During the performance there were moments where sound effects where played. Me and Aimee played sound effects using Ableton Live 12 combined with Ableton push as a soundboard. We played sounds like fart sounds, drum rolls, Vine booms, Rizz sounds and other sounds relating to the scene. We also played ambient sounds for some scenes and for other scenes there would be music played in the background. for example we played hospital ambiance for the Hospital scene and for Boarder Control we played comedic German folk music.
I think we did a great job at delivering the Horrible Histories style because we got the audience to interact and laugh during the performance.
During the rehearsals and PLW (Foundation Learning) we performed it in B25 so I had all the sound levels set to the speakers that were in that room. When we performed at the primary school we used a different speaker so I had to adjust the sound levels there on the spot before the show started. I also had to use the volume slider for some of the sounds as there were too loud or too quiet. Music volumes had to be adjusted too during change overs.
We got some feedback from one of the teachers at the primary school. She thanked us for performing at their school and that the children will be visiting Eden Camp. We didn’t get too much verbal feedback but we could tell when the performance wasn’t engaging with the audience. The beginning of the performance specifically Ration Chef the audience engaged with the scene and laughed at times same with Boarder Control, but for the rest of the scenes the audience seemed uninterested.
To know when to play the right sound we were given a script of the whole performance by the performing arts group, We annotated the script to know when to play the correct sound effect.
During the primary school performance Me and Aimee were given a cue by the the performance group to know when to play the countdown timer.
- How well did you plan sound effects/music to support comedy and storytelling?
Me and Aimee looked on YouTube and TikTok for funny sounds used in comedy shows and cartoons, we looked at shows like Horrible Histories, SpongeBob and other comedic shows.
We knew we wanted a lot of fart sounds so I dowloaded a bunch of different fart sounds,
For the music we watched the performance without music and later chose what music would fit in with that scene, for Ration Chef we chose intense Master Chef theme but it didn’t fit well and the scene a intense fast pace feel to it so we changed it to a more funny stereotypical Italian chef song, Border Control was a tough one because I was struggling to figure out what type of music/background ambiance would fit in with the scene. At first it was nature ambiance but again it didn’t fit well and wasn’t funny, so we searched funny German folk music which worked more with the scene and it made it more funny.
Women at work was an easy one its set in an office so I added office ambiance like typewriters and people talking in the background
- Were cues organised and rehearsed effectively?
- Did you consider the school environment (volume, clarity, portability)?
- How well did your sound choices match the historical theme?
- How effectively did you engage the school audience?
- Was the performance clear, energetic, and appropriate for the age group?
- How well did you adapt to the space and any unexpected issues?
- Did you maintain professionalism throughout?
- Accuracy and timing of cues during the live show
- Balance of sound levels (not overpowering dialogue)
- Contribution to atmosphere and humour
- Ability to troubleshoot technical issues quickly
- Did you take responsibility for equipment and shared spaces?
- How efficiently did the group pack down after the show?
- Did you leave the school venue clean and organised?
- How well did you communicate as a team during get-out?
- Safe dismantling and packing of equipment
- Cable management and organisation
- Responsibility for checking all kit is accounted for