In this presentation I detail all of my preparation, production, editing and finalized project on the ghost story that Lisa Bryne may have encountered in real life.

1. Audio
Spencer Fox

2. Story: St Margaret Clitherow
Margaret Clitherow was born in 1556, one of five children of Thomas and Jane Middleton. Her father was a respected
businessman, a wax-chandler and Sheriff of York in 1564. He died when Margaret was fourteen. She married John Clitherow, a
wealthy butcher and a chamberlain of the city, in 1571 and bore him three children. The family lived in The Shambles. She
converted to Roman Catholicism in 1574. Although her husband belonged to the Established Church, he was supportive as his
brother William was a Roman Catholic priest. He paid her fines for not attending church services. She was first imprisoned in 1577
for failing to attend church. Two more incarcerations at York Castle followed. Her third child, William, was born in prison. Margaret
risked her life by harbouring and maintaining priests, which was made a capital offence by the Jesuits, etc. Act 1584. She provided
two chambers, one adjoining her house and, with her house under surveillance, she rented a house some distance away, where
she kept priests hidden and Mass was celebrated through the thick of the persecution. Her home became one of the most
important hiding places for fugitive priests in the north of England. Local tradition holds that she also housed her clerical guests in
the Black Swan Inn at Peaseholme Green, where the Queen's agents were lodged.
Margaret, who’d harboured priests in her Shambles home during the Catholic persecution of the 16th century, suffered a horrific
death.
The pregnant butcher’s wife was laid over a small sharp rock as her own front door was placed on her body. Then four desperate
beggars (local sergeants were too distraught to carry out the execution), continually put rocks and stones on the door until
Margaret’s back broke. A passing priest chopped off her hand which was eventually placed in the safe keeping of the nuns. The
relic is still there, contorted into a claw-like grip, reflecting the agony of her death.
“I also lived in an alarmingly creepy house, which even to this day my friends are reluctant to visit. The abundance of eerie
incidents ranged from the rather genteel (I once spotted an Edwardian gentleman in plus fours at our front door) to the much
more malevolent experience of an entity that repeatedly pushed my face into the pillow.
Though most traumatic of all was when I was physically thrown out of bed. I never slept with the light off again. A visiting cousin,
who rushed to the loo after waking with a nose bleed, was stunned to find a little girl in the bathroom.” – Lisa Bryne
https://www.express.co.uk/comment/expresscomment/872329/Most-haunted-city-in-Europe-The-grand-old-ghosts-of-York

3. Existing Products Research
• The Archers
– Melodramatic at times
– Long pauses between scenes
– No introduction to characters
– Background noise and references by characters to
establish location
– Heavily contrasting accents to establish
– Short musical theme introduction

4. Existing Products Research
• Short Cuts (Series 16)
– Short musical intro
– Documentary style breaks between dialogue and
music, as if there was meant to be visuals there
– Factual/Non-fiction
– Snippets of news broadcasts to provide context
– No “actors”, only real people telling their stories and
the host – podcast style
– Sounds play before they talk about certain aspects,
music during the interim while the host speaks calmly,
yet upbeat (mood fitting)

5. Existing Products Research
• Lore (Episode 100)
– Calm speaking host as well as calm piano music in
the background
– Dramatic speaking setting up the story
– Long prologue before the story begins
– Factual/Non-fiction storytelling
– No sound effects to enhance the drama

6. Existing Products Research
• Beach Soundscape
– Meant to make the listener feel as though they
were at the beach
– Waves crashing on the shore
– Seagulls
– Distant chatting
– Tells story of the beach; it’s busy and a beautiful
day.

7. Existing Products Research
• Mr Nightmare on YouTube
– Dulled, calm voice
– Sound effects reflecting the horror story he’s
telling
– Non-Fiction/True stories from users found on
various websites e.g. Reddit

8. Bibliography
1. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes
2. https://www.youtube.com
3. https://www.spotify.com/uk/

9. Planning

10. Idea Generation/Initial Reaction
• Take a factual story from history that is supposedly
haunting or scary nowerdays
• Take a related encounter with the supernatural
report
• Relate the two
• Podcast/documentary style presentation e.g. Mr
Nightmare on YouTube or ‘Lore’.

11. Proposal
Working Title: The Students’ Podcast #1: Lisa Bryne’s 16th Century Encounter
Audience: Those living in the York area who are interested in their dark local history who are of a more
mature age (16+). They’d be mainly male, due to their stereotype of enjoying violence and gore, although
females may also be interested. Most likely middle class and upwards because of the formal and educated
nature of the type of production (podcast) and how to access the content (iTunes, Spotify etc.) which are often
expensive. It would attract any sexuality as it’s not specifically about anything regarding sexuality. It may repel
certain religious people, perhaps mainly Protestants, as they were the ones who were responsible for the
brutal execution of Margaret Clitherow, and Catholics as the story was from a time when they were oppressed
and is specifically about the explicit death of one of their own. They’d most likely be ‘belongers’ as the subject
matter is set locally and can be more effectively eerie as it supposedly happened in a street they most likely
walk through on a frequent basis.
My project would appeal to these people as it’s an interesting pair of stories that may actually be linked,
depending on the validity of the more recent aspect to the story and their belief in the supernatural. The age
group would be interested as many above the age of 16 still hold the belief in the supernatural or are sceptical,
like me.
Project Concept: My project is a snippet from a local York-based live podcast, that would also be uploaded
to streaming services like Spotify, that tackles the history of our old city. I’d talk about many things: from
modern day, from morning activities and afternoon experiences to the famous nightlife; any relevant York
news and my opinions on it, including sport and athletes from York who train and play in and out of the city;
the history of York in particular is something I’d cover on this weekly podcast, detailing the everything from
The Great War to the Middle Ages; the many ghost stories and ghoul sightings emanating form would be a
staple of the podcast. The particular snippet would probably be mid-podcast and will be Segway-ed into in
order to start it, as if it were a promotional clip put up on YouTube.

12. Sound Effects
Sound Effect Needed How I Will Create the Sound
Wedding bells Search the internet for a royalty free file
as recording my own wedding bells may
be quite difficult
Baby crying Record my little brother/search the
internet
Banging on a door Record myself hitting a number of
different doors and surfaces and altering
the audio in Audition
Bone snapping Record myself snapping a stick and
altering it in Audition
Sighing I will sigh and record it
Rocks colliding with one another Take my audio recorder to the back
garden and drop some rocks onto the
outdoor table

13. Resource List
Resource Owned/Cost What sound effect will it be
used for?
Rocks Owned/Free The rocks that land on the door
Picnic bench Owned The door that the rocks land on
My Voice Owned Sighing and Narration
Stick Owned/Free Breaking bones
Wooden Surfaces Owned Knocking on the door
Bells Free Online Wedding bells

14. Music
Band Name Track Name Link
Benjamin Tissot November https://www.bensound.com/royalty-free-
music/track/november

15. Production

16. Reflection
All went swimmingly, a few plosives were
piercing, so I sorted that out. The wedding bells
were extremely loud too, so I softened them
down and then song that runs in the
background of the entire podcast was too short,
so I looped it at a certain point to make it seem
longer.

17. Sound Effects
Sound Effect Needed Link
Wedding bells http://soundbible.com/2171-Church-Bell-
Chime.html
Baby crying http://soundbible.com/2130-Baby-Just-
Born.html
Banging on a door Self recorded
Bone snapping Self recorded
Sighing Self recorded
Rocks colliding with one another Self recorded

18. Evaluation

19. Research
My research proved very helpful and successful as I chose to follow the
footsteps of Lore and Mr Nightmare of factual podcasts/stories and I feel I
managed to create something of a similar quality and atmosphere, but with
my own personal twist of comedy/sarcasm.
I also took the concept of pauses between scenes from The Archers and
changed it so that instead of pauses of silence, I filled them with sound
effects, like Mr Nightmare does in his videos.
By researching a number of different genres of audio productions I managed
to turn my own project into something more unique and almost customised
to suit my skillset.

20. Planning
My script, although altered slightly when it came to the recording stage, was
very in depth when telling the story of Margaret Clitherow and Lisa’s linked
incident.
Planning out how I would acquire the sound effects that I needed proved very
helpful time-wise when it came to editing the project together. I knew which
FX I needed to download from the internet and which ones I could record
myself with certain resources I have at my disposal.

21. Time Management
I recorded (or downloaded) all the sound effects, the backing song, the
narration and edited it all together in one day way before the deadline, so my
time management was pretty compact and rather efficient. It also allowed me
to alter a few things that I needed to change in the second cut.

22. Technical Qualities
My personally-recorded sound effects could’ve been better, although a couple were
good and I didn’t have the appropriate objects to make a few of the sounds I needed.
The background song was well embedded volume-wise. It was also a smooth
transition where I looped it mid-song.
The plosives, despite altering them, were still a little bit piercing although were
softened a little. Unfortunately I didn’t have a microphone that was designed for a
voice recording (more so sounds), otherwise it wouldn’t have been an issue.
Originally, the wedding bells that I used in my project were far too loud (almost
deafeningly so), so I had to alter the decibel level of those, which was no issue, and
they sound fine in the finished version.
Overall, the finished cut’s sound effects and music was very good, if not a bit quiet at
times.

23. Aural Qualities
I spoke normally as I would in my daily life, as it was a podcast-style project and
podcasts tend to be performed with your normal voice. I did not have access to a
microphone that is purpose built for recording dialogue, so there were a few issues:
The sound recorder had two built-in mics, therefore recorded different audio in either
microphone. This of course meant that depending on where the mic was in relation to
my mouth, the audio flipped sides unless I was perfectly centred between the two.
This of course may ruin the immersion for those listening with head/earphones, but
won’t effect anyone listening on their phone/tablet’s speakers.
The recorder also didn’t have a pop-filter or a wind cover (as it’s meant for softer
sounds and not dialogue) so the plosive sounds during the dialogue would spike and
pop in the listener’s ear. I attempted to alter this issue in the audio software, Audition.
This worked to a certain extent, but they were still rather spikey. Any sharp breaths
out would also be heard and disrupt the audio as wind noise, but that wasn’t as big of
an issue as the plosives were.
Overall I think the aural qualities

24. Audience Appeal
I believe my monotone narration and dry humour that comes through at times hits my
target audience, as well as the slightly more mature scepticism, but non-offending
nature on the subject matter. I also refer to various social media/streaming sites, like
YouTube, that are dominated by users of my demographic, meaning it appeals
immediately to those who use those. I also mentioned Twitter, so that I can make a
connection to my audience, meaning that they can have input on future podcasts
and/or other projects.
I also make a lot of references to York, making it feel very local, further engaging with
my intended audience.
The dark and gruesome story and sound effects also attract a slightly more mature
male audience, who I targeted before creating this podcast snippet.