For this exciting and challenging project we have been asked to create a factual radio broadcast as a class which will ask 60 minutes. Within this 60 minute show, each student will have 7.5 minutes of their own show. "This 60 minute program will focus positively on life at Bluecoat Academy as seen by the students who are commissioned to produce the elements being broadcast. We have been told that this show will be aimed at a wide audience which includes; students, teachers and adults. I will need to include fluent creativity, whilst keeping on the right lines of being factual. The broadcast will cover a various amount of areas and topics, each one covered by each student individually. Whilst this task involves us working individually to create our own show, we will have to communicate with one another to create a name for the broadcasting show and order of topics.
We are grateful and fortunate, that we have a helping hand for this project. There's no one better to help us with radio production, than someone who works for the BBC...Ed Stagg. Ed is the man for this project. He has broadcasted his own shows over many local BBC radio stations around the Nottinghamshire area. With his high experiences within this industry I simply expect to learn a lot from him. He is used to fluently talking so I know he will be very clear when explaining areas of radio I do not understand. I suspect he will show us many techniques, only the best will know, and he will provide the most fundamental of information and tricks in radio production.
Ed Stagg so far has lived up to the high expectations. He has talked to us on how to create a radio show suitable for the audience, from the first second you are on air to the last. Of course we are no experts in this area (yet) so some of the jargon Ed uses will be completely foreign to us. Thus, Ed has provided a tips & tricks guide verbally, which I have managed to write down, for future reference. Some interesting points he made were; the keyword in radio production is "YOU". By using this term you are automatically connecting with your audience. He also mentioned stingers and jingles. These radio features will engage the audience and make the show more attractive to the audience. In addition to this, Stingers and jingles also enables you to give your broadcast a clear structure. One statement I was surprised about was "silence is helpful in radio". Apparently silence and voice change, keeps the audience gripped on your show. Ed described this as 'gear changing'. You can change your voice to give the radio pace or to slow the show down. By including a mixture of this element, the audience are engaged and not bored by the same old voice! Ed has also gave us some do's and don't in radio production...
Here is what you should:
Be Impartial
Do a show based on something that interests you
Be passionate
Here is what you shouldn't:
Be bias
Be boring
It's clear that Ed has helped within just a one week period, and Im sure I will learn a lot more, as there was quite a lot I didn't know prior to this project and Ed's presence. I have little experiences in audio editing and creating. For example I have little experiences on Garage Band (and other similar software), this makes it difficult for me to create my own jingles. In addition to this, I haven't managed to take on a radio project before, so I am coming into this one with little professional knowledge overall. I knew the basics, such as jingles being important and used but the stuff that happens behind closed doors, I don't know about. Nevertheless, I have experience in media studies so I have knowledge on producing media that needs to suite your audience. I know how to stick to deadlines dates for work submission, which is a skill you need in radio. I also know how to keep my work professional by using the correct and suitable manner. In addition to this I have experiences in journalism too. I currently write articles for an international football website, and I have developed my understanding in journalism I know that I have to keep the right balance between fact and opinion. I know that I have to get the facts accurately. I also know that I have to adapt my style to suite my audience's needs. This strength will allow me to take forward the knowledge learnt from this journalism, and use it radio production. These strengths and experiences will also make me more confident in my own work. When I come to speak in my show, this confidence will be reflected.
Now Ed Stagg is amongst our media team, we have developed our ideas as a team. Whilst considering the tips & tricks Ed told us about, we were asked (as a class) to come up with a name for the radio station and the show. After some time discussing and debating we came up with two names for the show, they were; "BlueSpoke.FM" and "Edu'.FM". I thought edu' was a good name as it added a modern, stylish and youthful play on the word "education". Although the class decided on BlueSpoke as we believed that this shows strongly that it is Bluecoat's turn to have a say! I have to say that I am also pleased with this name, we played with words, tried to make it unique and came up with few names, this was one of the best ones we came up with. In terms of the show name, we struggled with ideas. One student came up with "60 minute mix". Immediately, the whole class agreed and clicked with the name. It sounded unique, stylish and interesting which will surely attract our audience.
To help us get a better understanding on what is asked of us, we decided to make a mission statement (as a class) that will briefly outline the project brief. We firstly worked in pairs and came up with our won mission statements We then swapped pairs and shared ideas. After we shared with every other pair, we got back to our original pairs to see what changes have been made by other people. Once we did this, we feed-backed to our teacher who then put the most used phrases and words into one mission statement. This way, we have used the words which we want to use as a class, whist ensuring everyone ha the same idea of what they have to complete.
We are now at the stage where we are starting to think about what we want to include in our 7 minute show. As a class, we came up with 8 issues/topics we would like to cover in our show. We then gave each student a topic each. We had to think of what the audience would want to hear about, whilst thinking about whether we could be passionate about the topic we are covering. I chose to go with "clubs and enrichment". I chose this, not because I enjoy this myself, but because I know Bluecoat are passionate about after school enrichment. I had also have done a project in the past that involved me researching into this area of school, so I already know a bit about this topic. I plan to include interviews with students and teachers, looking for many answers. For example I want to find out why they are so popular and why are Bluecoat priding themselves in such activity. When telling Ed about my topic he made me realise that I shouldn't be one sided.Whist this is a positive area in school, Ed made me realise that this has overtaken education itself and takes up potential lessons. So I now have an idea that I want to interview people with passion about this topic, whilst including the techniques Ed has told me about. I want to give two side to this..the good and the negative.
The others are covering different areas such as sports, education news and school trips. They will plan individually like myself for their own 7.5 minute show. Eventually we will put them all together to make a one hour show. This one hour will become the 60 minute mix. We will decide together our order of topics shown on the broadcast.
Furthermore we have collated some research into existing radio shows by looking at how the presenter talks, what sort of jingles are used, how long they talk about each section and how they keep the audience engaged. We then assembled this documentation into Excel for a research bank.
An aspect we have also been looking at is Radio production budget. Whilst this area is not associated for a project like this in particular, in the professional industry radio is unfortunately a costly production. In fact in the years 2007-2008 the BBC spent a WHOOPING £460M on radio broadcasts, shows and mixes. These prices will not be any easy to handle as they are today, and so companied like the BBC strive to cut down on costs wherever possible! However, many factors make this budget cutting difficult, these aspects include; guest stars, radio licenses and much more.
"The BBC’s efficiency target for the five years to April 2013 is to reduce spending on Network and Nations radio stations by £21.1 million, releasing £68.7 million in cumulative cash efficiency savings (£57.4 million from the Network stations and £11.3 million from the Nations stations)." This statement taken from a reliable source, suggests that the BBC are challenging themselves to cut an ALMIGHTY amount of money on there radio productions, yet this area will still cost them a lot to fund, like many other similar companies.
It can take hundreds to hundreds of thousands to even start a radio station. Weather your a radio-fanatic broadcasting form your house, or working for a large production company such as the BBC. It all simply depends on your location, station size, where you broadcast and if you are a public or private radio station. Thus, you would need to prepare a budget before you begin to plan to make a radio show. This is especially if you plan to include music. Of course music is copyrighted and if you plan to play music on your show, you need the rights as your more likely playing it to entertain the audience. This means that you would need a bigger budget to fund the rights to play copyrighted music.
There is a way of getting some profit out of your radio show. By advertising businesses and other companies, you can charge them, which will bring back some of the money you lost by starting up your show. If you are successful, and your show is a hit, then you are on your way to a LARGE PROFIT in the future.
There is a way of getting some profit out of your radio show. By advertising businesses and other companies, you can charge them, which will bring back some of the money you lost by starting up your show. If you are successful, and your show is a hit, then you are on your way to a LARGE PROFIT in the future.
With all aspects considered, such as equipment, music and licenses, it would cost a lot. Fortunately, this project does not cost me, so this isn't an aspect for me to consider in this particular project. Although, it is something I should learn about to prepare myself for the future, if I end up in this industry as a pro.
13/03/2013
Today Ed Stagg was unusually here today. He is normally here on Tuesdays but today he was here, and we had to make the most out of his presence. The first task we set about doing was designing a questionnaire. We did this as a class, as this radio broadcast will be made by us together, just with our own individual shows. To get the ball rolling we headed for the board and gathered around; we shared ideas we could ask and what questions we could ask. In addition to this, we debated as to weather the question was relevant to our project or if we could think of any answers our audience could give. It was important that we all contributed to this as there are some tasks we simply have to do as a class. Some disagreed with my choices whilst I disagreed with them too. An example question we decided to scrap was "what is your ethnicity" This question will simply not effect what and how we present our show. Thus we decided to forget that question. After our discussion, we managed to come up with 8 questions as class, which had a lot of thought put into. We then had a member type the questions up into a survey format using Microsoft Word, and we checked over to see how we could change/tweak some of the questions or multiple options provided. We then printed so we all had enough copies each to go out and ask students and teachers to fill out these questionnaires. To help to ensure we have the most reliable data from these questionnaires, we decided to ask in person the questions face-to-face. This stops any potential participants putting random answers to quicken the answering process. Later after we receive more responses, we will gather the data from the audience.
Once we completed this task we set off to write up a pitch script. After thinking about our individual topics for our 7.5 minute slots, and after receiving feedback from Ed yesterday, it was time to write up exactly what we have planned. This pitch has to include a detail on; our audience, our unique selling point, our creative ideas, what sort of questions we want to ask, how we are going to make it interesting and what we aim to show in 7.5 minutes. All this information had to be shown to Ed later in the day, in just a 5 minute gap. I managed to create some notes on what to say and how I should present myself to Ed.
This afternoon, Ed was available. Without wasting any time at all, we sent in the first student to do their pitch. When it came to my turn, I spoke to Ed about everything I wanted to show, and how I was going to show it. Ed seemed impressed with my ideas, and believes im on the right tracks. He also said that he can see that I have been paying careful attention to his tips & tricks as I mentioned some of them in my own proposal today. After this pitch, Ed gave me extra advice on what my order should be. He gave me a structure of where I should place my content. He liked the idea of including interviews from various people and jumped at the idea of me going on a tour of the enrichment clubs and recording my experiences This gives me and the audience a hands-on experience, which isn't usually covered in radio.
14/03/2013
Today we started to write up an initial plan and structure for our show. We have 7.5 minutes to plan for, so to help us gain some sort of structure we designed a table showing each minute separately and displaying each element and content that is going to be shown in that minute. We designed this whilst having in mind Ed's advice and guidance from yesterday. I then went on to make a check list. This list told me what I needed to do to make each content successful. For example I written down; I mentioned that I had to find contact information for the Bluecoat visitors and what equipment is needed. I also written an e-mail asking Mr Colbeck (enrichment organiser) if it is possible to have an interview with him. Below is that e-mail:
Hello,
I am writing to inform you of an exciting prospect and project. Within the media department, we have undertaken a factual radio production, that will discuss Bluecoat Academy, and it's different areas. This will be exciting and interesting to listen to; for students and teachers. The area I have taken to discuss in my 7 and half minute show, is clubs and enrichment.
I understand this is a key and popular area in Bluecoat Academy, and I plan to look deeply into this area of the school. Thus, I will be grateful if there is any time you could take to do an interview with me about this topic. I know you have authority, passion and involvement within enrichment activities, so if there are any available times you have, please could you possibly contact me.
In addition to this, I wonder if you know any contacts for any visitors who have helped with enrichment Thursdays. If it's possible could you pass on any contacts who would be willing to do an interview with me too.
If you have any queries or need any further information, please do not hesitate,to e-mail me.
Thank you
This e-mail was also sent to a woman by the name of "Sammy". My teacher informed me that she also has experience with enrichment activity. As you can see I have kept a high formality and is one task I can tick of my check list already!
15/03/2013
Today we carried on with what we started yesterday. This time I started to work on my script. This is also known as scripted dialogue. This task was very successful as I have managed to progress far with the script. I considered factors such as; formality, style, enthusiasm and passion for the topic. I also kept in mid that this is not just a factual show but is also has a purpose to entertain.
Now I have started my script, I can see where and how each concept will be shown. When reviewing this, I realised that for most of my 7.5 minutes, there will be some sort of interview going on. These interviews added onto the potential interviews included in my colleges shows, could possibly be too much. However, I believe we can avoid this issue, if we all ensure that each interview is passionate and that we don't just have a case of answer-question-answer, we need to dig really deep in to whom we are interviewing to ensure we get all the little bits of information.
In addition to this, I also believe that my script should be the mixture of formal and chatty. The viewers don't expect to listen to the radio, to then be talked to like there're in a board meeting, whilst they also don't expect to hear the presenter talking in slang (as this is unprofessional). Thus I have ensure that so far I have kept fine balance between formal and un-professionalism.
Overall I can see that my script reflects all my creativeness, and I can really start to see how my show is going to sound.
I am still awaiting for a reply form Mr Colbeck and "Sammy". I sincerely hope they reply soon, as this project needs to evolve and move on at a fast pace.
18/03/2013
It was time for me to start planning what I wanted to ask my guests. I need to come prepared as the show needs to be fluent and professional. If I was to improvise the questions then I will simply stutter and use too many fillers. I managed to complete these questions for y fox, mr Colbeck and Sammy. At the moment I have no contacts for outside companies, thus, I will have to wait longer to complete the interview, however, I have still prepared the questions I may want to ask them.
In addition to this, I also managed to head to the office for Mr Colbeck. Because I am still awaiting for a reply to my earlier e-mail, I thought it would be best if I saw them in the flesh. Mr Colbeck wasn't there. Fortunately Samantha was and we agreed that we can complete the interview on Wednesday. She also said that Mr Colbeck is available too, which is very convenient for me.
In the mean time, I will continue to make a light edit to my questions and my plan for the 7 minutes.
19/03/2013
Ed Stagg was here today! After our recent planning and preparations, for questions for our guests, Ed thought it wold be a good idea to share some more tip with us about interviewing. He told us that we have so much control, as we decide how we can come across. We can either come more abruptly and question what they say, or we can make it seem like a light and chatty conversation. Another point I thought was useful was when he said that when it comes to editing the audio, you shouldn't turn the volume up. This is because if there's background noise (floor noise) then that will also be turned up too. Thus we should try to avoid rooms with background noise and if we can't, we should avoid turning the volume up.
In addition to this, he mentioned that it's best not to tell the interviewee the question before recording. We need to get natural answers when doing radio, and if we prepare them for what is going to be asked, we are allowing them time to think, thus they wont answer on the spot. This came as bit of a problem as yesterday Samantha Carroll, requested that she is allowed to prepare answers before recording, at the time I saw no problem with this so I said that she can. However, after Ed's advice, I have realised that it's not such a good idea after all. I spoke to Ed about this issue, and he reassured me that I can tell them that they cannot prepare the answers, he also said I should explain this to them. If they refuse to answer without any preparation, I could simply say I wish to not continue the interview, but it is my choice as I am the presenter.
20/03/2013
The day is Wednesday, which means I have practically full day to work on this project. The problem I have been facing this week is my illness. Yet again similarly to the previous project, I have been brought down by a touch of flu. Nevertheless I was determined not to let any time be wasted, so I dragged myself to college to ensure I used all my time wisely. After agreeing to see Mr Colbeck and Ms Carroll today for my interview, I was advised by my teacher to see them as early as possible, as Mr Colbeck isn't known for sitting still. Once I booked the zoom microphone out for the interview I headed up stairs to their office. I asked if they would be available period 2, as I needed a bit of time to ensure I had prepared my questions thoroughly.
It actually turned out that Mr Colbeck had a meeting with another person at that time, and he was actually only available period one! Of course this meant that I had to complete the interview in this period, but I had only 20 minutes left. On top of all this, he was waiting for some important phone calls during period one too!
I wasn't available when he was during other times of the week, so I simply had no choice but hope I could get a quality interview within 20 minutes. Fortunately he said it should be fine to do so, and after I ran downstairs for the equipment I booked, I soon started to interview them both. After Ed's demonstration on how to use the zoom microphone I was able to efficiently and effectively finish the interview on time. I wanted to challenge them both on their answers, and I wanted to make is somewhat difficult for them. Mr Colbeck was quick of the mark and he made it difficult for myself to question what he had said. Eventually I managed to make him stumble. I asked "what would you do if a student said they don't like the enrichment clubs on offer and wishes to do work instead" He simply struggled to answer this question so allowed Ms Carroll to give an answer. Although Ed advised us not to let anyone avoid answering question,s I believe this was a joint interview so I thought this was acceptable.Once the interview was over I asked if they knew any visitors to the school that I could interview about enrichment activity. They didn't really have anybody in mind, but suggested that I should come along to a club tomorrow afternoon. I explained that I had a trip at that time, and I couldn't do that the following week either. Mr Colbeck then told me who he was planning to meet period 2...his name was Nicholas Etienne. He is a French tennis coach from David Lloyd Mr Colbeck kindly suggested that I could interview him, when he arrives. He said the only problem we have, is that Nicholas has a very strong accent. I waited around for him, and he arrived. He had a strong accent, but I believe he was still quite clear face-to-face and could speak fluent English. I asked him the questions and he gave some interesting responses. He was very helpful and I was very happy that I managed to get most of my interviews complete in less than two hours! I am particually happy that I have managed to get an interview with Nicholas. By having an outsiders opinion on enrichment, it shows that I am not being bias. In addition to this, it shows that I have interviewed many people from different cultures and ethical backgrounds. Once this was completed, I listened to my audio in the class, and it all seems clear to me.
Today I also managed to get myself in the recording studio. The correct term for such a task is studio voicing. I was able to record my pieces for the show, which seemed to be a success. There were a couple of class-mates in their too, and they said it sounded great, and I'm doing well. Whilst I thought it was all-right I still din't think it was "great"...just satisfactory which isn't enough for me.
Once I arrived home, I whipped my iPad out and used a recording app, to re-do the work I did in the recording studio. I sounded better, and much more enthusiastic about the topic, but Im not sure if the sound quality itself was better. I guess in tomorrows lesson, I will find out.
21/03/2013
Unfortunately I had to miss most part of this lesson, as it was the day for my trip. However, I had managed to upload my videos fro yesterday, into a safe and organised file. I also managed to go out on a "vox" (which I attempted to do yesterday but didn't find many people). I found around 4 students who gave me answers, one didn't make much sense in his answer, whilst another one was really quiet. Thus, it was successful in way that I found people, but I my have to go out once more to find more understandable answers. With the vox audio in my organised file, I only had the recording from last night to upload to drop-box ready to work on tomorrow
This was all the activity I was able to do, but to say I had little time, I do still believe I got quite a bit done today.
22/03/2013
In today's lesson, I didn't quite make much progress in terms of recording or even editing. I planned to edit the recording I recorded on my iPad. I downloaded it from Drop-box, and and opened up Cubase. The problem I had was that, Cubase refused to open the audio format. At first myself and the teacher were bemused by this as the format was a "wav." file. We changed it to "mp3" but we still had no luck. The option the teacher gave me was to rr-record what I had said. I had time, so this wasn't a problem. At first I didn't know what the problem was with Cubase, but then after analysing the file format of the audio on drop-box I realised that it said "mp4". It turns out the iPad doesn't support just audio files, so it reconsigned it as a video. This meant when I transferred it to drop-box the Mac wasn't sure if it was a audio or video file. Thus it sort of got confused This basically means that I will have to convert the file by using software such as "Adobe Premier . This software will then convert the file into an audio track, and then Cubase should be happy to open it.
Time went so fast today, so the converting task will have to be done next time.
25/03/2013
I have 2 hours today to get as much as I could done. With my interviews complete, it was time to convert the file I hadn't managed to convert last lesson. This was the recording of my voice, however, I soon realised my recording would sound less professional if recorded on a small device such as an iPad. Thus, I decided to take more time out and re-record this in the recording studio. I have a small passion for radio, so I want to get the my best out my 7.5 minute show. With this in mind I had to keep restarting my parts. I not only stumbled on sentences, I also mis-pronounced words, which can be an ear-ache on a radio show.
Eventually I managed to get my recording completed and exported. I then had the problem of quietness. At one point of my recording, I moved away from the microphone which made some sections quieter than others. Because of this and knowing that if I edit the volume, I would not be able to discard the echoing in the audio, I simply had to re-record this section once more. Whilst this has taken some considerable amount of time to keep re-recording, I have finished the rest of my recordings, and we are not set to start our editing until Wednesday, when Ed Stagg appear once more. Therefore, his isn't a major problem, although it would be in a fast paced and in the professional environment. This is something I will have to know about, and in the radio industry there is simply no time to make mistakes. However, I thankfully do have more time in college, so I may as well make the most of it.
26/03/2013
So now, I have come to the stage where I have practically finished my recordings. With the deadline for all recording to be completed tomorrow, I had today to make room for improvements. In this case, I have decided to go on yet another vox to find even more students to interview. I picked up my zoom mic, and headed around the school grounds with Samuel Turner and Maqsood Miah.
It was difficult to find students at first, but as time went on we managed to track quite a few down. Some of my recordings are not so great whilst others will be perfect for my show. There was a lot of background noise in some of them, due to lesson change-overs. There was also some unnecessary noise coming from my pears. This was somewhat annoying as I don't believe this was a fair thing to do. nevertheless, some things do go against you in radio production, and no matter what , it is fundamental that you work with what you get. Time is valuable so I am more than happy to use the vox answers I have got now.In addition to this, I have also managed to sort all of my audio files into individual files. this means my workspace is clean and easy to navigate around. This is also a very professional thing to do....organisation is simply the key to success and can help companies and myself to find the audio files they need for a specific area of a show.
27/03/2013
Today, I immediately set of to edit my audio and show. I was determined to get the ball rolling today, I have my recordings, and I have organisation, so I just simply wanted to keep myself going at a fast pace. I opened up Cubase and began editing.
It took a while to piece up each individual audio track. For example, my introduction to an interview is separate to the interview its self, so I had to ensure I put the right tracks in the right order. Thankfully, my file sorting paid off. This organisation I did earlier has allowed me to find exactly what I want much faster than I would if all the files was mixed with random default names such as "00001".
Once I finished putting the audio in the right order, I realised that I have passed 5 minutes in my show, and I still had on or two interviews still to put in. This was a concern as I simply have too much to show in just 7.5 minutes. Thus, I had to work back on the editing I had done, and cut down on unneeded audio. For example, my time budget is so valuable and small, that I can't even afford to include the smallest of pauses in my speech. This took a while, but it was worth it as I managed to cut down around 2 minutes of audio!
As the morning went on, I soon realised that I had completely forgot to record a piece of audio! At the moment in my show, I introduce my vox and show the vox, but I haven't summarised what the vox shows. I needed some conclusion to the vox, so in my next free period, I went of to the recording studio to record this conclusion. The problem was that there was already some students in their from another lesson, despite the fact that I booked it out with a collogue of mine (Maqsood). We wasn't sure what to do, and we certainly didn't have time to debate on who should be in the studio. Therefore we decided that we need to find a quiet room, which doesn't echo, to allow us to rerecording a zoom mic. Fortunately there was a teacher who offered her office for us to use. It was a perfect room, and we managed to record successfully what we both needed.
28/03/2013
The day has arrived for Ed Stagg to view what we have created so far. The plan was, to use the session to continue editing our audio. We then took it un turns to speak to Ed and to receive feedback on what was great, and what needs more work.
One of the good aspects about this project, is that we have the freedom to do what we want. As long as we complete our 7.5 minutes show, and hand in our work on the deadline day, it is up to us as producers what task need to be covered and when they are completed. So whilst one person would be talking to Ed, the rest of us would be doing separate and different tasks.
It was finally time for me to talk to Ed. Despite some difficulty on cutting down on some of the unneeded audio, I was able to show him a full outline of my 7.5 minutes. By now I had everything in the right order (all but one interview) and all was needed was for a few light edits before I had my full basic show. However, the case changed once Ed arrived....
Ed's Tutorial:
The first thing Ed asked me was if there was specific areas I was unsure about, I should show them to him first, however, I was really wanting to know his impressions on my current show, so I just played the whole production to him. Throughout I could see him nodding and smiling, so it's clear that he never got bored of the show and was engaged for most of the show. Once he finished listening, one of the first things he said was that I have done well, and he can start to see a great shown being pulled together. He also noted that the ending of the show was a great one as I am intending to end on a high and with excitement with my "20 second challenge" .In addition to this, Ed says he could understand the whole show, I used a good voice and I had a terrific order for each element. He could tell that I have been working hard on this far. So first thoughts, is that Ed seems very impressed so far, but he made some interesting points for improvement too. He said that I need to slow down on my introduction. I need to come across more relaxed but excited at the same time. I also need to express some of my words a bit more, which links in with the idea of "gear changing" in radio production.At the end of the show I say "bye" and "it's time to end the show". This ending is a big no! Apparently the presenter never says bye, as the only person who will be leaving is the audience...the shown is not ending on my part, thus I shouldn't be saying bye and "time to end..." because of course, my show is ending but certainly the 60 minute mix is still running.Towards the end he asked if there was anything else I wanted to show him, so I mentioned my last and main interview with Mr Colbeck, and he was eager to listen to it. I was quite amazed by his response in all honestly. Throughout he was laughing and really in to what was being said. He believes that my questions were perfect, and I challenged every last answer Mr Colbeck gave. I was confident, clever and clear on what I was trying to get out of this interview, and Ed believes that he couldn't of done it better himself! He went on to say that he strongly suggests that I use the full 4 minute interview, as it was that good...I shouldn't even edit bit out either. I was prod to hear such comments from an expert in this area, but it will be a big task for me to edit out what I already have...but I'm willing to take on this challenge if it means my show is much stronger and professional.
In summary to all the advice given from Ed, I should:
- Have a stronger introduction
- Mention/ give a taste in the introduction on what is to come on the show
- In the middle of the show I should summarise what we have learnt so far
- Don't sign off the show
- Use the full Mr Colbeck interview (even if I gave to cut a lot of other aspects out)
- Mix up the interviews (so we may hear one half of the interview at the beginning of the show, and the other half at the end of the show)
To ensure I meet these improvements tasks above I plan to re-record my introduction, but I will ensure I speak slower and emphasise certain words and phrases for engagement. I also plan to drastically cut down on the show and place in the whole Mr Colbeck interview. To use this interview effectively, I will have a snippet of the interview, as a tater, when I say what is coming up on the show in my introduction.
By mentioning what is coming up, I am engaging the audience, and they will have to wait and keep listening as they are not going to be told when exactly each bit is going to be heard.
I will also re-record my ending speech and ensure I don't say goodbye. In addition to this, I will edit my 20 second challenge audio, so the competitors are taking it in turns to say there answers. At the moment, I currently have one competitor saying all there answers and then moving onto the next competitor. By doing this, I will be making it unclear how many answers each opponent has given, and it also adds a unique twist.
Overall Ed is impressed with the show so far, and is looking forward to my end product now he knows "how high I have set the bar with my interview".
15/04/2013
Well, after a well deserved two weeks of I am now back in action! Today was the firs day back after Ed's tutorial and help two weeks ago. So after loading my project, I started to refresh myself with what Ed said earlier Whilst I did not record his tutorial, I made detailed notes, which I read back to my self today. Once I did this, I began to edit my audio further I ensured all the audio was in the right place. I also managed to get my last interview (the one Ed was so pleased about) in to the project too. Chris Colbeck tends to talk a lot so I had to spend most of the time editing and shortening the interview (despite Ed's wishes to "leave it exactly as it is). I shortened this interview because, as the producer, I do not believe that I have enough time to include all the other elements planned. I sacrificed most of the tennis coach's interview, as Chris Colbeck's was the main priority and the star aspect of the show.
I also deleted the parts where I say goodbye. As Ed said, this shouldn't be my place to say this, and I completely understood what he meant. Thus, my goodbye has been taken out. This has saved me an important 5-7 seconds of show, which is something Im trying to find. I believe at the end, I may have to cut a lot of my audio considerably more.
By the end of the day, I had a show which had a beginning middle and end. The foundations have been basically built, and I am now ready to start adding a more unique and interesting style to my show. For example; stingers and jingles.
At the moment I haven't encountered any major issues/ setbacks, although I had to export my edited audio before half-term, so I was able to use that edit in another room. This took some time, but I was soon on my way again with editing.
16/04/2013
The project in coming along now. I can start to see a clear structure of my show and ideas. Today, I started to continue my editing. I have got my audio in the right place so I was happy to start working on the audio levels. My audio are at different volumes, so it sometimes comes a little surprising to hear when all of a sudden my voice gets really loud. Thus, I played around with the volume whilst looking at the blue bar at the side, to ensure all my audio is on a similar volume level. The blue bar indicated on the right-hand side of the screen on Cubase, tells you the volume level the current audio track playing is on.
My beginning has been placed elsewhere too now. Ed suggested I should have a more exciting beginning so for now my current one has been taken out. I plan to create and re-record a bigger and better intro to my show.
I started to include jingles too. Ed gave me the advice that I shouldn't really need any more jingles other than at the end and the beginning of my show, so this was a simpler task compared to the editing I have been doing so far.
I have managed to get a lot of editing done today! I have now got a strong building show, but I still have a lot of polishing and tidying up before I safely say my show is outstanding!
17/04/2013
Today is a day where we have four hours of media. This means that I expect to get a lot of my editing done today. As I attempted to open up my project, I was notified by Cubase, that it cannot locate the files for my audio tracks. Thus, is will not be able to play those files back.. This was a concern, as I wan't sure how to overcome this problem. Fortunately my teacher, and my colleague (Sam Turner) were on hand to help me. We firstly looked at the files to see which ones were missing. I then attempted to relocate the files myself. I went through my files and managed to find the audio I needed. Whilst finding each track and re-locating one-by-one into Cubase, I realised that this project wasn't my recent version. We also looked at the individual file formats, to see if there was any audio files that wasn't the same. The case was that all the files were "WAVs" so this wasn't the cause of the problem.
It took me a good few minutes to find the correct project, and for some reason Cubase decided that it could actually find the files, despite the fact that some of these un-located files were used in my latest project too. It maybe a glitch with Cubase, or it may just be technology letting me down in generally in all honestly I couldn't figure out how this problem was caused in the first place.
My teacher noted to me that she thinks I should be more organised with my files and organisation Earlier in the project I ensured that my files were in named folders and kept in an organised manor. However, over the weeks I may have allowed myself to place files any where I can find to save time, so it it important that I ensure I keep organised throughout the whole project, just in case a similar problem accrues in the future.
Once I over came this problem I began to continue my editing. Later in the afternoon, I had most of my editing completed, I just had to include a few more sound effects, and needed to do a few more cuts. however, after playing back my work so far, I wasn't satisfied with the entertainment factor. I don't believe my show is as interesting as it could be. I also realised that my Mr Colbeck interview was simply dragging on. To solve this I ended up recording a few more sentences and decided to split the interview with Mr Colbeck in half. In between the two halves I plan to have the tennis coach interview sandwiched between them. This breaks down the interview,and the place I have left it makes the audience want to keep tuned in to see what else Mr Colbeck had to say to my tricky question.
I had to record some extra bits as I needed a way of linking back to the Mr Colbeck interview. If had had just jumped about with the interviews without saying anything, it will simply confuse the audience.
I managed to completed most of this task today, and I may need more work on this idea tomorrow. I aim to get my ideas and everything for my show completed tomorrow too, as I believe this is an achievable target.
18/04/2013
Once again I was determined to get started straight away, and continue where I left of yesterday. Thankfully today, Cubase was running decently, although there was a few glitches with the cursor (which wasn't a major setback). So far, I have my jingles, speech, interviews and my "20 second challenge" in place. Now I need to work on my sound effects, which may only last a second, but they add that extra entertainment and professional touch.To get these effects, I managed to find some stored on the workspace on GarageBand.
To get this lop/jingle into my Cubase project, I clicked on the "share" button on the workspace at the top. I then clicked on "export file to disk" which allowed me to save the GarageBand project onto my desktop as a "MP3 encoder". then opened my cubase project, which allowed me to drag the mp3 into it. Below, shows you a an exemplar of the process i took to export my jingle.
After, I played back my show, and I was happy with what I have achieved so far. The only problem I could see was the fact that my show lasts 7:53. I only have a 7:30 show gap, so this may be a little problem. Fortunately I spoke to Ed about thus yesterday, and he said two things; 1, he didn't expect to see the show last bang on 7:30 and 2, so long as I have intentionally left it that long then there shouldn't be a problem. He said I could delete audio if I want, but if I have a reason as to why I don't, then that's fine. For example, my jingle at the star lasts 15 seconds, I could replace this, however, I believe this jingle is perfect for my show, and the upbeat sound adds a little entertainment and joy, even before I have started my part of the 60 minute mix! Without the aspects I have included, my show simply wouldn't be the same, and every aspect is important to the show.
This image above, shows you my project so far. As you can see, it is getting very complicated and is building very strongly.
At the end of the lesson, my teacher listened through my show, and gave me a few ideas for tomorrows lesson. He said that I should work on some of the levels of the audio, as some of the music in the 20 second challenge makes it hard to hear the answers. He also suggested that I change the pitch of my introduction in the settings. Despite the fact that I reordered my speech in the same room, my introduction has a little echo.
19/04/2013
Today I worked on the ideas put forward by my teacher. This didn't challenge me too much and I was able complete the tasks successfully.
By the end of the lesson, I have a completed project. I have to say, Im really pleased with what I have as well. It sounds professional, entertaining and gives a lot of information on clubs and enrichment. Next Friday is the deadline day, and I still have some written work to complete. With my project pretty much complete, I am happy with the fact how hard I have worked to get it to this stage so soon. Now, I have a whole week to ensure my project is 100% satisfactory!
So far, during this project I have used many different tools. The ones I have used the most is the object selection and the split tool. The object selection tool allows me to grab my audio files and position them where I want in the tracks. This makes this project easy to navigate around an to complete a lot more easily. The split toll speaks for itself in terms of is job. This tool allows me to cut/ split the tracks. This may be useful in a situation where the audio seems to go quiet towards the end. By splitting this audio, I am then able to use the volume equaliser to 'bump' up the volume. In addition to this I have been able to use a good workspace. I am able to drag audio in to separate tracks. This allows me to then change some little audio files and the settings, without hanging the whole show. This also helps me keep my project neat and organised, which is important in the professional industry. Along side this is the mute button. This button allows me to mute tracks which are not need. I have files in my project set aside just incase I need extra or replacement audio. If and when they are not needed, I simply store them on a muted track.
22/04/2013
Today I continued straight away with my editing. All I had to do is to look at the length of my show, and see if there is anywhere I can cut down. Whilst I believe the jingle at the start is perfect for my show, I have found a way which I can keep the same tune but at a different length. GargeBand provides various lengths of the same tune; short, medium and long. However, the tune didn't include the sounds i wanted, which made it perfect for my show. To solve this, I decided to open up Adobe premier. This allowed me to drag my current jingle into this software and allowed me to use cutting/splitting tools similar to Cubase, which allowed me to delta certain beats and areas. I needed a little assistance from Sam Turner, who helped me through the technical parts, and after I cut some of the audio, I ensured that the audio didn't sound jumpy in between cuts.
I then placed my new jingle into my Cubase project, and moved my old one into a track where I keep all the unneeded but emergency audio tracks. The audio I have deleted or not used are in this track just incase I need extra audio in the future. However, I don't believe that this will be needed, as I can now say i am happy with my show, and I believe it can be be broadcasted on the 60-minute mix right now!
I have done my editing, and ensured my show is entertaining for a wide audience. I have also included facts, which is what the audience will be looking for. Overall I feel I have met the project brief in terms of what my show presents. Now I am more than willing to help others around me who need that extra helping hand with unfamiliar software.
So now I am ready to evaluate fully on what I have or may not achieved in my show and the project itself.
23/04/2013
Now that I can say for sure I am confident with my show. However I was still a little concerned about being 18 seconds over the set 7:30 minutes. Although I believe that my show sounds perfect and wouldn't sound right if an element was taking out, I was determined to match the given time. I listened through my show over and over again, deleting any fillers, pauses ect. Although this was still quite a few seconds over the given time. I listened carefully an I found an answer Mr Colbeck gave which diverted away from bluecoat and their enrichment. He was talking about outside activities, so by deleting this and cutting it in the right place so it didn't sound jumpy, I have managed to cut down on my show to just 7:35! Which may be 5 seconds only out, but if I cut any more out, it simply wouldn't have that professional touch.
Once I completed this task I was ready to export my final project which will be completed tomorrow.
24/04/2013
So today I exported my final project into my guinsberg area and I also uploaded it to Drop Box. Along side this I also looked at my folder for submission (for this project) and ensured all the right documentation and audio files were there. Thankfully most of there were, whilst some other ones had to be copied and pasted form my USB devices.
This project has been very fun. It has challenged not only my creative skills, but my communication, journalistic and organising skills. I have demonstrated that I can express my ideas with a class. Fo example i came up with the name "EDU.FM" as it had a cool and stylish vibe twist to the word education. However the class disagreed with my suggestion and didn't believe it suited the target audience. Nevertheless, this didn't knock my confidence and i was more than willing to suggest and help furthermore in group tasks.
I believe I could of maybe been slightly more confident when pitching my ideas to Ed.
In terms of my own project, I believe I have excelled! I have enjoyed recording and the editing stages
for this project. I was happy with the confidence I have shown in my speech in my show. I was clear and confident in what I said. I prepared my self with scripted dialogue, which helped me understand and emphasise certain phrases and words. I spoke very professional and I sounded enthusiastic about my topic.
My interviews and the vox I went on was also very professional. The interview with Mr Colbeck shows that i was confident, and I really challenged what Mr Colbeck had to say. So much so, he stumbled on a question, which of course is a sign that i really got him! I managed to squeeze a lot of information out of my interviewees by asking such professional questions. Whilst most of the Nicholas interview has not been put into my show, I also managed to ask relevant and professional question. it is unfortunate that I couldn't include him more, but with such a small show, it is my duty as the producer that I make the right sacrifices. In this case, this interview is one of those sacrificed audio tracks.
For my vox, I believe I asked the perfect questions. However, I think I could of kept the microphone still as you can hear the movement of the mic. This is something I would change if i was to do this project again. The audio levels of the vox were too quiet. Whilst i was able to change this using the mixing and equalising desk, maybe if i ensured the students involved were closer to the mic, I may have save a little more time.
For the show overall, I think that it meets the target audience. I have included aspects and features that both the students and the teachers want to hear. I have included a little game that ends the show on a BANG and will entertain the audience (particularly the younger ones). The challenging interviews included, will site the older audience, as they maybe the sort who looks for this aspect in a radio show. This is what I set as an aim in the pre-production stage, so I have been clearly looking and using the notes I made before hand, as these were the ideas I really put some thought into.
In terms of aspects I intended to include but actually didn't; there was an idea Ed had that I didn't quite manage to fit in. He said that I should include a section where I summarise what we have learnt so far. He said this should be in the middle of the show, so the audience can reflect on what they have heard so far. This was a GREAT idea, but with such a small time limit, I felt this would mean I would either have to cram it all in, or delete some of the audio I have already gather. I felt confident leaving this out, as the information I show in my radio is not too full on, so the audience will be able to understand and remember at least 90% of the information provided.I also had the idea of talking about my own experiences in clubs when I was younger. Again, my time limit didn't allow me to add this in. I had to make the decision on what I include in my show, and what I leave out. This was a difficult and important choice to make, however, i felt the audience would gain more by hearing more information about the clubs themselves rather about my personal experiences. maybe if I had a bigger show, I would include this element.
I have been very professional throughout this project. I have managed to finish right on time, which is important in the professional industry. I have also gained more knowledge about this area in media, and my editing skills have been put to the test and have developed throughout. In future I may need to have more confidence when going into a project. My confidence in my pitch could of been stronger, and my creativity was not shown in this. Nevertheless I have managed to edit to a high standard for my very own radio show. The radio show itself is BRILLIANT! I believe I have really gone into depth about my topic and I have created a narrative flow. Everything fits perfectly and conveys the meaning behind the show. My show suites many ages and different people, especially students, which of course is a key aspect. My abilities gained before and during the project has allowed me to produce a show PERFECT for the 60-minute mix!
