​ March 27 Audio recording BEGINS

Today marked the initial auditions for the recording of the two focal instruments in the audio drama, The Garden of the Prophet, the voices for the narrator and the main character of the story, Almustafa.

Previous to the studio recording, i had communicated with important key profiles i.e student facilitator, studio & equipment supervisors, fellow audio students, friends and family.

Initially,  I invited a friend and mentor of mine who was kind and considerate enough to help with the narrative of this audio production. David, as he is known by, is to me an inspiring man. He, like myself was also born in Chile in the 70's and like myself, is also a son to exiled parents. David's background is emceeing and events management, having done events for Australian idol, David Suziki the scientist! His deeper, bassy voice stands out particularly for this production. Apart from his voice, David has a maturity and enquisitive mind that is artisticaly admissable to these types of esoteric writings.

 Verstraten (2009,p.146) explains that the function of sound is underestimated. The more irregular the tones, the more emphatically we 'experience' the passing of time. Seeing that temporality is a crucial factor for a notion of narrativity, [film] sound has an important narrative function.".

 Whilst recording David and myself in the post production studio, and then critically listening to the variances and differences of vocal qualities to suite the character roles of the story, i soon discovered that a third opinion was necessary if I was going to have a deeper understanding of what this project really was in need of. I stepped out of the box, so to speak, and went for a walk around the campus to think of who i could ask for a third opinion. Well, to my good fortune, I came across Jai, a fellow audio student, so i quickly, and yes politely asked if she couod have a listen to some of the audio and give me her honest opinion.

After a bit of discussion on who would suite the role of either Narrator and the lead character, the siuation came down to a bit of creative thinking and critical deductive reasoning. If i was to do the role of Almustafa i would perhaps be in a conflict of interest as to directing the overall or larger picture of the production, or over commiting to the dual role of actor/director.

In reflection and conclusion, David's voice suites the role as narrator and I will have to find another person that would be suitable for the lead character, Almustafa.

The initial recording set down an integral and important layer to the production in relation to the sound design methods and precepts to audio drama. In order to capture the audial interpretation of the story and its uniqueness, I want to incorporate a broad pallet of sonic tones, especially in the narrative, apart from using intradiegetic music in the production. In this case, it is important to include voice actors from different ethnic backgrounds .i.e Chile, Brazil, Kenya,Tibet, India, Spain, and the Middle East.