evaluation part 2 Unit 16

When conducting my focus group I knew I needed to figure out the strengths and weaknesses, to ensure I knew what needed to be improved for my final edit and what needed to be kept.

Strengths of my first edit:

When my focus group was watching my first edit, they have given me my strengths which I needed to keep for my final edit:

• Intro and outro sound

When the students listened to my radio drama they liked the fact that there was intro music and the same music used for the outro. This allowed my radio drama to be rememberable with a hook at the start and the end. They understood that, that was going to pull in the audience straight away and keep their attention on the radio drama.

• Brief was met well

My students who conducted my focus group discussed how I met the brief successfully. When looking at the brief it states that my radio drama must "inform, educate and entertains" however it must be suitable for a family audience which is both younger and older generations.  When successfully meeting with the brief I made sure to include the advantages and disadvantages of social media whilst informing, educating and entertaining the audience. One student discussed how my radio show did all three of the key terms in which the brief has stated. 

• The voice actors sounded clear

A strength that my students conducted when listening to my focus group is that all the voices were clear and not muffled in which they knew what was going on. This allowed them to pay attention throughout watching my radio drama. This let me know that I used the perfect suitable microphone for my radio drama.

Weakness of my first edit:

When my focus group was watching my first edit they have given me improvements to improve on to ensure that my radio drama would reach its full potential. The improvements were:

• High dynamic range throughout when actors talking

They have stated that there is a high dynamic range in which that means all the sounds which the actors are speaking in are in different levels in which I need to edit. This has made the audience find it hard to listen to my radio drama since the sound volume constantly changes. 

• Ambient sounds are loud

When my students were watching my radio drama they have told me the ambient sounds restaurant sounds/hallway school sounds were loud in which I needed to turn down. Therefore my focus group had trouble listening to it.

• Add music/sound track

My audience told me that I should add a sound track since It'll help improve my radio drama which will allow the audience to pay attention. 

• A part where Faz discovers social medias bad side 

My audience discussed how it'll be suitable to add a part in where faz finds the bad comments on social media and expresses how he feels.

Improvements and how I made the improvements: 

Here is how I conducted the weaknesses and improved them in my final edit:

• High dynamic range throughout when actors talking

Here is me changing the volumes which fits each of the actors volumes to match one volume:

• Ambient sounds are loud

Here is me in the recording below turning down the ambient sounds:

• Add music/sound track

Here is a picture of me adding music throughout my radio drama:

• A part where Faz discovers social medias bad side 

Here is a picture of the added part where faz discovers social media in which the comments are read out by an AI:

The technical and auditory qualities: 

When creating my radio drama I must keep in mind the auditory qualities which leads to how good the quality will be for my ending product of the radio drama. The two main things I needed to keep an eye on is the sample rate which is a number of samples per seconds in which creates a waveform (how smooth the waveform will be) and the bit rate which is how much data is transmitted at a time.

Advantages of technical and auditory qualities: 

When producing my radio drama I have decided it'll be suitable to use MP3 format for my radio drama. The reason for this is because the bit rate is 8Kbits and no higher than 160 Kbits and the sample rate is 16,000 , 22,050 and 24,000. This allowed my quality to not also be clear but be a small file.

Disadvantages of technical auditory qualities: 

When producing I realised that all the equipment was old and damaged which may not have made my radio drama as good quality as needed. When filming my radio drama, I'll ensure ill get the best equipment which will produce the highest quality work. 

When overall using technical and auditory quailties I was able to ensure that the brief was met to "inform, educate and entertain" the audience. This ensures good quality and make sure the audience pays attention throughout my radio drama.

launch date

 The launch date of my radio programme will be during the main holiday which currently is the summer holidays. I have picked the launching time to be during this holiday because I will be able to get the most exposure to my target audience who are mainly children progressing from primary school to secondary or currently in primary/secondary school. It’s because many children get given a phone when transferring from primary to secondary due to the fact that parents will want to know the children's whereabouts, etc as well as it keeping them safe in case of an emergency. This further correlates to the fact that my entire purpose of this radio programme is to inform the audience about the benefits and negatives of social media as well as entertaining them.

It’s also a really great time to do this as the holidays allow for the children to have a lot of spare time as well as the parents who can guide them further with their own experiences and learn at the same time. It’s the parents job to look after their children and what they do online as they are at quite a naive stage of their lives and they need that adult guidance. The radio programme will give the children and parents a greater understanding of what social media is all about whilst learning things to steer away from and things to prosper from the use of social media. I will be showing my radio programme at the times of 4:00pm - 5:00pm as these are the peak times at which children and parents would be watching television. This is perfect as it correlates to the time at which parents usually come back from work and also children coming back from school as parents may not be on holiday from their jobs whilst their kids might.

initial ideas

 

sound format

  

Considerations to create the best quality audio:

What is a sound format? A sound format is a way to store audio files on a computer system. The different sound formats are:

Wav: Wav is a lossless, uncompressed format which is high quality. It is suitable for video and music production purposes.

Advantages: 

It's lossless and will not lose any information in the compressed process.

They have the highest quality possible for the sound output. 

Wav files are flexible which means that they’ll be easier to edit.

Disadvantages: 

They are big files which means I will need loads of storage if using this file format. 

Limited compatibility with other devices which means you’ll need a specific device to be able to use Wav files.

AIFF: AIFF is an apple proprietary and lossless. This means that it’ll directly copy the original source. 

Advantages: 

The audio is uncompressed which means you'll be able to compress the audio file to the levels that are desired to you.

Highly compatible with other devices and you don’t need a specific device to use.

Can be embedded with meta data which means that it can be provided with other data.

Disadvantages:

It’ll be difficult to share online due to it being uncompressed with the sound levels being all over the place.

It is a large file which means that storage/space is needed.

FLAC:FLAC is a compressed sound format  which is a lossless format which takes up less storage than AIFF. It’s popular since it's open source.

Advantages:

It can be streamed and decoded easily when extracting information from the file. 

It keeps the quality of the information from the original copy.

Doesn’t have any auditory problems.

Disadvantages:

Larger storage is needed since the files are big. This may be an issue if you have limited storage.

It isn’t supported on loads of devices and you need a specific device to use it.

Mp3: Mp3 is the most popular lossy format. Mp3 is mainly on smartphones and people store audios/music on there. This is because it takes up less space than a lossless file. 

Advantages:

it’s an uncompressed audio file

It can easily be shared onto other devices and to other people

If the bit rate is high enough the sound quality of the audio will be very good.

Disadvantages:

It uses lossy data compression which means that the quality of the sound may be degraded if there isn’t enough bit rate.

The audio may be distorted when audio is very loud and not compressed properly which causes loudness wars.

AAC: AAC is a lossy format. Apple iTunes uses this so that it’s able to keep its format and quailty. 

Advantages:

It can provide better quality of the sound at a lower bit rate.

Can maintain a brighter and clearer sound no matter what the bit rate is.

Disadvantages:

It is not compatible with all devices, or media players 

AAC files have bigger file sizes which means that it’ll take up storage.

Ogg Vorbis: Ogg Vorbis an alternative to Mp3 and AAC. This is a popular sound format since it’s a lossless format with an open source.

Advantages:

They have smaller files which means that lots of storage isn’t needed

They use lossy compression formats to keep the majority of the quality to sound the same whilst having a smaller file.

Disadvantages:

Not a lot of computers have them which means that it may be hard to find a device which supports this file format.

When using the files it has a high battery consumpsion

What is storage?

Flash Drive: A memory stick which transfers memory onto different devices and stores data on there. 

Advantages:

They are lightweight, and portable to travel around with.

You do not need wi-fi to be able to access your data. 

One time payment when buying and can choose what kind of usb stick you want with the amount of storage. 

Disadvantages:

Can have viruses on the flash drive.

Can have a higher cost, with a small/limited amount of storage.

Left inside of the power supply for too long they can turn off by itself which could lead to data loss.

Hard Drive: A hard drive is a device which stores data. It’s an external computer component which you connect to your computer and it stores data.  

Advantages:

They’re cheap per unit of storage.

You can access your files really fast, much better compared to other storage devices. 

Disadvantages:

They consume more power.

Since it’s big and heavy it may be harder to travel with.

May be slow at retrieving bigger files.

Cloud: Cloud storage is a digital form of storing data. Instead of needing something physical you can have your data stored on off-site locations. 

Advantages:

You’re able to access it anywhere since you just have to put your username and password to access it.

Data security which means no one can get what you have stored since it’s secured.

Can back-up your data so that it won’t be lost. 

Disadvantages:

You have limited storage, then you have to start purchasing monthly for cloud storage if all have been used.

You also need wi-fi to access all your data.

You rely on the internet, which could go down anytime and could take hours/days to get back and running.

What is compression?

DRC: DRC also known as dynamic range compression, is an audio signal processing operation which reduces louds sounds and amplifies quiet sounds.

Advantages:

It improves the performance clarity

Makes the specific audios from the audio stand out 

It can reduce some specific sounds

Disadvantages:

It can cause distortion

Create unnecessary noises more noticeable/worse

Downward compression: Downward compression is when bringing down the level of the signal from above the set threshold you set your compressor. This creates louder sounds quieter in the mix.

Advantages:

Can reduce the loud sounds set from a certain threshold

Disadvantages:

Can be too aggressive, badly alter the transients/punch of the sound

Upward compression: Upward compression is the opposite of downward compression which means that it focuses on amplifying quieter sounds that fall below a certain threshold so that louder sound won’t overshadow the details and softer parts. 

Advantages:

Is able to bring out the softer/details of a sound so that it can stand out just like the other sounds in the mix

Disadvantages:

Can create artefacts on each detail since it pulls everything up the threshold 

Funding

  For the funding aspect of my radio show, there are many different options that can be used. Some may be easier or harder than other, here are some examples that could be useful for me:

Advertising

Advertising can be from commercial advertising which is when a company will buy airtime from us, almost like a part of the show to advertise their products or service with our audience. This is common and widely used with other radio shows.

Sponsorships

Sponsorships are when you partner up with a company that can either sponsor the entire show or only a segment of the show. What the radio show has to do is occasionally when the sponsor asks, to promote or shout-out the product or service that they want to advertise to the audience.

Grants

Grants are when the government gives a certain amount to the business to make the desired content for the audience. The government usually does this with businesses that are good for the public and provide some sort of benefit for the public.

Crowdfunding

Crowdfunding is when the business asks or goes on websites such as GoFundMe where anonymous/strangers donate their own money to help fund the project. This is usually not as reliable because you don’t know whether you will be able to hit the funds required.

Taking into consideration all of the funding options, I would personally go with the advertising as it allows for the radio show to go completely smooth with only a short segment of our show being interrupted for an advertisement. However to make up for it to our audience, we will find an advertiser that is promoting a service or product that is linked with social media and would be helpful to the audience.

Considerations

 I am going to be putting all of the files used for the radio show in school which means that I will be utilising the school's Apple iMacs. As I will be using an iMac to export my radio show, I will have to use the QuickTime file format as it’s an Apple-designed video format that stores audio and video content for playback. This means that it will be exported into a .MOV file and is useful as it can be transferred to many different devices and it maintains the high quality audio and video.

For the sound files of my radio show, I will need to save it into my icloud account on the Apple iMac by logging into my apple account. This will make it much easier for me to access the sound files as it will be on a remote cloud server. What a remote cloud server is, it’s a server which the files are located on and I am able to access it on any devices by simply redownloading the files I saved on the server. It will make it much easier for me in case I end up switching computers. 

For the compression that will be used for the audio files, I will be utilising the FLAC (Free Loss Audio Codec). The reason for this choice of compression is because it has many advantages that I would like to make my radio show have the utmost highest quality. These range from lossless compression which preserves original sound quality, it being open-sources and widely supported on many audio applications, also they are compressed to preserve storage and much easily transferable.

audio asset

 

Audio Assets	Description Of Audio Assets
Sound of phone ringing	When Faz is calling his friend Jane, there will be a sound of the phone ringing to indicate him calling her.
Dialogue	Throughout the entire radio show, there is going to be a lot of dialogue as all of the characters are speaking to each other and the narrator is also speaking to the audience.
Sound of the door opening	This is the sound of the door opening when either Faz or Grandpa is walking into the room
Sound of the door closing	This is the sound of the door closing when either Faz or Grandpa is walking out of the room
Sound of videos playing on a mobile phone	Faz is playing funny videos on his phone to his grandpa whilst they sit in the living room.
Sound of fingers typing on a laptop keyboard	This is when Faz is making his social media accounts and is using his laptop. It indicates to the audience that he is using his laptop as they can hear him typing.

storyboard

 

Timing	Effects/ Sound Effects	Actors	Dialogue
15 seconds	Music and dialogue	Milhan	Narrator is speaking and introducing the storyline of todays episode
20 seconds	Door knocks, dialogue	Faz, Milhan	Grandma enters the room and Faz and grandma speak to each other.
20 seconds	Dialogue, laptop typing sounds	Faz, Milhan	Faz talking about how he is starting social media
15 seconds	Door closing & creaking, floorboard creaking	Faz, Milhan	Grandma telling him what to expect and have fun whilst doing it
15 seconds	Phone ringing, dialogue	Faz, Jane	Faz is ringing Jane his friend and is telling her that he has got social media
10 seconds	Dialogue	Faz, Jane	Jane warning Faz about how dangerous social media can be and to keep an eye out
10 seconds	Dialogue, music	Faz	How much Faz is enjoying using social media
5 seconds	Dialogue, music	Faz, Jane	Thanking Jane for her help on introducing him to social media
10 seconds	Call ending,  videos making sounds when on social media	Faz, Jane	Faz continues to scroll through social media after the call has ended
10 seconds	Dialogue, music	Milhan	Narrator explaining Faz’s difficulties on social media
20 seconds	Knocking on door, dialogue	Faz, Milhan	Faz enters Grandmas room and tells her about how social media has people being rude to others
10 seconds	Dialogue	Faz, Milhan	Grandma explaining to Faz how people use social media to bully others due to its anonymous feature and how it’s one of the main downsides of it
10 seconds	Dialogue	Milhan	Grandma giving advice on how to battle the negative comments and avoid seeing them to keep Faz safe
5 seconds	Dialogue	Faz	Faz thanking his grandma and taking her advice on how to stop seeing the negative side of social media
20 seconds	Dialogue, Music	Milhan	Narrator explaining how Faz is adapting and finding the positive side of social media
30 seconds	Phone ringing, dialogue	Faz, Jane	Faz tells Jane about making new friends on social media and all the good sides he is seeing
10 seconds	Dialogue	Faz, Jane	Faz and Jane talk about sharing memes and funny videos with each other
15 seconds	Dialogue, Music	Milhan	Narrator talks about how both Faz and Jane are enjoying using social media with each other
15 seconds	Dialogue, video sounds	Faz, Milhan	Faz is talking to his grandma and sharing with her funny videos that he has found online
10 seconds	Dialogue	Faz, Milhan	Faz and his grandma continue to watch funny videos whilst sitting together
30 seconds	Dialogue, Music	Milhan	Narrator explaining to the audience watching how social media has 2 sides to it and the use social media has on people