This document describes Benjamin Birney's process for creating an audio experiment. It discusses how he wrote a script with color-coded character lines to avoid confusion for voice actors. He then recorded voice lines from friends and added sound effects and music tracks in Premiere Pro. Tools like the razor and audio transitions helped edit the audio files together smoothly. Birney focused the story on 1950s Chicago and kept the tone serious for the crime genre. He reflected on including scripts and audio editing in his final major project to help voice actors and create good pacing/storytelling through sound.

1. Experiments
Benjamin Birney

2. Process
My first step was coming up with a script for
the voice actors to read off of. What you see
to the left is a rough draft of the start of my
script for my trailer experiment, thanks to
Word document I will be able to get to work
in making a clear and understandable script
for me and my friends to read off of.
Because if I told them what their lines were
instead of them reading them off something
there would have been more mistake would
have been made and there would be less
time to record the voice lines for all the
characters. Also thanks to some inspiration
from a certain detective game and my
imagination I was able to come up with and
remake some of the opening lines to match
the style of gerne.

3. Process
After a bit of time and effort I finally got a
complete draft of my trailer script for my
friends and I to read off. I labelled the
different voice lines in various colours to
help tell the differences between the
characters that me and friends acted out.
Thanks to the high lighter tool, I could
distinguish what characters there were
and who would play them. The reason I
high lighted the characters is so my voice
actors wouldn’t get confused and lost on
what character they would be voicing,
even though most of the lines were mine
but It was just in case.

4. Process
Once the script was complete, my friends and I recorded our
lines on to my phone, I then sent them to a specific folders
that was made for the experiment. After that I downloaded
some sound effects to go along with the voice lines, then I
placed them into Premiere Pro so I could compile them into
making the trailer/radio advert. There were some music in the
sound track I had to put effects onto like fading and
transitioning audio.
It was thanks to these tools that helped me perfect the audio;
for example the razor tool helped me cut down some parts of
my audio files in case the sounds went on for longer than they
needed. Another tool that helped me was the audio
transitions, more specifically one mode called crossfade which
I placed at the end of each sound effect and theme song so
transitions would be smooth and wouldn’t sound hastily put
together.
I also chose the Transatlantic accent for the narrator
and for one of the main characters to help them
match the time and location the story is set in which
is Chicago 1950s, I also followed on from the original
formula for crime stories by keeping the tone serious
and suspenseful to stay true to the source material. I
also stuck to using the Premiere Pro Program because
of how organised and easy the system is to use and
for how familiar I am with using this kind of program.
The were some aspects of my experiment that appealed to my
audience; for example the air of mystery surrounding the
characters and the scenario around the plot of the experiment,
also adding in more masculine characters for my male audience
while also staying true to the history of how the times where.
Next when it came to the Psychographic I immediately I thought
of the category Needs Driven, These kind of readers are always
drawn to crime stories, when they finished one story they feel
like then need to consume more of this media to know what
happens next, they feel like they need to put all the pieces
together in order to get the full media story. Final it came down
to which social class would fit my trailer, and the to I thought of
was the upper and the lower of the middle class, because When
It comes to the upper middle class they could picture them selves
playing the role of detectives because of where the detective
stand on the chain of hierarchy, while the lower middle class
could picture themselves playing the role of victim or the
perpetrator with as walm drink to help them through their work,
it will a be a nice nod of how the middle class needs to go
through the daily grind in order to survive and live another day.

5. Process
Finally once all the sound effect,
voice lines and music sound tracks
were on Premiere Pro I arranged
them in the right places from
beginning, middle and ending. Then
when It was complete I downloaded
it as an audio file and also saved it
into my reflective diary.

6. Reflection
• What elements of your experiments will you
include in your final product?
‒ One element I will include is a series of scripts for the planned episodes so my voice actors
will be able to read off of so they at least have some direction to follow. I will accomplice
this by creating the scripts with colour coded lines on Word Document and print out
multiple copies for my voice actors to read off of so they don’t get lost and confused.
‒ Another element I will include will be the use of audio transitions and fades for my sound
effects and sound tracks. It would help give the episodes more flare and be good way to
change to and from different scenes and settings. Because the key to a good audio story is
good pacing, connecting audio and the theme of the story your trying to tell, which is what
I hope to do in my Final Major Product.