My Reflections

This will be where you will see all my reflections from the weeks that I have been doing this project, starting at the most recent and working backwards. I have tried to only write a paragraph about each one but the last few weeks have been busier and therefore require more reflection.

General Project Reflections

I think that this project on the whole has gone well although we as a group have had our ups and downs. We have a produces a project that is to a high standard and that we are all happy with.

I think that this project has boughtto light the fact that you should not work with friends. I should have learnt this in ymsecond year but I choose to do it and have paid for it with the loss of some of my friends. I have also found it hard to work with them and I have found it easy to emphasise there bad points instead of focusing on there good points. I have had many bad moments as well as some good ones. I think that this module has built up my charecter and made me a stronger person becuase of the stress and strains I have had to put up with. I have been able to develop my skills in the radio studio and also have devloped my sound recording skills.

I have put a lot of hard work and effort into this project and I think that can be shown through my workbook and through my blog. We have spent 14 weeks developing this show into what it is today and I think we are all very happy and very proud of the outcome. I think we have all worked really hard to achieve the final project and that we should all have an equal amount of the credit for it.

Blog reflection

I have often found it hard to keep up to date with my week to week blog and sometimes found it really hard to cope with the amount of work I have to do and putting it all up onto the website and into my workbook. I have also put some comments about my blog into my workbook so that people have a better understanding of the things that I have used in my blog. I think that without looking at both one would not make much sense without the other.

I have found my blog a useful tool for monitoring my own personal development. Keeping a week by week diary has helped me see how my ideas and ideals have changed and developed over weeks and months. I can see how I have grown and changed over this time. I have watched the people around me change to and I think that a week by week blog is a good way of watching how the other people grow and how they help me grow to. I have changed a lot of my ideas about what I want from the future during this project and I think that doing this project and this blog has helped me grow and change what I want into something more.

Doing this blog also shows how the show has developed over time and I think that my workbook also shows this. It shoes how my research and inspiration affected the sections that I wrote. I think this blog also shows how the show came about and what my inspriation behind the idea was. I am very much the ideas person in all this. I come up with the ideas and we all worked together to produce them and make them the right project.

Group Reflections

I think that it has been very hard working in a group with two girls that I had as my friends. I have found it particularly hard over the last few weeks of working with them.

Louise-I think that Louise has been the hardest person to work out of bothof them. At the beginning of the project both her and Lisa-marie delegated me as leader. My leadership skills are not the best and I never wanted to be leader in the first place really. However when it came round to giving out roles Louise was often bossy and overpowering. I found her a hard person to lead. She does not really have the ability to let others lead. She always wants to be in charge and she is very controlling.  I also think that Louise standards are a lot higher then mine. Where as she can produce work that is already of a high standard I have to work hard to produce work of the same standard. This makes her think that I don’t work because my work is not at the same standard as hers where as I usually work twice as hard but do not achieve the same results. I also think that Louise makes out that she is doing more work then us however I disagree I think that we have all done a great deal of work when it comes to this project.

I would also say that it often came across in meetings with tutors that Louise did more work then us. I do not think that this is true and I feel like I have also put a great amount of work in to this project to and I feel let down by her and the fact that she is making out that she did all the work. I have developed stories and poems and other things. And I feel like she is making out that she did all of our work. My spelling and speaking grammar are not the best either and I felt criticised by her all the time. I felt that she took over the project and dominated the whole thing. Louise does not really have the ability to work in a group. Because everyone works to a lower standard then her she immediately presumes that they are not as good. She doesn’t really give people the chance to show what they can do, so instead of offering constructive criticism she would just change it herself which is not the way a team works. She doesn’t offer feedback she will just says “I’ll do it myself.”

The show has been a better quality because of Louise but I think that her bad points out weighed her good points towards the end of the project. I have found it increasingly difficult to work with her towards the end of the project and I have got to the point where I have just let her get on with it. I can’t win arguments with her. She is always criticising other people but very unwilling to accept criticism herself. This is most of the reasons I found her hard to lead. She often insulted the parts of the project that were supposed to be my parts and started to take over the things that I was supposed to do. She criticised me sound recording, I have done sound recording before and I have done it to a really high quality, but because when I am doing it , it is something she cannot control she took over this part to. I felt pushed out of my own project. When I confronted her about this she immediately became aggressive towards me and then when I asked her to apologise for it she would not.

Lisa-marie- I found Lisa-marierelatively easy to work with, we both have the same working standard and therefore we encourage each other and have the ability to work well together. I think I would have enjoyed working on the project more if it had just been myself and Lisa-marie it may not have been to the standard but I think I would have got more out of it and in some ways  I think this would have been better and made the project better.  Mine and Lisa-maries standards our quite similar and instead of putting me down like Louise does she encourages me by giving my constructive feedback instead of just criticising.

14/05/09

This week has gone really well for myself individually and the group as a whole. We had our final radio studio session this week and although it has been a bit of a rush to edit the final piece togther we have now completed it and made the levels even. I have also manage to complete a large amount of work on my blog and in my workbook. I have managed to keep it up to date and ready for the hand in tomorrow. I have learned a lot from the experiance like making sure that you work with people that share the same or have similar skills levels as you.

Overall i think this project has gone really well, it has been hard work and at points very stressful but I have completed the task set before me with the confidence that we have found a gap in the market. I found this final week really stressful trying to get all the paperwork completed and getting everything ready for hand in. I think we have all worked really hard on this project and I think that really shows through in the studio and in my blog and on wordpress.

08/05/09
This week has been really busy we have tried to record almost all of the show. We then sent it to Karen and played it to Philip Draycott today. We have had feedback from them and overall the show is good. We have a lot of changes to make when it comes to the levels of the piece. We also need to edit some of the paces of the bits. We were told that the first 30 seconds of the project are the most important. Our first 30 seconds are not quite up to scratch yet and I think that it is possible then enthusiasm in all of our voices that makes it harder to concentrate on. It was very useful to have this feedback as now we know what needs to be improved. Without this we would have thought that the programme was finished. A lot of hard work lies ahead of us.

We also recorded at our 4thand final school this week. Having gone into the school the day before we knew the children we were getting and found that this was very useful because the children were more likely to engage with us. Lisa-Marie did a very good job of keeping the children engaged and happy throughout the 45 mins that we had each set of children. I however found getting the sound was increasingly difficult as I felt there was a crackle on the line. Having lost everything that we did in the week before at SPS we learnt to make sure that we recorded everything on 2 marantz so if something didn’t turn out right on one we always had the other one. We also had trouble recording little Miss Muffet the nursery rhyme, we wanted to put it in so that the kids were singing something. However none of them really knew the words to it and the children that we had weren’t really confident enough to be able to sing it so we decided to swap Little Miss Muffet with Incy Wincy spider. This decision was made at the last minute by all three of us.

We also recorded the news this week. It was my job to right the news. (For more information on the news I wrote go to http://beckymerriman.wordpress.com/news/) I research the main headlines from the BBC website and adapted them so that they were easier for the news reader to say. I then had Louise lookthrough them as I am not very good with my grammer and she pointed out that they were not very easy to read out loud. We changed them so that they made sense and then had a friend of mine who volunteers at source radio (the university radio station) to come in and read the headlines, travel and weather for us. After the feed back we had from Karen we had to reduce these to just the headlines.

01/05/09
This week we went to SPSatthe beginning of the week to record some more of the kid’s interactive part in the show. After all that happened last week we forgot to pick up the equipment before we went and so we had to get it early on the Monday morning which made us a little late. We set up and spent about an hour with the children at SPS. We recorded them outside doing a bug hunt and looking for bugs. This was an interesting experience for us as we have not recorded anything outside for this project yet. We had to factor in the wind and all the things that the children were saying. Unfortunately it was raining which meant that there weren’t a lot of bugs about. Fortunately we had prepared a story for them to record instead.

We had a problem with the marantz thought after we had recorded all that we had done in the school. We found that the memory disk was corrupted and we lost all the things that we had recorded inside. Fortunately we had enough of the things that we recorded outside to make the whole out and abug piece. This piece works really well despite the fact that it was raining and the kids really enjoyed being outside looking for bugs.

We also had Leo come in this week and record are Michael the moth story which we re wrote on Saturday together so that it was changed and we all agreed that it was good enough to send to him. He came in and recorded Michael for us. This worked out really well and is one of my favourite parts of the show. (For more information on Michael the Moth birthday Story go here: http://beckymerriman.wordpress.com/story-development/)

We also begun to think about the degree show this week and to think about what it is like and what we would like to put in it. This involved designing boards and each of us designing something and seeing which on we like best. We decided to combined two ideas of having boards with graphics on and text, so that some are read down and some are read across.

24/04/09
I and Louise have crossed swords twice this week. I think the stress is finally getting to us. On Tuesday I asked her not to do something that I was supposed to be doing as I feel a bit like she is pushing me out of my own project. Tuesday this week she asked a friend if she could do the graphics for us which is fair enough as none of us are graphic designers. But she went ahead and made some of her own graphics to send to her friend without consulting me. It was my job to do the graphics but when I brought it up with her she over reacted and has been really negative with me all week. We then clashed again today when I said that I wanted to record the whole show before the degree show and she said that might not have been possible. I now accept that, that might not be possible and I understand where she was coming from now but at the time I got a bit cross and over reacted a bit. The whole week seems to have been over shadowed by arguments and fights I think we have all found it really hard to work together this week. We have had a bit of studio time and I have really enjoyed that but I think this is the hardest week we have had so far.

17/04/09
We had our first studio session since getting back this week. We recorded some of the things that we need for the final hand in today but most of it was just spent rehearsing. I also wrote the colours game this week so that it is ready to be recorded next week. We spent the time in the studio rehearsing ready for the time when we actually record the show.

We had our interim crit this week and we got really good feedback from the crit. Most people really liked our idea and thought that it was really original. We got a lot of really good feedback. We also had lots of feedback that was helpful in developing our show further. (For more on the interim crit feedback click here: http://http://beckymerriman.wordpress.com/my-reflections/crit-feedback/)

03/04/09, 10/04/09
I have combined these 2 dates because although my research is ongoing throughout the Easter holidays I have limited group work to comment on. I wrote the script for the numbers game this week. I found that the numbers game was easy to write as we had already discussed what they were going to count. However it got really repetitive and although though kids like this I found it hard to write after getting to about number 5. I think that the kids will really enjoy this game and hope that they like it because it has taken me a while to write. I wrote the game because after discussing me not really feeling like I had anything to do they told me I could write both the counting game and the colours game. I did however try to get some feedback from the girls after I had written the script for the numbers game. But they both agreed that it was good and it could go into the script as it was. Obviously when we went through it properly there were things that needed to be added and taken away so that it suited everyone’s taste and so that everybody felt comfortable saying it.

27/03/09
This week we went to PRHprimaryschool to record some of the sounds for the programme, I think that this session with the kids went really well. We recorded a lot of the sounds but after we recorded them we found that they had a crackle on the wire and a fuzzy noise throughout the recording and a lot of it didn’t come out clearly. This was a good learning experience for us. We put the mic in a mic stand and let the kids move it around which didn’t work at all because a lot of the noise in the recording came from moving the mic around and letting the kids touch it. The headphones broke halfway through the section, I tried to rectify the situation but they could not be fixed. I then informed Louise that they could not be fixed. This was only the second school we have organised to go to so we still have a lot of time to correct the mistakes we made on this section.

We also spent half a day this week deciding what to add to the running order to make up the time we still had left. We added 2 games and a few more songs. I choose to write up both the colours game and the numbers game. I found it really easy to do because all it required was being repeatative. We decided what they were going to count before I wrote the game and we did this together and then I just wrote it into a script format. This is why these are written in rough in the back of my workbook.

20/03/09
This week we had are first studio session. We were supposed to have it last week but the radio studio sessions got confused so we had to come back and book another session this week. Paul Adkins taught us how to use the radio studio in the proper way and also how to use some of the features on Adobe Audition. I learnt about how to use the decks so that when it came to recording the programme I could get the levels right. I also learnt how to switch microphones so that you could play all for microphones from the desk.

This for me is I really come into my element when I m in the studio. I really enjoy controlling the decks and being able to do something. I really feel this is where my talent lies. I also enjoy being on the radio as shown by my project that I did last year for my broadcast module I love being on the radio and I think this is something that I would really like to do in the future. I however am still learning when it comes to being in the radio studio and therefore some of the levels on the first recording we did were a bit off.

13/03/09
This week we went to MM in Hemel Hempstead this was the first school that we went to and we learnt a lot from the experience. We went into the school to record some nursery rhymes and some sounds for the show. I really enjoyed going to MM for the day. We got them to sing songs and do some shouting for the shows. Unfortunately they were supposed to sing Little Miss Muffetandthere teachers were supposed to teach it to them. But they had only sung it once we arrived and hardly knew it at all. We had to come up with a contingency plan at this point and so we got them to sing incy winch spider instead. This was a good learning experience for us as it meant that we had to think on our feet when things went wrong. We learnt also that we can’t always trust people and that we always need a backup plan if things go wrong.

We were supposed to have a training session in the studio this week unfortunately however we got to the studio and there was already someone in there. They have double booked the studio and we could not have our radio studio session this week. This meant that we were put behind a week on the recording and practising getting ready to record.

06/03/09
On Monday this week I found a really good article from the Guardian Website. A man writes about his daughter who is 8 listening to radio on the way to school. This is ideal for what were looking at doing. It proves that there is an audience for our product. I found this article truly inspiring and I really think that this is where our market lies. Whether we broadcast live or on the podcast has yet to be established but I think that this article is a big step towards proving that our potential audience is there.

I looked at children’s websites this week to get an idea of what sort of thing children like on there websites. I have discovered that they must be very interactive and playful. I also found that most of the shows have 2 websites. The shows that are shown on the BBC have a BBC website as well as there own website. I think that this is interesting and could be useful should we ever sell our idea that we keep our own website.

27/02/09
I spent this week looking at how radio works. I did not know how before this so it was really interesting for me. I found out about how radio works by turning sound waves into electrical signals then broadcasting them and your radio turning them back into sound waves. I found out why radio mast are so tall and why they have to be so powerful to broadcast radio over a long distance. I have drawn a diagram in my workbook to show people how it works. I really enjoyed finding out about how radio worked and this was new information for me to learn so it contributed to my personal growth. I have learnt a lot of things that I didn’t know this week and I think that this is one of them. I deliberately set out to find out how radio works because when we go into schools we need to be able to teach the Kids how it works. This week after our first group meeting with Lisa-Marie we discussed what everyone was going to do that week. She joined because her project was too hard and she felt like she could not complete it successfully to a professional standard.

20/02/09
I was designated the producer type jobs to do like the paper work. So I did the treatment which can be seen here: http://http://beckymerriman.wordpress.com/paperwork/I also wrote up the interim critfeedbackfrom the week before. I also research how radio begun this week which can be seen in my workbook. I did this so that I could have a better understanding of what radio was about and how it begun. I think that this will get us more marks in the long run because we will have a better understanding of how radio works. This will make our project on the whole a better project because it will be geared towards people that listen to radio and will hopefully get a younger audience into radio.

13/02/09
I worked on the first logo design this week which can be seen in my workbook. The idea behind it is that it is colour and it is playful so that it attracts the children to the show, because they know by just looking at the logo that it is going to be fun and up beat. We had to present our idea this week for the first time as well. We worked to try and get something together so that we could show them what we wanted to do. The feedback from the first critcan be seen here withmycomments underneath.

I also made a list of all the things that I still needed to research so that I could more clearly see what I still have to do the list is below:

Still to research:
• Podcasting
• Kids Radio
o Bedtime stories
• Radio 4
o The archers
o Desert Island disks
o Popular radio formats
• Radio 7
o Digital Radio
• Why didn’t the video kill the radio star?
• Combining radio formats
• The schools- Basic info
• Hoodies- Prices and printing

06/02/09
We wrote our proposal for our kid’s radio show this week and what we want out of it. The full proposal can be seen in my workbook. I think that this week has been the real start of mine and Louise project together. I really wanted to do a radio project and Louise said that it would really be the only thing practically that she would like to do. I thought about doing my other project on the side but I think that the radio project will be enough to keep me going for now. I think that if we can develop this project a bit further it will be a really good project. The proposal that we have obviously at this stage is subject to change as the show develops and grows into a better show. It will also change as our understanding of radio and of children begin to grow and to change.

We started to look at our new project this week. We brainstormed some ideas of what we could put in it and how we would make a radio show appeal to children who are not a normal audience for radio. We have chosen to do my idea from the week before which was to make a radio show for children during there drive to school. We began to get together some potential sources for the radio show including schools. We also began to think about what we could do during the hour radio show.

30/01/09
This week we both came up with our own ideas and presented them to Karen. My idea was to have a radio show between the hours of 8 and 9 in the morning while kids are on there way to school. I really like this idea and Karen seemed to, to. The idea is that adults who listen to radio on the way to work and drop there children off on the way can let there children listen to something as well as getting what they want out of it. It will have adult news and weather in it to so that adults on there way to work can get what they want out of it too. I liked Louise idea to which was to do something that Kids can listen to when they go to bed to comfort them if they are having a bad dream or something like that. We need to decide which one we want to do so that we can begin to work on it next week. The full show idea that I came up withcanbefound at the beginning of my workbook.

23/01/09
Karen convinced me and Louise to do a radio show at the end of this week. I was really excited about doing my project but I don’t really see how I could do it by myself and no-one is really willing to give up there idea to help with someone else’s. I think that a radio project will be really different and get us recognised because it is different. It also means that we can present it differently to the others so we don’t have to have specific screenings at the degree show which will be to our addvantage. I am a bit sad about the loss of my project but I think maybe I could do it along side the radio project just so that I have some more work to show. I brainstormed all the things I could think of to do withradioatthis point. The full brainstorm can be seen in my workbook. We’re not sure what kind of radio show we are going to do yet so everything I could think of counts.

16/01/09
This is the first week of my weekly blog. This week I have been writing the proposal for my final project. I have pitched it today. I went into uni today with my pitch ready only to find out that I had not filled out the right pitch form. I think my pitch went ok but there were a lot of unanswered questions as to how I am going to make my project work. I really wanted to get my project across well but I am not very good at doing presentations by myself. I think that this reflected badly on me and I will have to work on my presentation skills for the future. I think that the feedback I got was useful and will help me in the future to develop my project further. I am a bit disheartened that I have not found anyone to help me on my project yet as I feel as though I cannot and do not really want to do it alone.