How Did You Use Media Technologies in the Construction and Research, Planning and Evaluation Stages?

Throughout the entire process of producing my radio drama, whether it be simply research and planning right through to the actual production of the piece, I used a range of media technologies.

 In the planning, design and research stage, the major media technology used was the internet. The internet was used to generate and gather information on, for example, the history of radio and radio drama. Websites such as www.wikipedia.com, as well as search engines such as www.google.com and www.bing.com all proved to be extremely useful in the gathering of such information. In addition to such websites, the BBC iPlayer, which can be found on www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer was also of use when listening to radio dramas such as ‘the Archers’ for inspiration for my radio drama.

 In the construction/production stage, we used both different hardware and software. To record our radio drama, we used the college’s sound recording suite. In this room was a large soundboard and a number of microphones, both of which were connected to an Apple Mac. In order to record our voices onto the Mac, we used a piece of software called Soundtrack Pro. This was then used to edit our radio drama, from editing our voices to adding sound effects. As previously stated, we recorded two separate radio drama, the second after receiving the audience feedback. The two major influences for this was the lack of drama caused by our single decision, and also the large amount of ‘white noise’ clearly audible throughout our drama. When re-recording, we ensured that the ‘white noise’ was non-existent by using the midi-controller and soundboard more effectively. 

Here is a sound clip from our final version showing how we used sound effects to give the radio drama a more authentic feel: 

snippet with sound effects 3.mp3

 In addition to the production of the radio drama itself, we also produced two separate ancillary texts, the first being a small newspaper advert, the second being a double page feature of the Radio Times which included an advert for our radio drama. Throughout the process of creating these two texts, I again used a number of media technologies. I used a digital camera to take the image for my newspaper advert, which I then connected to a Mac using an SD card reader. I then transferred it from the memory card to the Mac using Iphoto. This was then imported to Adobe InDesign, where I constructed the rest of the newspaper advert. The second ancillary text was the double page feature for the Radio Times. This was entirely created using InDesign as it is an industry standard publication package, which gave the work a professional feel. 

 Other software used included www.blogspot.com on which this blog has been posted. I have also used Microsoft Word on which I have drafted most of my blog posts, allowing me to check them and amend them if necessary before posting them on the blog. 

 I also used www.mydatanest.com which is a file hosting website. This was used to host my MP3 files, such as the sound clips that are posted on this blog. Once these were on the file host, I then used a HTML code to upload them onto the blog.