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I am not normally a fan of group projects due to them usually going 1 of 2 ways: Someone doing all the work because everyone else is lazy or one person doing all the work and not telling the rest of the group because of their past experiences with aforementioned laziness. Luckily, this did not happen in our group.

I have had tasks similar to this before and I have found that the hardest part is having a concept that you can feasibly do and you are motivated to do it. Past experience has taught me not to procrastinate on an idea and to get working. We nailed a good idea pretty quickly into the process and had ideas flowing equally within the group; which is very rare in group tasks in my past experiences. This was refreshing and we set up a group meeting to discuss further at a later date.

At the meeting we discussed in detail about the initial idea of travelling to Skegness to record the cliche sounds of the beach and have a nostalgic theme for people who had been there when they were younger. We decided to split the soundscape up by using footsteps as a transitional piece and we booked out a Zoom Hn4 and recorded footsteps and ambience sounds to have an idea as to what our transitional pieces will sound like. First Daniel walked on gravel and we followed behind with the Zoom, then we did the same on concrete. I suggested that we record ambience and wind outside the student bar and then on the walkway over the railway. I recorded 1 minute of ambience at both and also footsteps on the walkway too. Daniel also got a great stereo recording of a train passing by from L to R. The test recordings were a good experience before the actual day of recording.

The time finally came for us to go to Skegness and we were slightly surprised we even made it there and didn’t choose a different idea. However, I am glad we stuck it out and did a more creative concept. The issue that we came across in Skegness was that we went just out of season, which meant that a lot of the promenade was shut and also was the funfair. This did not stop us though and we managed to get a lot of recorded material on the beach and arcades.

Due to other group work projects having closer deadlines we left the editing close to the end and were more concerned with finishing that, which for myself was frustrating but we were lucky that we had everything recorded several weeks prior and ready to go with a good plan for our final product. Due to everyone’s schedules and leaving the editing close to the end I was not able to attend the editing session on Tuesday, which is frustrating however I think Ross Daniel and Declan have done a very good job with the project and have been a pleasure to work with.

If I took anything away from this project to improve on I would plan to have more time to finish all my work quicker, that being said we still have time left.

When the assessment got brought to our attention, I was thoroughly pleased with the task in hand and I was looking forward to producing a piece of work within a group we didn’t fully know yet.

After our first seminar, James and I decided to work together as we knew what each other were like creatively and how each of us work. With this Ross and Dan joined the group and the ideas started coming out. Dan came up with the idea of doing it at the seaside to which James and myself enjoyed as we lived near a seaside which we knew rather well. At the bottom of the stairs, we arranged when we were going to meet next and we went our separate ways to think about the sounds and the narrative we could include within the soundscape. I felt really positive about this project due to the promptness of the proactive group I was in.

When I got home I thought of and made note of the sounds associated with the seaside and looked at pictures online to get extra ideas that were outside the box.

Once we met up all our ideas were brought to the table and I was impressed that all our ideas were very similar and that the narrative idea of nostalgia came up. We picked the location, Skegness, the narrative, nostalgia between 3 different locations within Skegness and the sounds we were going to capture while we were there. Whilst thinking of how we were going to record the sounds, we thought of the equipment we could use and the way in which we could record them. To finalise these thoughts, we decided to arrange another meet were we would do some test recordings. We thought that we should focus mainly on the footsteps and the transitions walking from one surface to another. He decided that we would book out a Zoom H4n which was a handheld recorder that we learnt how to use a few days prior to the meeting.

Whilst doing the test recordings, Daniel was the main subject to who we were going to record, Ross and James were the people that were recording and I was the one who was writing up our findings, drawing mic positions and taking note of any technical settings we chose to use. This was rather fun but serious at the same time as everyone within the group were getting involved and we all let each other record something on the Zoom. Personally I felt that this was fair and showed a great impression on work to come as we were all having a laugh but also taking things seriously. We then worked on the pitch for our presentation.

We left going to Skegness until after the presentation so we could efficiently include all our findings within the pitch.

Whilst in Skegness, the thought of “have we got enough recordings” kept echoing in my mind as I kept forgetting that we only had 2-3 minutes for the soundscape itself. After collecting the sounds we then went back. If I am honest, other projects took precedence within our group which pushed the editing stage further and further away. Panic started and although this should have been done before, we just had to focus on the task in hand so we met up in the editing suit and sat down as a group and worked on putting the soundscape together and trying to think of ways we can edit and manipulate the sounds to match the narrative. Despite the panic, we all worked really well and efficiently and took it in turns to edit and do paperwork.

Overall we worked really well as a team to get it done to this standard and I am happy with the work we have produced however, next time I believe we should do things a little sooner to prevent any panic close to deadline date and also maybe experiment with different recorders and different microphones.

Our trip to Skegness was ill timed, and this unfortunately meant that we had to make some sweeping changes to our plans. We recorded on 20^th November, which in retrospect was far too late. Our soundscape had originally had elements of the fairground in it, but the fairground was closed for the winter, and we were unable to record as a result. The same could be said for several of the nostalgic seaside elements; summertime was over, and so the beach was pretty much empty. This was due to us not organising our time properly, and if we were to redo this, recording everything earlier would be the number one priority.

This has caused our soundscape to differ from the original brief somewhat, but we felt that the setting and transitions we had planned would still make for an interesting and engaging piece of audio. On the day of recording, I did quite a lot of it, as I was the one walking and recording footsteps. I used a pair of boots that produced a nice sharp clack on concrete, which contrasted nicely with the soft crunchy sound produced when walking through sand, as well as the thud when walking on carpeted arcade floor. When recording, I held the H4N towards my feet, and recorded in stereo, so left and right footsteps came through on different channels. When listened back to with headphones, it placed the listener right in the shoes of the subject, which is an artistic decision we decided upon when experimenting earlier in the term.

Audio was either recorded whilst I was walking, or as static clips. Much of the arcade was recorded this way, and we are going to use layering, fades, and panning to produce the effect of the subject walking past machines. The pier was also shut, but we managed to find some decking that wasn’t locked off, and so recorded footsteps on there, with the intention of adding wave and bird sounds, to bring the journey back round to the beginning. I liked the idea of the subject stopping and grabbing onto the guardrail to end the soundscape, and recorded several versions of this grab with the H4N.

Apart from several key features that were locked off to us, I think that the day was a productive one, and we returned to Lincoln in the evening confident that we had recorded good quality clips, that would all fit into a coherent soundscape.

To record the sounds for our soundscape, we took a day trip to Skegness. The equipment we took with us was a Zoom H4n recorder and a Mirantz recorder with external microphone. We chose to take both so we could get two people recording and the other two people within the team would create the noises. This would also be useful to get the perspective of the individual walking and collecting the external sounds.

Upon arrival we headed to the beach as it was the start of our soundscape and we wanted to capture the sounds in chronological order. When setting up the recorders for outside use (turning on and putting the outdoor, wind mufflers on) we tried doing some test recordings. To capture a stereo feel, we set the microphones built in the Zoom recorder to 120 degrees which would allow us to capture wider, ambient sounds.

Whilst setting up the Mirantz, We noticed that the Mirantz kept coming up with an error to do with the memory card so to try identify the problem, we switched the memory card form the zoom and put it in the Mirantz however, the error message kept appearing. We checked the memory cards had been formatted before use so this problem unfortunately eliminated the use of the Mirantz and external microphone. The main focus of our recording was to try to collect the footsteps as this was the main part of our soundscape which was going to be used for the transitions between each location.

To record the footsteps, Daniel held the zoom recorder pointing down at his feet to create a stereo feel whilst walking which would put the audience in the shoes of our character.