of horror fans do want
something different in the media they consume so I need to try and appeal to the part of the
audience that likes a generic structure, and one that wants something new.
Project Concept (approx. 200 words)
The concept of the project is it’s going to be an episode of a fake podcast that one of the members is telling a
horror experience on. The story isn’t aiming to be believable or realistic, I chose this setting because I need the
build up to it to be grounded in reality for the rest of the story to be effective.
To help teach myself good ways of doing a story in this format, I looked at multiple different examples of audio
entertainment and took notes of elements that I thought worked the best, I learned things like, pacing, good
uses of sound effects, ambience and music, and the best way to build the right kind of atmosphere for horror
stories.
I was looking out for the right kind of speed people read out stories in an audio only setting, and it varies, and
also depends on the story, if it’s a longer one then the narrator tends to read quicker as not to waste
unnecessary time. However I need to leave enough space for sound effects to play, I could cut the sound clips
apart, that would make the product sound much less natural though.

13. Experiments

14. Foley
• What went well – Figuring what sounds would work was a good practise for the final
product, looking at was in front of me and thinking what sound effects would work best in
certain contexts wasn’t as boring as I thought since I was always thinking of so many different
sounds that could go into parts of the video.
• Getting some of the sounds was good as well, we got a lot but only some of them fit really
well, but the ones that did sound really good and like they were actually filmed on a set.
• What I learned – Learned how to use the voice recorders and how to improvise sound
effects. Like the sound of the person running wasn’t actually a sound effects of anyone
running, it was some of us walking at the same time that just sounded like someone running,
I used that one because it sounded better then the actual clip of me running.
• This taught me that doing multiple takes of random things can be used to the benefit of the
final product if the intended sound effect doesn’t work as it was planned out.
• What could’ve gone better – Sounds that can’t be improvised or replaced were difficult, we
managed to catch some sounds for the ambience things like the wind and some footsteps.
With just the wind the whole scene sounded empty so I had to go to a website to find a
decent sound effect that could fill the empty spaces. Which in turn drowned out the
footsteps, so I had to layer those sounds and turn up the volume on some of those layers.
This could’ve all been avoided if we recorded enough ambience for the outside scenes.
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LB5kUiYO1S0&t=1s

15. Recording
• Write about your experiences of recording in different
places.
• I tested a few different locations when trying to record for the experiment, I tried
filming in college in the studio mainly, at home, and outside, I thought recording it
outside might add to the ambiance but it really turned out to be more inconvenient
then what it was worth, things like the wind, cars driving in the distance and people
walking nearby always got in the way. Recording at college could’ve been easier but I
found it harder to get record with people around me, so I opted to film it at home,
which did turn out to be the best option in the end, it has good sound quality and I gave
a better narration then I normally would’ve if I was outside or around my friends in the
studio.
• What effect did it have? How will this influence your
project?
• I did a few different takes of it, just to see what would happen, and I found that I got
more and more confident each time, and I found new ways of delivering certain lines
that just sounded awkward and boring on the first few attempts, this made listening
back while editing much easier and not as uninspiring. So I know to definitely do this
with my final product which is going to have a much longer, and impactful script. I could
do all this on my own as well without the fear of annoying anyone nearby, I could work
at my own pace, which also had a positive impact on the final product.

16. Garage Band
• What went well- The end product sounds somewhat like something that could be used as either intro music, or background music to
a podcast. Figuring out what layers worked well with each other and where about I should add a new instrument was fun as well, even
if it all seemed tedious, starting and finishing a track beginning to end is really fulfilling, and left me with the feeling of wanting to
improve it and make it even better, because I can easily see where I can make it better. So I think the thing that went the best was
figuring out where my strengths are and where I can improve because both ways gave me more motivation to carry on with the project.
• What I Learned- While I still don’t understand everything about garage band and still have a lot to learn, what I did learn about it
gave me space to make a semi decent opening track to the podcast. If I had more time I could’ve learned a lot more, and made a much
better experiment though. I found out how to make basic melody's through the key board and the surface level instruments garage
band provides. I learned how to space layers out so everything didn’t sound too messy, and one of the more important things I learned,
for me, is how to control the audio levels on the layers, because I wanted some of the notes to just sound more low-key and harmonies
with the main melody, which they did, I do think it could’ve sounded much better given more time.
• What could’ve gone better- The overall sound could’ve sounded much better, since I think only the middle portion sounds good,
and even with that I know there’s part of it that I can improve on to make it sound even better. I just think some of the instrumentals I
chose don’t work too well together, the notes and melody's seemed fine, but by the time I realised all this it was already basically
finished, and I was already running out of time. I could’ve added more layers just to add a few more notes and a few off beats as well.
• Overall right now the issues I have with this is, it still sounds a bit too empty as it is, which does add onto the ambience and mystery of
the story that’s being told, but if I want parts of it to extend and play in the background I have to consider making it longer and more
diverse, because there is the risk of the track repeating a lot and becoming boring. All of this could obviously be fixed with more time
and focus on just the music track.

17. Planning

18. Script Draft

19. Script Final
(All of the script is told in first person and only one person is talking)
*intro music starts playing*
"So i know we were talking about life experiences last week, and i sat that one out because I didn't want to overshare a bunch of things people most likely
didn't want to hear."
"However since then I have had something happen to me that I feel needs to be said because I honestly don't have an explanation for it and it's gotten to the
point that I can't even sleep anymore"
"It's probably not a big deal and I'm making it bigger then it is, hell i don't even know if this was an extremely vivid dream since everything that happened after
it is basically all a blur but I have to tell this"
*Music stops at this point to give room for the sound effects to play*
"So this was last week, on Wednesday i think, it might have been Thursday? I'm not sure like i said the whole thing is starting to get fuzzy, yet i can still see
everything that happened so clearly, it's weird'"
"I was walking back from work, and you guys with me know that on the walk back i have to walk down this stretched out path that goes down for about a
mile, maybe a mile and a half, and next to the path is a road, no junctions no corners just a straight barren, and empty road. Something else to keep in mind is,
there are no streetlights on this path, you can see the faint glow of the ones up ahead, but for this path there's no resemblance of illumination, it's completely
pitch black, you can only faintly see in front of you. Next to the path is a short woodland which opens up to a field which keeps expanding for as long as you
can see, literally it never stops it's crazy, the woodland stretches out for as long as the path does meaning I'm always walking next to it on the walk back, it
takes a while for you to reach any resemblance of life. You'll get the occasional car passing by, maybe the odd person walking down, but aside from that it's
always completely devoid of any interaction"

20. *Once the setting has been established a faint wind noise can be heard, with equally as faint footsteps*
"The night this happened it was mid winter, so I was walking back in complete darkness, with no flashlight, and my phone
was close to dead, I didn't use the light on that because I didn't want to risk using the rest of the battery."
"So I got halfway down the path when I started picking up on a noise that up until that point I phased out and just played off
as nothing. I couldn't describe it to you, at first I just played it off as being the wind, the issue being that I chose to ignore
though, was there was no wind.
So when i felt something faint blowing on my neck I almost threw myself into the road out of pure, confusion? I'm not sure,
it wasn't fear at first, but something told me that I should have gotten out of the way.
"I wasn't shocked when i looked back and saw nothing was there, because of how dark it was, what else would I have
realistically seen?
It was at this point that i started to feel a presence behind me, but that made no sense right? I mean, i was on an empty
open road with nothing but empty fields surrounding me so feeling some presence makes no sense."

21. • *At the mention of the presence a low rumbling noise will start to play, which will get faintly louder as the story goes on*
• "I tried shaking it but the feeling was still there, I got so lost in trying to get rid of it that i didn't even notice the headlights headed right
for me, I launched myself for the path and watched as this huge truck just passed me by, looking back though, I don't remember a truck
I only see a car? Or something way smaller, either way it sure as hell wasn't a truck."
• "At this point I'm completely gone, my mind is racing and I can only think about running, which I can't do since the ground is completely
invisible to me, but if I stand there trying to catch my breath then the feeling of the presence is stronger, so I'm in a lose, lose situation.
• The worst thing is I can't even decipher it, I can't even shake it, I just have to walk forward and hope that the presence is only that."
• *At the point where I bring up the mind racing, a sound cue of someone breathing heavily will play, but will get drowned out from all
the other sounds playing at that point*
• "I think the best way to describe what the feeling of it was is this, take the feeling of being watched and imagine it at it's worst, then
imagine that the feeling has latched itself onto your back and nothing you do will get rid of it. I mean for all I knew this might not have
been a feeling, it could've been something latching itself onto me, I'd be none the wiser given the surroundings I was faced with"
• "So i carried on walking just having to cope and put up with, what is probably, the worst feeling I've ever experienced. At this point it felt
like a figure was behind me just poking at my brain with the sharpest knife it found in the drawer that day.
• You know it's funny it was the coldest day of the year, yet with the presence, with this feeling, I wouldn't have known, it's like it sucked
all feeling out of me and all that was left was THAT, if anything i was sweating"
• "I wanted to run but the push of the shadow behind me was so strong it just kept pulling me back, but every time I turned around there
was nothing, it was empty, only the standard darkness, instead the presence was now on the other side, the surroundings changed but
nothing was different.”
• *When it gets to the point where I'm at the streetlight the sound effect of a light flickering will play, followed by quickened footsteps
which will both gradually fade out*
• "I was so focused on trying to even stay conscious at this point that I didn't even notice the streetlights in front of me, I didn't want to
move. The presence was still very much there, but what if it could manipulate the things around me, what if it burst the light and I get
covered in shards of broken glass? What if it short circuits and I get shocked?" "Looking back it all sounds so stupid and nonsensical”

22. • "I went for it, I walked under the light shaking the entire time, my mind racing, the presence clutching on tighter then ever, I can't even
catch one of the thoughts, all I could find was the feeling of danger, but from where? It's just a light right? It literally can't do anything. So
what am I even scared of?"
• "I was only half way across, all of this and I was only half way across, I turned off my mind and walked the rest of the way, pushing
everything away. The feeling showing no signs of stopping. I checked the time, 9:30pm, that's the time it normally is by this point, but
how does that make sense so much more has happened, it's felt so much longer."
• "I could've called someone for help but how do I explain this right?
• Home was only another minute away anyway.”
• *When the phone is brought up use a sound effect of a phone being unlocked, carry on using the sound of flickering lights and quickened
footsteps.*
• "I got home, the rest of the walk there was just a rinse and repeat of everything that happened moments before. 1 Minute felt like 10
days. I didn't want to go inside, it wasn't safe, I was convinced there was someone in there that wanted me dead. It makes no sense I
know but I was so sure something would happen, all of this had be foreshadowing something. So.. I sat down at the front door and cried,
shaking in pain, the presence still there it's like it was feeding off me or something. I forgot how to move, I forgot the basics for living, all I
knew in that moment was the feeling and how badly I wanted it to be over."
• *The sound of wind is getting stronger by the time the story is coming to a close, and faint sound of rain will play as well. If it doesn't
sound too messy the sound of someone whimpering or heavily breathing will play when talking about giving up in font of the house*
• "Everything after that is kind of a blur.
• Sorry that dragged on longer then I thought it would, but yeah that was my experience. You know my dad said he drove past me on his
way back from work that night, I told him what happened, he looked shocked like he didn't believe me or something... I looked normal?
There wasn't even anything behind me apparently I was just... walking down the street like I normally would. 'No one would've known' he
said"
• *When it gets to the last paragraph cue the music that was playing at the start to play faintly in the background*
• "And guys you know the weirdest part? I can still kind of feel the presence."

23. Sound Effects
Sound Effect Needed How I Will Create the Sound
Rain hitting the ground/ hitting a window. Record when it’s raining, go outside to get
ambience, and record the rain hitting my
window.
Footsteps, both inside and outside Recording myself waking on different surfaces
Panting or heavy breathing Recording myself just breathing into the
microphone, creates a panicked atmosphere.
Light flickering on and off Record the sounds of a light really closely, if I
can’t get it might need to use a website.
The sound of a door knocking Record myself knocking on a door, soft and
lightly.
Wind noise Make a noise resembling wind with my mouth,
if not accurate enough then record the actual
wind.
Rumbling noise This one is difficult to get, will most likely use
garage band to create a noise that resembles a
rumbling sound.
Phone unlocking and locking Record mine or someone else’s phone being
unlocked, or find sounds of an old iPhone be
locked and unlocked.

24. Actors/Locations
Actor Role Location for recording
Myself Narration At home
Myself Sound Effects Variety of locations, college, at home,
outside

25. Music
Band Name Track Name Link
Eminem Leaving Heaven
(instrumental)
https://www.youtube.com/watch
?v=q2OXSnzBEaU
Slipknot Snuff (instrumental) https://www.youtube.com/watch
?v=dM50RdJX9jI
Joyner Lucas I’m Sorry (instrumental) https://www.youtube.com/watch
?v=2clZT8sjDTU

26. Resource List
Resource Owned/Cost What sound effect will it be
used for?
Light bulb Owned Light flickering on and off
Vocals Owned Narration, wind, panicked
breathing
Garage band Owned Music and rumbling noise
Loud shoes Owned Footsteps
Door, or something hollow Owned Knocking
Phone Owned Unlocking and locking sounds.

27. Production

28. Daily Reflection Day 1
• For the first day I just wanted to really focus on making the song that plays at
the start, I wanted to make something that sets the mood for what the
audience is about to listen to while also having a semi decent melody that
hopefully people would remember. Since I had some time left after making the
song I decided to choose what already existing songs I wanted to use for the
background when the narration is going on. I already had some in mind but
they all had lyrics, so I couldn’t use the normal versions since both the
narration and the lyrics would’ve overlapped with each other. So I had to try
and find the instrumental versions of the songs I decided on, luckily they were
all relatively easy to find and close to true to the originals. Putting them under
the narration works a lot better then what I thought it would they all perfectly
fit with what I’m saying and the tone of it all.
• Some of the mixing and audio levels are a bit off but that’s something I can
sort out and try to fix on the second day.
• Might need to add something's to the song I made to make it more impactful
at the start as well.

29. Daily Reflection Day 2
• The second day- On the second day I put all finishing additions onto the song
that will play for the intro, there’s still work that I know can be done on it to
make it way better but for the sake of time I needed to stop at ‘just okay’ I still
think it sounds good enough to include though.
• I altered all the audio that was either too loud or too quiet, all the music has
been turned down by loads compared to what it sounded like when it started
off. I put filters over all of the music files as well, since I had to compensate for
how quiet they are now, I used the ‘Music Enhancer’ filter just to bring the
sound of them out a bit more.
• Because of the filter on the music that I just added, it now kind of flushed out
the narration so I added a filter to my narration as well, I used the ‘radio
announcer’ filter since I thought that was a good balance between ‘loud and
not too loud’ and I think the end result works really well.
• I also found a good ‘wind chime’ effect to place over some parts of the intro
song to add just a bit more to overall sound of it, at first it sounded completely
out of place and intrusive, but after messing with the audio levels and adding
a good enough filter to it, it actually works really well and actually adds a lot to
the other wise really quiet intro to the song.

30. Daily Reflection Day 3
• Third day- The third day I basically dedicated to finding and downloading
sound effects and exporting the ones that I got myself.
• The ones that I got myself weren’t that great and were difficult to hear when
placed in with everything else, I did manage to use one or two of them, but
the rest I had to sample from online as a replacement, the ones from the
websites I used sound so much cleaner and fit in really well with the story and
the songs.
• Finding the right placement for the sound effects is what took up most of my
time I had thought a head on most of the placements, but there were some
points that I wanted to add more just so the track didn’t sound too empty.
• Getting the timings down was a bit harder then I thought at first as well, just
trying to line up what I was saying and getting a certain effect to play at the
same time was more time consuming then difficult, because the timing to me
is so important to get right, because if it’s even slightly off then it can take the
listener out of the experience, so getting something to play at the right time
has got to be right.
• I added effects over the sound effects and changed the audio levels on them

31. Daily Reflection Day 4
• The 4th day a dedicated to just adding any finishing things to the project, I listened
to it upwards of 10 different times just to make sure it sounded as good as I could
make it. Overall I was pretty happy with how it turned out, nothing sounded too
choppy or intrusive, and there were only 2 instances of the mic being brushed over
as well.
• I put some time to just making sure everything was balanced out perfectly I muted
some layers to see what certain sounds sounded like when they were isolated
which let me change the audio levels even more. When I played it all back for one
of the last times I did notice that my narration was being drowned out by all the
sound effects and the music, so I isolated the narration and muted everything else,
and went through a variety of different effects that I could use, after about ten
minutes of testing the same segments with different effects I finally settled on one
that sounded good and blended in with all the others.
• When I finally listened to it for the last time I knew there was still improvements I
could’ve made, like adding more sound effects, but I didn’t want the project to
sound too crowded, especially since I was shooting for a more low-key vibe
anyway.

32. Evaluation

33. Research
• Strengths
• The strengths of the research was seeing how other people took the audio story format
and made it their own. Some people used visuals, some focused more on making the
commentary interesting and others used music and sound effects to make their project
stand out even more. So I looked at all of those aspects to see what about them worked
the best and tried to work them into the planning of my own, things like the timing of
sound effects, what kind of music works best over particular segments, and how to
structure a script.
• Looking at podcasts helped me see how people incorporate their personalities into an
audio only format which I think had an overall positive impact on the final project, I was
happy with how this side of it turned out since I was afraid of my narration sounding
boring and monotone.
• Weakness
• I think the major weakness of the research was I didn’t really look at that many different
thinks, there was a lack of variety. I think looking at more skits would’ve really helped me
understand the timing of sound effects, and variety in voices. Since I only looked at one
skit though, most of my understanding of sound effects came that one thing only. I think
looking at one more podcast would’ve really helped as well, just for more reinforcement
than anything else.

34. Planning
• Strengths
• A strength of my planning was I got to go through a bunch of ideas that I was dwelling
on for a while and take elements of each of them and put them all into one singular
script, that was another strength, drafting a script. As I was getting more ideas, more
lines and scenarios kept coming to mind as well, things that I could really easily
translate to a script format.
• A major thing that helped with the planning was the experiment that I put together. It
helped me build confidence in narrating for the final project, because by voicing
something as weird and outlandish as a nursery rhyme it made everything I narrated in
my final product not as weird and uncomfortable. The experiment also gave me a good
mental image for what it would look like when it came to sound effects for when I put
the actual thing together, it gave me a good idea for audio balancing as well.
• Weaknesses
• I think the biggest weakness of planning would be the fact that I didn’t really plan out
what songs I wanted to use, I knew what kind of style I wanted to use but not what
songs specifically. Which meant I had to dedicate about 20 minutes of actual
production of the final product to looking for songs, luckily since I know about so many
it wasn’t as hard as it could’ve been.
• I never included any songs in the experiment

35. Time Management
• What went well with time management
• I kept on schedule for the entire thing, I basically always tried to stay working so
that I would never fall behind on anything.
• I did finish the product on time and even had some to spare to make sure that
nothing was unbalanced or out of place and I had the right amount of sound
effects so that to project doesn't sound too empty and boring.
• If I had the opportunity to work on it for longer then I obviously would’ve but it
would mean going back and changing basically everything about the project, since
I based everything about it on the amount of time that I had. With more time
though I would’ve made the commentary longer, the script would’ve gone into
more detail, I would be able to have more sound effects and probably could’ve
experimented with having more characters involved which would’ve let me try to
put on different voices for them.

36. Technical Qualities
My product
Existing Product
• Has sound effects to make the
word the story is set in come
more to life
• Has one layer of narration over
only a few different layers of
sound effects, mainly out of
worry of everything sounded too
crowded and messy.
• Has several different music tracks
that play throughout the entire
run time, all of different genres
but fitting with the mood,
volume levels are all basically the
same and never really change,
just so the narration doesn’t get
overwritten.
• Has in depth sound effects that
blends in with the world the
story has set, has loads of layers
of different sounds and
narrations to really make the
project feel immersive.
• Mainly has one consistent
piano balled that plays
throughout the entire 3 minute
run time, differs in volume
depending on what’s going on
in the skit.
• Has loads of different voice
acting just from one guy that’s
narrating, it features a variety
of different characters and
settings, and different
perspectives, from 1st and 3rd
person.

37. Aural Qualities
I think overall the project turned out well and does actually sound good.
I made sure to spend a lot of time balancing out the audio levels, things like the
narration, sound effects, and music just to make sure that everything sounded
as good as it possibly could.
I still think some of the sound effects sound a bit messy when layered over with
everything else, but it's not really that noticeable and the narration blocks most
of it out anyway.
I got a lot of the sound effects from YouTube or other online places because the
ones i needed to make everything work were just too difficult to get, they were
either too time consuming or the ones that i did manage to get just didn't sound
good enough to include.
There were some sound effects that I did plan on using but just couldn't
because they would have made everything just sound worse and way messier,
i tried using some of them, but they were out of place, and by this point the
software i was using to put the audio together started to freeze and crash
because i was using too many effects and layers.
Adding effects to some of the layers definitely had a good impact on the overall
sound as well, it just made some aspects of it sound more professional, the
narration fits in with this especially.

38. Audience Appeal
My target audience was teenage male horror fans that are fans of the horror
genre, I wasn't so focused on how they preferred to take in the media more so
how they reacted to the content in general. I was aiming for the side of horror
fans that don't mind things being stuck to a typical horror formula but also look
out for a change or some kind of innovation.
I think i succeed with this in some degree, while my project is horror 'themed' it
wasn't really the main focus. I was more so trying to create an uncomfortable or
gloomy atmosphere that might freak some people out and make some others
more uneasy with the subject matter.
While i think a lot of the target audience would like the product some might be
turned off with how slow of a set up it has and how unbelievable it may seem to
some, despite the whole thing being a metaphor for something that's based on
a true event.
Like mentioned i did try and stick to a somewhat traditional formula that a lot of
horror fans would be used to, things like ‘fear of the unknown’ and ‘walking
back home alone in the dark’ but to try and appeal to my audience i tried taking
this formula and turn them into something else that i've not really seen many
other people do.