Unit 5 investigating audio production and technology
a scientist records audio logs of the experiments being done on his test subjects
A police investigation involving a interview with a suspected serial killer what will they find?
An undercover agent wearing a wire has a meeting with Don of the mafia will he get the the proof he needs? will he make it out a live?
PODCAST MIND MAP
Target audience:
age:12-18
gender:male
preferred genres: si-fi, thriller, horror, mystery.
the radio play aims for a young audience looking for a thrill.these people most likely interested in darker films, shows, comics, and games. they most likely have casual hobbies related to escaping reality like reading or gaming.
pod cast name: out brake
I plan to do a podcast of 5 different audio logs each lasting 45 seconds to one minute.
The plot of the podcast is a nazi scientist has found what he thinks is the cure for death but experimenting this "cure" on humans has had undesired results after injecting the serum into his first human experiment their were no notable difference he then shoots the subject in the chest killing him after a few seconds the subject returns to life but now with slightly less intelligence and more aggressive.
setting:
Time: mid world war 2
Location: a secret underground bunker in Berlin
give an aspect of realism under ground secret science bases art to far fetched in the world war 2 setting
Characters
name: Friedrick
age: 54
origin: german
role: scientist of the secret under ground base
personality: charismatic, merciless, exaggerated, cunning,
name: William
age: 34
origin:
role: army soldier pow (prisoner of war)
personality:grizzled, cold, commanding, unstable
Research:
Primary research:
for my primary research I first I created three ideas from a mind map and done a class survey on what idea to go with. After surveying my class a vast majority of them voted for the scientist experiments this one probably the most interesting option of the bunch and probably be the one ill enjoy doing the most.
second I wrote down interview questions and led a focus group to help further define what I'm making. this is what I asked.
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do you think my should be set out in audio logs?
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how do you imagine my characters? eg.look, sound, personality, ect.
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where do you think the location should be
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a underground bunker,dark room or a cabin in the wood?
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if you were to imagine the location what would you visualize
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do you think my play should have an intro? if yes would you like it to be
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creepy?
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scientific?
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shocking?
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dramatic?
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and finally what sound effects would you like to hear in the radio play?
After the focus group iv narrowed down my ideas for the radio play using the information they gave me. Starting with the audio logs they all like the idea as longs it involves a time-line and each log links into the next. With the characters they were mainly on the same thoughts process as me with an much older scientist and the prisoner of war being middle close to aged.
They were very strongly toward the underground bunker one of the people in group wanted a clean hi-tec laboratory while the others wanted something more dark. damp, a lot more rundown and unprofessional. When it came down too whether or not the radio play should have an intro one member of the focus group was strongly against it while the others wanted an intro as long as it was short.
interview questions
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should there be music during the play? Yes
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other characters? No
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under ground bunker should it be with the Nazis or independent? Nazis
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should it be clean or dirty? Clean
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the drug dose the revive people or stop them from dIEing completely? Revive
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should the drug be a pill a serum or an iv drip? Serum
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should it need to be reused or a one time thing? Reused
each interview was similar but left different answers on half the questions leading me to do three interviews for a tie brake on questions 2,3,4,6 above are the interview questions and most voted answers.
the reason I decided to do more interviews after the focus group was because after completing the secondary research I had fairly strong idea of what I wanted to do but still had question of whether or not to add things like music and new ideas such as how will this drug be taken.
Secondary research:
The Russian Sleep Experiment
The Russian sleep experiment is a web story adapted to audio.The story's about a group of Russian scientist testing a drug that negates sleep on 5 prisoner's of war if they can stay awake for 30 days they will be granted their freedom.The test falls apart within the first week as the prisoners start to go mad.
I plan to use this as an outline of my own work due to how similar it is. Its something I refer back too to help me keep in line with genre and not stray to far turning it into something else and losing focus of the narrative
the narration is the key focus in the video with very few sound effects and a creepy atmospheric theme the narrator has to do most of the work for setting up an image in the viewers mind. he was able to give the viewer enough information to keep them from getting lost but the lack of sound effects leave the viewers filling in any blank on their own. although this doesn't ruin the story it still leaves viewers with a half painted picture witch takes away a lot of the punch,The narrator dose a good job if he went any more descriptive the viewers would have gotten lost and bored this is where using more sound effects would of help hint the environment more accurately .eg. noises for the intercoms truing on, off gory sounds for the surgery with equipment noises in the back ground what are the floors made out of could you hear foot steps all of this and more would have put he pieces in place to not just make something creepy but chilling.
with my review/brake down it seems that the sound effect will be a big part in my radio play since i wont be having narration but instead character interaction, the characters can help give the scene with the right feel and emotion but building the world around them will be the main job of the sound effects I use.
Research into the Holocaust:
because my radio play is set in WW2 Germany i wanted to do some research into what was going on during that time and to see if theirs anything important that need to be added to help a viewer stay immersed in the radio play
From my research I gained a fair amount of information on the camps during the holocaust the way prisoners were treated the condition of the camps how the segregated different groups. This helps me better understand the condition the prisoner of war character would be in my radio play most likely tired,worked half to death,and fairly wounded.
Josef Mengele seems like a good base for my scientist. After reading up on him he's quite clearly a sadistic psychopath with slightly compulsive interest in anyone class as abnormal at the time.
giving the scientist character personality traits like these could clearly put my radio play in the psychological horror category
the research has helped me a lot with the setting. The one lab built in a Auschwitz II was kept in very good condition almost clinical with multiple rooms for experiments while the living quarters for prisoners yer kept in terrible conditions.the treatment of the victims of these experiments was poor nothing to numb the pain or keep a wound from getting infected and no care for the patients safety. this information gives me a good idea of what sound effects would and would not fit into my radio play.
character ideas:
nazi scientist
These pictures are a mash up of ideas for my nazi scientist character the two pictures on the right depicted the uniform and look I visualize my characters to have. In the center left is Christoph Waltz playing Hans Lander in Inglorious Basterds this character is very charismatic, dangerous and intelligent. the man on the far left is Josef Mengele a real nazi scientist who done horrific experiments on twins his face is what I visualize my characters to look like the dull eyes and and creepy grin give a sinister effect you can really see this is a man without mercy.
British prisoner of war
These pictures are a mash up of ideas for my British prisoner of war character the bottom two picture are for for the look of my character on the left is the uniform since he's been captured he's not gonna be in good condition and neither would his clothing on the right what id think he'd look like a sort of grizzled veteran who's age is starting to show likely has some scars as well.
the top is a scene from the deer hunter you can see the main character go through a range of emotions anger, fear, manic laughter the actions and psyche of man backed into a corner and no way out.
location
These pictures are a mash up of ideas for the location of the radio play they all represent parts of the bunker the heavy duty door to stop people getting in and out. the human test tubes used for genetic research the multiple high security prison cells and the labs and surgery rooms all help to create this secret under ground laboratory.
Phoenix Project
The end result of my unit 5 radio play turned out quite well. it has obvious flaws I would start with the length while writing the script I didn't relies how long it would take to act out. This lead to a 9 minute audio play with around 6-7 minutes of set up. Further more the voice acting is not good plain and simple, in future I will pick out my actors more carefully and will most likely hold some form of auditions, I will also be re-recoding a majority lines so a have options on what to use instead of being stuck with what I get. Also the script its self needed more work i like the climax the play came to but only so much can be covered up with editing. the script was simple enough i kept the idea basic where i had went wrong was on the amount of sound effects i had planned to use. Too many far too many I plan to correct this by focusing on dialogue, creating interesting characters instead of generic ones people have seen hundreds of times