Basement Door- Radio Drama

This project was my ultimate favorite. Not only did it give me a chance to exude my creativity but it brought everything of the class in to perspective for me. 


Because the assignment was to make a radio drama, all I could use for the project was sound and sound alone, which made sense since this is an audio production class. I came up with the concept of re-creating a popular radio drama with the help of my grandmother and Google, lol! In doing so, I chose to re-do "Knock at the Basement Door" which I renamed "Basement Door". 


The plot of the story is a woman who is dissatisfied with her mother-in-law and kills her, then the ghost of her mother-in-law comes back to keep her from killing her son which ends in the protagonist hanging herself in the basement that she killed her mother-in-law in. 


The way I wrote the story shows how schizophrenic the protagonist is. The use of sounds that I chose show the darkness of her character and the darkness of the story. The inevitable gong behind her voice, the sounds of doors being knocked on, walking, chairs being moved... the story if carried through the sounds I decided to use. Originally, I wanted to use more door knocking under the actors voices but then I thought it owuld be an overuse and lose meaning if unnecessary knocking was used. 


I believe that the end product of the project exudes everything that I learned in class. The unity of sound and voice, understanding how to merge the two together to not overpower either one, I loved it. 


The editing of this piece took hours but I didn't mind because it was a nice break from the other 5 projects and papers that I had due, this project allowed me to relax and just focus on one thing for once. Having to find the sound effects, fixing and resampling on sound forge, I used everything that I learned in class and applied it to this final project and I feel as if it was my best. 


The use of sound effects, the music in the background growing with the climax of the story, the sounds that make a complete difference in a story if they weren't there... I took on the concept of creating a radio drama with open arms and executed greatly in my opinion. The end result of the project shocked me because sometimes you can be biased when critiquing your own work and believe it is the best thing ever... but the feedback from the class and professor, I was able to see that I had actually done a good job and my bias wasn't one-sided.


Overall, this project was by far the best project that we were given and I had the most fun with it. At times it was stressful but the stress of it paid off in the end result and because of that I have a better appreciation for editing and sound forge all together. I understand the use of sound and the use of telling a story through the use of sound and voice alone and in my production of "The Basement Door" I can use what I learned and put it into a hard-copy completed project.