Our last scenes were recorded today and our last sound effects as well. I brought in a couple of twigs to use for the heel breaking sound and I actually didn’t get too many weird looks seeing as I was carrying sticks around school. Laura dropped them on the ground and kicked them to debugify them, just for good measure.
We used an instrument that you smack… I forget the name, to do the punching sounds. Steph was recording Deanna doing the punching and it sounded like they were beating each other up. It was quite funny.

We listened to David Hodges music to try to put the songs in the appropriate scenes. We recorded more feet shuffling as well. Big thanks to Mr. Hodgeson, our music teacher, for letting us record the sounds of chimes and a piano crashing. He made a joke in the music room, asking younger students if they wouldn’t mind helping out by picking up the piano off the ground and letting it drop to the floor. Some actually volunteered!

We also got some class recordings of people at the prom saying FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT! From next door it was quite convincing and we were startled by it for a second. Thanks so much to Martin, Brendan, Jackie and especially Martin’s uncle, for putting together the Success for All piece. We were able to play it on our boom box and it was EXCELLENT! Just the right note (no pun intended) of hilarity and satire. And Jackie has the most amazing voice!

Thanks so much to everyone and especially Ms. Chalmers for keeping us on our toes, Courtney, and our sound people!

You know that it’s been quite an interesting and exciting project when your teacher is telling you to start throwing stuff around for potential sound effects.

Today, Courtney was recording some scenes from the script but not many got done because some key characters were missing *cough cough* Brendan. Also, Rache, Steph, Courtney and I were working on recording the sound effects. We recorded tape ripping which was done by ripping a piece of paper, a chair scraping, cars driving away (thanks to a handy CD of sound effects), a slurping sound, (that was awesome, Steph) and some heels clicking and clacking away (thanks Chamanthy). We also got the sound of someone pressing numbers on their phone.

Hopefully, we are able to finish and hopefully everyone is there tomorrow otherwise they will suffer the wrath of Ms. Chalmers…

Big thanks to Mark and Alison for coming out today and helping us with the play. We had two english blocks today to get as much done as possible seeing as our deadline is looming ever closer…

The class split up into one large group which would be doing sound effects with Mark, and a smaller group which would be doing the deliberating on the writing.

So, what became of our english class today was either pushing tables, booing and clinking cutlery, or whispering in hushed tones on whose lines were to be cut. Well, it looked like they were quiet from what I saw, anyway. It was quite funny to listen to all of the noise we were making compared to when I walked by the computer lab and saw Alison and fellow key writers huddled together deciding what would become of our script.

For the sound effects, our two head techies, Rachel and Deanna, lead the class on what kind of sounds we should make depending on the scene right down to the volume. Mark was there to give handy tips based on his expertise in sound and of course Courtney and Alexa were recording. We got a lot of scenes done and had fun in the process!

On the writing side, Alison was very helpful in helping the writers decide which scenes should be scrapped or shortened. This is a very difficult thing to do seeing as we are WAY over the time limit (which should be approximately 8-10 mins). And, you know, we’re ONLY five minutes over without sound effects. Decisions were made and the rest of us aren’t certain which scenes were tweaked, however, we trust our writers!

Thanks to everyone who was so cooperative and helpful today!Everything has to be done by March 30th, so let’s cross our fingers!

Reem : When I first say ” Radio Play”, what do you first think of ?
Martin : Busy, very busy.

Reem: What has been your most memorable event during this period?
Martin: Probably when Jen first got up and proposed the idea to do the radio play on the reform. She gave a very moving and emotional speech that we could all relate to.

Reem: If you could go back and redo one thing, what would it be?
Martin: At this point, it looks like we should’ve started this whole thing a bit earlier, and used our time more effectively. Ms. Chalmers is trying to do this radio play with us while simultaneously managing an English class. We need to wrap up recording by the 30th of March, so there’s a lot of pressure for us to finish this play, and fast.

Reem: Thank you Martin, I really appreciate you taking time out of your work for this quick interview.
Martin: No problem.

Reem: Hey guys , since you guys have an extremly special part of the radio play, I was wondering if I could interview you.

Jen: But we are the hosts , shouldn’t we interview you? (laughs)

Reem: What attarcted you to do the part of the host?

Chamanty: When we thought about the idea in our minds, we pictured two good friends with chemistry arguing about the reform, Jen and I.

Jen: This whole iead sutied us as friends, it represents Chamanthy and I on a daily basis.

Reem: As far as recodring, how is that?

Jen: Pretty good, we are pretty good as a team.

Chamanthy: Enjoying the time , and gaining a new experince.

Reem: What has been the most memorable moment so far?

Jen and Chamanthy: Costum closet( Laughs)

Reem : Do you think we have progressive so far?

Jen: Mmm… I think its going pretty well.

Cahmanthy: Some students put in so much effort meanwhile others dont do much.

Reem: Thank you girls , for taking the time out of your busy recording schedule to be interviewed.

Jen and Chamanthy: Thank You !

We accomplished three scenes today from our very long radio play. It’s very difficult to do more than a few scenes a day because with such a large group, there are always people missing.

Before the recording begins, the sound is tested on the recorder. This is the stage where the actors practise reading their lines so that the director can give feedback to speak louder or reduce the volume.

Then, we record! It’s more complicated with more people because the recorder has to be very close to the person speaking. So, we have a system that the person speaking next has to point to themselves so that the director can place the recorder in front of them. This is all to ensure that we get the best possible volume.

Actors are allowed several tries to get it down to perfection! Then, the recorder is hooked up to headphones and everyone around the table can listen to the scenes previously recorded. In this way, we can check to see that everyone gave it their all!

Meanwhile, our two sound effect specialists were working out which sounds are needed for which scenes in the radio play and how we’re going to make them!That’s tomorrow’s task…

Welcome to the “Success for All: JRHS Grads of 2010″ blog. This website has been created in order to update people on the status of our English Radio Show assignment, which will eventually be broadcasted live on CBC Radio Montreal (date TBA).

The scene recorded from the previous day was redone because of actors not speaking loudly enough or someone swearing…(can’t have any of that). It’s all good though, because mistakes are all part of the process of getting everything perfect.

In addition, some new scenes were recorded with different actors.

Today I got a sneak peek of the closet where all of the recording is taking place. After recording was done for the day, I got a mini-tour from Ms. Chalmers, who knows these actor headquarters like the back of her hand.

Inside the room was a reasonable size desk for the actors and recorders to sit around as well as shelves everywhere and racks of costumes from past plays and future events. On the shelves that surround the room are categorized: miscellaneous, pieces of fabric, purses, some shoes, and other drama related accessories.

Quite an appropriate place to get into character for the radio play!