The audio document contains a series of short ghost stories set in York, England that are narrated with background music and sound effects. Each story lasts around 30 seconds and details a different haunted location or ghost sighting in York involving dead children. The audio uses a clean narration and unsettling sound effects and music to tell 4 condensed local ghost tales meant to intrigue and scare listeners.

1. Audio
Your Name Here

2. Short Story's
• Bedern, a narrow alleyway off of Goodramgate (above), is thought to be haunted by the ghosts of
long dead children. In the early nineteenth century it was the site of York Industrial Ragged school,
an institution for orphans and children from impoverished families.
• The establishment was run for nearly a decade by a violent drunk. Local gossip rumoured that he
had beaten more than one child to death and hidden the bodies in a cupboard in his room. It is said
that their restless spirits can still be heard here – and you might feel the cold hand of a child
clinging to yours.
• The ghost of a small girl called Sarah has been reported as wandering the corridors of Micklegate
Bar – sometimes accompanied by a sound of jangling keys. After losing the keys to the Bar that
were her father’s responsibility, she spent the rest of her life looking for them. When she finally did
find them she dropped down dead.
• Linking Swinegate with Low Petergate, Lund’s Court – or Mad Alice Lane as it used to be called – is
believed to be haunted by a famous former resident. One Alice Smith used to live here but was
hanged for the crime of insanity at York Castle in 1825. Her ghost – it is said – can still be seen
gliding down the alleyway.
• Just south of York in the village of Bishopthorpe, there have been sightings of a headless torso
wandering the fields. Back in the eighteenth century, a wealthy women was murdered for her
money and the body hidden nearby. By the time she was found the body was in an advanced state
of decay and the head had become detached.
• If you travel north-east from York toward Malton you might see the ghost of ‘Nance’ on the
A64. Due to marry a mail coach driver, she apparently fell for the charms of a highwayman.
Her choice proved a bad one unfortunately, for he left her and her child to die of exposure on
the lonely road. She is believed to appear when visibility is bad to guide travellers through
the mist.

3. Research- If you are unable to find your own examples, you can use the ones
below.
• The Archers (audio drama)
• https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qpgr/episodes/player
• Short Cuts (documentary/factual)
• https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01mk3f8/episodes/player
• Lore (documentary/factual)
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3RGz7Q_qlI
• Doctor Who (audio drama)
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZA50biqUB-8
• Soundscapes
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIUTO4gx5Eg
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JVm2IZ3ChU
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nc5YHodcXpM
DELETE THIS SLIDE WHEN DONE

4. Existing Products Research
• Doctor who
• The audio in this product is in the form of a live story. There
are quite a verity of background sound effects and also a
backing soundtrack just to help the atmosphere when there is
a quiet space. There are some small background sounds such
as chains and then a big smoke effect and some voice editing.
This is so we know when a character in this case is fading
away, or dyeing. There are also eerie cinematic sounds to set
the scene as in a space ship or somewhere futuristic as they
sounds suggest.

5. Existing Products Research
• Lore
• There is a quiet piano tune playing throughout the whole
documentary style product. The piano music gives the whole
documentary a creepy feel as the speech pauses in certain
spots to reveal the piano which is loudened at these
moments. The voice is smooth and also has an eerie feel. This
voice speaks throughout the whole product. The voice is clear
and easy to understand.

6. Existing Products Research
• Haunted House Soundscape
• This product is the ambience of a haunted house filled with
classic sounds you would hear at a typical haunted house.
Sounds such as creaking doors, footsteps and voices. Each
sound is composed at the perfect time to produce a good
scare or creep out the listener. The sound is most likely
designed to be used as the background music for a video or
movie of a haunted house. It could also be played at a place
such as a theme park haunted house ride or at a house on
Halloween to scare people who approach.

7. Bibliography
Matt Fitton. (2018). Doctor Who - The Seventh Doctor Is Scary AF.
Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZA50biqUB-8. Last
accessed 6th November 2018.
Aaron Manke. (2017). LORE - Episode 74: All Fall Down.
Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3RGz7Q_qlI. Last
accessed 6th November 2018.
Katie Whelan. (2017). Haunted House Soundscape. Available:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JVm2IZ3ChU. Last accessed
6th November 2018.

8. Planning

9. Idea Generation/Initial Reaction
• Narration
• Backing Track
• Spooky Ambience
• Rain/ Storm
• Doors
• Horse and Carriages
• Whispers
• Heartbeat
• Thuds
• Creeks in Floorboards
• Children's Voice and Laugh
• Eerie Background Noises
I was initially excited to challenge myself to make an audio product without a video. I
think this will be tricky as it wont be as simple as making it with also a visual
representation as it would be easier to picture the product. I also think that it will be
fun to narrate my own story as I am planning on doing a story and not any type of
documentary or soundscape. I am worried about how clear I am going to be able to
make my voice and also establish that the product is a story.

10. Proposal
Working Title:
The Ghost Tales
Audience:
My audience is for people of over the age of 22+ it will be a scary and have more of a dark tone which may
disturb any younger viewers. It is this high because I also don’t think that younger viewers will find it as
interesting and also most likely wont listen to the radio as much as say a working adult or the elderly. I wont
aim it at any gender in specific because I believe both genders will find it interesting. I think this will be aimed
at middle class but also people who work as they will most likely have the radio on, on the way to work or even
at work. I will aim it at slightly older people than young adults so around 35ish although it will also appeal to
people 22+ like I said earlier.
Project Concept
The project I am making is going to be a series of short story's in one audio product. They will all last around 30
seconds each and it will consist of 3 or 4 of these story’s. I will use real ghost tales from the city of York and will
shorten a few down to have a suspenseful feeling which will intrest the listeners as they will get 4 times the
scares and suspense. The product will also consist of a soundtrack playing quietly and then growing louder in-
between story's and to fill in small gaps. I will have different sound effects for each story and have sound
effects such as loudening heartbeats and other noises which intensify to grow suspense and lead the audience
up to a big scare or chilling moment. I will have a clean voice over of me or someone talking and edit bits for
extra scares or to add to the spooky feel. The voice changing also could help add emotion and help introduce
maybe more than one character. I will use sound effects at different volumes and with fades and other effects
so that the sounds don’t sound fake but don’t overthrow the main speech and narration.

11. Script
• York is a large city with many great tourist attractions and activities. But every city has a darker side
and York is no exception. It is home to an array of ghosts and today we will be talking about the
ghost children of York in a series of short tales. Lets begin.
• In a small alleyway named Bedern, there are rumours to be a group of ghosts of the dead children
who died over the years. It is the sight of where the old York Industrial Ragged school for orphans
and children from impoverished families stood many years ago.
• A local and popular pub was run for nearly a decade by a violent drunk. Local gossip rumoured that
he had beaten more than one child to death and hidden the bodies in a cupboard in his room. It is
said that their restless spirits can still be heard here, and you might feel the cold hand of a child
clinging to yours.
• The ghost of a small girl called Sarah has been reported as wandering the corridors of Micklegate
Bar in the city of York. Sometimes you can hear the sound of jangling keys. After losing the keys to
the Bar that were her father’s responsibility, she spent the rest of her life looking for them. When
she finally did find them she dropped down dead and now roams the old bar to this day.
• Just south of York in the village of Bishopthorpe, there have been sightings of a headless torso
wandering the fields. Back in the eighteenth century, a wealthy women was murdered for her
money and the body hidden nearby. By the time she was found the body was very decayed as it had
been left to rot for days. This resulted in the head becoming detached from the body but the soul
and ghost of the woman still here to this day.

12. Sound Effects
Sound Effect Needed How I Will Create the Sound
Children's Chatter Online or record it with my voice and
some others.
Burning Crackle Online or with my fireplace.
Pub Ambience Online or record from my local pub.
Screams Online or shout myself.
Door Slam Online or just record slamming a door.
Light Footsteps Online or record my footsteps on carpet.
Jangling Keys Online or shake my keys.
Church Bells of a Death Online or record Howden minster chime.
Horse and Carriage Online or coconuts, belts jangling and
leather rubbing.
Dirt Being Dug Online or dig a hole.

13. Resource List
Resource Owned/Cost What sound effect will it be
used for?
Coconuts £1 Horse and Carriage
Spade Owned Hole being dug
Keys Owned Keys jangling
Fireplace Owned Fire cracle

14. Music
Band Name Track Name Link
Derek Fiechter Forbidden Lullaby https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQmVl-A55vc

15. Production

16. Daily Reflection Day 1
Today I recorded all of the sounds that I needed for my
podcast. I grabbed mot of the tricky ones online, but
for ones such as footsteps and jangling keys I recorded
myself. I spent the first hour and a half gathering all of
the sounds and also recording the ones I had to record.
I then started to create my product. I got as far as
putting in all of the audio and some of the sound
effects, although I did not add any effects such as fade
and others to any of the audio.

17. Daily Reflection Day 2
• Today I finished adding the effects to the audio and I
also just went back and perfected it. I did things such
as shorten sound effects, make all of my speech
audio the same volume and lower the volume of
some of the louder effects. I then created some
simple art on Photoshop for the thumbnail and
background of my video when I published it to
YouTube. I uploaded it to blogger and then that was
my audio product finished.

18. Evaluation

19. Research
• For my research I listened to 3 different audio products. The one that I learnt
the most from is the Doctor Who one because it was a story and I was doing a
story. Although the Doctor Who story was supposed to be live and my was
being told. This helped my product as they used backing music which is where
I got the idea for that and it was good for filling in quiet spaces. The weakness
of my research was the fact that I couldn't find anything that was very similar
to my product. Although one of the podcasts called Lore was a narrator telling
a story and it was not horror but was more thriller. This was also where I drew
some inspiration from although it had very little sound effects in. To improve I
could have listened to things that were more suitable to the horror genre. I
would also have liked to have listened to more story telling podcasts with
better sound effects and how to transition from a line to an effect. I
researched the ghost story's that I used just by typing in Ghosts in York. I then
chose a website and picked 4 short story’s and then made them slightly longer
and decided where I could add effects and what I could use. I chose these
story’s because they were short but could be made longer if needed.

20. Planning
• For the planning I wrote the script by getting the story's I chose and just
making them more story like and not as if it was just general information. I
then planned which sound effects I would need and which I could create
and I would find the others online. This was one of the strengths as it
helped me a lot with how much time to spend on each sound. One of the
weaknesses of my planning was that some of the story's I didn’t change
too much and it is easy to see where I dragged the inspiration from which
could cause copyright issues. Also to improve my research I could have put
more research into how some sound effects are made so I could maybe
have made some more of my own effects. This wouldn't have had much of
a difference although some of the sounds may not have sounded as
realistic.

21. Time Management
• My time management was good as I left myself enough time to improve
on my product on day 2. I managed to record my sounds within the first
lesson and part of the second but then I was straight onto my product
which was good because it would give me a lot of time to think about
effects and composition. I Put the initial sound effects, speech and backing
track into their places and then that was all for day 1, which was a good
start because then I had another hour and a half the next day to change
the sounds to the correct volume and add effects to the sounds. I
managed to complete my product with quite a bit of time to spare. If I had
more time to produce my work I would have made my story's longer but
still only had 4, this would have also allowed me to create and add more
sound effects.

22. Technical Qualities
• My work is quite similar to a piece called lore I looked at and drew
inspiration from. It is similar because they are both telling story’s although
lore has very little sound effects whereas mine has quite a lot. I also
looked at foley artists online. I found things such as how to make certain
sounds such as a horse and carriage. I have only made the more simple
sounds such as using keys and some lanyards for jangling keys and I also
made footsteps just by recording me running and walking on the spot. I
was going to make the horse and carriage with some coconuts, leather
belts rubbing and the belt buckles clanging, but I could not acquire
everything needed. To record the sounds I used my phone with a
microphone attached. All of my foley sounds ended up sounding like what
they were supposed to and all in the final cut of the product.

23. Aural Qualities
• I think my work sounds good as all of the sounds are easily recognisable
and the speech is very clear. Nothing is too loud to hurt your ears or too
quiet so you cannot hear them. I also think it was slightly creative but
could have been more so. The reason I think this is because they are all
very short and rather bland story’s. I think to improve I could have made
one long story and also made some more of the sound effects. One of the
strengths was that all of my speech is clear and the music and sound
effects don’t overpower any of it. I think one of my weaknesses was my
initial audio volumes. The sound varied a lot so most clips had to be cut up
and then either loudened or quietened depending on the clip.

24. Audience Appeal
• I think I can appeal to my audience as people below the age of around 16
would probably find it boring or not as interesting as the age I was aiming
for which was around 22 years old. I wouldn't say certain parts aim at that
age range but the product as a whole is quite serious and wouldn't
interest anyone at a younger age. Also some of the story's may scare
younger children. It may also appeal to adults and middle age people, it
will also appeal to anyone who likes ghost story’s or who like to get scared.
It is also not aimed at any gender in particular. The main reason it will hit
the audience of working adults is because they will be listening to the
radio in their cars on the way to or from work.