Rodger Sheldon recounts his experience after death, where he was aware of his decomposing body and felt intense suffering and pain that grew over time. Despite being dead for 18 years, the memory of his agony remained. He begs the Overseers to help him avoid returning to that state and escape the fate that awaits all living things. The narrator's harrowing description of what comes after death is meant to serve as a warning to the Overseers.

1. Audio
Your Name Here

2. Existing Products Research
• The Lost Pages
– As a huge fan of the God of War series and Mythology as a
whole I was immediately drawn to this promotional
podcast for the 2018 game, retelling short prequel stories
for the game, or some original Norse Myths. Despite my
initial desire however, it did not fit in with the horror genre
requirement, and so I left that idea fairly quickly.

3. Existing Products Research
• SCP Illustrated
• My first thought when being told about the horror genre
requirement was to do something related to the SCP
Foundation, a collection of short horror files about anomalous
objects or entities. There are several YouTube channels that
also do dramatic readings of these files, one called “SCP
Illustrated” in particular, and his work gave me a multitude of
ideas.

4. Ideas

5. Idea Generation/Initial Reaction
• I was originally thinking of doing one of the stories from ‘The Lost Pages of Norse
Myth’, as they were already in a podcast form and therefore were easier to retell,
my initial idea being to retell the story of Thamur the Stonekeeper, however upon
hearing the requirement it needed to be a horror story, I left the mythology ideas
behind to focus on another interest. I remembered hearing stories told online
about the SCPs, eventually settling on 2718, What Comes After. That took the form
of a horror-esque story, so I attempted to slightly rework the story to fit a

6. Experiments

7. 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.

8. Recording
• I found it difficult to find a place quiet enough to record in college, as there were
often too many people nearby to record in peace, so I resorted to recording most
of the piece in my room at home.
• I think while this was a benefit in that the audio would now be without
interruption, it did make the project take longer as I couldn’t do any editing in
college without the base recording already finished.

9. 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.

10. Proposal
Working Title: What Comes After
(2178,
What is it called? This can change if you think of something better later
Audience:
Who is your audience? Be very detailed; age, gender, social status, psychographic etc. Use the Audience Classifications PowerPoint on Blackboard
to help you develop this section.
Why would your project appeal to this person? Discuss each audience element in relation to content (why would your product appeal to the age
group? Why would your product appeal to the gender? Etc.)
Project Concept (approx. 200 words)
What is the concept for your project and what are you going to make?
What did you learning during research that will help you?

11. Planning

12. Story
• What Comes After is a recounting of the events that occurred to a Rodger Sheldon
after his death, being his experience of what comes after. ‘Life’ after death consists
of reoccupying your body with an intense feeling of suffocation, and becoming
aware of everything happening to every part of his body, capacity for pain only
growing and becoming more intense the longer he spent dead. After being revived
by fellow ‘Overseers’, he begs them to help him avoid this fate for the rest of living
humanity.

13. Script Final
I dared not speak of this at first. You'd never have let me out of containment. The truth is, I was aware of all of
it. I suppose there was a sweet oblivion, like deep sleep, at first; but in retrospect, I think it was no more than a
day. Slowly, but unmistakably, I reoccupied my corpse with dreamlike consciousness: numb for the first merciful
hours, blind, deaf, and immobile, but then I seemed to reconnect to every nerve, and became aware of every
sensation - moreso than I ever was in life. I perceived myself trapped within an immovable object, and the
intensity of the struggle amplified: subtle, then acute, then racking. I cannot describe it completely - but
imagine holding your breath, beyond urge, beyond pain, beyond desperation - head throbbing and eyes bulging
- a dream of suffocation without end.
My skin blistered and split in the sunlight; biting insects descended rapidly. I felt eggs hatch, larvae crawl, gases
build and burst within me, individual cells rupturing, interstitial fluids souring and blackening. Somehow my
capacity to experience and store these sensations grew - even as I was keenly aware of my cerebrum being
scattered and devoured, my perception expanded, into the gizzards of birds and the depths of fire ant dens. I
was aware of every fingernail and strand of hair that pulled away in the wind - and my sensation clung to them
as they settled in the ocean and dissolved in the maws of a trillion diatoms.
I don't understand it. The more bits of me there were, the larger my capacity for the perception of pain. As I
decayed into pieces smaller than living nerves could possibly distinguish, the character of the discomfort
changed - from burning and aching and breaking I might relate to you in human terms - to something worse
that I cannot fully articulate: a terrible, maddening stretching of every part of myself from every other part.
Humans often numb to chronic pains in life, do they not? Yet every year, every month, every second that
passed - I swear it only intensified over time.

14. In my previous life, I ruminated on Heaven and Hell, and the likelihood of my experiencing one, the other, or
something in between. As terrible as I imagined the torpor of Heaven or the torments of Hell to be, this was
entirely different from either. In Hell, at least, there would surely be a tormentor, some memory of my deeds,
some sense of justice, even if my soul rejected its logic. I can imagine some comfort in Hell, for a mind such as
mine.
I do not think this is a punishment. I do not think it is caused. I deeply suspect it is simply our condition,
our nature to go on this way, do you see? In all that time, I was certainly, absolutely, totally alone, and before
long all memory of life had shrivelled to a cinder, lost beneath my interminable anguish. Alive again, I suspect I
cannot quite recall the worst of it - as if my living brain is too small for the experience.
As Overseers, we witness, inflict, or endure great suffering. Yet what awaits us all is worse, the way an earache
is worse than a bee sting, the way frostbite is worse than a burn. I was dead for eighteen years, and my misery
eludes description. Dare we try to fathom the collective agony of legions of ancient dead?
Believe this: I will not return to that execrable existence. Not a hundred years from now, not ever. Yes, I
approached Ahriman for help. I am sure he could extend us all, if he wished. I offered him great concessions
from the Foundation, even, perhaps, release. But he laughed, and refused. Yet I - I can think of others willing to
trade on a smaller scale, though the price may be nearly as - no. Nothing compares. Anything is better, so long
as it is forever.
Do you believe me? Will you join me, and together, escape this fate? Please!

15. Sound Effects
Sound Effect Needed How I Will Create the Sound
Slowly breaking bone Slowly snapping celery
Ocean waves Creating waves in filled bath/sink

16. Actors/Locations
Actor Role Location for recording
Me Narrator My room

17. Resource List
Resource Owned/Cost What sound effect will it be
used for?
Celery 75p Breaking bones
Pillowcase Owned Birds
Chair Owned Chair
PC Owned Background whirring

18. Production

19. Daily Reflection Day 1
• Upon starting to record I realised that the original script was
going to be far too long to compress into five minutes, I
realised I’d have to do just one part of it. Decided on the
monologue where the focus character describes his life after
death

20. Daily Reflection Day 2
• Recording went pretty well, just struggling to think of where in
the scene I can fit that many sounds not just made with my
voice.

21. Evaluation

22. Research
• For research I listened to several storytelling podcasts with more attentive
focus to voice and ambient sound effect, however I initially struggled to
find podcasts with suitable audio effects. When I found the story I wanted
to do, I researched other audio versions of it, but decided to go for a
relatively different tone with my own narration.

23. Planning
• Most of my planning consisted of just adjusting and readjusting the script
to fit the time limit. There was also a lot of consideration into how I would
make each sound necessary for the final script, but ultimately most of the
sounds I could easily create with my hands, desk and chair.

24. Time Management
• I think I could have spent more time to find a wider range of usable sound
effects in my recording, and that I may have spent too much time purely
on the emotion of the vocalisation, which I considered to be the strongest
point of the project’s potential going into the recording.

25. Technical Qualities
• I used as much Foley as I felt I could fit in without shoehorning, mostly using
my voice and limited props that were easily available to me. To compare my
work to the “SCP Illustrated” videos that I mentioned earlier may be an
inaccurate comparison, as he either has much more advanced Foley
equipment than me, or uses pre-made sound effects. I don’t think my
effects were of the greatest quality, but I tried to apply them where I could.

26. Aural Qualities
• I think I did a good job with my vocal effects, which was just about what I
expected coming in, being able to display the distress and trauma the
narrator endured in the afterlife, however I feel my Foley effects may
have been a little lacklustre, and I could have put more effort into better
sounding effects. Ultimately I think the greater strengths of the product
come from my acting ability rather than my sound-creation ability.

27. Audience Appeal
I think that the product would appeal to the target audience by way of it being a
relatively unique, short piece specifically focusing on the monologue. Very few
other retellings of “What Comes After” put as much emotion into the monologue,
and I feel that may draw in a wider audience, despite the product not covering the
entire length of the original SCP file. That specific story also only has a few popular
videos, and there are very few SCP podcasts that have even attempted it to my
knowledge.