Audio Ensemble Blogs

The Archers

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08q60pm#play - link to BBC I Player 

The archers is a British radio play aired on BBC Radio 4. It's on everyday at 14:00pm and 19:00pm. Each episode is 13 minutes long. The Archers is the worlds longest running radio soap opera and with episodes daily, has had an incredibly long time to experiment with different audio techniques to perfect it's own unique and professional process. 

Foley Artist

An interesting technique that is used to get the sound effects from a scene is using a foley.  For example; when there's a scene of The Archers set in the kitchen, say the actors are sitting around the kitchen table drinking a cup of tea, the FoleyArtist is the person who uses the tap top fill up the kettle, then flicks the switch to boil the kettle and pours the cup of tea. They make all of the sounds that the actors would be making but can't due to the recording space. All sound effects which are recorded and then placed on top of the voice recordings during the edit. The foley is only in charge of creating specific sounds such as the ones exampled above and would not be in charge of creating sounds of explosions or car crashes. These would be created separately as they are larger projects to record requiring more people, money and time to complete.

Link to Foley Artist information - http://www.mediacollege.com/employment/film/foley-artist.html

The Art of Building a Farm Inside a Microphone
I was listening to an episode of The Archers and during the episode one of the characters was driving a tractor on a farm whilst exchanging dialog with another character; or at least that's how the creators of the show expect you to picture it. Inevitably, being a radio play, there is not an actor driving a tractor outside in a farm whilst shouting to another actor who is on foot, whilst a technical crew insert voice recorders here, there and everywhere. Although this may be the case with film acting, there is no need for the 'creatives' to waste time, money and energy recording on an actual farm, in the actual countryside when the only thing being seen by the audience is the mug of steaming coffee laying next to their small, portable radio on the living room table. Instead, the recording is done in a studio of which the actors have their microphones and that's just about it. This means that; to set the scene, the actors have to change and inflict different tones, pitches and energies into their voices in unison with what their characters are doing at the time, which along with all of the sound effects produced by a Foley artist sets; in the imaginations of the listeners, the scene.

Going back to my experience of listening to The Archers and studying the scene containing a farmer and his tractor, I found that the actor; who I now had to picture behind a microphone inside a studio, did a very believable job indeed. The actor has used the microphone technique where they take a few steps back away from the mic and angle their head away from the mic and shout the dialog that is set as they drive their tractor. By moving away from the mic, it makes the shout more distant and less clear which it would be if they were actually driving a tractor and having all of the noise in the way. The dialog is friendly and pleasant so the actor has been tasked with inflicting a positive energy into their voice. I believe they have managed to do this whilst maintain the loudness of having to shout over the noise of the imaginary tractor by making eye contact with the other actors in the room who have interacting dialog. From my research on phycology of eye-contact, I found that by using this technique, the actor felt the positivity of being acknowledged by the other actor in the room; both being in character of course, which can cause the actors to smile at each-other and raise their eyebrows. All of these small by natural expressions that the actors are feeling just by making eye contact have produced a natural and subtle emotion to flow from the actors voice which makes it very believable that their character exchanging dialog whilst driving a tractor.

https://www.psychologistworld.com/body-language/eyes - This is a link to an interesting site which goes into more detail about the everyday uses of eye contact and how it effects peoples emotions, something that I think this voice actor during a scene of The Archers has used to enhance their performance.

Ray Bradbury - Tales of the Bizarre
Link to the Play - http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007jpx2

Tales of the Bizarre by Ray Bradbury is a series of thriller episodes on BBC Radio 4 that are each 30 minutes long.

Creating the Atmosphere
I came across this on the BBC website linked above and started to listen as I had never heard a thriller radio performance before. This contrasted majorly with The Archers, a soap opera, a rather light hearted drama compared to Bradbury's piece which is very suspenseful and eerie to the ears. The aspect that I found so contrasting to the two radio plays was the soundtrack. The Archers has an opening piece of music is very giddy and up beat. Tales of the Bizarre however, does not start with any music. Instead, we hear a light, chilling breeze and almost instantly hear the chattering voice of an 80 year old man who sounds isolated, fragile and lonely. By this point already, I found myself feeling sorry for this character as his voice sparked some sort of inner guilt as if it was my fault for him being left alone on Mars for 50 years; which we know by reading the introductory paragraph left by the playwright. The fact that I was already starting to become emotionally involved with this character this soon shows how the actor is using the same technique I have discussed when analysing The Archers; the technique of inflicting different tones and energies into the voice to achieve different emotions, although the actor in this play has used this technique to create very contrasting emotions and atmosphere. I believe that this actor is very close to the microphone and is talking very lightly, almost a whisper. This picks up all of his nervous breaths, swallowing and noises the mouth and throat make to add to the atmosphere and show the worry this character is feeling. I think that the actor may have used meditation to find the energy which will produce the inflictions and tones in the voice. I think the actor has used this technique just before recording. The technique goes a little like this:

• Sit down in a comfortable yet supportive chair
• Focus on a point in the room
• Raise the shoulders towards the ear and gently breathe in, holding this position
• Slowly breathe out gently releasing the shoulders and relaxing any tension
• Now focus on the hands, curl them into fists and clench, holding the tension as you take a breathe in
• Slowly release the breath and the tension, relaxing your hands in an open position
• Take a deep breath in and focus on the tensions in the face, neck and jaw, breathe out and release
• Do the same with the lower body, slowly and gently breathing in, holding the breath and holding the tensions, then gently release, letting go of any stress or tension
• Feel your eyelids become heavy and relax them yet still focusing on that point in the room, imagining how nice it would feel to fully close them
• As you blink, extend the time it takes you to open your eyelids
• Extend that time longer and longer
• Let the eyes close fully, keeping them closed and sleepy

This is the meditation device which allows the actor to enter a place where they are so in focused and weary, any non related thoughts to do with the real world are temporarily forgotten allowing for the actor to concentrate only on their character. I believe the actor was in this state, questioning who he is becoming, who he is embodying. Allowing details from his character to fill up the emptied space of his mind fully preparing him for recording.

http://www.innerhealthstudio.com/meditation-for-acting.html - Link to meditation for acting where I found this device and technique

Going back to effects. This play has a waft of chilling breeze in the background almost constantly yet quietly behind the characters dialog. I felt this helped set the scene for me as I quite obviously have never been to Mars and there is no visual image for my mind to process on screen, and yet by listening to this breeze effect, I know that Mars must be a desolate and empty place where the only sound to be heard is a vague wind passing through the character. It also seems like they have put that effect in to symbolize not only the planets desolation but the characters emptiness. He has been left alone for 50 years after all.

From what I have found by comparing these radio pieces, is that they have very contrasting atmospheres, plot and characters and played with my emotions as the audience member in very different yet successful ways; one being a soap opera and the other being a thriller. Although contrasting in this sense, they also do not contrast in another sense. That other sense being that they still use a lot of professional audio techniques and devices such as microphone techniques, music, sound effects and the actors themselves portraying their characters image through a microphone.

Overall, this has been an insightful and interesting experience for me, educating my on different variants of radio genres and ways that the creative and technical ensembles use a numerous amount of audio techniques and devices to make the play believable and engaging whilst only being heard and not seen.
I hope that with this knowledge I will be able to use these new skills during our ensemble piece, working together in a group and to better my own individual characters and interactions with the microphone.