Story
My story is based on a true story, retold by the ghost walkers of York.
There is no evidence to support that it happened, only words that have been passed down from generation and generation – and
because of this, there is no particular date set for when this event actually took place.
The gate keeper of Mickle gate Bar was called John Brocklelbank. It was the most esteemed job a commoner could have had. He
entrusted his daughter, Sarah Brocklebank to look after the key one night but she misplaced it by morning. Her father lost the job
and never spoke to Sarah again. Years and years late, Sarah found the key. She ran through the town one night laughing with joy to
give father the key, but before she could, she apparently dropped dead.
The story goes that you can sometimes see the ghost of Sarah Brocklebank running through the city with the keys at night,
grinning and laughing as she is still so excited to see her father again and reunite him with the key.
http://secretyork.com/micklegate-bar/
https://www.theguardian.com/global/2010/may/15/ghost-walking-tour-york
- Secret York. (2015). Micklegate bar. Available: http://secretyork.com/micklegate-bar/. Last accessed 16/11/18.
- Ochyra, H. (2010). Ghostly Tales of York. Available: https://www.theguardian.com/global/2010/may/15/ghost-walking-tour-
york. Last accessed 16/11/18.

Existing Products Research
Beach soundscape
There is a lots of groups talking with each other all at the same time, some are heard further away and some are heard closer. This
makes the audience feel like there are in a really big place with lot's of people. The people seem to be talking quite
enthusiastically to each other. There's sounds of waters splashing and waves crashing to the shore – this immediately pulls you
into a beach setting as you can picture it all happening because of how realistic the sound is, and because the waves sounds
relatively it's as if you're right at the beach front. There is a distinct and loud sound of seagulls flying over head, which if you are
from a British background, you will associate this noise with the sea side and British beaches. It is effective because it narrows
down where the soundscape takes place and makes you remember a beach you have visited before.

The log cabin
The narrator spoke in a steady but emotive voice. This will make the audience more interested in the story as the voice sounds
realistic and it interacts well with the story. When describing the lovely cosy log cabin soft music is played in the background. This
creates a soothing and calm atmosphere for the audience to become immersed into, so it feels as if they are in the lock cabin.
Some sounds are also added into the audio to make it sound like you're inside the room or area of the scene, such as the sound
of shoes crunching snow on the ground or the sound of a light switch clicking off. They use a knocking sound effect at one point,
which is anticipated but stills sends chills down the audiences spine and you have no idea who is knocking. Some spooking
ambience music and a high pitch ringing sound plays to put the audience on edge and make them dread whatever is happening
next.

Green eggs and ham
Because this is an audio book targeted at young children, the narrator talks in a bubbly and enthusiastic voice that will keep the
distracted minds of children interested. He also talks in different voices to represent the different characters. This gives the
characters more identity and will make it so the kids have an easier time differentiating one character from another. When every
main bit of story is presented a sound effect is payed that associated to the story line. Some examples of this are a sound of a
mouse when it's the mouse in a house part, echo's when they are in a dark place, tree branches rustling when the tree is
mentioned. There is also the sound of chewing when the old man finally does eat the green eggs and ham. This is good because it
really add an immersive experience to the story telling and will help the children visualize what is going on. There are also the
sound of pages flipping when the next page of story come about.

Idea Generation/Initial ReactionBecause I love everything spooky and ghostly, when I first heard about this project I was very excited to get a chance to make
something of these themes. I have worked with audio in the past and found it very interesting and enjoyable, so I think it will be a
good experience to do something else in the same media format. I really enjoy editing my work and adding in transitions, so
hopefully I will do a lot of that in this project.

Proposal
Working Title:
The grinning lady
It is called this because the ghost is seen to be haunting the grounds with a big grin of her face. It tells the audience exactly what
to expect and sounds quite creepy, especially because the reason she is smiling is still not know – this will make the audience
want to know why she is smiling and compel them to listen to the story.
The gatekeepers daughter
This is similar to the first title but a little bit more nuance. It will really make the audience wander what is so significant about a
daughter or a gatekeeper? And why is she the main focal of the story?
Audience:
Gender: Female – because the story is emotional and plays with feelings of despair, family love and heartache. Stereotypically,
these are emotions females can better tap into and relate to the feelings out focal character is going through.
Age: The age group is for teenagers and adults because they are the ones that can enjoy being scared because they are not so
serious that they can't get a frill of horror and fear, but not naive to believe that any of these things exist.
NRS: DC1C2B – There are the codes I think will be able to afford to listen to my product, as you would need some form of
technology to access it. Anyone of higher class I think will have better things to do than listen to ghost stories.
Psychographics – Balanced and Socially contious type A: The balanced category will be able to relate to the emotional side of the
story and find it enjoyable to listen to as it is interesting and in-depth. The type A category will find the story very emotional and
will feel empathy and sympathy for the focal character, becoming invested into the story and maybe becoming a little bit spooked
by the ghost aspect of it.
Project Concept (approx. 200 words)
The narrator sounds like someone who is guiding you a ghost work around mickle gate, telling you the story of the grinning
lady/gatekeepers daughter. He speaks in a low and theatrical voice.
The gatekeeper is an esteemed job for any commoner and John Brocklebank is the gatekeeper for Micklegate bar. One night, he
entrusts his daughter, Sarah Brocklebank, to look after the key and she looses it, which ends in him never speaking to her again.
The thought of loosing her father makes her sick and frail, she now lives in a shack and is unable to eat so is paper thin. One
night, she finds the key! She run across the town in nothing but a nighty, bare feet and all in freezing night to re-unite her father
with the key – but whilst she is running, smiling and laughing, she drops dead to floor because her body – in all its frailty – can't
stand the weather.
Now, if you're walking alone through town on a night and you hear the sounds of keys jingling and the laughs of a happy girl, look
out for Sarah Brocklebank, for you might just see her ghost – and she might just see you.
The sounds of thunder and sad music will play in the background. When Sarah and her father are arguing, you can hear there
muffled voices in the background. Keys will jingle towards the end.

Sound Effects
Sound Effect Needed How I Will Create the Sound
Girl laughing I will ask one of my friends if I can record
her laughing during college time
Muffled people arguing I will record one male friend and female
friend shouting at each other loudly
through a closed door.
Thunder and rain I will use kitchen pans and metal wire.
Twirling the wire around the pans should
give a thunderous affect.
Door closing I will record one of the colleges heavy
wooden doors banging shut
Door locking I will find this off the internet
Jingling keys I will record me jingling my house keys.
Sad music I will find this off the interent
Nartator I will ask a male friend if he is able to
record this for me

Resource List
Resource Owned/Cost What sound effect will it be
used for?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewVs4oL3
qvA
Free The thunder in my audio, it is very long so will take a
lot of editing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xe2u4jz6
5UY
Free The ghost laughing in my audio.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yl7g8k9BT
6s
free Keys jangling sound effect for when she finds the
keys and when her ghost is lettin herself be known.
There are many different types so I will have to
icolate one in edit.

Music
Band Name Track Name Link
Soul candle Sunset on the valley https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8UYvbqROdc

Daily Reflection Day 1
• On my first day of production I wanted to make sure I had everything I needed to produce my project. I spent almost an hour
of my lesson creating the script for the audio piece and trying to make it an interesting read so that it matched the spooky
aesthetic of my piece.
• I then hired out a recorder so that I could record audio outside of the college grounds so the piece would hopfully me ready
for the next step of production (editing) on the next day.
• I then spent the rest of this lesson gathering sounds by going to freesound.org and downloading the sound clips from the
site onto my computer, then saving them in a folder on my computer to store them away for when I needed them.
• Before leaving college, I printed off two coppies of the sript – one for myself and once for my voice actor.
• I recorded the narrtor for my audio piece at home. It was compicated process. I cleared out a small room and closed the
door in hopes that using a smaller room would eliminate any worry of echo. My friend was free so he agreed to narrate the
piece for me. Every time we recorded, a dog would bark in the background which meant my voice actor would have to
repeat a sector of the script again. It took almost hours to do and I almost concidedered scarpping the project all together
and doing something much simpler. I'm glad I didn't follow through with this thought as I really liked what I had written in
my script. Finally we had a cohesive recording of the story.

• I used the day to start editing my peice. I had the recording of the narrator but hadn't had a chance to do any of the foley
recordings of the thunder and the arguing and they keys jangling ect. So I decided I would do this after college, however I
wouldn't have the recorder anymore so I would have to do it using the recording app on my phone – and I wasn't sure how
that was going to work.
• The first thing I did was drag all of my audio files onto premiere pro and line them all up in the correct liniear order. I then
sifted through them all and decided on which ones I should use in the product as some had dogs barhing and movement in
the background of the audio. After eliminating the ones I didn't want/need I started using the cutting tool in premiere pro to
get rid of any blank space in the audio of attempt to edit any parts my voice actor said wrond and replace it with a snippet
form another audio file where he said the same thing correct. I then rendered what I had from in and out and saved it as a
mp3 file.
• Next, I dragged this mp3 file into audion where I could better apply effects. I experimented with a lot of different tools, such
as the phone voice effect and the relay effect – but finally settled on the echo effect as I thought it sound kind of spooky as if
the narrator was walking down an abbadoned alley way. To use the effect efficiently I had to adjust the sound delay and
'wetness' and 'dryness' to make sure that the echo was noticable but not too over the top and distracting. Also, I still wanted
to make sure that the narrator voice was clear and easy to understand through the echo.
• I used the rest of the lesson to render and export the files from audion and drag them back into premiere pro. Then cut and
order these finalized files and leave speces for the rest of my audio clips that I would be placing in later.
• When I was at home, I expermineted making foley audio with my phones recorder. It wasn't good. The sounds I was
producing just were'nt clear which was very frustrating and I just simply ended up abandoning the task and deciding to use
premade audio from free sound.org

• I ran into A lot of compliactions today that has definitely set me back in the project. Before I began my work, I decided to
what I saved so far from my work. It was in a mp3 format which was a little confusing, but I just figures that the premiere pro
version was saved on the pravious computer that I used when editting. For some reason, the last 50 seconds of the file was
cut off leaving the story at an unfinished conclution – this was very worrying.
• There was no other saves on any of the computers. I couldn't even find the original uncut and unedited audio for some
reason. This was probably down to how unorganized I felt during the projetct. Everything seems to be unfinished and I have
to start for scratch – and I have to do it fast.
• I next made a plan. As soon as I was home, I would get my friend to re-record the naration and hire out recorder from the
school so that the narration is crisp and clear. So that I don't waste an entire day of production, I will gather all the sounds
that I need and place them safetly in folder for me to to use tomorrow.
• I spent the rest of my lesson hiring out the recorder and finding every sound that I needed on youtube and converting the
sounds into an mp3 format so that it would be usable in audtion/premiere pro.
• To avoid further complications, I gave the recorder to my friend and told him to record in his dog free home so hopefully
there wouldn't be much to edit once the audio was given back to me.

• Today was probably the most productive day. I somehow managed to do four days of work in about two days, and I'm quite
impressed – but I have definitely learned a lot of lessons through out this project. Save, save and save again!
• My friend did the audio for me ontime and it sounded much clearer and crisper, he did a couple of takes of everything so I
could mix and match audio and correct any mistakes. I dragged the files into premiere pro and starterd to worm my way
through all the useful bit of audio and the ones that I just didn't need. I then used the cutting tool in premiere pro to
seperate the sudio and icolate anything I din't need – like gasps of air, suffling, mistakes on words. I then rendered it from in
and out and exported the file into an MP3 format, making sure to save it in a separate save file.
• I then put the mp3 file into audition and added the echo effect, moving the dryness and the delay and the wetness to make
a spooky-bouncing-off-the-walls effect, whilst still making sure the audio was clear and understandable. I then exported this
file into an mp3, remembering to save It seperately, and the dragged the file back into premiere pro. I do this because I
personally find it better to edit usuing premiere pro.
• I the began to cut up the audio exactly where I needed too to make room for the sound effects that I downloaded the day
before.
• I ended up using a lot less sound effects that originally wanted too because of a time constaint – however, the sounds I did
use I believe I used effective.
• The thunderstorm sound effect was 10hrs long, which almost made it easier to place in my project. I dragged it into
premiere pro and placed onto a seperate track then just cut it off exactly where the narration audio finishes. I used the
volume mixxer to turn the audio all the way down so you could hear it playing in the background. I then listened to my
narration again and where I wanted the thunder to get lounder, I simply seperated the section of the storm that I wanted to
get louder and turned up the volume on the volume mixxer. I added an audi gain and an audio fade to make the transition
more natural so the sudden change in volume didn't startle the audience. I then followed the exact same process with the
sad violin music.
• The last bits of audio I had to add in was the gangling of keys and the little girl laughing. This was easy enough to do. I simple
dragged in the audio clips exactly where I needed them to go and then used the volume mixxer to match the volume to the
narration.
• I then exported to the file to an mp3 and listened to make sure it captured all of the audio – which it did!

Research
• When conducting my research I had a specific way I wanted it to be done. I thought it would be easier first if I could figure
out what story I will be doing and then use my research as a way for me to generate ideas on how to format my projects and
what special effects and techniques I could be adding to improve my work.
• I started by looking up ghost stories that took place york, as york is famous for being one of the most 'haunted' places in all
of england. I found a page dedicated to ghost walks which heavily inspired me to have my audio read off like the reader is
on a ghost walk. So, I looked into the kind of stories told on the york ghost walks and the grinning lady is the one that caught
my eye. It was a sad and interesting story, and I knew I could re-imagine it in more detail and really pull the reader into the
story.
• I next researched pre-made audio stories to show me what should be expected from my work. This worked really well and
give me a lot of ideas regarding what to include.
• The first thing I researched was a soundscape of a beach. This allowed me understand all the steps you have to make to
create an immersive enviroment to set the ambience for an audience. In this piece, they used quieter sound to mimic deph
and fade in and out transistions to mimic movement. It was clear from all the collected sounds used that it was trying to
convey the image of a busy beach to the audience. This had me thinking about what kind of sounds I could be using to
better pull my audience into a dark sullen night, being guided among a ghost tour and having flashbacking to the tragic event
took place deep in the past.
• The next prduct I researched was a creepy story supposedly based on real life events. This story has a low of sounds that
connected directly to what exactly was going on in the story – for example, if someone moved there would be footsetps, a
dorr closed you would hear it, a light switched on and you would the click. This really pulled me inton the setting and made
me belive I was in the room with the characters. They also had music to really relay the ambience of the theme and have the
desired creepy effect on the audience.
• The next thing I looked into was an audio reading of a childrens book that also came with sounds. It allowed me to realise
that it is imporatnt to directly interact with your specific target audience just as this audio reading did. It had playful and
bouncy sounds that would really interest a child. I started thinking about what kind of things would pull at the heart and
emotions of my female audience and how a young adult would react to my story and what effects would work on them.

Planning
• Planning for the
• I was able to flesh out the idea of my story in detail and visualize exactly where the sounds and audio bites were going to be placed
through out the piece. Once the script was done, I knew everything that I had to leading up to production and had a reference I could
keep going back to whilst producing the project.

Time Management
• Time management really wasn't my strong suit though out this whole project. I was always a little behind on everything,
and maybe that has something to do with the fact that this projects wasn't very planned out and we didn’t have a lot of time
to do things, There wasn't really a scheduling process in the PowerPoints which probably hindered my time management
skills.
• Creating the mind map and proposal before actually producing the project meant that I had all my ideas already fleshed out
which would make my production time more efficient, as I am not making things up on the spot as I go along. This left me a
lot of room during production just to get what I needed to do done and not brainstorm whilst I was doing the work.
• Creating my script helped me visualize what I needed to do in production before-hand, which definitely helped save time as I
already knew what I wanted to do and how I wanted to do it.

Technical Qualities
• The audio was really clear and I did well to eliminate any slip up my voice actors did whilst recording. I did this by using the cut tool
in premiere pro to break away of isolate specific sectors in the audio and correct them by replacing that sector with an audio file
that is clear and better fitted. I then would have to fit it to the rest of audio so it sounds like a natural transition from one word to
the next.
• The rain and thunderstorm blends well into the background as I used the volume mixer tools to turn down the audio. I used the
cutting tool and audio gains and fades to make this audio louder in some parts which I really don't like as these snippets of sound
burst through the audio and it is very jarring.
• Using audition, I put in an echo sound effect that really made the narrators voice sound like it was bouncing off walls. I adgust the
delay of the voice and wetness and dryness to make the effect sound more realistic.
• I turned the music in the piece really low down for a lot of piece so you can barely hear it, even if you listened hard. This is a con.
But the audio gain for the music to get louder half was through was a nice transition.
• The keys jangling and the girl laughing I did by making a space for silence in the narrators audio and then pulling the extra sounds
into sperate tracks where the bank space is.

Aural Qualities
• The narrators voice was very clear. He spoke in a low and theatrical way that came out very crisp and audible. He made a few
slips up, but my editing skills made them unnoticeable. To make the volume of his voice even, I played with the volume mixxer
so that all different clips of audio for the narration sounded the same. I added on an echo sound effect which made it sound
like he was in a damp alley and added and element of spookiness to the reading, but his voice was still very clear and
understandable through the echo's.
• I really like how the thunder and rainstorm sounded in the background of my piece. It blended in well and really helped create
some form of ambience with the piece. However, at some points within this audio I wanted it to suddenly break through the
audio, but it ended up sounding jarring and really out of place which I really don't like.
• You can barely notice the music playing in the background for much of piece, which isn’t what I wanted. I wanted the audience
to barely hear it but still be able to notice that it's there to create ambience. However, the transaction gain I put on the music
so it does eventually get louder where I wanted it too was very effective and sounded really nice.
• The giggling of the girl and the jangling of the keys is very clear and fits well with the piece, although they do sound a little bit
clouded by the narrators voice and you'd have to really listen to dissect what is going on.

Audience Appeal
• My target audience of female will enjoy my story because stereotypically, woman are lot more emotionally driven and can share
a lot of empathy for people. My story is very detailed and emotive, and use a lot of descriptive words like 'tragic' and 'raw' that I
believe will really make my female audience care about what is happening. This also applies to people who fall under the
socially conscious type A people who will be able to be very sympathetic and compassionate towards the character in my story
and will be affected by her terrible demise. Also, because the story is set in York and is very local, people of Yorkshire will be able
to visualize the story a lot better, adding to the immersion.
• The rain and thunderstorm sound effects will really add immersion to my story, pulling my audience into this wet and gloomy
night. Because thunder and rain evokes the though of sadness and melancholy, it will direct the audience on how to feel whilst
listening to the product and really be able to visualize the scene.
• The music I chose for the background is mainly the sounds of a violin, which is able to connote thoughts of sadness and tragedy
– this will further add to the immersion for the audience and be able to suck them into the story.

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Editor's Notes