Regulatory Bodies 

About Ofcom

Ofcom is a regulatory body that covers all of the shows in TV and radio, it makes sure that all of the shows that are airing keep to the codes that they enforce to make sure that it doesn't break any rules. This is to ensure that the general public do not have any issues with what's being aired. The code specifically for broadcasting has 10 different sections however the ones in specific I'm going to focus on are:

Section 1: Protecting the under eighteens

Section one is a section that is specifically aimed toward the protection and consideration of minors who are under 18. This is a very important code for Ofcom as it is to make sure that minors don't see any content that would be generally understood to only be for people are who 18 years old and above. How i would have to consider this into my show is to make sure that all of the content in my show are suitable for people who are under 18. While my show does tackle topics such as suicide, I will not go into gruelling detail as to avoid any issues as the target audience I have identified will be mostly minors.

Section 2: Harm and offense

As we look into section 2, it states that the measures taken to ensure that all members of the public are protected from any harmful content is adequate. This would be important for Ofcom as their goal is to protect the audiences that are watching these shows and by allowing content that could potentially harm the audience then that would go against their aims. How I would consider this into my show is by making sure that all of the topics discussed in the show are suitable for all audiences and do not relay a message of general harm for the audience, this is to ensure that all people watching are kept safe and do not cause harm to themselves or anyone else.

Section Three: Crime, disorder, hatred and abuse

This section specifically tackles any content that is likely to include any form of crime or abuse, we can see that this is important to Ofcom as promoting this type of content to audiences may reflect a negative message to the audience as it would leave the audience thinking that they are allowed to replicate what is being shown in the show. How I would tackle this specifically  to ensure that the meaning of the show is how to handle cyber security and not anything else is to make sure that anything that may be harmful is only mentioned briefly and not made into the overall narrative of the show, with the end narrative being cyber security.

Section 4: Religion

When looking into this section we can see that it specifically targets the responsibility of broadcasters with giving respect to the content of religious programmes. This is important to Ofcom as portraying any specific belief in a negative light may cause offense to that demographic and therefore it would reflect negatively on the show and get a large amount of complaints. A way to ensure that my show abides by this section is that if any mention of a religion is needed then it is to be informative for the audience.

 

Section 10: Commercial communications on Radio

Finally, when looking into this section we are able to see that it is specifically talking about radio broadcasting only and it is to ensure that the transparency of commercial communications as a means to secure consumer protection. This is important to Ofcom as it highlights and underlines the general protection of its general audience, while similar to section 2 in its aim to protect its audience, section 10 aims to be more general so that if anything is deemed to be harmful to the audience such as any underlying messages that could be taken. In order to consider this i will make sure that there is physically nothing that can be taken from the show I produce that could cause any harm to the consumers that are listening to my radio show.

Legal and Ethical constraints

Funding

Grant funding:

Grants are a liable way to be funded, as they are funding streams that are usually given by a public body such as a government facility. These grants are given usually if the person receiving it meets a specific requirement, therefore allowing that person to fund their plans. Examples of grants: 

• R&D Funding: This grants is a UK government grant that helps with businesses that are trying to get off the ground. They provide funding for things such as you have a proof of market which allows you to get funding for your idea.
• Local grants: A local grant is that for very small businesses, this is similar to R&D Funding however that is aimed toward larger business ideas and therefore they provide much more than a local grant would.

Advertisements:

Advertisements are also a good way to get funding, by talking to a larger company they are able to give you money if you are to advertise and use their product or company in your product. This leads to a mutual benefit and therefore both companies involved in the advertisement deal benefit as the company that funds the product get recognition out of it.

Sponsorship:

Sponsorships are when a company will fund your product if you physically display and use their product in your production. This form of funding can be seen commonly in social media posts and allows for both companies (similarly to an advertisement) get a mutual benefit out of the funding.

Budget

 

Production Schedule

 

Dates and Times	Activities	Personnel	Resources	Equipment
26/03/24	Recording foley and wildtrack sounds	Alfie Kent	Final cut pro	IPhone Mic, Camera Mic, voice recorder and IMac
10/05/24	Voice acting	Alfie Kent, Joseph Agrenich, Aksanty Mpiana, Jordan Georgis	GarageBand	Voice recorder
16/05/24	Voice acting	Alfie Kent, Joseph Agrenich, Aksanty Mpiana, Jordan Georgis	GarageBand	Voice recorder
20/05/24	Voice acting	Alfie Kent, Joseph Agrenich, Aksanty Mpiana, Jordan Georgis	GarageBand	Voice recorder
24/05/24	Voice acting	Alfie Kent, Joseph Agrenich, Aksanty Mpiana, Jordan Georgis	GarageBand	Voice recorder
27/05/24	Editing	Alfie Kent	Final cut pro	IMac
28/05/24	Editing	Alfie Kent	Final cut pro	IMac

Task Allocation Week 8

 

Production Log Week 8

 

Audio Assets

 

Audio Assets

Scene one

Audio needed	Why its needed
Narration from Alfie Kent	This audio is needed here as many people may have forgotten what happened in last episode as it happened a while ago. It also gives them a general idea of what’s to come in today’s episode.

 

Scene two

Audio needed	Why its needed
15-second-long intro music	This audio is needed as it will act as a gateway into the episode, the introduction from the producer may of left people not really indulge in the episode therefore giving them a chance to immerse themselves into the episode will prove effective.

 

Scene three

Audio needed	Why its needed
Dialogue from Aksanty and Joseph and Jordan and Alfie	Dialogue is needed to make sure that the narrative of the episode can be understood by the audience was listening to it. It makes the listeners engaged.
Foley sounds of murmuring in the background	Adding foley sounds to the background of this scene will make it much more realistic, in the scenario these children are in they’re going to talk, therefore adding background noises such as this it will make more a more realistic effect.
Wildtrack footstep sound effects	Adding a wildtrack of people walking around in the classroom will add onto the realism of the episode as people will be able to become more engaged.
Door creaking foley sound effect	This is represent that at the end of this scene Joseph and Aksanty’s character’s have left the room and therefore we’re moving onto the next scene.

 

Scene four

Audio needed	Why its needed
Dialogue from Aksanty and Joseph	This dialogue is going to be apart of an interrogation. Aksanty’s character (the detective) will be talking to Joseph’s character (One of the English students) This is going to take up a large bulk of the episode.

 

Scene five

Audio needed	Why its needed
Dialogue from Aksanty, Joseph, Jordan and Alfie	In this scene the dialogue will be them discussing what happened in the interrogation, Joseph will be deemed as entirely innocent and allowed to leave but the others are upset they aren’t allowed ot leave as well.
Wildtrack footstep audio	Adding a wildtrack of people walking around in the classroom will add onto the realism of the episode as people will be able to become more engaged.

 

Scene six

Audio needed	Why its needed
Outro music	Outro music is needed here to be as a bench mark for the end of the episode, it fades out the listeners suspension of disbelief and officially ends the episode.

 

Sound considerations

Sound Format

The sound format I will be using is mp3. I chose this due to its very small file size and common use on website software. This makes it much easier to try and edit the audio when needed so I can have a larger range of websites that I can work with. Not only this, but it uses Lossy file compression to result in a very small end file size, which therefore makes the files much easier to work with; not only this but the lossy compression that it uses doesn’t leave a recognisable impact on the audios quality therefore resulting in a good quality small size file.

 

Storage method

As for the storage method, I’m going to use cloud storage as it is the most global and convenient storage method. It’s an internet-based storage, therefore it doesn’t depend on your computer type. This is useful for me as I’m going to be working on both the macs and windows computers; cloud’s accessibility is one of its greatest features that will surely benefit me. Not only this, but it also has an easily upgradeable max storage, this means that if I would ever need more storage, I would be able to easily upgrade as you can simply order more storage. The main reason however I chose cloud over the other storage methods is due to its safety, cloud is the only storage method where it is next to impossible to lose your work, as one , there is no physical storage there back it cannot be lost physically, and two it has backups kept of it often so that if your current file ever does corrupt you can just download a backup file of it.

 

Compression

For compression I’m going to be using DRC compression which adds thresholds to your audio files. This makes it so that if your audio file gets too quiet or too loud it will raise or increase the sound of that file to make it so that range of your sound levels less. Overall  making the file take up much less storage.

Initial Ideas Write up

 For my main ideas, the first idea is an idea of a drama where a knife was to be brough into a school. The teachers know that someone has a knife, but they have to quickly find out who has it before someone gets hurt and you follow the main characters as they're running around the school collecting clues as to who may of brought it in, who the victim may be and why. It would feature multiple main characters, and each play a different part in the story but as the story develops their story lines would slowly intertwine as you find why each person is important to the plot.

My next idea would be about an anonymously ran social media account which posts stories about the students of the school and bad deeds that they've done. The main story follows the potential next victim of this social media account and you're trying to figure out what the main character had done wrong.

In my next idea, the main idea is that due to a student unfortunately being bullied which lead to them committing suicide, a detective is brought in to interrogate an English classroom as they realise that someone in that classroom was bullying the victim and you follow as the main character "the detective" gathers different stories from the different students in the classroom. And each student is only allowed to leave until the main character proves them to be entirely innocent.

My final idea is that a student makes a website for a school which students use to talk to each other on a local area network during school. But the student who set it up abuses his power to spy on peoples conversations. But one day whilst he was doing it he realises he's reading a very shady conversation that could lead to a lot of issues so he has to take it on himself to find out what's going on and cannot ask for help due to his abuse of power.

Locaion Reccie

Quality of audio: After having done tests in the environment, I conducted that the sound provides a good quality which therefore will give an overall better feeling for the show. As well as this, I also conducted safety checks in order to make sure that the environment for the actors are suitable and therefore make the working environments much more enjoyable. All of the computers are safely attached and all chairs are able to be tucked in to avoid anything being tripped over. There is also a lot of foot room so that actors can move about easily. The environment also helps with the actors as it makes them get more into character, the sound quality is what you expect from a school and therefore gives much more authenticity for the show. The classroom is often empty, however due to classes being throughout the day I would have to record after school hours to ensure that it is empty, but also to make sure that no background sounds are picked up. As most of the crew go to the school, they are able to easily get to the location and are familiar with the location and therefore are able to be comfortable in their environment to act.

Risk Assessment Form

 

Task Allocation Week 7

 

Production Log Week 7

 

Key personnel.

Role/ Job	Possible Person	Strengths and Weaknesses of the person
Voice actor	Eden	Is out going and would give a good performance   Can sometimes be immature and lead to retakes
Voice actor	Aksanty	Did drama GCSE and knows how to act well   Is very busy often and can lead to scheduling issues
Voice actor	Joseph	Good to work with and has a good work ethic   Hasn’t done any acting prior therefore performance may be lacking
Voice actor	Caleb	Easy to work with and understands assignments   Isn’t as outgoing and usually quiet
Voice actor	Isaac	Very energetic and is willing to act out anything   Hard to contact and may have issues finding.
Voice actor	Hannah	Understands assignments   May be unwilling to act out some scenes
Directing, editing and voice acting	Alfie	Works fast and understands what needs to be done   Procrastinates therefore leading to deadlines being tight.

Radio Drama Key Personnel  List

 Launch Date

I believe that "To Catch An English Student" would be optimal to release during a holiday season for the target audience, this way it will be able to be watched by as many people as possible. Therefore I believe that July 19th 2024 would be the best date to release the first episode as it is on a Friday during the holidays; I specifically chose a Friday as there are many parents who don't like their children being on their phone during the week however Friday is the last day of the week and therefore I believe that many children would  be getting their phones back. Therefore optimising the amount of people who would be there for the launch date.

Expanding Initial Ideas / Rational

 Why I chose "To Catch an English Student"

The idea that I have chosen out of my initial ideas is "To Catch an English Student". This is for many reasons. The main reason that I chose this one is due to the many different type of sound effects I can create and use for the radio drama, things such as wildtracks of students murmuring in the back of a class room, or a foley sounds of students typing in the background. I'm able to most effectively use sounds in this initial idea to convey the story of my Radio drama and therefore it is the main reason as to why I'm choosing this idea. Another reason is that it won't have to be recorded outside, this means that the audio quality will be easy to control and gives a better quality, there won't be any potential for wind to blow against the mic and therefore disrupt the audio quality and therefore allows for me to get a cleaner and more crisp sound when recording.

Not only this, but it also allows me to use a lot of unique foley sounds to have to replicate what may be happening in the narrative of the show. An example of this would be a foley sound of someone typing on a keyboard to make the entire experience feel more real for the listener. Overall, by choosing this idea it allows me to create and use sound elements that would make the audience the most enticed into the show, rather than the other ideas which would restrict what I wanted to do or can do with the sound.

Scheduling

 Scheduling

The time the episodes would air during the day would be at 6.15pm; the target audience for To Catch an English Student are teenagers aged 13 - 24 and assuming they aren't homeschooled they would get home at around 4pm. By airing the show at 6.15pm this gives them enough time to get home and do things that they need to do such as their homework for the day or any after school activities. Furthermore any adults who are at work are able to get home from work as well as this time which means any of the people who are on the elder end of that age spectrum who do work are also able to get to the airing.

As for the days it would air, the episodes would air on Fridays and get released weekly. This is due to some children not having access to internet during the school week and only get given permission to go online at Fridays and therefore by considering this it will make it so as many people as possible can view the episode. Not only this but by airing it on a Friday it is the final day of work for many people and gives a sense of relief to listen to the episode at the end of the week.

Overall I believe that the timings I suggested are the most optimal time in order to get as many of the target audience to listen to the episodes that air. This way by getting as many children to listen to the episodes they are able to get all of the information they need and therefore understand the dangers of cyber bullying.

Episode running order

 

Treatment

Radio 

To Catch an English Student

A Drama programme

"To Catch an English Student" (TCES) Would be a Radio Drama show that is centred around an English classroom. The overall premise of the show would be that a group of students are told by police to stay inside of an English classroom due to an investigation having been conducted about a girl who had committed suicide in their school. It had been narrowed down to someone from that English class who cyber bullied her into doing it therefore they keep all of the students in there to try and figure out who did it. 

I would use sound in order to make the episodes more realistic for the audience. One way I'd be able to do this is by using sound effects to convey that they are in fact inside of a school, for example using a school belling sound effect at the start of each day to not only connote to the idea that they are in a classroom but also to act as a gateway into the episode as it also represents the start of a new school day. This idea was inspired from THIS episode of BBC Radio 4's Radio drama called "15 Minute Radio Drama" and their use of paper flicking noises to connote to the idea of a therapy office. This made the episode feel more realistic which is what I want to create with my radio drama in order to make a greater suspension of disbelief for the audience. Another way I would use sound in my show is through the use of dialogue. I would use dialogue to share the narrative of the episode but also to reflect the setting their in. For example, if there were to be a private interrogation of one of the children I would use dialogue so that it was just the child and the interrogator who are talking to therefore connote to the idea that they have infant moved rooms to talk more privately. This would be very effective as it creates a deeper sense of realism, therefore making it easier for the audience to understand whats happening in the episode and makes the episode much more engaging for the audience. Not only this, but I would also use music in order to create a gateway into the episode, but also to foreshadow the themes of the overall show. Due to this show having some very negative connotations the actual theme music wouldn't be very buoyant. Finally, I would also use Wild tracks and Foley noises in order to make the environment have even further realism, an example of this would be that while there are people having a discussion in the classroom in the background, this use of Wild tracks to create a sense of realism makes the overall feel much more authentic because realistically if something to this severity would of happened there would be discussions in the background. Overall the use of these sounds in this way would create a better experience for the audience as it would create a greater depth of realism for the listener and make it more engaging for the audience to listen to.

The overall target audience for the show would be Teenagers from 13 - 24 of no specific gender who are from England and are interested in investigation shows. The reason why I feel it would be targeted toward a younger audience despite having some mature themes such as suicide is due to it also acting as an informative - sound is used to Inform, Educate and Entertain, and as it is centred around cyber bullying and the effects it can have the younger audience would be much more able to relate to the show as they are more likely to more often use social media than older generations therefore having that informative effect that sound should have. As well as this, it would be targeted towards a specific gender due to there being many different gendered students in the classroom who are all apart of the investigation and therefore a much more diverse spread of characters in which the audience are more able to relate to which makes the show more enjoyable for everyone.

 Radio Programme Analysis

THIS episode is about a man called “Richard Fallon” who is a man who is struggling with a mental issue and is talking to his therapist. The episode opens with the theme music for the show and then leads into the main narrative, Richard goes into detail about all of the issues he’s currently having an episode is mostly filled with him ranting to his therapist about all of the things he’s worried about, he talks a while about how global warming is making him depressed due to the social paradox of being told not to buy things however also being told that they are needed in this daily life; he also talks about how politicians are clueless and talks about how he feels that they only say things to stay in power. The episode then closes with the therapist telling him that they have ran out of time for that session and he leaves as the episode fades into the theme music. Its set in the modern day and touches on many real day problems that many people may be worried about such as who to go to for help when most of the people you are meant to go to are higher up don’t know what they’re doing.

The episode targets an English, male audience who are in their 50’s as the episode gives the perspective of a father of someone who is active in modern political aspects such as being vegan and climate change. We see this at 7:50 – 8:04 when he talks about how he didn’t know how long we had to fix the planet, this displays that it might be aimed for an elder and more “out-of-touch” audience as Richard states “I thought we had 40!”. 

The main narrative device used in the episode is dialogue, its heavily used to represent the setting of a therapist office as we see our main character Richard saying at 12:29 – 12:38 as he talks about how he finds it funny that she gets paid there to just sit and listen, therefore connoting to the fact that this is therapy session. Not only this, but the long string of dialogue from Richard from 3:03 – 12:12 displays that this is also a therapist session as he is mainly talking, this connotes to the idea that she is on the other end listening to this all as we heard her at the start of the episode, therefore reflecting what it would be like in an actual therapist office. 

The episode uses dialogue in order to explain how Richard is struggling with mental issues and we can see this connoted through the episode. At 9:21 we can denote that he states “God, I’m so depressed.” This denote the idea that he is struggling with mental issues in his daily life, however this also connotes that he may reflect the views of some of the population of England, as he says this due to not understanding how we’re meant to stop global warming, which many listeners can closely relate to, therefore it enables the audience to become more engaged in the episode.

The episode also uses dialogue as a gateway into the episode to get people more focused. We can see from 0:00 – 0:14 a melancholy tune plays into the episode and then fades out near the end of that time stamp to acts as a starting point for the episode, but also kind of foreshadowing what the episode will be about. It creates a suspension of disbelief as the audience can hear that the episode is going to start and therefore become prepared and more accepting for the episode. Not only this but it allows the audience to prepare for the episode as it foreshadows what the episode is going to be about so that the audience will know that it is about upsetting topics.

We are also able to hear sound effects used near the start of the episode to further reinforce the setting and create a further suspension of disbelief for the audience. We are able to hear at 0:00 the diegetic sound effect of a page being turned, this (as we learn) is the sound of a folder being flipped through as a therapy session has just started, and by reinforcing this setting that they’re actually inside of a therapy office it creates a further suspension of disbelief by making the audience actually belief what they’re hearing. This then further engages the audience by making the surrounds more realistic.

Overall, the episode is very well made and I would take the use of dialogue and sound effects for my own. The way I would use the dialogue in a similar way to the episode linked is by reflecting the style in which its used, in this episode its used in majority to the person who is speaking to their therapist therefore it displays how a person is actually talking to a therapist and getting things off their chest. I would do something similar in my radio show by having the dialogue patterns match the theme of the episode. Not only this but I would also use the similar aspects of sounds effects that they used in this episode, such as the sound of paper being flicked through to show that this is an official setting which then makes the episode more believe and the environment that the characters are in more believable.