Week 10 -Second Audio Documentary

Context

This week I used Adobe Audition to create another audio documentary titled The Price to Watch Football. My target audience was again 15–30 year olds with a male orientated skew with a great football interest. Also I aimed to target my audience who ejoy listenting to long form audio cotnent to inform them and maintain interest within it. The main goal was to create an informative audio documentary detailing the issues with tv rights deals within the football media industry and how it can kill bank accounts by how much needs to be spent to watch the game.

Research

Story

Again I for this documentary I set out to answer a question

Why is football tv rights pie divided into so many small slices and who is it affecting?

To do this I researched statistics and examples of many different examples of this. Such as the TV rights disaster within the French league which almost caused the same league to fall into disaster, I also looked at the TV mountain that the premier league has been able to pick up however relying on it too much could cause major problems and finally looking at the MLS who keep there league behind a paywall with apple which lowers there viewer engagement as less people will choose to play to watch the MLS.

I also gathered factual context and quotes from interviews and reportage so I could back up my points with reliable information rather than just opinion.

Stylistic

Stylistically, I was inspired by The Boot Room podcast, especially their episode The Story of Nike in Football again. Again I wanted to imitate their conversational informative style coupled with adding in relevant clips/interviews with figures within the industry. Within the documentary I also expermentied with a radio channell change sound effect to identify the transition onto a new subject for the listener which allowed for great sound desiging with SFX by layering them.

Practical Skills

This week, I strengthened my long-form storytelling and multitrack editing skills inside Adobe Audition. I organised my session using stepping to keep different layers of audio clearly separated, and used bricking to tidy up the final section of the timeline so everything hit its cue points. I added and labelled markers throughout the waveform to plan where interviews, SFX and music beds would enter or fade, which made it easier to jump back and fix mistakes or re-record certain lines.

I applied a Classic Soft Knee dynamics preset and used a Hard Limiter. I trimmed breaths, long pauses and repeated words as well.

I then layered elements such as the crowd nosie, the radio transition sound [switching radio stations]  under key story beats and subject changes to emphasise momentum and create mini-climaxes. Finally, I made several revisions based on feedback from my tutor and peers, exporting different versions and going back into the multitrack to fix missed edits and volume inconsistencies.

Technical

Technical

For this project, I used Adobe Audition as my main editing software to record, mix and finalise the documentary. My voiceover was recorded on an Audio-Technica microphone in a sound-treated room to ensure clean, consistent audio without background noise. I used Audition’s multitrack view to layer narration, interviews, SFX and music beds, applying fades, volume automation and panning where necessary to create a balanced stereo image. All recording, editing and exporting were completed on my MacBook Pro M2, which allowed smooth playback even with multiple high-quality audio tracks. I exported a final mastered version suitable for streaming platforms and potential award submissions.

Evaluation and Reflection

What Went Well (WWW)

Strong narrative structure

It was a great peice to work on as the subject I chose was interesting and unique.

Many attempts

Making many revisions to the project in 3 different mixdowns recieving feedback from my teacher and peers to have a great final product

Better Pacing

In comparison to the other documentary my pacing and diction was far better than the other one.

Even Better If (EBI)

Time Taken

Many basic mistakes were made during this project hence it took longer to produce.

In first revision commentary used under main narration

Commentary was used underneath my first narration and this caused my voice to be battling with the commentators voice not alloing for clear diction.

Further polish automation and transitions

Use more keyframes etc to refine the audio to and even more polished final project

Below is a link to my final product: