Here are a few thoughts on your script planning process: - It's good that you recognized the weaknesses in your initial ideas and were willing to scrap them rather than forcing an imperfect script. Iteration and being willing to start over is important. - For future scripts, it may help to outline key plot points or scenes first before writing fully. This can help ensure the overall story structure and flow works before investing time in the full script. Brainstorming multiple initial concepts is also useful. - Incorporating mythology or other complex backstories can work, but they need to enhance rather than detract from the core story being told. Simplifying backstories or allusions may be better if they become a distraction.

1. Audio
Fred Clayton

2. Existing Products Research
• Lore (Episode 132: Puzzled)
– ‘Lore’ is a documentary podcast which retells “real life scary stories.” It is well
known for being gripping and extremely bingeable.
– A documentary series with a minimalist presentation style. The writing doesn't
waste words, it is both informative and gripping; this is a tightrope walk that
many “edutainment” projects fail to correctly walk.
– The use of music in the show keeps the pace of the show going, there’s no
dead air throughout because of its presence, however with how lo-fi it the
soundtrack is not overbearing.
– The voiceover has just enough personality to not bore an audience but not too
much, that would distract from the story being told.
– Overall ‘Lore’ is extremely addicting to listen to, being both informative and
entertaining. the writing gripping and practical, the audio mixing is clean and
uncluttered with unnecessary sound effects and overexerting music that
wouldn’t mesh with the subtle presentation that the show strives for. All these
elements show a want to let the stories speak for themselves.
– Link: https://www.lorepodcast.com/episodes

3. Existing Products Research
• THE BLACK TAPES (Episode 101: A Tale of Two Tapes Parts 1 and 2)
Overview.
- “The Black Tapes” is a docufiction podcast spin-off of “Pacific
Northwest Stories” which is a similar concept. Its worth mentioning
how committed the creators of “The Black Tapes” are to immersion
in their fiction. for instance, in interviews, the creators and voice
cast use the names of their characters and production companies
and never give away wither the events within the podcasts are real
or fake, advertisements in the middle of episodes are done in
character and, possibly most impressive of all nearly every
character within the piece, from host to sound mixer of the podcast
has their own twitter page which is managed in character. Again this
is an impressive amount of work that serves to make the podcasts
under the “Pacific Northwest Stories” umbrella more immersive
and at the same time more unnerving.

4. Existing Products Research
• THE BLACK TAPES (Episode 101: A Tale of Two Tapes Parts 1 and 2) Execution.
- The commitment to preserving the illusion is a massive part of “The Black Tapes” appeal; as
such the producers made sure that this was a priority. throughout the first two episodes we
follow Alex Reagan, a reporter for “Pacific Northwest Stories” who is starting a spin-off
podcast that focuses on the paranormal.
- We begin every episode with a short theme tune intercut with short clips from characters
throughout the show; in this we see a part of that commitment to realism, two of the clips
are recorded from phone calls and as such are tinny, compressed and distorted slightly, other
clips are recorded inside normal rooms and therefore have light echoes. The attention to
detail with which spaces are realised through sound is extremely impressive throughout the
two episodes I heard, echoes are a common and effective trick along with birds chirping,
creaking doors, ambient sounds of cars and air conditioning all come together to give the
environments the impression of not just being imitations of the spaces they intend to mimic
but of the spaces themselves.
- This brings the story a certain amount of physicality, as if somebody had ripped this audio
straight from a documentary, the opening interviews with people on the street as an example
include, footsteps, cars, birds and different audio levels from each interview implying that,
like an impromptu interview each person is further or closer to the mic, just these small
details can be massively important for grounding the story and world that the story takes
place in; letting us get drawn into the show in the way it was indented.

5. Existing Products Research
• THE BLACK TAPES (Episode 101: A Tale of Two Tapes Parts 1 and 2) Execution.
- Now that I have demonstrated how “The Black Tapes” uses foley to further its goals of realism and immersion, I think the
next thing to discuss is music and its small role within the show. “Black Tapes” doesn’t use music to any real advantage, past
the mainly generic acoustic 2010s hipster bait intro which does what it needs to: set a tone of something slightly woodsy
perhaps mysterious and provide a space sonically were the editor can insert clips to wet the listeners appetite for what's to
come. Possibly the songs most important job is to introduce the motif of a piano which comprises most of the rest of the
shows, mainly stock soundtrack, this allows for a smooth transition between intro and the actual show. This isn’t to say that I
think the music being this way is a problem, its not a focus which makes sense both in universe, as the producers of a mind
bending documentary about a fascinating professor and unexplainable phenomena, wouldn’t put much stock in a great
soundtrack. Either way outside of the universe it makes sense as the performances, dialog and foley take up listener's
attention. Meaning that music can take a back seat, its just a happy accident that this also tallies up in the stories world.
- As for the performances and dialog I found them extremely impressive. While the characters are fairly stock, they are
written in such a way to give them a sense of personality; Alex as an example is a kind-hearted reporter with a thirst for the
truth, she’s not above using white lies to get information but will never push people too far for a story. Again this is fairly
stock, but its mainly through Lori Henry’s performance that the character is elevated as more than a window for the
audience to see the world through and a plot dispenser. I feel that this is achieved by once again grounding the audience; for
instance, Alex is often composed and confident when interviewing the public or talking with her producer, this shows that
she’s experienced, professional and prepared. This changes when she meets Dr. Strand, a mysterious figure that has an
answer for everything, a life long sceptic and with the snobbish, formal voice to match . Alex is rocked by this, she as the
interviewer, the witty journo is used to being in control of a situation now that the tables have been turned she’s scrambling
to regain ground. to show this we hear Alex stammer, misspeak and generally panic in quiet. This sort of thing is common
place within “The Black Tapes”; from creaking chairs implying a quite tense awkward atmosphere smothering a
conversation. To the whirring of a super-8 tape contrasted with the quite buzz of a spinning DVD to display a vast time
difference just through sound.
- Overall “The Black Tapes” is exemplary in terms of the ways that it delivers its drama and plot. I will happy if I can emulate a
tenth of what the creators achieved with just the medium of sound.
- http://theblacktapespodcast.com/

6. Existing Products Research
• Reverse Transmission.
Reverse Transmission is an extremely surreal audio drama about self driving cars, the lines between fact and
fiction and crappy modern art. Written by Ben O'Brien
Sound effects are used to great effect in Reverse Transmission, the sounds of a roaring car sounds, like raring
engines and window wipers give scenes that might have no tension a visual sense of dread giving the audience
a auditory piece of shorthand of just how mechanical and cold the character of car is. Sound effects are used
for many things throughout the story ranging in importance from a nice bit of ambience to sell a scene to a
tape unravelling that recontextualises the enter story. In all of these instances they feel well mixed and
included with a distinct intention. Music in Reverse Transmission is used as you would expect from a futuristic
audio drama; its very synthy, reverb heavy fluff, and while pleasant, doesn't exactly make for anything other
than another minimalistic 80’s inspired soundtrack to throw on the pile, it does what it needs to, pretty up
pauses that would be dead air otherwise.
Its hard to talk about tone and performances when a work is going for an odd shifting tone. At times characters
like the goths or the tech CEO, are written like an absurdist cartoon; with bizarre to-the-point dialog that is
performed in the most stereotypical voice imaginable with no self awareness. This is made even more bizarre,
tonally confusing and intentionally funny by the rest of the dialog which is both written and performed in a
realistic style and very well at that. This tonal confusion is definitely intentional judging by ben’s other work. In
the end I’m fairly confident that the tone that the story and presentation are going for is uncanny, while very
funny at points, there remains a feeling of a sinister fakeness hanging over the whole story that carries on the
moments of horror, making for a very surreal experience. Overall the many moving parts of Reverse
Transmission make for a otherworldly yet immersive experience that plays on these elements to really
disturbing effect.

7. Bibliography
1. . Mahnke, A. 2019. Puzzled. Lore. [Podcast]. [Accessed
20/04/2020]. Available from:
(https://www.lorepodcast.com/episodes)
2. . Miles, T. 2015. A Tale of Two Tapes Parts 1 & 2. The Black
Tapes. [Podcast]. [02/04/2020]. Available from:
(http://theblacktapespodcast.com/)
3. . O'Brien, B. 2018. Reverse transmission. Reverse
transmission. [Audiobook]. [15/04/2020]. Available from:
(https://www.audible.co.uk/?ref=Adbl_ip_rdr_from_US&s
ource_code=AUK30DFT1BkWS0826159058&ipRedirectFro
m=US&ipRedirectOriginalURL=pd%2FReverse-
Transmission-Audiobook%2FB07HXN2YDZ)

8. Ideas

9. Story
• Story concept 1: Ghost in the studio.
- We open on a story of ghosts haunting a family, the voice director asks for another take, revealing that this story was just a recording
project for this very unit. The actors go for another take and another mistake is made, the group decide to break for lunch, it’s at this
point that they realise they’ve been locked in. The director isn’t responding to questions. We cut to another recording for the project in
another booth. The occupants are killed off. Eventually it is revealed that the director summoned the ghost of a relative knowing they
would go on a rampage, the director believes that this ghost can possess one of the bodies in order to be “reborn” the ghost then takes
over the directors body ending the story.
• Story concept 2: Ghosts killed the radio star.
- We open on a paranormal themed evening talk show on local radio called “scaredy-chat” it’s cheesy, unfunny and all around hack; That
is until one of the hosts jokingly recites a ritual for summoning ghosts, this ends up working and a ghost is summoned and kills everyone
in the studio, due to the show going out live the ghost surfs the airwaves haunting many different broadcasts. The shipping broadcast is
brought to a horrifically short end. The Archers seems to be experiencing technical difficulties when the theme song is corrupted, a
scene is being played out between two characters, the act turns when one of the performers misses their line and doesn't respond to
the other actor’s questions, the possessed actor then gives some spooky spiel about “unspeakable truths” and “the other side” before
lunging animalistically towards their co-star knocking over the microphone in the process. We cut to a DJ taking a call for a competition
or something it is slowly revealed that he’s talking to a ghost. The riffs on radio continue the ghost stops all broadcasts and leaves a
looping message of some sort of creepy catchphrase like “leave us be.”
• Story concept 3: Domestic haunting.
- We are greeted by a continuity announcer introducing us to a story of a haunted house and a grieving couple “The Haunting of Hazel
Place.” the piece begins as a domestic story of a couple losing their daughter and how they are dealing with the fallout, it is revealed
that soon after their daughter’s death they had a séance with an incompetent medium who got the daughter’s name wrong. Sometimes
the narrator interrupts conversations about this séance with adverts or random facts about the “writers” other work which are actually
references to the character’s situation or insults towards the ‘cast’ titles like “too soon”, “mid-life”, “die young”, etc; these are
supposed to hint towards the twist of the narrators identity. The story continues until the couple finds a hidden microphone, the
narrator fails to cover this discovery up and is clearly annoyed about it. It is reviled that we are listening in on a real couple and that our
host is a malevolent spirit.

10. Idea Generation/Initial Reaction
• My initial reaction to this project was relief, if
there’s something I'm at least competent with
its audio, if not directly with voice-acting or
foley. I think this’ll be a welcome challenge.
• I like my idea of a story about the haunting of
a recording suite within college, it’s a bit meta,
a little post-modern, I feel that if done right it
might actually be a bit disturbing.

11. Idea Generation/Initial Reaction
• My main difficulties with this rotation will be making
sure that my audio will remain clear; through making
music I’ve learnt about noise cancelation and how to
effectively do it. The difficulty will be microphones and
my own reading, nearly all the music I’ve worked on
either has no vocals or vocals recorded elsewhere. I’m
not exactly great with line reads, I’ll just have to
practice to overcome this. My microphone, while not
awful, it’s not exceptional either; It’s a midrange USB
mic with a desk mount and pop filter. This set-up
should be fine for a VO although the audiophile inside
me will hate every minute of it.

12. Proposal
Working Title:
Final recording.mp3
Audience:
My audience would most likely be balanced as my story will focus on the concept of karma. Arrogance and
horrific acts are met with hauntings. These themes will mesh with this groups wants and needs to make the
world better and the catharsis of watching bad things happen to bad people for entertainment.
A concept like this, at the length I’m aiming for (<10 minutes) would typically be free from a podcast or maybe
even YouTube. I Believe that ABC1 and C2DE would be interested in the product because of the lack of time
and monetary investment required.
Project Concept (approx. 200 words)
A meta take on the audio drama about somebody making an audio product (a podcast, advert,
etc) that gets haunted. What follows would be a glitch, creepy haunting by a ghost somehow
taking controlling the audio equipment. This core concept owes its existence to “Ghostwatch”
(1992) and “inside no. 9: deadline” (2018), two tv shows that tinkered with fooling their
audiences into believing that the show itself was being haunted. I wanted to go for a similar story
to the previous pieces through the medium of audio.

13. Experiments

14. Foley
• Include your work on foley and some writing
about what went well, what could be better
and what you have learned.
• You should include a link and a screen shot.
Don’t embed your work, it won’t work.

15. Recording
• Write about your experiences of recording in
different places.
• What effect did it have? How will this
influence your project?

16. Garage Band
• Include your work with Garage Band, and
some writing about what went well, what
could be better and what you have learned.
• You should include a link and a screen shot.
Don’t embed your work, it won’t work.

17. Planning

18. Script Draft
• Due to time constraints my final script was written all at once, with polish being applied as I
wrote. Because of this I don’t have a Draft. As a compensation I will explain my two earlier
incomplete scripts and why I didn’t end up using them.
• My first incomplete script was “Sirens” and while it had some good ideas it fell short of what
it could be; a nice way of saying that I felt really smart while writing it whereas in retrospect I
found it gimmicky and needlessly complex. The story follows a horror podcast in the fashion
of ‘Lore’ with a fairly monotone narrator telling stories designed to get under a listeners skin
that plays itself off as a informative piece therefore gaslighting its audience. The difference in
my story would be that the narrator is actually a siren himself, the podcast drawing in his
victims and taunting them with stories of his past murders one of which was narcissus; I’m a
massive fan of mythology and I felt that this would give the story a distinct flavour. This was
one of the main things that made the script drag; Narcissus is a story that doesn’t lend itself
to horror easily, this originally attracted me to the story as I enjoy subverting expectations.
But it was this problem that led to more problems; If Narcissus is to become scary then the
story and the lore around it has to be changed in major ways. If the story is told in a vastly
different way, you need to explain that so people who understand the original wouldn’t get
lost. This endless chain of problems and short term fixes led to the script turning from a
snappy anthology with a satisfying and surprising twist into a lop sided mess that spends
most of its run time absorbed in justifying its existence. It was only after staring at a 10
minute audio only script taking up 4 pages for minutes on end, that I could feel my ego
melting knowing that deep down there was no way to fix the script.

19. • My second partial script “The Haunting of Dresser House” was
probably my favourite script idea. If I had time for many drafts,
read-throughs and the ability to completely and fully collaborate
with my actors and more pressingly, had actors to begin with, I
would’ve made this in a heartbeat. This was supposed to be a meta
story about this exact rotation, about Fred’s sad excuse for a horror
story in a 50’s style. This would act as a commentary on the genre
itself and a opportunity to self critique. The real horror would be a
haunting of the studio by the ghost from the story; I felt that the
meta layers of the story would make the listener more open to
scares. There’s no ridiculous premise, setting or characters to shield
an audience. The script failed because to write this I would need to
write my classmates realistically, verbal ticks, personalities and
accents would need to be accounted for; I’d also need a great
performance from all involved, doubly so because half the cast
would have to do an intentionally bad line reads in their fictional
parts and convincing realistic line reads for their actual selves for
the story and scares to land. Needless to say this was beyond the
range of this project.
Script Draft

20. Script Final
• The final script will be in the blog as a word
document.

21. Sound Effects
Sound Effect Needed How I Will Create the Sound
Banging on a door I will bang on a door outside the room the
microphone is in.
Door opening. Open a door.
Computer booting up. Record a computer booting up.
Muffled shouts. Shout into a pillow.

22. Actors/Locations
Actor Role Location for recording
Fred (Me) Joe Home Studio (My Bedroom)

23. Music
Band Name Track Name Link
Me An Echo, Saw It Coming,
Street Like, Woods.
https://drive.google.com/open?i
d=1oXceXv9SNYKzCNQaC5wXSW
bvdsUz2pa3

24. Resource List
Resource Owned/Cost What sound effect will it be
used for?
Door Owned Hitting a door, Opening a door.
Bed Owned Squeaking bed slats

25. Production

26. Production - Music
• I often find that a good place to start with a piece of work is
a soundtrack. Music tends to keep me tethered to a
concrete theme. If my mind is left to wonder while writing I
find that stories, plots and characters fall apart and flashy
gimmicks and twists taking my focus. This leads to a
lopsided convoluted story that wastes time justifying itself
over actually being a satisfying story. Music also occupies
the mind keeping distractions like games or social media at
bay while you work.
• The first time I heard about the audio rotation, I knew I
would make music for it. It just so happened that a
soundtrack would also help me decide on tone and style.
The only thing I could decide on before working on the
rotation would be the use of a radio show or podcast as an
element in the story. With this element in mind I started
making songs that could work as a theme song for the
podcast.
• All songs where made in FL studio.

27. Production - Music
• My first song was ‘Street Like’ a funky, 70’s funk track. I based the song on
the soundtracks on 70’s police dramas. When making the song I was
developed the concept for my first script, ‘Sirens’. I really liked the idea of
a horror podcast that was actually a monster luring in its prey. The 70’s
inspired track was supposed to be a tip off to the audience that the
whoever or whatever was making the show, misunderstood media and
was therefore unrealisable. This would’ve supported the creepy uncanny
tone I was aiming for.
• As for the making of the track, it changed a lot during the production. I
first used the infamous ‘Amen’ drum break because of how easy it is to
use and modify. It gave the track too much energy, I wanted something a
bit more subtle and creeping. I settled on a original mix of ‘The Honey
Drippers - Impeach the President’ and ‘Melvin Bliss – Synthetic
Substitution’ for the drum loop at the heart of the track; The mix
implements the cymbals and slow, groovy drums that defines the genre. I
also used a funky bassline to give the song a ‘street like’ feel which is how I
described it to the bass player which gave the song it’s name. Synthetic
organs, harsh string interjections and dreamy synths later in the track
make the song diverse and give some much needed edge.
• I’m really happy with how the song ended up as a independent piece. As
for how it fits in for this project, it was slightly misguided as was much of
the work around my first script. Ultimately this was a warm-up for later
tracks and really fun to make; I don’t consider it a waste of time.

28. Production - Music
• My second song was ‘Saw It Coming’ an
instrumental hip-hop track with African drums
and sitars. When making this track I wanted to
move away from the direction that I took the last
track. This was probably the easiest track to
produce, it’s not that complex at all; reverb heavy
synths, strong bongo loops and touches of bass
take charge on the front of the track. Halfway
through the song I introduced a sitar, a classic
part of lounge and exotica as well as funk
xylophones and organs. My main inspiration was
Herbie Mann's discography; I’d recently found a
copy of ‘Impressions Of The Middle East’ and was
going through a world music phase.

29. Production - Music
• “An Echo” was made with my second script, “The Haunting of Dresser
House” in mind. I really wanted to call back to classic 80’s sounds to
really sell the intentionally outdated qualities of the script. The first
element of the song I decided on was an overwhelming amount of
reverb. 80’s tracks are infamous for unnecessary reverb, early synths
are mainly to blame for the sound catching on at the time. I decided
that the song should be set in cave to justify the reverb as well as being
a reference to the Stoneroom at Townhouse studios, in which Phil
Collins and Peter Gabriel discovered gated reverb (the sound of the
80’s). Ironically, there is no gated reverb throughout the song. The
chanting vocal passage that carries the song was inspired by the chant
from Annie Lennox's cover of “No More I Love You’s”, a song dripping
in 80’s pop cheese and yet it’s pretty unsettling. To bring all of this
across I chopped up outtakes from a recording session. The synths are
string samples and are completely drenched in reverb. All of this
comes together to make a reverb heavy theme that sounds
intentionally cheap and yet modern.

30. Production - Music
• “Woods” is the latest and my favourite song that
was made for this project. The production came
about when I decided on a reverb heavy sound
from the previous tracks but with less gimmicks.
The intro is my favourite part of the track, a
descending synth heartbeat free falling into
reverb gated drums and a wailing synth lead and
some light guitars. This continues for the rest of
the song. I find it easy to make loops and felt it
might be effective for a theme song, I took
inspiration from the “X- Files” theme for this.
• Ultimately it sounds about right for a cheap
podcast preying on fans of 80’s horror.

31. Production – VO
• In the past, I have recorded vocals and some spoken word stuff for music,
so I didn’t feel completely lost when I learnt of this project. The
differences quickly presented themselves; In nearly all of my previous
voice over work I was in a studio, microphones where high end and set-up
by others, rooms were soundproofed multiple times over. Another
difference was blinding, I never recorded myself. I was working with
people who could control their voice, who wouldn’t hesitate to start
screaming bloody murder if we decided it would sound cool later on. I had
occasionally used my voice in some ways, I would record myself saying
something in a weird voice and hide it in the final edit of a song for an
inside joke, this was the extent of my voice over history before this
rotation. The last difference was one that was difficult to overcome, my
script was written in an odd way. The way that I usually write scripts is a
form of retroscripting as a first draft with improvisation being encouraged
followed by many drafts back and forth with collaborators. Writing this
script proved to be a bit gruelling; I didn’t have the time for many rewrites
or another person working on the project for me to bounce ideas of
phrases off. The end result of this script issues is that I couldn’t make lines
sound as natural as I could and I had to improvise around the script
instead of strictly following it.

32. Production – VO
• The actual recording sessions where riddled with issues. As
I mentioned before I didn’t have access to a studio due to
the lockdown in effect at the time of recording. The
microphone I used was a mid-ranged USB with a clamp
stand, good for chatting to people, not ideal for voice
recording. After testing different rooms in my house for
echo and background noise, I found that my bedroom was
as good as I was going to get. More problems presented
themselves from here. The room has thin walls and faces
the gardens on my street; if a neighbour lets their kids play
outside, if a dog starts to bark, if a TV’s on too loud even if
it rains, I can’t record. My set-up requires a computer and
its fan to be on at all times and there is very little that can
be done about that. The issue that effected me the most
was another symptom of those thin walls and everyone
being trapped inside; I was hesitant to be too loud and
energetic, considering the things I was saying. This resulted
in a lot of the recordings come off as if I'm holding back.

33. Production – Noise Reduction
• When I recorded my
lines, I recorded about
a second of silence,
this was for noise
reduction purposes.
After I recorded a few
lines I would select
that second of silence
and select it as a noise
print.

34. Production – Noise Reduction
• I then select the whole
track and open the
“Noise Reduction
(Process)” effect fiddle
with the effect until
lines sound clear and
apply it. If there’s still
remaining noise add a
“Hiss Reduction
(Process)” effect. After
this the audio is clean
and ready for editing.

35. Production –
Editing
• I made all of my “Glitch” sound effects in FL Studio because of
two plug-ins, Fracture and Hysteresis both made by glitch
masters. I will insert a sample and just randomise the plug-ins
settings until the sample sound broken in just the right way.
Samples included: a few seconds of my voice over or one of the
theme songs, bird song and a scene from “Threads” a nuclear war
film in which shouting, screaming and regular dialog interlink. To
make this scene sound like glitchy haunted mess I reversed it and
then added on the effects, doing this ends up with a sound that
sounds like someone talking and sounding and yet words can’t be
parsed making it seem haunted.

36. Production – Editing
• For every clip that didn’t involve heavy
distortion, I added different reverb effects to
make them sound like they were coming from
a source in the world of the story as well as
giving them added sonic depth. This also
means that when distortion is heard its
apparent very quickly that its different to the
rest of the audio.

37. Production – Final Edit
• The final edit was extremely easy to put
together, I knew how everything fits together
before placing any clip into the timeline.
• Main edits at this time where reverb. I used
reverb to make sounds feel more grounded in
service to the story. This needed to happen
while editing them all together to make sure
that the soundscape produced by the reverb
didn’t clash with other clips.
• Smaller edits were changes to volume length
and fades.

38. Evaluation

39. Research
• My research helped in as much as it gave me a inspiration for how I could take my story.
Writing about them only improved this drive. Being able to get into nuances of
soundscapes and how they and other elements blend together as an example gave me
a good idea of how I wanted my elements to mesh and complement each other. The
problem with such heady topics is that they often, in my experience, curb the practical
and technical elements of a work in favour of the more pseudo-intellectually
stimulating story and themes. I feel therefore that my research often shirks the
responsibility of being set-up for an actual production. If I was to rewrite the pieces I
would try and focus on technical achievements and how they where done. This
would’ve made some obnoxious trail and error later on far less painful and sped up the
production as a whole. I realise now that when researching other works for a project
I’m making, its more useful to learn the craft from them that it is to discuss elements
that will never appear in my work.
• In terms of experiments related to the project, as stated before I make music fairly
often. This was in some ways useful, I knew my way around programs, I knew tricks to
make sounds more interesting and how to use samples in creative ways. Unfortunately I
think my previous experience wasn’t always as useful as it could’ve been. I was working
in a completely different auditory language without any of the musical conventions that
I was making dissensions based off. Sloppy noise reduction and odd reverb don’t matter
as much when you have rhythm and melody taking most of your listeners attention.
When you want your listeners to take the work seriously and buy into the world your
presenting a consistent sound is needed. It took me a while to figure this out.

40. Planning
• The majority of the effort I put into my planning was my script which I’m fairly proud of.
• The story follows Joe Aaron, an actor that has recently had a career hit related to a manslaughter case. Joe
is working odd jobs, podcasts and audiobooks fill his schedule. We experience Joe’s story through his
computer being haunted by his victim. The story is presented as a collection of recordings in an order
decided by the ghost as if it wants to show the listeners something. Joe ends up abusing his influence, this
is then leaked to the media by the ghost. The last we hear of Joe is him being left in a locked room with his
reading of James Baldwin’s “Giovanni’s Room.” The implication of the story is that Joe is a serial abuser
and that the person haunting him is an ex-victim: Marcel Boucher.
• The inspiration for this script was based on three things. The first were inspirations that I’ve mentioned
before: Ghostwatch and Deadline that grounded supernatural elements to achieve slow burning scares. I
wanted to take something grounded and insert the supernatural as the story progresses.
• My second inspiration was “The Assistant” a recently released drama about a day of an assistant to a
major Hollywood producer. Throughout the day the protagonists comes to realise how abuse colours her
work environment in all forms. I Found the film chilling, disturbing and uncompromising despite never
getting graphic. Signs of abuse are whispered not shouted, workers don’t have massive protests they
contest with rent and letting go of their Hollywood dream. I could go on but there are two main aspects
that stood out to me in relation to this rotation. The first was the subject matter and how it was handled. I
wanted the listener to wonder what was more disturbing or scary: a very real and skin crawling problem or
the supernatural elements. I really wanted to leave listeners the option to imagine horror rather that
directly show it as this has been proven to make for great scares (“The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” is
infamous for this type of horror). The second Aspect of the film that inspired parts of the script was the
sound design. The sounds around the production office are mundane and repetitive but when the right
tone at atmosphere is employed they become horrific. All of these aspects came to not only inspire the
setting and the characters but also the focus on sound effects and Foley for story telling over directly
referencing events through dialog as well as that dialog being more vague and suggestive.
• The third inspiration is apparent as it features in the script as a plot point. Giovanni's room by James
Baldwin. Apart from being one of my favourite books of all time Giovanni’s room is also an exploration of
David the protagonist and how on some level he is morally wrong in stringing Giovanni along when
Giovanni is clearly a person in need. After reading to the end of the book again recently I had the themes
and events stirring in my mind and when coming to this project I thought it would make sense for a
haunting victim that listeners are supposed to hate to be haunted by somebody sympathetic like a
Giovanni type figure with a vendetta.

41. Planning
• These disparate elements came together to create my script.
• The script itself was a written to get as much mileage as I could out of one voice actor and a
decent microphone and in that regard I feel it definitely succeeded. Another strength was its
unique qualities. As hack as it sounds, when a story is vague or when a setting is as niche as a
haunted computer, presentation issues are more easily forgiven as “artistic choices” this gave
me some wiggle room in how I made effects and how clips was mixed. If I had a recording
that had weird noise reduction artefacts messing up the clip that I could’ve find a good way
to fix, it can easily be explained as a “glitch” keeping the style constant throughout. This is not
to say that I was intentionally sloppy with edits because of this, it just meant that major
dialog lines and foley effects didn’t need to be re-recorded.
• I feel that the script really kept me on track throughout the entire production as it was a story
that I cared about telling in a specific way, this made decisions easier as I would implicitly
know what I wanted for the story.
• The weakness of the script is more an issue of the time it was being produced. I had a friend
that I pegged for the role of Joe. He’s a part-time actor and great at pulling off threatening or
malicious dialog. The lines were written with the intention of being changed through
rehearsals to make them more natural with my friends speech pattern. Due to scheduling
conflicts rehearsals were delayed until the lockdown at which time we couldn’t rehearse for
obvious reasons. In one fell swoop I lost my actor and the ability to adapt the script. This led
to me having to step up for the role with no other options which lead to a poor adaptation of
the script.
• The rest of my planning was minimal. I planned recording sessions based on when members
of my household were out to reduce noise. My planning wasn’t especially strong or weak, it
could’ve been improved but I would say that the amount of time it would take to plan for a
production this minimalist wouldn’t outweigh the time it would save later. To be honest the
little planning I did didn’t have much of an effect over the finished product, at most I saved
an hour or two as a result.

42. Time Management
• My time management skills leave much to be desired, but I feel that given
the time that I actually spent with the project I can’t say a lot of it was
wasted; I didn’t start writing my script, writing two lines in an hour for
instance. In retrospect a lot of time was spent on music production which
could’ve been spent elsewhere, saying this however, I feel that I wouldn’t
have made the piece featured in the final product if I hadn’t iterated on
my previous songs.
• Any project can be improved with more time but I feel the more pressing
issue for the project was lack of resources which lead to an overall less
polished end product. A rewrite of a few lines, more time to polish effects
and get the mix just right hails in comparison to losing a trained actor. If I
had more time I would polish what I had, if I had quite a bit more time I
would’ve read up on voice acting and recorded the whole script.

43. Technical Qualities
• If I was to compare my piece to ‘The Black tapes’ for example, I don’t think I’d be able to mention one
aspect that I did better than ‘The Black Tapes’. In terms of recordings they likely had better conditions,
likely, studio time meaning high quality mics and noise cancelling techniques. I had my bedroom, a Chinese
USB mic and dodgy double glazing, I was never going to get anywhere close to the sound quality and
fidelity of a studio. Another difference is the overwhelming difference in voice acting quality: ‘The Black
Tapes’ feature professional voice actors and broadcasters who can deliver lines naturally and with
personality. I, again was never going to compete in this regard, I have never done voice acting in an
armature or professional setting. I would argue that the only real connection between my piece and ‘The
Black Tapes’ or similar products would be a shared medium and genre.
• I feel that given the context surrounding the production (least of which being that its for a college course.)
the piece is sufficiently technically detailed seeing how in the same production: I made custom drum break
loops, made myself sound haunted and manged to make a computer booting up foreboding. The one effect
that I manually created was the reverse reverb effect; produced by reversing a clip, applying heavy reverb
and reversing the audio again, reverse reverb makes effects and dialog sound haunted or generally over
worldly. The other effects within the production are either made using a few layers of plug-ins in FL studio
or presets in audition.
• In terms of recording technique, I recorded dialog fairly close to the mic at a low level to capture as much
detail as I could. Foley was achieved in much the same way, I would bring whatever item I would use for the
Foley sound close to the microphone and record it at a low level. I created the sound of an old computer
booting up by going into my loft finding an old computer and booting it up. My favourite foley creation
were the bed springs. I couldn’t get my own bed to make the high pitched squeaking sound I was looking
for or really much sound at all. I found a solution in a flask with a squeaky lit, when close enough to the mic
and after reverb was added I would say it sounds indistinguishable from squeaking bed springs.

44. Aural Qualities
• I’m really happy with how my piece sounds. The audiophile in
me hates the mix, sees the faults in the reverb and despises
the recording quality. I still feel that given the many problems
the production ran into, it’s sonically interesting with clean
dialog and music being intercut with horrific distortion. I’m
very happy with the sound of the finished piece.
• If nothing else, I doubt anyone would say: “the audio drama
about a washed up, degenerate actor being haunted by the
ghost of his gay ex-lover told from the perspective of a
possessed computer is so cliché”. I feel confident in how the
story was presented in terms of originality or creativity.
• I enjoy the juxtaposition between the different elements,
sounds and story devices.
• If I was to improve it I would get a professional voice actor and
book studio time.

45. Audience Appeal
• I feel that the nature of my piece is so routed in modern issues that it appeals to
the balanced audience I was going for, as they respond to messages of this sort.
• This type of work is almost always free as would mine if it were to be published.
This would appeal to ABC1 and C2DE as there is no monitory and very little time
investment in this piece.