Teachers' Notes - Making a 60 Second Shakespeare Audio
 To accompany the website, ICT Advanced Skills Teacher Paul Sibson has written a set of Teacher's Notes.
This section suggests ways to approach making a 60 Second Shakespeare film in the classroom.
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In an ideal world the following would be done with group of three or four students, but if this is not possible then set up a classroom so that some students can watch whilst the audios are being recorded.
If you have more than one camera then older students could be sent off to another room to record their play. The computer work can be done on several computers at the same time. It is sensible to allow each group of students to write, record and edit their own plays rather than just edit their classmates' work.
The time taken for each element of making an audio can vary immensely, so these notes have not been divided into sessions. Instead, an estimate of how long each section should take has been given.
You may find the 60 Second Shakespeare video tutorials on audio editing useful at this point.
Recording
Time taken: 30 minute to an hour, depending on how well practiced the students are with their script.
Plug external microphone into minidisk or hard disk recording device*
Check that it is recording loudly enough by recording a few seconds and listening back - adjust volume if neccesary*
Press record and perform the play
Press the stop button to end recording
* It is recommended that these actions are carried out by a teacher.
Capturing
Time taken: depends on device used and amount of audio being transferred. Audio recorded on a hard disk recording device transfers in just a few seconds, audio recorded on a minidisk transfers in real time.
If you are using a hard disk recording device
Connect device to computer via the cable that came with the device*
Your computer should automatically open a window displaying all the files on the connected device
Select the files from the device you want to use, and copy them into a folder on the computer.
If you are using a minidisk
Connect the minidisk to the computer using a minijack to minijack cable from the minidisk's headphone socket to the computer's line-in socket (usually coloured blue)*
Turn on your audio editing package*
Press record on the audio editing package
Press play on the minidisk
Your audio should be recorded by the audio editing package. Once it's finished press stop, and save the recorded sound by exporting it as a .wav file.
* It is recommended that these actions are carried out by a teacher.
Editing
Time taken: Allow 30 minutes to an hour, although some students may want longer to perfect their work.
Open your audio editing software
Import the files that you have just copied or recorded into your software.
Your file will appear on a timeline as a series of spikes (the higher the spike the higher volume)
Use the cut tools to chop up the audio so that it fits within one minute
Import extra sound effects and music
Using the time-shift tool, move the music and sound effects so that they are where you want them on the timeline.
Use the envelope tool to change the volume of different tracks at different points along the timeline. E.g. you may want to start with a music track at full volume and then fade it our as the voices start.
Saving the final audio
Time taken: this should only take a few minutes.
Export your finished play as a .wav file
Burn your .wav file to CD to send it to the 60 Second Shakespeare website. Or you could email it.*
* It is recommended that these actions are carried out by a teacher.
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