Evaluation - The Journey from Preliminary Task to my Finished Radio Extract

I feel that I have come a long way from my preliminary task, particularly regarding my understanding and skills regarding technology and what can be achieved through the use of sound effects and music.

There are certainly similarities between my preliminary task and my final extract, not least the fact that they belong to the same genre and target the same audience. The differences between the two, however, are huge.

When I came to record and edit my preliminary task I was pretty clueless about what could be achieved through the software and I had spent very little time planning the script or thinking about representations. This meant that I wasn't completely happy with my final preliminary task. I saw the whole process as a means of learning about how to use the recording and editing software and equipment, and getting a feel for what can be achieved through the technology. Once I had finished my preliminary task I made a list of everything I felt I had learnt, and the things that I realised I would have to do before creating my real radio extract. These included planning and research into all of the conventions of existing radio and better organisation in terms of choosing the right actors so that I could get the representations right.

Evaluation - Just After Completing my Preliminary Task

The most important thing that I realised having gone through the process of recording and editing my preliminary task was that the technology would enable me to create almost any audio effects that I wanted, which in turn affected the way I constructed my script. Realising that I could create authentic sounding locations (and that I could convince listeners that the scenes had in fact been recorded outside) through the careful manipulation of sound effects and other effects I could add during mixing, meant that I could be very creative with my adverts and the outside broadcasts that accompanied some of my news stories. As a result I decided to script certain adverts (such as the Ocado advert) and news stories (such as the missing child story and the radiation leak story) that would enable me to be really creative and use lots of layers of sound.

I hope that when you have one last listen to my preliminary task and the finished extract from Metro FM, you will be able to hear how my experiences with my preliminary task informed the decisions I made with my full radio show.