Analysis of Feedback

In account of my questionnaire, I received different strengths and weaknesses as regards of my radio drama. I decided to devise this audience questionnaire to gain feedback from my target audience. I got my target audience to listen to the draft of Dear Diary and recorded all of their feedback into a questionnaire. To ensure I got accurate results, I asked an equal amount of male and female representatives aged between 12 – 22. I asked both open and closed question to gain qualitative and quantitative data in order to gain reliable results. 

I received a different range of feedback from young people where I gained positive and negative data. It was important for me to gain feedback from an audience to see what I was missing from my radio drama and what I could add to improve it. One person Aaron, said that at the beginning of my drama it was too serious and was not sure if that was the effect I was going for. They suggested I should add in music to make it less serious and I will be taking this into account by putting in a music bed in the background of the presenter speaking. 
Another person for my audience mentioned they thought my radio drama had just cut off and left like it was unfinished. They also gave me great feedback on how I could improve this aspect. I will follow their advice of having a presenter finish towards the end by stating who made the drama and include what my radio station name is. From this feedback I will absorb this and include it into my final radio drama. 
On the other hand, there were a lot of aspects that the audience did like such as my variety of foley sounds I used and how it was clear and concise when listening to it as they were aware of the characters actions. One especially said they liked the use of foleys that indicated the character receiving the messages and then the typing back. They also liked the themes and plot of the radio drama where they thought it was informative and entertaining. 
Overall, the feedback I have received has been very helpful and has helped me gain some aspects that I can change and improve on for my final radio drama edit. 

Audience Feedback

Evaluation

Production Journey

 This blog clearly displays all of my evidence whilst making the Radio Drama.                    When starting my Radio Drama I had to begin recording all of my dialogue and and sound effect so I could put all of my sounds together and begin using the editing software Garage Band. This was an offline edit as I could alter and adjust the audio tracks as I went along. I operated my audio recordings with the USB Microphone as I was the voice actress for Siena, to record straight onto the software so the sound would be clear and crisp. I used pitch correction and EQing to change the tome of Siena's voice for some tracks as I wanted her to sound like a narrator for her diary voices compared to her regular voice. This needed to have more of an echo sound around the voice.  

I also recorded some sounds in my bedroom with the voice recorder, when I was not in the room to record. This was to gather all of my sounds quicker and not wait to use the iMac only to record all of my sound.   

 

The footage I recorded was saved on a Flash Drive, therefore I had to drag the contents into Garage Band as I could not directly import all of the sound straight onto my saved project. This was quick and easy and all of my sound files did not reduce in sound quality. 

For each sound I had to keep creating new tracks as I did not want any of the other sounds being affected when adjusting the sound levels of each sound clip. This was because on some of the sounds I wanted to alter the actors voices to an echo or reverb sound. This was effective to add on the sound as it varied how the audience hears the voices and makes it clear as to what is going on in the Radio Drama. 

An example of where I used an echo sound on the voice actors clips, was to convey that Siena - the main character - could not hear anyone around her and denoted she was not present in the room/world as a state of shock from her experience of Cyberbullying. It also displayed the sound of her family being muffled to convey that Siena can not hear anything they are saying. To clearly represent this, I added in a copyright free high pitch frequency sound effect to portray what she actually hears whilst she zones out. 

To cut any log recordings, I used the short cut controls Command T to cut or crop any unwanted sound or to decrease the duration of the sound file to make it accurate and easy to place in the order according to my script. When adding in the audio tracks, I was important for me to always refer back to my script so I knew which sound goes where and in what order. It helped me be more organised with my Drama. 

 This photo below clearly displays how I changed the sound levels of each of the sound clips. I used the Automation tool to fade sounds in and out by clicking the cursor and creating control points on the yellow line. Then repeat, another one. I will then lower down the automation points to how quiet I want the volume or raise them up to increase the volume. I do this at the beginning and ending of the sound files to create a fade effect. This also manipulates the individual tracks volumes by creating and dragging the control ↗ points anywhere in the audio. ↙

I added atmospheric sounds and music for the background to make the Radio Drama more realistic and capture the location and settings, also what time of day it is. I downloaded copyright free sound effects from Youtube which I downloaded in a MP3 file format. The type of sounds I downloaded were jingles and sound beds that I placed at the beginning of the Drama. This was to demonstrate me following the conventions of Radio.
When exporting my Offline Draft of Dear Diary, I exported it as a AIFF file format as this is for Apple softwares only and I was using an iMac computer. Also, I preferred to export as AIFF as it is a lossless file format and directly converts the file directly from the audio source.

Considerations

The sound format I will be exporting my Draft and Final Sound file is AIFF. This will be exported on Garage Band so will be easily exported and will not lose any quality sound. It will also be uncompressed sound therefore will not lose any quality or data. This is called Generation Loss where the sound file keeps being copied and compressed and affects the overall quality of the sound and may sound unclear or muffled. 

I will be using a Flash Drive as back up to store all of my sound. This is because if I lose any sound when coming back to edit it, there will still be a backup of all my sounds and files. A Flash drive is useful to use as I can transfer all of the data back to the computer and easily drag into the Garage Band Software. 

Recee

For my Radio Drama, I have chosen a few suitable locations where I can create my sound of record great natural Foley sounds. I used locations both inside and outside. For inside I used to record mine and my characters dialogue to get a clear and precise sound without the feedback created in the background. For my locations;

Garden - I will use my garden to create the sound of birds in the background. This will create a sound the distinguishes what time of day it is and in this case it is trying to represent morning. My garden is a perfect location because the birds in my garden always sing loud and clear. I will use this sound at the beginning of my Radio Drama and also to represent Siena talking in her diary voice as a narrator. The bird noise sound will be used in the background of the narrator so it will not sound completely quiet and have dead air in the background. It also represents her writing her journal in the morning.

Dining Table - The dining room in my house will be used to create the sounds of the family having dinner or setting the table out. It is a perfect location to use as I can recreate the sounds of cutlery and utensils moving about the table to demonstrate the family getting ready for dinner. It also portrays how it actually sounds in a dining room. Also, I have a TV in my dining room which I can switch on in the background to make the room more atmospheric. This is reasonable and accurate as nowadays families sit and have dinner whilst the television is on.

Bedroom - I will use my bedroom to record my dialogue as I am the voice actor for Siena. Recording my voice on the voice recorder in my bedroom is an ideal location as there is no background noise that will disrupt me speaking and will get the best recording quality. I will also feel more comfortable to vary my tone and expression in my own space. I will also use this location to record all my other voice actors dialogue.

Another location I will record in is the Gallery Room as this is where I will be producing all my work on Garage Band on the Macs. I will get the best quality sound in this room as I will also be using the USB Microphones which will record straight onto Garage Band. I feel this Microphone will be better to use as it will terminate any feedback noise in the background. 

Rushes Log