analysis of exising public service drama

Quake

Summary of plot

This Radio drama is about a man called Rafi who goes to visit his father and he is staying in a hotel and something happens to cause the hotel to collapse. He is stuck under the building and he is speaking in first person. This drama is set in the 20th century (modern day). They also have his family in his drama. His daughter and his mother. In this drama series they use  music and sound effects to help tell a story. The main story is a earthquake and the people affected.

The target audience in this drama series is the a young teenager and adults. The actors are speaking in informal language and they do not use complex language. The sounds at 3:50 show that they are trapped and by the way the actors speech that they are trapped. In this radio drama they use a sound affects to help tell the stories in the first episode at 0:56 you can hear rumbling with suggest that there was a earthquake. At 3:33 the actor says 'I can't move, I'm on my own', while this is playing you can hear a slight rumble and which means that the building is still breaking down. By him saying that he can't move shows that he is stuck and in a position where he can not find a way out. All of the sounds work to together because they all say within the same subject of an earthquake and being trapped. Also the way that the actors speak keeps the audience entertain because they hear how the actor is expressing their voices. For example the main character Rafi he speaks with a worried tone and that will keep the audience involved because they will want to know why he is so worried. The episode ends with cliffhanger which will keep the audience wanting to know what happened to the character. 

From this radio drama I can many from the way they utilize sound and dialog to create meaning. For example this drama series use a low soft and dark music to create meaning, I can use that in my radio drama so instead of getting the actor to explain how they are feeling I can use music to convey how the actor is feeling. I can also create my own sound effects to let the audience know where the person is and the time period. 

Sound files

What is sound format?

This is an audio file that allows people to store digital audio data on a computer system. Most of the people that use sound format are using to get the audio onto a portable device or on a website. Sound format examples include things such as WAV which is a audio storage file. WAV is a uncompressed format with high quality which would make it suitable for videos and music productions. Another sound that is commonly used is a AIFF. An AIFF is a apple audio format, it is also lossless which means that all the audios data is the same as the original audio. This is the same as the WAV. There is also a WMA which is an audio format which does not have the added feature of lossless which means that people would rarely use this format because they will be running a higher risk of the audio coming out distorted. The last format that is commonly used is a MP3. This is a audio format that use lossy which means that the format most of the sound is uncompressed and it takes up less space than a format uses lossless.

 Storage?

This is the process in which digital data is saved within a storage device. Storage is a process that allows a computer to retain data either temporarily or permanently. Their are many different storage device here are some of the commonly used ones. flash drive, a portable device that allow people to place in to the USB port and it has built data storage that can connect to the computer via the USB port. The advantages that come with the this storage which are that is a portable device which means that people are able to carry around with them and they can storage large amount of data depending on how much people are willing to spend on it. Another storage device that is commonly used is a hard drive. A hard drive is similar to a flash drive. They both are a small portable device that has a built in data storage. The last commonly used storage device is cloud storage which is a wireless data storage. This is typically used through apple devices. By using cloud storage you are able to access digitally data anyway that has internet connection.

 Compression

Compress is the way in which sound elements are leveled and controlled to create a professional product that fits the purpose it is being used for. A compression can correct sounds for example when there is a sharp high sound the compression will lower the sound and if there is a quiet sound the compression will increase the volume of that sound to match the dynamic range of the data. One example of a compression is a DRC which is an audio signal processing operation that will reduce loud sounds and amplifies the quiet sounds. Compression also has a part to it called downward and upward compression. Downward compression is when the compression lowers the volume of loud sounds. An upward compression works the opposite to the downward compression so it will increase the volume of quiet sounds. The way in which a compression will measure the sounds can be shown through this graph:

Size versus quality

Size is the how big the file of the digital data is which will indicate of much space that file will take up. Quality includes things such as lossy and lossess which change the quality of sound. Lossy is a type of compression where it will reduce the quality of the sound file. It can do this by permanently getting rid of certain sound elements. Lossess is another type of compression when every bit of the original digital data is kept meaning non of the sounds is lost.