top of page

HEXAGONE: a spooky Easterhouse audio experience

Writer's picture: MargotMargot

Hello! I’m Margot (she/her) and I’ve been the trainee facilitator for Produced Moon for their Easterhouse Audio Haunt project ‘HEXAGONE’ at Platform over the past few months. This project brought together young and emerging artists aged 14-24 over a few evening sessions and an intensive making week in October - where we collaborated to make an audio haunt set at Platform, The Bridge. The immersive audio haunt fused audio storytelling, with a scavenger hunt style experience, spooky stories and cryptic puzzles. 



Over the weekly sessions, the group of young people created a haunting horror story to be set here at Platform; creating spooky characters based on a witch hunt, and some modern personas like an influencer turned horror actor who mysteriously goes missing. These sessions were all about experimenting and discussing how we wanted to tell our imagined horror story, and how we wanted an audience to experience it. 

Once we got to the intensive making week, we were joined by a few new young artists and began to put together the story, weaving in the scavenger hunt style puzzles which the young people created to blend with the themes of the story. And then of course, the audio recording to bring the story to life. 



As a performance maker and drama facilitator, this project was really exciting for me to experience a new workshop style, working with technology, and more conceptual story creation, based on script writing and puzzle making. I was really interested in Produced Moon’s practice of making immersive experiences; merging theatre, technology, sound, and working with young people. As the trainee facilitator, my role included liaising with the young people, meeting them before sessions for a free dinner and snacks; and supporting them in the workshops, leading small warm-ups and exercises with the guidance and support of Leo and Mel. 

At the start of the process, I created some learning goals such as developing my workshop planning, and my facilitation skills in holding a space for young people to be creative, and integrating technology into creative workshops. 


I think my first two goals really came to fruition when planning and leading a ‘Getting into character’ exercise for the participants playing Mark Benet, the influencer who goes missing, and our horror podcast interviewer. Both the young people playing these characters were really into drama, but it was their first time trying voice acting, and so Mel and Leo tasked me with planning and leading a getting into character exercise for them. We started by walking around the room as their character, thinking about how each part of their body would move, aiming to build the character through physicality. We then created a character pose from their walk; a pose that their character always migrates back to and that they could use when recording. We then worked on their interview scene, experimenting and trying different poses, tones, pitches, speeds in their voices, and explored how their physicality might influence the way their voice sounds. Then going into the recording studio, and seeing them record with confidence and such precise character decisions was just incredible, to see their journey in such a short space of time. 


I think some of my favourite moments were definitely being in the recording studio as a big group, recording background sounds like ‘an angry mob’, ‘ busy PR office’ and ‘creepy breathing’. Definitely a highlight. 



Another highlight for me was facilitating a Q&A at the premiere of HEXAGONE with some of the young people. We talked about the creative process, how the group made up the concept, story and characters, their experiences of voice acting and recording, what designing the puzzles was like, about what it was like to make a spooky/horror story, and their highlights of the experience. We also had some audience questions including: What was it like to work with the German collaborators story-dive?, What were some of the main themes and horror tropes you explored in the creation process?, What was it like to collaborate within a diverse age range of 14-24? 


During the rest of the premiere day the young people helped at the welcome desk and were on hand to give clues and help audiences with the puzzles. They also did the audio haunt themselves, which was fun to do together as it was the first time for some of them hearing their voices in the recordings and seeing their puzzles in real life. 




At the end of the day, we asked them to reflect on the project, some quotes from these reflections included: 

"It's so exciting to see people listening and experiencing something you've made entirely from scratch"

 "The teamwork within the group really made it such an amazing creative experience, to see the way the story came together inspires me to do many more projects like this."

"This was so much fun to do, meeting and working with new and familiar faces was so nice."

"It's brung my confidence out and I've found out I really like acting and drama. I will 100% do something like this again." 


Many of their reflections talked about the positive experience of collaborating with young people of different ages and from different places. We had young people from Easterhouse, Shettleston, Renfrew, Paisley, Edinburgh and abroad, and the youngest at 14 and oldest at 24. It was an incredible experience to learn from all these diverse backgrounds, experiences and perspectives; everyone brought their own expertise and passions for sound design, acting, writing and horror stories. It was so lovely to see them all come together and to watch everyone find their own role in creating Hexagone. For some of them it was their first time engaging in creative activity like this and it was a joy to watch them explore and find new interests, meet new people, and find a safe space where they can be creative, especially one where young people take a lead in the creation process, as well as the recording and production process. 


All that’s left to say is a massive thank you to Produced Moon for having me, and a shout out to the 12 amazing young people who participated in the project! 


HEXAGONE will be up at the Music Hall in Aberdeen in February with a brand new set of puzzles co-created by local high school students. Book tickets here.


7 views0 comments

Comments


Join our mailing list

Thanks for subscribing!

Glasgow + Edinburgh

SC050021

  • Instagram
  • Facebook
  • Twitter

©2023 by Produced Moon

bottom of page