MMS 172 - Group 3

Our production team for Ni‑Lock Mo Ba Yung Pinto? consists of five members: Jessica Arboleda, Lei Alyn Buenafe, Abigail Esguerra, Bea Ysabelle Reyes, and Rhyah Austrie Reyes. Each member was assigned a role based on their equipment, technical capabilities, and creative strengths. This ensures that both the writing and production aspects of the project are handled efficiently and professionally.

Jessica Arboleda – Director, Foley Coordinator, Foley Artist, Logistics Writer

Equipped with multiple microphones (Realme 7i, Awei wired/Bluetooth, gaming headset) and headphones, Jessica records mainly indoors during quiet hours (9 PM to 4 AM). With strong organizational skills, she directs sessions, manages Foley, and documents logistics.

Lei Alyn Buenafe – Audio Editor, Project Plan Writer, Foley Artist

Equipped with an iPhone 13 (noise isolation), ASUS TUF A15 laptop, and Popcorn Bass X8 Pro headphones, Lei records in her bedroom from 12 to 3 AM. Open to trying Audacity, she will edit audio files and ensure technical quality; she also writes the project plan.

Abigail Esguerra – Supporting Voice Actor (Chloe / The Voice), Group Membership & Roles Writer, Foley Artist

Abbey uses a BOYA wireless mic, Jabra noise‑cancelling headset, and HP laptop. Recording in her bedroom/living room, she faces background noise from pets and airport proximity. She schedules sessions at weekends or wee hours to minimize interruptions. Abbey delivers Chloe’s voice lines and documents group roles.

Bea Ysabelle Reyes – Audio Mixer, Concept Statement Writer, Co‑Director, Foley Artist

Using a Razer Seiren V3 Mini mic, iPhone 16, and QKZ earbuds, Bea records in her bedroom during evening quiet hours. Her creative ear makes her ideal for mixing tracks and writing the concept statement, while also assisting in directing.

Rhyah Austrie Reyes – Lead Voice Actor (Maya), Self‑Reflection Writer, Co‑Director, Foley Artist

With a wireless microphone, Rhyah records in a quiet bedroom late at night or early morning. Her expressive voice acting brings Maya’s narration and dialogue to life. She also writes the self‑reflection and co‑directs performances.

Story/Script

Click here for the script (warning: spoilers!)

Brief Synopsis

[ENG] Maya and Chloe go through their normal nighttime routine. As Chloe sleeps, Maya does her work. Maya is left to ensure that things are in order before sleeping. Only this time, Maya isn’t sure whether she locked their door or not.

[FIL] Isa na namang normal na gabi para kina Maya at Chloe. Si Chloe ay natutulog na habang si Maya ay tinatapos ang kanyang mga gawain. Ngayong gabi, inaasahan si Maya na tiyakin na maayos na ang lahat bago siya matulog. Ngunit sa pagkakataong ito, hindi niya masiguro kung nai-lock niya talaga ang kanilang pintuan.

Why the Group Chose this Concept

For this audio drama project, we chose to go with the horror/thriller genres, as these genres present multiple opportunities to use audio and can effectively showcase the importance of audio in helping individuals immerse themselves in a story. Our story heavily relies on sound, such as Maya’s narration and the use of different sound effects, to establish the space and the situation that the characters in the story are in. With the help of different audio sources, our story will come to life and hopefully make the audience feel the uneasiness of being unsure of who is inside a room with them at dawn.

How the Project Satisfies the Course Requirements

As mentioned before, our audio drama project heavily relies on sound. Visuals will not be used, and audio will be the only thing that the audience will rely on. That makes the quality of the entire audio drama important. We will be mainly using audio recorded through the Foley method to make sure that every member gets to experience sound recording, to lessen the use of outsourced audio, to create several sound effects, and to create the eerie atmosphere of our story. The voice-overs by Maya and Chloe will be recorded, edited, and mixed, ensuring that the course learnings are practiced and applied as well as the requirements satisfied (at least 4 distinct tracks, at least 3 min of mixed audio, ≥1 voice track, and ≥50% recorded (not outsourced) audio). We will collaborate on making sure that the final output will have a sound that is clear and crisp.

Intended Audience

The intended audience for our audio drama is mainly high school students, college students, and working millennials who use their free time to listen to frightening stories. Although everyone can listen to our audio drama, the individuals mentioned above are the main target audience.

For our audio drama “Ni-lock mo ba ‘yung pinto?”, the group will follow a structured timeline from scriptwriting through final publishing, with clear internal deadlines at each phase to keep the members accountable, given our different schedules and recording setups.

Internal Deadlines

Beyond the graded milestones above, the group set a few internal checkpoints to stay on pace:

All assignment 1 writing sections (Membership, Concept Statement, Project Plan, Logistics, Self-Reflection) drafted by July 16 to 17 so there’s time to review before the July 21 submission deadline.
Raw audio uploads are due the same day recording sessions end (July 26) so editing can start immediately without waiting on late uploads.
A mid-point check-in is planned around August 5, roughly halfway through the editing/mixing window, so the group can flag any issues (missing SFX, unclear lines, sync problems) with enough time left to fix them before the August 16 review.

Recording Schedule

Recording runs from July 19 to July 26 (8 days), giving the voice actors time to record dialogue across multiple days. Foley recording happens during the same window, since most of the 27 SFX cues don’t depend on being finished first.

Editing and Mixing Schedule

Editing begins immediately after the July 26 raw audio deadline. The editor arranges the raw clips, trims dead air and mistakes, and syncs dialogue to the appropriate SFX cues per the script. This is treated as a distinct first pass before mixing begins, so the timeline isn’t blurred between getting everything in place and making it sound good. The mixer then handles the mixing, balancing the voice and SFX levels, applying EQ, compression, and panning.

Mastering and Group Review Schedule

Mastering is between August 16 to 30. After the group reviews the drafted mix and flags any inconsistencies, the editor and mixer will make final adjustments and master the track for consistent loudness across all scenes. The group listens to the mixed draft together and gives feedback before mastering is finalized. This gives roughly two weeks before the final export and submission, allowing for a revision.

Our Recording Equipment, Recording Areas, The Present Noises, And How We’ll Deal With Them

Our members will be recording in rooms in their houses, which means unpredictable reflections due to varying surfaces and other noises will be present. We will be dealing with it: (1) in our own ways, and by (2) maintaining a consistent (appropriate) distance between the sound source and their respective microphones to avoid reflections and reverberations (for Foley and voice actors), and bad recording mannerisms (for the voice actors) from being picked up. More details are in the following paragraphs.

Abigail Esguerra

Abbey, who plays Chloe, is certain about using her iPhone microphone and its built-in voice recording app; she plans on recording her dialogue and Foley (bedsheet and blanket rustling, wooden creaks from the top bunk, deliberate knocking, and upper bunk movement) in either her bedroom or her living room.

Her bedroom is expected to have better acoustics because the bed, pillows, blankets, curtains, and other soft furnishings naturally absorb sound reflections, resulting in a drier recording with less echo. If she records in the living room instead, harder surfaces such as walls, floors, and furniture may produce stronger reflections and a slightly more reverberant sound. To manage this, she will record close to the microphone, keep a consistent microphone distance, and, if necessary, place blankets or pillows nearby to absorb excess reflections while recording.

Both locations suit the character she is playing; she has also noted some possible noises, like dogs and cats, noise of home appliances, birds, roosters, and airplane noises due to living in an area where airplanes passing by are audible (Taguig). That being said, she has expressed a plan to purchase a wireless BOYA microphone, which will be better than her phone’s microphone. Abbey will also try to reduce noise by choosing quieter recording periods, reducing controllable noise sources whenever possible, and recording during the quietest times (which can be unpredictable due to the airplanes).

Rhyah Austrie Reyes

The next member we have is Rhyah, who will be playing Maya in our story. She owns a wireless Lavalier mic and has her POCO F6’s built-in voice recorder application for both dialogue and Foley (Maya getting into bed, blanket movement, and bed creaking when Maya turns away). Since her character makes the aforementioned, and because one of her microphones is wireless (which will allow her to move while delivering dialogue), Jessica found the specific Foley assigned to her appropriate. Her chosen recording location is her bedroom.

Her bedroom, like Abbey's, also contains soft materials that help reduce sound reflections and reverberation. Based on her recording setup, though, she would be facing the wall, which would require her to hung some cloth on it as buffer if it happens to be the surface behind the mic she will be talking to, to lessen reflections. She can also try to change locations and record in the softest spot in her room. Aside the acoustics of her room, she also expects noises from household activities, an electric fan, and picking up on conversations from her backyard and kitchen when recording in it. She plans on turning off the fan, keeping doors and windows closed, and recording between 10:00 PM and 5:00 AM to solve those particular issues.

Jessica Arboleda

Jessica will be the member in charge of some Foley (like all members). She will be using either her Realme 7i’s built-in microphone, her detachable microphone from her gaming earphones, and/or my Awei wired earphones for Foley (wind and wind chimes, distant tricycle, dog barking, electric fan humming, cricket ambience). She plans to record those sounds outdoors and indoors (in a bedroom at her study stable (see pic below)) around 9:00 PM to 4:00 AM, so it’ll be quiet. She claims she won’t encounter much issues in terms of extra noise and ambience since most of her sound effects are meant to capture the noises and ambience; except for the fan SFX, which will actually require her to record in her room during quiet hours without household noise or other human activities outside.

For the latter, the acoustics in her room are actually quite favorable, so there’s no other acoustic treatment for the room that is necessary other than what's already mentioned. All that's left for her to do is to place the phone microphone at a distance from the fan where plosives are avoided while at the same time allowing her to record the fan's hum.

Bea Ysabelle Reyes

For Foley (page turning, pen clicking, pen tapping, book closing, light switch click, pen handling, heartbeat effects, and bone-cracking, which may be outsourced), Bea will either use her Raizer Seiren V3 Mini condenser microphone or iPhone 16. She can choose between the recording environments she listed: study/laundry room and the living room.

The study/laundry room may produce stronger reflections because of harder surfaces and fewer sound-absorbing materials, while the living room may also introduce reflections depending on its layout and furnishings. She also notes potential problems, noises like: from an electric fan, family conversations, the washing machine, the television, nearby vehicles, construction, dogs, and neighbors by surrounding her chosen room with available cloth (if ever her condenser mic and phone aren’t good enough) and recording around 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM or 11:00 PM to 3:00 AM, with the addition of applying noise reduction if needed.

Lei Alyn Buenafe

For Foley (chair scraping and movements under the bed), Lei will be using her iPhone 13’s built-in microphone, and also plans to apply the voice isolation capability of her phone if necessary. She plans to record in her bedroom (same acoustics as Rhyah), and expects to deal with noises like vehicles, dogs, and household noises so (other than noise reduction/post-processing) she chooses to record between 12:00 AM to 3:00 AM.

Where We Intend to Mix

Bea, and Lei (mixer and editor) are familiar with/willing to try Audacity, so our group agreed on that for multiple reasons: it’s free, it allows the use of plugins (like AMBEO, which will allow editors to mix), it is beginner-friendly, it contains many tutorials about it on the internet, it allows simultaneously editing different audio formats, and because Jessica is also familiar with it (which will help her co-direct along with Bea and Rhyah).

List Of Hardware and Software

As seen in the table above, we have varying equipment. This means it is possible for us to switch roles in the middle of production---roles were assigned based on equipment and the person in the first place; equipment may make some members flexible between roles.

Signal Flow - Inflow

Dialogue (for Voice Actors)

The signal begins as the voice actor's dialogue, which is captured by the chosen microphone. The recording device converts it into a digital audio file, which is then uploaded to Google Drive for file sharing before being imported into Audacity for editing and mixing.

As noted in our table of hardware and software, both our voice actors have access to more than one microphone, leading to more than one possibility in recording quality. The following are the possibile microphone combinations we see and solutions:

OPTION A: BOYA (Abbey) + Lavalier (Rhyah):

As seen in the signal flow for dialog, the sound signal may pass through differing microphones (wireless lavalier mic, wireless BOYA microphone, and a phone microphone). There are some strengths and weaknesses already present at this stage.

Both microphones capture speech clearly when positioned close to the speaker, although they may capture less detail than Bea's condenser microphone. Since both microphones are wireless, improper microphone placement or input levels may result in distortion or inconsistent recording quality. To ensure proper recording, Rhyah and Abbey will be recording with their mics at a proper distance that prevents emphasizing the blown out/distorted quality.

After the microphones capture the sound, it will be converted into a digital recording and saved on Rhyah's and Abbey's phones.

After recording, the audio files will be uploaded to Google Drive for file sharing before being imported into Bea's and Lei's DAW for editing.

OPTION B: Phone (Rhyah) + BOYA (Abbey):

A combination possible if the suggested solution in (a) doesn't work. This is in case the BOYA may sound noticeably better than the Lavalier (for example, as a possibility: maybe it doesn't have a “blown out" quality as bad as the Lavalier but the Lavalier’s is noticeable and not fixable through distance of the mic).

The phone microphone captures a wider area of sound, making it more likely to pick up room reflections and ambient noise if not positioned carefully. In order to record properly and match the BOYA’s performance, recording with the phone will require proper mic distance, phone placement (placing it on a flat surface makes a voice sound different than having it suspended in the air), proper acoustic treatment (already detailed previously + placing a cloth-like buffer behind the mic), and a quiet area.

The phone mic would be wider in coverage of sound and less prone to sounding blown out when placed correctly; however, it captures a wider area and allows for extra ambient noises and reflections to sneak in in recordings. In order to record properly and match the BOYA’s performance, recording with the phone will require proper mic distance, phone placement (placing it on a flat surface makes a voice sound different than having it suspended in the air), proper acoustic treatment (already detailed previously + placing a cloth-like buffer behind the mic), and a quiet area.

OPTION C: Phone (Rhyah)+ Phone (Abbey)

This is only in case the previous two don't work and the difference is still noticeable despite acoustic treatment and other recording techniques.

Recording from the same type of mic will ensure consistency in sounds, but phone mics can pick up more reverberation, reflections, and ambient noise. To ensure proper recording, both Rhyah and Abbey will have to engage in sound reduction, proper and consistent mic placement, and recording during the quietest times.

Foley (for All Members)

The signal begins as sound produced by the Foley source, which is captured by the microphone and converted into a digital audio recording by the recording device. The audio file is then uploaded to Google Drive before being imported into Audacity for editing and synchronization with the dialogue.

The flow for Foley clearly presents a lot of complications due to the varying mic setups all members have. Foley sound will be received by the mics as sound signals; then our different microphones will influence how these sounds are captured.

Each piece of our equipment has varying strengths and weaknesses. Some microphones capture speech and close sounds more clearly than others, while others capture a wider area and more background noise. We will not list them all here. This presents the issue of inconsistency in audio quality (or disconnected audio). However, it will only be noticeable if certain sounds are recorded with the improper equipment. To ensure we lessen the possibility of clear disconnect, we assigned Foley according to members who would do best (through their equipment and role in production). The assignments may still change during production depending on which equipment produces the most consistent results.

Signal Flow - Outflow

For Audio Editor and Mixer

During editing, Audacity sends the digital audio to the editor's computer, where it is converted back into sound and played through the headset. This allows the editor and mixer to identify issues such as noise, clipping, and imbalanced levels before producing the final mix.

The recordings are imported into the DAW in their original quality before editing and mixing begin. That stuff will be converted to analog by their PC and laptop, which will then be sent to their headsets, the headsets play an important role in how accurately the editor and mixer hear the final audio.

How will they ensure proper listening? They can get rid of audio adjustments in their Laptop or PC if there are any present, or flatten the sound quality of what they hear through software (some equalizers)—this will help in listening to the flat version of the audio without the extra bass

With the pre-production planning of this project for MMS 172: Audio in Multimedia, our group felt both challenged and eager to produce Ni-lock mo ba ‘yung pinto?. Creating a horror audio drama is not easy, as we have to rely entirely on eerie and creepy sounds to tell the story. Without video, every footstep, breath, and background noise needs to be precise.

Our main goal is to produce an output that genuinely feels like a professional thriller podcast. We believe we have a capable team to pull this off, since some of us are comfortable acting in front of a microphone, while members like Bea and Lei have the technical skills to handle the audio editing in Audacity.

However, we are aware of the limitations we will face, as we discussed that one of the biggest hurdles for each of us is our recording environment. Since we are doing this remotely, we do not have access to a studio, and we are recording in our own bedrooms and living rooms. This means we will constantly fight against background noise like electric fans, dogs barking, passing tricycles, and airplane overheads. On top of that, it is the rainy season, so sudden downpours can easily delay our recording schedule.

Another major concern is the difference in our equipment, since we are using different devices, including a Razer Seiren, a wireless microphone, and standard phone mics. We are worried that this will make our audio sound disconnected, which could ruin the illusion that Maya and Chloe are in the same room. To solve this, we agreed to record our parts late at night or early in the morning when our houses are its most quiet. During the editing phase, we will also layer a consistent room tone under the voices so the environment sounds uniform.

As UPOU students, time management is important, as we are balancing this course with other subjects, work, and personal tasks. We took the advice about ear fatigue, and we do not want to cram the audio mixing process into one long session, only to realize later on that the audio levels are unbalanced. By setting our internal deadlines as manageable but still early, our editors will have time to step away from the project and listen to the mix with fresh ears.

To ensure we are prepared for unexpected issues during production, we have established contingencies, which are the following:
a. If a voice actor becomes unavailable, we will try to reschedule the recording, or if
there is no time left, another member will step in as an understudy;
b. If some Foley audio is missing after our July 26 deadline, we will either extend the
deadline, proceed and finalize the mix using only the files on hand, or outsource the
audio as a last resort;
c. Should anyone's microphone equipment fail, our fallback is to use the built-in
microphones on our phones;
d. Lastly, if there is unpredictable noise, we will do a re-take if still possible, or keep
the take as-is and do our best to address the noise in post-production.

Even as we finish this pre-production plan right before our deadline, we know our setup is not perfect, but with careful planning and patience, we are confident that we can deliver a solid and immersive horror audio drama.

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