Here are some suggestions for improving the story and audio production: - Develop the backstory of the family more to add context and depth. Explore their relationships and what happened leading up to the tragedy. - Include more details about the firefighter character to make him more relatable. What is motivating him to keep searching the woods? - Incorporate additional locations beyond just the woods to build a more vivid setting. For example, include scenes at the burned down house. - Expand the roles of the ghosts, especially the mother. Have her directly interact with or confront the firefighter to raise tension. - Experiment with different narration styles like switching to first person from the firefighter's perspective during key

1. Audio
Jack Lowes

2. Story
Screaming Children
Location: Glasgow (Lanarkshire) - Museum of Transport
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twenty-first century
Further Comments: A museum security guard reported encountering several spooky
occurrences during his time working here, including the screams of children, balls of
blue light and sightings of a headless woman.

3. Existing Products Research
• Lore
- Vivid descriptions paint images in listeners heads.
- Music accompanies this shifting from being soothing and peaceful during beautiful
descriptions to more mysterious and pitching when discussing stranger topics
- Clever choices of words, sentences and topics to help to set a more mystic
tone (illusion, myth, religious tales, dream, the sky [brings life]).
- High pitched Piano keys help to exaggerate the mysticism
- Lots of old historic tales holds attention.
- Many contain mysterious events contributing to the present themes. (Black snow
leaving black dust, Black thick rain and red blood rain.)
- “The sky… sunshine to grow our crops and rain to quench our thirst” –
similar lines are repeated throughout the audio.
- A somewhat emotionless voice without much variation (Possibly to make
the content itself be the hard hitter).
- Not much variation.

4. Existing Products Research
• Doctor who
• The doctor talks about a lot that may surpass other characters knowledge. He may know
many important details.
• The audience may notice the doctor’s use of manipulative. He slightly slows down during
“she always puts you down tells you how stupid you are”. The second half is heavily
pronounced and exaggerated in the voice.
• Subtle tones of music in the background helps to communicate to the audience the slight
tension in the atmosphere.
• The music is followed by a short silence before [ma] says that [Robbie] was always her
favourite, followed by screaming from her and Barry. This quick change contrasts the tension
where the screaming is the climax and the quieter section of dialogue is pushing the breaking
point.
• Potentially reverb effects Barry’s voice which begins to make him echo. This builds up until
his voice warps into an almost galactic type of sound.
• [Ma] cries out in a high pitched, screechy voice with a squeal on the end “doctor.”
– The audience may begin to feel sympathy for this character from this point on.
• The doctor delivers the line “fear me” in a deep, controlling voice before a high pitched
sound builds up like a reverse echo and explodes making another galactic type of sound that
ligers.
• The music begins to speed up and become more bold as the doctor speaks in a very deep,
confident voice. The audience should think that the doctor has full dominance in this section
and possibly may be scared of him.

5. Existing Products Research
• Beach soundscape
• Multiple different sounds are put together that make this audio
recognisably a beach.
– Mainly, seagulls can be heard crowing quite loudly and frequently giving the
impression that this is a coastal area.
– Secondly, waves of water can be heard splashing onto the shore which are the
biggest giveaway that the audio is set at a beach.
– Alongside this People can be quietly heard talking in the background. The beach is
often a community spot where many people gather to enjoy themselves which
further supports the location being a beach.
• Mixing sounds together is important to create an atmosphere that the
audience can understand and possibly recognise.

6. Bibliography
1. The Best History Podcast. (2017). LORE - Episode 74: All Fall Down. Available: https://
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3RGz7Q_qlI. Last accessed 6th nov 2018.
2. Who Girl Reviews. (2018). Doctor Who - The Seventh Doctor is Scary AF. Available:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZA50biqUB-8. Last accessed 6th nov 2018.
3. Marie. (2013). Beach Soundscape. Available:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIUTO4gx5Eg. Last accessed 6th nov 2018.

7. Planning

8. Idea Generation/Initial Reaction
• The death of a family ended up with the children + mother haunting a
property
– The death could have been a murder, a fire...
• The family could have been playing hide and seek
– This ties to why the ghostly woman is searching the property. She is looking for her kids which
she never found while they were all alive.
• She could attack any living beings she crosses [ feral ] or maybe depend on
them [ though not as scary ].
• It may be better for the children to never be saved so there is a constant feral
ghost doomed to roam the afterlife hunting her kids.
• The mother could have possessive powers
• Children could be headless ( relevant to murder ).
• Could have been murdered in a museum (guillotines, etc).
– Could be a narrative story from a third person view telling a ghost story
– Could be a scene from the mothers point of view ( like an audio drama )
– The narrator could be a fire fighter from the after events.

9. Proposal
Working Title:
Hide and freak.
Audience:
Project Concept (approx. 200 words)
The project is going to be a documentary about a newly conceived ghost story about a ghostly mother looking
for her dead children. It happened that one night a mother decided to play hide and seek with her 4 children in
the forest around her cabin and although it started out as a game they were not the only ones in the forest. A
murderer had joined there game and whilst in the forest he found different way to behead the children. To
destroy any traces of the family other than the bodies he burned down their house not realising that the
mother was still inside. Now the mother continues to roam the woods in the afterlife determined to finish the
game and find her children whilst haunting any living soul she comes across by the chance that it was them
that took her children from her. Occasionally ,when the mother is not around, the ghosts of the headless
children can be seen in the woods however if only their laughs and giggles can be heard then the mother is
near.
In terms of research I looked at many ghost stories online and stumbled across many different headless ghosts
liked the headless horseman and from these stories I found a story of headless kids haunting a museum which
inspired my idea. I also took a look at some documentaries , audio dramas and soundscapes to help me
understand each different style and choose how I wanted to produce my audio project. The soundscape was
especially useful for focusing on what can be accomplished via different sound combinations and inspiring
what I could add to mine.
15 – 18 years old as they are still quite young so the ghost stories may still interest them however it
may be graphically described. This product should appeal to all genders. [middle class?]
, socially conscious,

10. Script
Narrator:
Fires are a common occurrence and it's my job to keep them under control. Most times we just show up
speedily with the sirens roaring before preparing hoses, ladders, fire axes and sledgehammers as well as
checking breathing apparatus. It's a matter of go in, establish control, go out, repeat. Simple as that.
Occasionally we run into some odd occurrences but their was one specific night I will always remember.
It was about 6 months ago we'd got a call from a desperate mother screaming that her house was on fire. She
went screaming on about losing her kids during a game of hide and seek in the forest and she wasn’t sure if
they were ok or where they could be. At first it sounded like a standard call for help. Unfortunatley I was wrong.
I remember how I started feeling angsty during the ride out like this job was going to be extraordinarly different
from all the rest.
When we finally arrived there the area was remote. Surprisingly, we couldn’t see any smoke coming up through
the forest like we'd expected. It would've seemed that the fire had already been extinguished however we
ventured into the woods anyway to try and find the woman's house. We figured it would be a good idea if we
all went separate directions as we weren't quite sure on the position of the house. I remember I'd gotten
further into the woods my body started to tingle a little bit. I felt goose bumps all over me and the hairs stand
on my arm. It was almost like a presence was watching me however I kept going. I had to find the house and
make sure its occupants were safe. I walked a few more metres and then out of nowhere I started to here
giggling. From a child. Obviously in the moment I was scared and didn’t know what to do but I just let it of as
some kids stray game of hide and seek in the woods and pushed on until all of a sudden a ghostly aparition
appeared in front of me. I was stricken with fear. So much so that couldnt even move my body. It was the
spectre of a child with no head. I saw more peering from behind the trees. they lingered for a while curiosly
watching me before they slowly attempted to approached me. I stumbled and fell onto my back and lay their
screaming for them to stay back but they just kept moving towards me. I felt like my life was over right there
and then until I heard a woman shriek some names that I cant remember and called for them to come to her.
At that point the children got up and high tailed it out of there as did I. Those kids were enough to petrify me
so I wasn’t taking any chances with anything else. Even to this day I have no clue what I saw in those woods
although I'm not sure that I want to know. I just hope that's the last ghost I'll ever meet.

11. Sound Effects
Sound Effect Needed How I Will Create the Sound
Footsteps (on crunching grass and leaves.) Internet
Childish giggles Internet
Woman screaming Internet
Car engine starting Internet
Crows Internet

12. Music
Band Name Track Name Link
N/A Scary Halloween Music:
Horror Music, Creepy
Music, Suspenseful
Background Music ♪2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtGTot98UAo

13. Production

14. Daily Reflection Day 1
Today the voice narration audio was recordered
for my ghost story. We didn’t have a voice
recorder at the time so we used a phone and
thought at the time that recording outside
would be a good idea. Unfortunatley the phone
mic picked up a lot of background noise and
wind. Despite this I stuck with the audio and
went to go find some usable sound effects on
the internet.

15. Daily Reflection Day 2
• I began editing the audio and I really noticed
the background noise which was a little
distracting from the narrative. There was also
an abundance of mistakes in the recording; so
much so that it was practically impossible to
edit. Because of this I went to re-record. This
time we had a voice recorder and found our
own small, quiet room to record in. This
recording was much more succesful.

16. Daily Reflection Day 3
• With the second recording I could start editing
the audio. I stripped away any mistakes, pauses
or parts that I felt like didn’t fit into the final
version of the narrative, added music and
inserted sound effects. The finished audio was
ready to be exported by the end of the morning.
Looking at the narrative now it seems a little
bland and there wasn’t a massive amount going
on in the world which made me feel limited to
the sound effects I could put in as I knew they
would have to fit.

17. Sound Effects
Sound Effect Needed Link
Footsteps (on crunching grass and leaves.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3S1T
-e3yGhA
Childish giggles https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNF
Wc23NCzM
Woman screaming https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFq
HyCoypfM
Car engine starting https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-
PVqdmldpvU
Crows https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjzX2
Nc6YPo

18. Evaluation

19. Research
• Much research was carried out in this project. I think mine was quite
extensive. It featured a ghost story which later became the inspiration for
my narrative as well as resarch on 3 different types of sound
(Documentarty/ factual, audio drama and sounscapes) The research on
these three types of audio go into deep analasys about very specific things
that makes each one work and I think this was very help for me later on to
decide how I wanted to structure my audio. Alongside this, the research
also helped me think about what I needed to lokk for when using sound
effects to try and create an atmoshpere.

20. Planning
• The planning could have been much more extensive. It was very linear in
the sense that it only seems to entertain one general idea and gives of the
impression that I am scared to look at new ideas and explore which is far
from the truth. It would have been better if I'd listed about 3 or 4 different
ideas that all take different directions and takes on what would become
my audio. This would have also helped me play with more ideas and
merge them to make better ones. Despite this the ideas that were covered
in planning did have a few key details in them that made it into the final
product and helped me to shape the script and pick certain sound effects
for the right moments in the script that fit in the worlds atmosphere.

21. Time Management
• Time was never an issue during this project I felt like I could spend a lot of
time researching and planning and still have more than enough time to
produce the Audio. I ended up having a little more time than I needed so
It might have been a good idea to spend more time focusing on the
production, specifically the music and sound effects. These would have let
me create a more atmoshperic world as well as allow me to build tension

22. Technical Qualities
In many ways my work shares similarities with Lore, a documentary styled piece. The
episode I heard was part 73 which recollected odd experiences from the past about
weather like raining meat. Similarly my work also was narrated telling an odd past
experience, this time about a ghost story.
Like lore, both use background music to try and increase the tension /
mysteriousness however Lore included many different music changes to present certain
atmospheric changes when needed. This is something my work lacks and it would have
been good to start off with a slightly creepy or eerie tone and transition into a more
tense sound when the firefighter witnesses the ghosts.
Although lore lacks this, My product has a couple of sound effects that add to the
atmosphere. I also used reverb to make a couple of SFX, like the childish giggles, sound
more spooky. Despite this a lot of the sound effects felt drag and dropped rather than
carefully integrated into the work. If I had spent more time layering sound effects and
adding them more consistently my work may have reached a better quality with
impactful effects. From their I could have begun to play around the different effects I
could add to the sound which I touched on with the addition of reverb. This could have
really refined and perfected the sound in the audio piece.

23. Aural Qualities
The voice narrating the piece was very monotone sounding which in some ways could
add to the creepy atmosphere but it’s also one of the main reasons that The audio felt
emotionless. It would have probably been better if the firefighter sounded terrified of
his experience or maybe even traumatized and he begins to breakdown a little bit
when he talks about the ghosts approaching him finding it hard to describe. Their could
have also been more sound effects to really bring out the atmosphere and let the
audience really picture the forest in their minds. The effects sound effects should allow
for the audience to imagine a setting visually.

24. Audience Appeal
The target audience may find the audio a little disturbing which can be a good
thing as it is a ghost story however the idea of headless children may be
too gruesome for some younger people. On a whole I think the creepy content
would appeal to the target audience however they may find the story slightly
boring. In my opinion the story doesn’t really go anywhere and if I were to do
this again I would re-write the script to include more depth and inclusion of the
ghosts.