Tag: writing

Freelance Journey

How to Become a Freelancer – July Update

Christy.E.SLeave a comment

Intro:
Now I am back at work full-time, I am having to plan my editing time for The Legend of Aramelle, more closely. I am still on track, though, with episode eight due to go up this Saturday (12th July). It can be listened to here on WordPress, on Apple podcasts, Spotify or Pocketcasts.

I have been applying to sound-recording jobs (and a few assistant director or producer jobs) on Mandy and Backstage, which has led to a few interviews, but no paid work, just yet. However, I am keeping track of how many interviews I’m getting and it’s over half of what I’ve applied for!

So on to the update!

Scripts Update:
Am still waiting for the release date of the Bafta competition this year, as I will be submitting my Troy script into it. I am also nearly finished with my script for the BBC writersroom this year (will be nice to finish with plenty of time to edit). It’s my puritan witches script and I’m going to ask my writing group to give me notes in the next week or so.

Am in the process of editing the films from the film course. I may not finish all of them before the graduation, but should have a fair few edited and ready to be shown.

Things Learnt:
Am getting better with writing succinct cover letters when applying to jobs. Have found the best way for me to write them is to write them in a Notes app and then add them to my application. I tend to follow the formula of mentioning things they have mentioned in the application and then adding my own skills where appropriate. It may not sound like much, but as someone who used to not add cover letters at all until I was about 28 (when I was a manager and realised I wasn’t impressed when people didn’t send cover letters to me), it has changed how I apply to jobs!

Sound Effect Listings

The Legend of Aramelle Episode 7 – Sound Effects

Christy.E.S1 Comment

As someone interested in sound recording in general, I thought it would be a good idea to combine the credits I have to include for the sound effects in each episode with information of why I chose them, plus how I edited them.

Here is the full list of sound effects including where I got them from, plus what the original script called for.

Cast for:
Bird Squawks – Captain Liam answering Aramelle’s questions.

Prosound for:
Waves, ship creaking – ship – Thames Sailing Barge, Atmosphere Below Deck Under Sail, With Creaking Wood. (Recorded On Board S.B. Pudge.) (Bought) – This sound has really paid for itself at this point!

Adobe Sound Effects for:
Weapon Broad Sword Hit Metal Tink – Aramelle catches sword – A surprisingly difficult sound to find someone catching a sword, so this was the closest!
Foley Footsteps Cowboy Boots Walk By – Clive leaves – Strangely only the cowboy boots sounded like normal shoes…
Household Wood Old Wood Door Close – Door closes – Wanted a sound that could be heard over the market atmosphere as it would srtop abruptly when the door was closed.
Foley Coin Remove Coins From Pocket – Aramelle takes coins out her pocket
Foley Coins Moving in Hand – Aramelle hands coins to the potion man
Weapon Sword Remove From Sheath – Orson removes sword from sheath – same as previous episodes and reversed for him putting it back away.

Mixed Sound Effects:
Adobe: Foley Footstep Hard Sole Run on Wood mixed with Weapon Sword hits Sword – Clive runs at Aramelle – and again the second time. I’m only disappointed that I didn’t think to record Clive screaming as he ran, so he attacks silently.
Adobe: Weapon Broad Sword Slide off Sword mixed with Cast: C falls over – Aramelle knocks Clive over.

BBC Sound Effects:
1. Foreign Atmospheres – Covent Garden Market, horses & carts: Horses, villagers, market traders. (Bought) Same as in episode one.

Freesound for:
Cauldron bubbling – Water Bubbling – Same as at The Witch Princess’s castle but without the stirring spoon this time as it was a bit too distracting for the atmosphere of a tiny shop. water bubbling by ultraaxvii — https://freesound.org/s/591151/ — License: Creative Commons 0

The Legend of Aramelle – Episode 4
The Legend of Aramelle

The Legend of Aramelle – Episode 4

Christy.E.SLeave a comment

In this episode:
George Coyne played Orson
Georgia Faye played Persephone
Liam Harkins played Barry, Guard and Giant Gunther
Tayla Kenyon played The Witch Princess, King Gideon and Clive
Mariana Sa Sousa played Aramelle
Am Stubberfield played Various Crew Members and Birds

Social Media:
Show email: thelegendofaramellecasting@gmail.com
Writer: Christy Sago: Bluesky: @christywrites.bsky.social
Producer: Kate Delong: Instagram: @kate.delong.creates
George Coyne: Instagram: @jorge_pereira8890
Tayla Kenyon: Twitter: @taylakenyon
Liam Harkins: Instagram: @liammharkins
Mariana Sa Sousa: Instagram: @marianasasousa123
Am Stubberfield: Instagram: @brumble_hag
Composer: Jean Loup-Pinson: Instagram: @jlpinsonmusic

Sound effects:
Jean Loup-Pinson composed the theme music, scene change music, Giant Country theme and Persephone’s theme.
His website is: www.jeanlouppinson.com/
Sound effects for this episode are from BBC Sound Effects Library, Adobe Sound Effects, Freesound.org, Pro Sound Effects and the cast themselves.
Full credits for the sound effects as well as more information on the writing, recording and editing of this episode can be found here.

If you failed to take my advice on covering the ears of any suits of armour in your household last episode, please be advised that wool of bat will be required to stop them now.* Wool of Bat is dangerous when being harvested from the bat itself.

Thank you for listening!

Sound Effect Listings

Legend of Aramelle – Episode 4 Sound Effects

Christy.E.S5 Comments

As someone interested in sound recording in general, I thought it would be a good idea to combine the credits I have to include for the sound effects in each episode with information of why I chose them, plus how I edited them.

Here is the full list of sound effects including where I got them from, plus what the original script called for.

This is the first episode we recorded on the day and does have a few mistakes that we learnt from in other episodes – most notable that you can hear the pages of the script being turned in a few places.
I’ve edited them out where I can and the ones rthat are left, I’m hoping sound mostly like the background noise and are therefore only noticeable to me!

The cast for:
The three of them run out into the corridor, close the door behind them, birds can still be heard through the door. – Ep.4 corridor running, panting, door slam
The sound of birds gets quieter – Not technically a sound effect as I just changed the volume level and then upped it again once the Witch Princess opened the door.
Shouts of crew and the remaining real birds.- Crew background
Witch Princess claps her hands twice – 3,4,5 WP hand clap
Witch Princess claps hands twice one more time.– 3,4,5 WP hand clap
Orson gets down on the floor.– Ep.4 Orson
Captain squawks – Squawk
He hops about on one foot. We can hear his footsteps – Barry foot
Orson is fighting armour to try and get a sword – all done by George Coyne, I didn’t need to add anything.

Mixed Sound Effects:
Glass smashes, Birds fly in – Glass break, Impact glass – a repeat of the sound from the end of the last episode.
Witch Princess claps hands twice. clanking continues – 3,4,5 WP hand clap and Foley Feet Soldiers March from Pro Sound.
Witch Princess tries again. clanking continues – 3,4,5 WP hand clap and Foley Feet Soldiers March from Pro Sound.
Witch Princess claps hands twice. Armour stops – 3,4,5 WP hand clap and Foley Feet Soldiers March from Pro Sound.
Sword hitting stone, armour turning and striking again, Suits of armour turning, Sword hitting stone, turning of armour – Foley Feet Soldiers March from Pro Sound. mixed with Weapon Sword Scrape on Stone from Adobe, Weapon Sword Remove from Sheath, Weapon Broad Sword Hit Stone and Weapon Sword Hit Concrete – This used a bunch of sounds from Adobe and Pro Sound plasced together and repeated over and over. It is meant to sound like the armour is walking round attacking and occasionally hitting the stone walls of the castle, as the main characters duck out of the way. I can hear that because of how many times I’ve listened to this while editing. Please do let me know if you can understand what’s happening in this scene too!

BBC sound effects for:
They open the door. – Doors: Prison: Cell – Prison Door: Cell, opened and shut. (Bought) – Same sound from previous episode for the locking of the cell door. Split in half so the door is slammed shut at the moment that the bird sounds stop – Used again for Guard enters near the end of the episode once the Witch Princess finally gets the wool of bat and for Walks out of vault as they all rejoin the crew back in the main chamber.
Waves, ship creaking – ship – Thames Sailing Barge, Atmosphere Below Deck Under Sail, With Creaking Wood. (Recorded On Board S.B. Pudge.) (Bought) – That good old Thames Barge returns!
Ship runs aground – Grating Noise, As Of Boat Running Aground. (Specially Created Electronic Sound.) – BBC Historical – (Bought)

Adobe Sound Effects for:
Witch Princess pulls curtain aside – Foley Cloth Hit and Short Rustle Cloth – Surprisingly couldn’t find what I actually wanted which was the sound of a small curtain being opened like you might get at a museum – they were all big theatre curtains that squeaked and didn ‘t sound right at all
Unroll paper and reverse – Foley Paper Unroll – Persephone unrolls her letter and then I reversed the sound once she’s finished.
Orson hits sword at armour – Weapon Broad Sword Hit Stone – the same as the rest of the loop just turned the volume up high for peril.
Giant footsteps approach –Foley Footstep Cowboy Dirt Debris Walking – Originally had this done by the cast, but it didn’t sound like it was outside so I used this instead, put onto a echo track to make the footsteps seem bigger.

Pro Sound for:
Witch Princess picks up jewel + Witch Princess throws jewel to Aramelle who catches it. – Coin Flip and Catch, Ringing Spin, Slappy Impact on Hand – Originally didn’t have this in, but the Witch Princess’s “Catch it” gets swallowed a bit b hy the sound of the armor approaching and I wanted it to be clear Aramelle ended up with the jewel. Also gives a good gleam noise at the beginning that allows us to ‘see’ the jewel when it’s first picked up.
Suits of armour footsteps getting louder and closer + Clanking gets louder then stops – Foley Feet Soldiers March from Pro Sound.
Birds and clanking of armour in distance – Foley Feet Soldiers March from Pro Sound. Originally I had it so there were still birds in the background, but that led to too much going on in the scene, so now the squawking stops once the vault door closes. I purposefully set this so that it starts just after the Witch Princess says “You probably don’t have this though,” as it sounds a bit like a drum beat and it’s only clear that the characters can hear it when Orson asks. I then increased the sound higher until the armour stops and begins to attack.
Witch Princess rips page out of book – textbook rip page – If I had the dexterity I may well have recorded this one myself but couldn’ty quite manage it as I am still doing physiotherapy after my injury in January, so this did great instead!

Free Sound for:
Last few birds squawking, crew loosing them out the windows – water bubbling by ultraaxvii — https://freesound.org/s/591151/ — License: Creative Commons 0 – Decided to switch back to the cauldron to clarify that all the magic birds have now gone away and that everything had returned to how it should be.

Music:
Persephone arrives – Persephone’s Theme – asked Jean to make this sound similar to Grim’s theme as Persephone is there to do the same job, but lighter and different enough that it will be obvious from the sound that this isn’t Grim
Giant Country – Originally Giant Country was going to be Grassland sounds and gigantic animals in the distance, but this theme works so well at telling us where we are that it was all I needed in the end.
Aramelle’s Castle – The music from Episode one makes a reappearance to tell us we’ve gone back to Aramelle’s lands where her father is.
The Village Stem – Krumhorn– and this returns us back to the action performing the same function as it did in episode 3 to switch between plots happening simultaneously.

Freelance Journey

How To Become a Freelancer – May Update

Christy.E.SLeave a comment

Intro:
Am finally back at my day job! (Albeit part-time for now) and not having to keep such a close eye on my finances is reminding me to look up the BAFTA Rocliffe competition for this year. The dates haven’t been published yet, but this year is the turn of Pilot scripts.

A reminder that The Legend of Aramelle is now live! With three episodes up currently and the next due on 17th May. It can be listened to here on WordPress, on Apple podcasts, Spotify or Pocketcasts.

So on to the update!

Scripts Update:
Most of this past month has been focused on getting the first episode of The Legend of Aramelle ready.
Submitted Troy into Oxford 42 and my time-travel script went into Scribe Lounge Elevate .

Am organising pre-production for my short film script – Somewhere Below – for the final term of my film course. Most paperwork is sorted, however I need to re-contact the hotel I hope to film at, as I haven’t heard back from them in the last three weeks.

Put in two short film scripts – Billy Frankenstein and The Master’s Boots to the Large Format Films competition.
Am very excited for this competition as got good feedback on The Master’s Boots. It’s partially based on a story I recently learned about my great-grandmother (She was as stubborn as me apparently), so it would be lovely to get to make that story.

Things Learnt:
Have been sleeping early due to being back at work (my current bedtime is 8pm). However I have been doing modules on the Screenskills website working through various lessons on how sets are run.

Sound Effect Listings

The Legend of Aramelle – Episode Three Sound Effects

Christy.E.S1 Comment

As someone interested in sound recording in general, I thought it would be a good idea to combine the credits I have to include for the sound effects in each episode with information of why I chose them, plus how I edited them.

Here is the full list of sound effects including where I got them from, plus what the original script called for.

This is the first of four episodes where George Coyne wasn’t present at the recording. Kate stepped in on the day and we recorded George’s lines remotely. This meant I had to include an extra step in the editing to put his lines in place of Kate’s. I think it worked out quite well!

I also had to work out how to do echoes on Garageband for the line that gets repeated by the Witch Princess’s eavesdropping. In order to do this you need to make a new track just for the echo as you can’t do it to one region specifically, but can add the effect to thw whole region.

Mixed sound effects:
Impact glass crash on metal small 01 + Impact glass debris fall to cement 02 (Adobe sound effects) mixed with Glass cracking (Pro sound) – Used this for the breaking glass, it’s not quite perfect as I ideally wanted numerous windows being smashed at once, but combined with the sound of Glass cracking from Pro sound, it gives enough of a sense of how many birds are at the window.
This was always going to be one of the hardest sounds for me to edit in. The cumulation of birds flying into the room, plus glass breaking is a big noise. I left out the flying sounds and went for squawking as it was a bit easier to mix together.
Water dripping in cave (Freesound) mixed with Witch Princess Gamelan Melody Stem -Atmosphere for an ancient dungeon is also surprisingly difficult to find in sound effects. I found this cave effect and mixed with part of the Witch Princess theme from Jean it gives the right atmosphere for the dungeon and won’t be the last time I use this mix in the series!
Wings on glass – Bird feather rustle – crow groom feather with beak pluck mixed with Tapping on Window short bursts then Singles – This was another one that was hard to find. I wanted the rustle of hundreds of wings on glass, but couldn’t quite find it. The tapping works if it’s beaks on the window instead of wings and mixing it with rustling gave the desired effect of there being hundreds of birds outside the window.
I’m not quite sure it works, as it sounds a bit like it’s Orson’s clothes rustling rather than bird feathers, but it works better than the beak tapping worked on it’s own!

The Cast for:
Squawk – Various squawks were recorded for me to use throughout the series whenever Captain Liam needs to speak.
Crew are all birds – Recorded all the cast making bird noises that could be used to show what happened to them under the spell.
This was also tricky to decide how much of this to use. Using it all the time would be too distracting to have in the background, not having it at all wouldn’t work either, so the crew conveniently only squawk when someone pays attention to them!
Orson and Aramelle check if they’re birds – Ep3 – O and A pat down
Fortune teller pulls Aramelle’s hands through the bars – Ep3 Fortune and A Hands – If I had a bigger budget I would have found a eay to record the sound of metal bars, but this works jsut as well.
Aramelle pulls hands back – Ep3 A hands back


BBC sound effects used:
ship – Thames Sailing Barge, Atmosphere Below Deck Under Sail, With Creaking Wood. (Recorded On Board S.B. Pudge.) (Bought) – This is the same sound i used in the previous episode – now just being a good indicator of when the scene is on board ship versus land.
Door opens, closes – Doors: Prison: Cell – Prison Door: Cell, opened and shut. (Bought) – Same sound from previous episode for the locking of the cell door. Just minus the lock noise, this time around.
BBC Historical birds flying – Crew fly away – this sound did take quite a bit of searching as most of the sound I could find was for one bird flying rather than multiple, and was going to leave it out completely. Eventually found this on the Pro sound website.


Adobe Sound Effects used:
object on ground – reversed– Hat pick up – used for when Aramelle picks up the Captain’s hat.
multimedia internet cd-rom flash electronic – Spell – this is the same sound from the previous episode for the spell taking effect.


Freesound used:
Water bubbling – Cauldron bubbling – Surprisingly difficult to find. Needed something for the background of the Witch Princess’s room. I do have some music for the Witch Princess from Jean, but went with this for this episode.
water bubbling by ultraaxvii — https://freesound.org/s/591151/ — License: Creative Commons 0
Cauldron stirring itself – Stirring bowl (Link needed) – Needed early on, so Witch Princess can tell cauldron to stop stirring and we can hear it happen. This ensures that we know later on, whern Aramelle reads a spell out that she’s made a spell happen…
stirring bowl.wav by dynamique — https://freesound.org/s/554557/ — License: Creative Commons 0

Pro sound used:
Rifling through bottles – glass jars baby food – This is the sound for when the Witch Princess is looking for wool of bat. Most sounds found were for one bottle at a time which didn’t work, hence the baby food jars.
Footsteps clanking – Armour footsteps 2 – Tried a few different versions of this before settling on this one. Most of the ones I rejected sounded like soldiers rather than suits of armour, so I needed to search for the sound of metal!
Parakeet bird moves around cage chirps – Captain hops onto Orson’s shoulder – Again I nearly left this out, for not being able to find a sound that worked. It was slightly difficult to visualise what was happening in the scene without it though, so glad I found it!

Music:
There’s quite a lot of back and forth in this episode as Orson and Aramelle aren’t together for a large chunk of it, so the scenes flit between them. Decided early on that the best way to signify the action going to another character was with the Krumhorn Stem from The Village music in episode one. The only time I don’t use this to change the scene is the first time we go to the Witch Princess before Orson and Aramelle are separated.

The Legend of Aramelle – Episode Three
The Legend of Aramelle

The Legend of Aramelle – Episode Three

Christy.E.SLeave a comment

Deep in the Witch Princess’s lands, sailing through darkness…

In this episode:
George Coyne played Orson
Georgia Faye played Persephone
Liam Harkins played Liam, Guard and Fortune Teller 2
Tayla Kenyon played the Witch Princess and Fortune Teller 1
Mariana Sa Sousa played Aramelle
Am Stubberfield played Fortune Teller 3

Social Media:
Show email: thelegendofaramellecasting@gmail.com
Writer: Christy Sago: Bluesky: @christywrites.bsky.social
Producer: Kate Delong: Instagram: @kate.delong.creates
George Coyne: Instagram: @jorge_pereira8890
Tayla Kenyon: Twitter: @taylakenyon
Liam Harkins: Instagram: @liammharkins
Mariana Sa Sousa: Instagram: @marianasasousa123
Am Stubberfield: Instagram: @brumble_hag
Composer: Jean Loup-Pinson: Instagram: @jlpinsonmusic

Sound effects:
Jean Loup-Pinson composed the theme music, scene change music and Grim’s theme.
His website is: www.jeanlouppinson.com/
Sound effects for this episode are from BBC Sound Effects Library, Adobe Sound Effects, Freesound.org, Pro Sound Effects and the cast themselves.
Full credits for the sound effects as well as more information on the writing, recording and editing of this episode can be found here.

Turnatus, Altre, Shunt.* Please be advised to put headphones over the ears of any suits of armour in your household before listening to this episode or episode 4.

Thank you for listening!

Sound Effect Listings

The Legend of Aramelle – Episode Two Sound Effects

Christy.E.S1 Comment

As someone interested in sound recording in general, I thought it would be a good idea to combine the credits I have to include for the sound effects in each episode with information of why I chose them, plus how I edited them.

Here is the full list of sound effects including where I got them from, plus what the original script called for.

This episode is the first time I had to do some mixing, such as mixing the cast with sound effects to get the desired effect.

These are the mixed sound effects:
1. Mix of Adobe and cast: Orson and Aramelle splutter and splash in the river. Liquid water water splash movements 04
The cast did a great job of making it sound like they were splashing around in the river, so I only had to add some splashing movements at the beginnning so it sounds like thy’re getting their bearings after going over the aterfall at the end of the last episode.
2. Mix of Adobe and cast: Aramelle lifts Orson, puts him on driftwood. Liquid water water drip strand up drip 01. Impact metal wood impact short 01. Aramelle heaves.
This one took me a while to think about. Quite simply, how much would water move if time was stopped? I couldn’t work out if it made sense for the impact of Orson’s armour hitting the driftwood would be the only sound, or if the water would drip off him. I went for hearing the water, as it leads well into Grim restarting time when they leave.
3. Mix of Adobe and cast: Orson and Aramelle lurch forward with the boat and hit the cell door. – Ep2 O and A cell door. Foley footstep hard sole dress shoe stumble on wood platform 02
This combined a sound we recorded on the day with some stumbling footsteps. The footsteps aren’t my favourite, but they work for what’s needed.
4. Mix of Adobe and music: Grim Reaper takes soul of captain – weapon broad sword slide off sword 01. Grim Reaper Music
Using Jean’s music for the Grim Reaper and combining it with rhe sound of a sword gives the desired ‘reaping’ effect for soul taking. I did search for ‘scythe sounds’ but couldn’t find any!
Mix of different cast sounds: Liam holds Aramelle over the side of the ship at sword point. – Ep2 A upside down x3. and Aramelle scream from Ep.1. Ep2 O and A cell door.
This one mixes some sounds we recorded on the day – with the upside down noise being the wall of the recording studio being hit, alongside the scream for episode one (I told you it would be back) and the grunt from Orson and Aramelle hitting the cell door reused.
Finally, though it’s not really a sound rather than the absence of sound, I did have Grim Reaper stops time in the script. This reminded me to remove all the sounds of waterfalls and flowing rivers, so Grim and Aramelle can have their conversation without Orson hearing. Once Grim leaves, the sounds restart – loud at first, then going back into the background.

This was also the first time I’ve cut some sound effects. This was mainly due to me realising in the editing that it was possible to follow the story without adding in these sounds and didn’t want to use sounds where they wern’t needed. They were useful to have in the script though, as it allowed the cast to know what was happening next, and allowed me to give myself clear editing points.
I cut:
Pirate ship comes closer – They’ve just said there’s a pirate ship then the captain starts talking to them. If I had better mixing software I might have tried to find a sailing ship noise and alter the volume through the scene – but it works well enough without this.
Aramelle shuffles over to starboard – this was in originally and comes just after Orson’s line of “you should stay to starboard”. I put the shuffles in before realising they were superfluous and it’s easier to imagine that Aramelle just stays where she is.
Ship veers to the side. Orson and Aramelle thrown forward again. – this was a whole part where Orson and Aramelle hit the bars for a second time as the ship veers during the mutiny. I wrote it in because it was going to be the end point of the mutiny. However, it didn’t really serve as showing that in the edit, so I took the section out and just had one last loud gunshot before a period of silence when Aramelle asks “Does that mean the mutiny’s over?”
Aramelle kneels – this is where Aramelle kneels to pledge allegiance. Again I could have added something in here, but it didn’t seem necessary for the audience to hear her kneeling to know that she as.
Aramelle stands back up – as such I didn’t need the noise of her standing back up either.
Liam shakes her hand – this is another one I had in at first, but as no-one says they’re shaking hands it wasn’t obvious what was happening as works just as well without.

Adobe Sound Effects Used:
1. Ambience waterfall exterior 03
2. Liquid water river flowing water 02 – These two sounds are the background sounds in the first scene.
3. Orson falls beneath the water. Aramelle tries to lift him back out of the water. adobe Aramelle drops him again. A Splash. Liquid water water dunk and rise hands in water 02: – This sound works well for cutting so I could use it for Orson falling under the water and then the second half for Aramelle pulling him up.
4. Grim Reaper restarts time. Ambience waterfall exterior 03: Liquid water river flowing water 02 – The sound restarts as soon as Grim leaves.
5. They kick with their legs in the water and swim forward. Liquid water water feet splash in water fast 01: Had to trial a couple of these as some of them were super fast! This one works well in the background though, so you can hear what they’re doing but it doesn’t get louder than the river.
6. Waves in background, seagulls, shouts of a ship’s crew. Ambience ocean shore 01: This one was going to be a mix. We recorded the crew talking in the background, but while editing, I thought the waves and seagulls were enough of an indicator to the scene being in open ocean. I did put the crew sound effect in the outtakes at the end though.
7. A cannonball is aimed at them but misses. Drops in the ocean. Weapon cannon fire 01. Liquid water water dunk and rise hands in water 02: This was one action in the script that needed two sounds in the edit. The cannon fire sound on its own and then the liquid dunk noise from earlier being reused. I did search for a sound that would be like a cannonball being dropped in the ocean all in one sound, but resorted to mixing them.
8. Pirate captain leaves. – Foley footsteps hard sole dress shoe walking on wood platform 01: This sound doesn’t quite work as they’ve just walked to the ship’s prison without us hearing the footsteps (It would have been too much to listen to, what with rhe ship and their conversation). However, this sound was needed so we know the captain has left before Orson starts talking about him. Plus, the captain leaving and going to speak to Liam is the catalyst for the mutiny, so it had to be heard. As a bonus though, the sound that sounds like the captain closing the door at the end of the footsteps was actually just a noise that appeared naturally in the “creaking ship” sound that serves as background noise!
9. Gunshots from deck, sound of fighting on sbip above. – weapon gun pistol 9mm glock single shot interior shooting range short 01: This sound was tricky to work out the levels of. I wanted the first and last ones to be louder than the others, but wanted them all to be different volume levels to give the feel that fighting was breaking out all over the deck.
10. Liam unsheathes his sword. – weapon sword remove from sheathe 01: This is the same sound from episode one.
11. Orson unsheathes his sword. – weapon sword remove from sheathe 01
12. Liam takes Orson’s sword. – weapon sword pick up from ground 01: This one was again tricky to find. Ideally I wanted a sound of a sword being taken out of someone’s hands, but had to settle for the ground.
13. A spell hits the ship. – Multimedia Internet CD-Rom Flash Electronic 01: There were various sounds I went through for the spell sound. I eventually settled on this one because it sounds a bit glittery – and in my opinion there is not much in the world that can’t be improved with glitter.


BBC sound effects were used for:
1. Ship creaking: Thames Sailing Barge, Atmosphere Below Deck Under Sail, With Creaking Wood. (Recorded On Board S.B. Pudge.) (Bought) – This sound works well as a shift between the open ocean with Orson and Aramelle on driftwood to them being below deck.
2. Cell door unlocked. – Doors: Prison: Cell – Prison Door: Cell, opened and shut. (Bought) – This is another sound that will work in a variety of places. I just needed the sound of a lock turning and then a heavy door slam to signifty they were being locked in.
3. Orson and Aramelle are locked in the cell – Doors: Prison: Cell – Prison Door: Cell, opened and shut.
4. Anchor – Boats: Cruisers – Dropping anchor without speech (reprocessed) (Bought) – This sound is used for immediately after the “Land ahoy” line and is the catalyst for Orson and Aramelle hitting their faces on the bars when the ship stops.
* As an extra here – One thing I have learnt during editing this episode and this list is to Rename Downloaded Sound Effects. The sound effects I downloaded just gave me lists of numbers, which works fine for me actually editing, as I only need the sound. However, if I want to find the sound to re-use in another episode or find it online again for any reason. The numbers aren’t helpful. I’ve since renamed them as what the file name is online, and going forward will do it immediately in download!


Free sound was used for:
1. Grim Reaper pulls out ticking clock.
2. Grim Reaper puts ticking clock away.
NistuGgner pocket watch: Both these sounds were the same as in Episode one.
https://freesound.org/s/706551/ — License: Creative Commons 0


The cast for:
1. Aramelle heaves. Aramelle heaves: This was used multiple times in the first scene as Aramelle variously lifts up Orson and drops him again.
2. Liam pulls Aramelle back up. – Ep2 L pulls A up: This is used right at the end as Liam agrees to Aramelle’s conditions. I had to put something in, so it was known that she had in fact been pulled up and not left hanging over the edge of the ship.

Music:
Grim Reaper leaves – Grim Reaper music: This is the music made for the Grim Reaper arriving and leaving.
Aramelle’s castle beginning for scene change music: I put this in at the beginning of this episode to signify time passing and the scene changing. I didn’t need to use it again as the ocean ambience worked well enough. Plus, not as much time passed between Orson and Aramelle climbing aboard the ship as it did when they were swimming out to sea.

How To Become a Freelancer – April Update
Freelance Journey

How To Become a Freelancer – April Update

Christy.E.SLeave a comment
The Legend of Aramelle as it shows up on Spotify
Legend of Aramelle on Spotify

Intro:
Nearly, finally recovered from my burns – with only one factor still preventing me from a return to work.

The Legend of Aramelle is now live! And can be listened to here on WordPress, on Apple podcasts, Spotify or Pocketcasts.

The first episode has turned out well and new episodes will be available every other Saturday for the next few months.
However, I am hoping to re-record the credits as the levels went wrong and they’re barely audible for episode one! I should be able to do it no later than episode four, so it shouldn’t be too much of a problem.

So on to the update!

Scripts Update:
Most of this past month has been focused on getting the first episode of The Legend of Aramelle ready. However, I am nearly ready to submit Troy into Oxford 42, and should be able to do that before the end of this week.

The time-travel script went into Scribe Lounge Elevate and I have made notes for a re-write on my script called Last Witch in Swanage; it’s about witches in Puritan England. Have been having trouble with this script for a while, knowing the story I want to tell, but it not coming out right when written down. Now, I have been inspired by Wednesday on Netflix, (being off work means I am finally making some headway on my watchlist) and have realised that I can tell the story better if I change the tone to a more contemporary one!

I will be making a short film – working title Grand Hotel – for the final term of my film course. I have the Easter break to organise actors, call sheets and production budgets etc. It’s a story inspired by the first line of a Regina Spektor song – also called Grand Hotel – with the first line being “Somewhere below the Grand hotel, there is a tunnel that leads straight to Hell.” There’s still some editing I want to do on the script, but it’s almost there.

Finally, I am trying to work out which of two short film scripts – the first being Billy Frankenstein, also originally written for the film course and the second being my second choice for this final-term film, entitled The Master’s Boots – to submit to the Large Format Films competition. The Master’s Boots was only voted down at the film course for production budget reasons, as it is set in the early 1900s, and needed Edwardian costumes, three locations, a certain number of extras and ideally a plane. However, the Large Format Films first prize is £5000 towards making your film, so I am heavily considering that one instead.

Plus, it has the added benefit of being inspired by something I learnt about my own family this week: That is, that my Great-Grandma had an argument with her mother about whether she was going to work as a servant in a big house nearby, or with her friends at a local factory.

Things Learnt:
Have been trying to get my head around the various different podcast services, so can advertise Legend of Aramelle as much as possible. Lots of the services do have lessons and articles in various topics, that I am slowly working my way through.

Have also learnt a bit more about which type of microphone I want to buy once my savings have recovered from my sick leave. Also, that the levels I might hear in a Mix-Pre3 Sound Mixer don’t necessarily translate easily to Garageband on my laptop!

The Legend Of Aramelle – Episode One
The Legend of Aramelle

The Legend Of Aramelle – Episode One

Christy.E.S7 Comments

Princess Aramelle escapes her father’s castle the day before she is due to be sacrificed…

In this episode:
George Coyne played Orson
Georgia Faye played Narrator/Persephone
Liam Harkins played Barry
Tayla Kenyon played Villager One
Mariana Sa Sousa played Aramelle
Am Stubberfield played Grim Reaper
Everyone played: Villagers chasing and Villagers Jeering.

Social Media:
Show email: thelegendofaramellecasting@gmail.com
Writer: Christy Sago: Bluesky: @christywrites.bsky.social
Producer: Kate Delong: Instagram: @kate.delong.creates
George Coyne: Instagram: @jorge_pereira8890
Tayla Kenyon: Twitter: @taylakenyon
Liam Harkins: Instagram: @liammharkins
Mariana Sa Sousa: Instagram: @marianasasousa123
Am Stubberfield: Instagram: @brumble_hag
Composer: Jean Loup-Pinson: Instagram: @jlpinsonmusic

Sound effects:
Jean Loup-Pinson composed the theme music, scene change music and Grim’s theme.
His website is: www.jeanlouppinson.com/
Sound effects for this episode are from BBC Sound Effects Library, Adobe Sound Effects, Freesound.org and the cast themselves.
Full credits for the sound effects as well as more information on the writing, recording and editing of this episode can be found here.

I cannot guarantee that holding onto the sides of a boat will help you survive falling down a waterfall – Please do not try it.

Thank you for listening!

Sound Effect Listings

Legend Of Aramelle – Episode One Sound Effects

Christy.E.S1 Comment

As someone interested in sound recording in general, I thought it would be a good idea to combine the credits I have to include for the sound effects in each episode with information of why I chose them, plus how I edited them.

Here is the full list of sound effects including where I got them from, plus what the original script called for:

Adobe Sound Effects used:
1. Foley cloth hit and short rustle cloth: Aramelle throws bedsheets out the window.
I combined this with a recording of Mariana shaking a blanket recorded on the day and layered them to make it sound as if they were being thrown out the window and hitting the wall of the castle/ground below.
2. Foley cloth ripping long: Sheets rip and she falls the rest of the way.
This doesn’t sound quite right for what was needed, but it was the closest I could get! I needed the sound of cloth ripping, though ideally it would have been a ‘hevaier’ sound than this as it sounds a bit too clean for an ancient castle – rather like someone is standing by a microphone purposefully ripping cloth (which is, I imagine, exactly how it was recorded).
3. Foley footsteps work boots dirt debris walking: Aramelle starts walking off.
In various different edits of the first episode I added these footsteps in and took them back out quite a lot, while you do get the context that Aramelle is leaving by the words alone, having a sound effect made it slightly more obvious, so it stayed in.
4. Foley footstep human walking through tall grass: Walking through grass.
This sound effect took me a while to find, but it’s perfect for the scene!
5. Ambience nature field windy: Birds, trees rustling.
This doesn’t quite have the birds and trees sound I originally imagined, but it does fit with the waling through grass above.
6. Liquid water river flowing water: Flowing river.
This sound was tricky to edit, as it needed to be loud to begin with, to let you know they’ve reached the river, then drop in volume while all the characters talked THEN become louder again as they reach the waterfall.
Having a sound be loud to begin with and then become background noise only in a scene is common in radio shows – think of it as the audio equivalent of an establishing shot.
7. Liquid water water footsteps walking in water: Grim Reaper walks on water.
This is another one that took a while to find. A lot of the effects were of people swimming (as obviously that’ easier to do than walking on water). There were also some faster ones, but I needed something slower – Death never has to rush.
8. Arrow shot: Arrows flying past them
This is another establishing sound. I layered a bunch of arrow shot noises, one straight after the other and changed the volume level of a few of them, so it would sound as if some were closer to the characters and some were wide of the mark.
You can only hear the arrows straight after Grim’s line of “one of those arrows to finally hit you…” and then they disappear again. If I were to repeat the noise over and over, it would mean there were too many sounds to follow the conversation.
9. Ambience waterfall exterior: Waterfall.
That being said, I did want this scene to be slightly overwhelming in terms of sound – as Aramelle and Orson are running away, all their plans abandoned and just running as fast as they can. This all cimes to a head when they get nearer the waterfall. I slowly increased this noise along with the noise of the river, until it’s as loud as their conversation – then they go over and all that’s heard after their scream is the waterfall.
10. Sword remove from sheath: Orson unsheathes his sword.
This one was realtively easy to put in, but I needed the reverse for him putting his sword away again.
11. Sword remove from sheath (reversed): Orson sheathes his sword.
This is the exact same sound as above, but backwards!
12. Sword remove from sheath: Everyone draws their swords.
And the same for all the guards.
13. Sword remove from sheath (reversed): Guards put swords away again.

BBC sound effects were used for:
1. Foreign Atmospheres – Covent Garden Market, horses & carts: Horses, villagers, market traders. (Bought)
Why the BBC lists Covent Garden Market as foreign atmosphere I don’t know, but this works great for the market. Primarily because it is one of only a few market atmosphere tracks I found that doesn’t have car noises in it and secondly, because there is a man shouting in the background of this track that sounds remarkable like Liam Harkins’ Barry, so it was too good to pass up!
2. Boats: Punting – Punting: Boarding and clambering about: Orson helps Aramelle into the boat and they start to row. (Bought)
This is another one that took a while to find. I only needed a small section of the sound to make it sound as if Orson and Aramelle were climbing into the boat, but searching for ‘rowing, boats etc.’ wasn’t showing up any sounds of boarding – just rowing. Eventually found this by searching specifically for ‘small boats’. If I had had to search for ‘punting’ specifically I’d never have found it. I know the word ‘punting’ but it would have taken me about ten years to think it might give me the sound I was looking for and ‘rowing’ wouldn’t.
3. Boats: Rowing – Rowing Boat, launch, board, ship oars & depart. (Recorded on shore.) (Recorded on board.) (One man rowing.): Rowing sound throughout. (Bought)
As the above sound only gave me boarding a boat, I then had to find another sound for Orson’s rowing throughout the scene. This sound says it has boarding, but it doesn’t work as well as mixing it with the punting sound.

Free sound was used for:
1. NistuGgner pocket watch: Grim Reaper pulls out ticking clock. (multiple)
https://freesound.org/s/706551/ — License: Creative Commons 0
This sound was surprisingly the hardest to find. There are a lot of clock noises out there, most of which either go really fast or really slow. Some are obviously Grandfather clocks. I found multiple recordings of Big Ben and while I did briefly entertain the idea of Grim carrying round an actual clock tower with them, I decided against it in the end. I wanted originally – a pocket watch being taken out of a pocket, flicked open, checked and put back in. However, while I manged to find the sound of a pocket watch being flipped open, it didn’t align at all with this, and this was the best ‘ticking’ I found. I decided to just go with the ticking and hope that it sounded more like Grim checking a wrist watch.

The cast for:
1. Aramelle throwing bedsheets: Aramelle throws bedsheets out the window.
This is what I mixed with the first sound. I needed Mariana to throw a blanket, so it sounded like it was her at the beginning. If it was just the cloth being thrown without any human noise, it wouldn’t have sounded right.
2. Aramelle climbing: Aramelle climbs out window via bedsheets.
Recorded this with Mariana stamping her feet on the floor, while threading the blanket through her hands.
3. Aramelle scream.
This may be used more than once in different episodes! Had to assure Mariana that I re3ally did want her to scream into the microphone, even though I was sat in front of her and wearing headphones.
4. Aramelle falls on Orson: Aramelle falls on top of Orson.
Mixed the scream with this, which is just Mariana hitting the wall of the recording studio with her hand.
5. Aramelle helps Orson stand: Aramelle helps Orson stand back up.
There’s a few different footstep sounds – of people standing up, stumbling, running, that while findable online are a lot quicker to add in, if you make your own!
6. Villagers chasing: They run, guards and villagers chase after.
This and the below sound were some of my favourite to record. We had a great cast, and the shouts of ‘get her’ etc. were all improvised by them.
7. Villagers jeering: Villagers jeering.
Likewise with this one. I especially like the ‘can anybody swim’ line from Liam and Am’s ‘get her’ at the end.
8. Waterfall screams: They go over the waterfall in the boat.
Even though this is in the scene, George and Mariana recorded it separately, so they could count in and make sure they screamed at the same time.

Freelance Journey

How to Become a Freelancer – March Update

Christy.E.SLeave a comment

Intro:
Still recovering from my burns and still off work, meaning my main focus for the next few months is whatever is going to save me the most money, as statutory sick pay is not built for prolonged absences!

However, I am getting there (I now only need one nap a day, as opposed to last month’s three).

The date of The Legend of Aramelle podcast release has been pushed back to 5th April. Partly to allow me to edit them well while still recovering. Also because I have found someone to compose original theme music for the show and wanted to give them enough time to deliver.

So on to the update!

Scripts Update:
The Legend of Aramelle podcast is recorded, sound effects are in place and apart from the music, the first episode is ready for release!

Troy script was entered into the Roadmap competititon, which has altered its closing date to 12th March. Am going to submit Troy into Oxford 42 as well, but have until April to do so.

The next competititon I am entering is my time-travel script which will be entered into Scribe Lounge Elevate by the end of March.

Once I’m recovered fully, I will have to make up some work on my other scripts. However, I don’t have any plans to enter those ones into any competitions for a few months, so am focussing on one script at a time while I’m healing.

Things Learnt:
Am getting better at layering sound in Garageband and the first episode really has a good sense of atmosphere when it’s needed: such as an angry horde of villagers chasing my main character and a river progressively getting louder as they near a waterfall.


Have also learnt the benefit of leaving scripts alone for as long as possible between editing. My usual method of working is to keep going back to a script until I reach a point I’m happy to send it to competitions. However, with my time travel script I hadn’t edited it in about a year and as such have been able to identify many changes to make!


From scenes that last time I edited them seemed like vital parts of the story, that I now realise can be altered or cut completely, to adding in scenes that fit the narrative past the pilot episode has been great. Also, turns out that leaving a script for a long time means I like editing it again, rather than finding it a chore.

Freelance Journey

How To Become a Freelancer – January Update

Christy.E.SLeave a comment

Intro:
In December, I sent out the scripts for my podcast to the cast and booked the recording space for January

I also finally got that new computer, meaning I was able to download Adobe Premier and start practising editing (my previous computer was too old for such a program).

So on to the update!

Scripts Update:
The rehearsal and recording spaces for The Legend of Aramelle podcast are booked and I am going to work on my Troy script on the writing course which starts tomorrow.

I have been working on my goldrush script as well as a screenplay about two sisters. I know where I want to go with them both now. However, editing has been slow as I have been concetrating on sorting things for the podcast. I hope to set aside a day each for both these scripts in January so I can get back up to speed with editing them.

I have also been practising editing on Adobe Premier, which has been fun to learn. I have been teaching myself with footage from the film course I’m doing. I’ve edited the footage in a variety of different ways to learn how to use editing to tell different stories with the same footage. Though I am still very slow at it, and it would be a lot easier if I had a separate mouse for my laptop rather than the trackpad, as I keep mis-clicking.

Things Learnt:
As I have more files to work on, I’m learning the use of keeping things properly stored. Though my file system makes sense to me, it’s rather difficult for anyone else to understand, so making it easier for others to find my files, if I am working with them on a project is definitely a useful skill!

I also signed up to WriterDuet – the full version. It’s a subscription and I would prefer to buy it outright, but I’ve found it the easiest way to organise all the podcast scripts. I was using Scrivener before, where I could either have one big manuscript or 12 different files – one for each episode!

Freelance Journey

How To Become a Freelancer – December Update

Christy.E.SLeave a comment

Intro:
In November, I finalised the cast and recording dates for my podcast and we will record in January!

I also signed up to a screen-writing course in Brighton in January and had my interview for it, so January is looking set to be a busy month!

So on to the update!

Scripts Update:
I finalised the scripts for The Legend of Aramelle podcast and have sent the scripts to the cast today!

I put in one of the first scripts I ever wrote – What Came Before – to the BBC. I admit it’s not a great script for competitions, hence why I haven’t entered it to the BBC before. However, I thought as I was writing the podcast scripts – which are too short at 15-20 minutes an episode – then I could either put in an old script, or put in my Gold Rush script before it was ready. Submitting What Came Before means I can still submit my Gold Rush script in their next submission window, when it will be better. As What Came Before is a small part of a very large story, I may as well submit it to a free competition as it’s likely to never be made until I’ve made lots of other things first!

In my interview for the writing course – I did reveal to the interviewer my plan for the Trojan Horse. It’s the first time I’ve told anyone and they said it was a fascinating idea. Apologies for not repeating it here, but one day I hope you’ll find out!

Things Learnt:
Am still learning sound on the film course and getting better at it. Yesterday we were filming a short film on the beach. In December. With both the waves, wind and seagulls to contend with, I was worried the dialogue wouldn’t be hear-able at all. I couldn’t do the boom mike operating myself as well as the recording so did have help from a fellow student. Meanwhile it was my job to make sure they were pointing it in the right direction, and what levels to put the sound at so the sea is in the background and the words are in the foreground! The director listened to some of the recordings afterwards and said they sounded perfect, so I guess I’ll keep learning!

I also helped to produce that short film. The director is interested in writing themselves, so I pointed out where things could be re-written or changed but allowed them to decide how to actually re-write them. I also got to write call sheets for everyone and went about getting permission from the council to film on the beach! I did have to ring the events officer directly when I hadn’t had an answer for a few days, but that was easy once I’d found their number!

Had to promise the council I’d give everyone a H+S briefing about the sea. So here I am telling everyone to not touch the sea!
Freelance Journey

How To Become a Freelancer – October Update

Christy.E.SLeave a comment

Intro:
In September I submitted my time travel script to the Channel 4 Screenwriting scheme and have begun a Film-Making Diploma that takes place on Saturdays.

I also went to the TV and Film Meetup in London on 14th September, where I managed to make contact with an actor who is interested in my fiction podcast.

So on to the update!

Scripts Update:
I met with an actor about my fiction podcast idea and have been advised by them that the next best step is to write some sides for potential auditions. I am hoping to do this within the next week.

Having someone else interested in the project has given me new drive for it and it is highly possible that I will be able to record the project in January!

Am also editing my Gold Rush script, so it’s ready for BBC Writers room which opens in November. The story is there now, it’s just the ending that still needs work.

Things Learnt:
Have begun to build myself a profile on fiverr for freelance work, as I think it will work better for me than Upwork’s system does. I am likely to be busy over the next month (all those general life things I’ve been mentioning for months are all coming to fruition before Christmas) but, once that dies down, I can give myself the Christmas present of a freelance profile!

What a good way to start the new year!