Radio Trailer Production Analysis

Radio Trailer analysis –

In order to create an authentic sounding radio trailer I used iMovie, as it had a built in voice recording system, which allows the speaker to record directly onto the computer.

Firstly I made a script for the Narrated parts of the trailer, followed by a rough plan of where the narration would come in, and then selected suitable audios from the film to be placed in-between each of these, all the while keeping it within a 30 second timeframe.

Once planning was complete, I began the production stage:

I started by creating a blank 30 second ‘base’ to record onto, as most radio trailers are between – and 30 seconds long.

Once this was done I extracted the audio clips from our film I wanted for the trailer by selecting the section of clip containing that piece of audio and dragging it onto the 30 second base I had created.

I then selected ‘Audio Only’ which extracted the clips audio and created a editable sound file of which I could the adjust and then finally place in the correct place on the trailers timeline.

I repeated this for all of the audio clips, leaving space between then for the narration.

When this process was done, I moved onto adding the Narration, to do this I recorded in a small and quiet room to avoid background noise, echoing and tininess.

Firstly, by selecting the microphone icon Movie activated the computers microphone, a pop-up window appeared where I could adjust the microphones setting before recording.

I then selected onto the timeline where I would start recording from, and then after a 3 second countdown the recording process started, indicated by a running line moving along the clip, which stops when the end of the timeline is reached.

I then read the script I had written in the gaps between the audio clips, this took several attempts to get the timing right

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Once the narration fit correctly in between the audio clips I then added SFX sounds to the begging of the trailer, I selected two iLife Sound Effects, which made the track sound as though after the initial clip of film audio the radio was retuning, which added to the thriller genre and would catch the attention of the listener.

Finally I added a backing track, I selected this score as it was slow paced to begin with and increased in pace as the audio clips became more intense, once again contributing to the creation of a sense of the films genre. After this Iadjusted all the audio and narration tracks to fit the score, and then the project was ready to export.

I exported the file in both Video and Audio format.

Once exported however, I noticed that the audio of ‘Tina and -’ speaking was far quieter than the narration, and then later the audio from the film drowned the narration out, and therefore I had to reopen the project and select the audio adjustment tab, and alter each individual clips volume in order to make the film audio clips a uniform volume and slightly increase the volume of the narration to make it more prominent and clear to the listener.

And then the Radio Trailer was complete.