Greg’s evaluation

For my unit 9 project I have created a radio piece and a short story. The genre of my pieces were the social cleansing of young people in London who are unable to survive on their limited income . I attempted to link my two pieces through the use of one key character. David Hunt. He was the catalyst in proving my point of how young people are being bought out of their homes across London.

I chose the mediums of radio and short story as I wanted to do something I had never tried before, and another that I had experience in doing. I researched the characteristics in each of these mediums before I began production as it is important to know what is typically expected from each piece. I discovered that a short story is usually between 2000 and 3000 words and has one main theme. There is less build up than your typical novel as you have less words to play with, so most short stories are often straight to the point. I chose these mediums for my theme as I felt that I could easily tie them together on the basis of my theme. Focusing on the subject of my short story, I was able to create an effective radio documentary to give more of an insight into who David Hunt is, and how he is responsible for the social cleansing of young people.

I chose the theme of social cleansing of young people as it ties into a particular London based criminal who I have taken an interest in. My tutor had told me about David Hunt and I was fascinated to find out more about him. I therefore used this project to both expand my knowledge on him, whilst also fulfilling the academic criteria. Mr Hunt heavily contributes to the social cleansing of young people through his role in buying properties, which was therefore the topic I decided to cover.

I believe my project has many strengths, but also a few weaknesses that I would like to iron out in the future. Starting with a strength, I believe that my project fits the brief I was given very well. I have used two completely different mediums to discuss a singular theme, and I believe I have gone a step further by combining both my pieces. I think my pieces clearly convey the issue of social cleansing amongst the younger population, allowing my audience to both see the impacts from a human perspective in my short story and from a narrative overview in the radio documentary. Making these pieces did not come without issue though as I had to do 4 different takes of my radio piece before I was satisfied with the end product. My first take was distorted and it was really difficult to hear what was being said. The next two takes were also discarded on the recommendation of one of tutors. I was informed that I was reading too fast. On the fourth try I felt satisfied with what had been created. I had even managed to incorporate an extra voice, something which I had not planned to do. I was disappointed that I was unable to edit in the extra voice to my piece. I tried chopping and changing my file, however I was unsuccessful and ended up leaving my work as it was. If I were to do this again in the future I would like to develop my editing skills before I began recording. I think the podcast would have sounded a lot better if it were complete.

The comments I received from my tutor throughout this project have greatly impacted what I have created as it gave me many new ideas to think of. The most prominent example of this is in my creative writing piece where I changed most of language I was using in my dialogue due to my tutor saying the existing language didn’t suit my character, as my police officer sounded far too well educated to be from a deprived district of London. After reading back though my work I acknowledged this, and I feel it made a really positive impact on my work. Another comment I received at the beginning of my project was to create a character study. I was really struggling to create a convincing character and I had not thought of doing a character study before. Within 30 minutes of doing a quick character study I was back on track and I feel I created a truly realistic character who my readers can connect with. Many of my other comments relate to the timing in which I was posting my work. Reading back through these comments I now realize that in the future I must keep on top of my work as universities will not be so forgiving.

I feel I have developed many key skills whilst doing this project. When writing and recording my radio piece I was able to practice using the recording studio and my script writing. I was shown how to lay out a script for radio so that it was easy to read. The script also helped me with my timings as I could see when different sounds and lines came into effect. I was also able to take advice on board when reading out my script in relation to how quickly and what tone I was reading in. I would now say I am far more confident using the radio room than I was before. Through doing this project I also feel that I have improved my short story writing as I have done some research to further my knowledge of how a good short story should be written. This research includes a short story being between 2000-3000 words and not dwelling on a single event for more than a few lines.

When comparing my pieces to industry examples I can see the clear similarities between them. Another example of a crime themed short story is ‘A good man’ by J.B Stevens, and although the crime I not like the one featured in my story, it is still structured in the same way. It is immediately evident to the reader that both short stories are far more direct and to the point than your typical novel. Neither story dwells on a single event for more than a few lines, which makes the pace of the story quick and therefore exiting. ‘A good man’ is very heavily focused on dialogue which is something that I feel I have done very well in piece. In my opinion dialogue gives the reader the best chance of understanding the character in a short story as we can find out a lot by the way someone talks. Accents and specific word choices allow the reader to decipher where a character comes from and what they do.

An example of another crime radio station is ‘Case file true crime’ which tells stories of real crimes through the use of a narrator talking from an outside perspective. This is very similar to my work as I have a main narrator who reads out the story. In my opinion I think that my piece gives the listener far more factual information than the example I have used, which I think concentrates more on the storytelling. I think that my use of a second voice when reading quotes really adds another dimension to my work. It breaks up the long passages where we just hear the narrator and makes it easier for the listener to distinguish when something is being quoted from a source.