The document summarizes the initial thoughts and planning for an audio story project about "The Stick Man". The story selected is about Laurence Sterne, an 18th century author who lived next to an elderly neighbor who used his cane on the shared wall to ward off thieves at night. After the neighbor dies, Laurence begins to hear the cane sounds from the supposedly empty house. Sound effects like church bells, the cane on the wall, and creaky floorboards are identified as important to create atmosphere. Additional research on house sizes and wall/floor materials is noted to make effects period-appropriate. Overall, the document expresses excitement for using sound design to bring the creepy story to life

1. Audio Story
Task 2: Initial Responses

2. Initial Responses and Idea Generation
Log your initial thoughts regarding the set brief in this document
What stories could you use? How do you feel about the different potential
formats? What are the positives about this project? What could be some difficult
aspects? Etc
Use the format on this document to guide this response – some are set as a
question on one slide, but you should look to add further slides as necessary

3. Which stories have you researched and looked
as potential starting points?
• I've looked at stories such as; Roaming Wraith, Fresh Phantoms and Stick
Man, Gytrash and Dracula. Out of the stories I’ve researched I think I like
the story of the stick man the most. I think it is probably the easiest one to
make that will end up with a final product how I want. The story is quite
creepy itself and with what could be simple sound effects, it could add
some easy weight to it’s creepy side.

4. Which research into existing products has been the
most useful? Includes examples and explanations
• I think my research into the Short Cuts podcast was very useful because it
made me realise how if the right sound effects and a good soundtrack
was used at the right time correctly it could really help add to the whole
project. The way they made it helped turn what was just someone telling a
story into something more like a drama, it helped create images in the
audiences head with the sound effects and with the soundtrack it helped
add more meaning to some for example sad or exciting parts.

5. Which production format [drama, narration,
etc] do you feel fits your idea best and why?
• I think that Drama would fit my story best as I think that with well
done sound effects and well done voice acting it has some big potential.
The idea of the sound of the smacking of the walking stick against the main
characters bedroom wall could really create a creepy and scary tone. The
idea of a documentary/narration could also work pretty well too but I think
that I'd like to try and use this walking stick sound to create fear and a
creepy sense.

6. Which story have you settled on and why?
• I've settled on the story of 'The Stick Man' as I think that it is very creepy
and it has great potential for using sound effects. The fact that the
creepiest parts of the story is just sound makes me think it will help me
with developing my skills with audio. I also think that it will make the
project easier when creating the sound effects and will hopefully free up a
bit more time for me to try and maybe alter more of the sound effects.

7. If you had to sell your story quickly, what is the
title and the logline?
• The title would be: The Author's Neighbour
• Logline: At 33 Stonegate lived Laurence Sterne the author of 'The Life &
Opinions of Tristram Shandy'. Next door, number 35, a simple old
gentleman scared of thieves in the night, would use his cane and his shared
wall between his and the authors bedroom to warn off potential thieves.
But after the old gentleman's unexpected death, the house was empty. A
distinct noise of a cane on a wall meant that the so-called empty house
wasn't as empty as Laurence believed.

8. What ideas have you had for sound effects,
narration and storytelling?
• I'm going to have to try and get some sound effects for some sort of distant
church bells to try and be the bells in the York Minster striking midnight.
• As well as that I really want the noise of the walking stick being banged on
the wall but I might want to go to Stonegate and see what the walls are like
to see what kind of noise it would make and how loud it would be if you
were right next to it.
• I think since it's an old story, for walking it would work really well if I could
get some walking on creaky floorboards.

9. Initial feelings…how do you feel about the
project currently?
• Right now I'm quite excited about the project, at first I was a little nervous
about the project as I had no clue what I was doing but after doing the
experiment with the clip from the film 'Shaun of the Dead', I found that I
ended up having a lot of fun and I found it easier than it thought it was
going to be. I also think that doing that experiment has made me lot more
excited to do the rest of the project. I really enjoyed the making of the
sound effects but I think I found putting it all together a lot more enjoyable
as I liked seeing it all build up together and I'm quite looking forward to
doing that again.

10. What other research do you think you need to
do?
• I think I need to figure out how far away the houses in the story are from
the minster to gage how loud the minster bells would be. As well as that I
think I need see what the walls are like or were like in that street to see
what the noise the cane would make against the wall.
• Something else that could help is testing out the sounds of different shoes
on what would probably wooden floors and seeing what would sound era
appropriate as much as possible.
• I could maybe do with seeing how big these buildings are, I'd like to try
and make it as authentic as possible by making sure that characters aren't
walking for too long so the size of the house doesn't seem too big or small.