Meat factory, Ear worms.

First of all this piece is incredibly interesting. It functions of a primary level as a documentary, recounting Rishie Beirne's experiences in one of Ireland's meat factory's. As it uses a first person account it fits the conventions of the documentary, in that we are hearing 'from the horse's mouth' so to speak. However what makes this documentary and radio documentary in general more interesting in my opinion is the carefully considered use of sound the anchor the meaning conveyed by the word of the subject.

One example of this is at the very beginning, when the narrator talks about his first time walking into the meat factory. The recordings of the grinding of gears, the occasional cry of a cow, and the racket of the workers, lands you right beside him during his first experience of the slaughter house. When it then breaks away into a piece of music that could b considered relaxing, it is clearly outlining the main theme of the documentary. Music can take you anywhere and in particular, it can help you to deal with less that pleasant surroundings. This theme is then carried through. The idea of him escaping into his 'internal stereo' to relieve the monotony and nastiness of his work.

In my opinion what makes this piece so effective is the effective marrying of, narration, music and sound effects.

In the foreground is the narration, the main story telling tool. This is a simple first person account of his life in the meat factories, and disentangling it from the other sounds in the piece it is clear that it is not nearly as effective on its own.

The music and sound effects work in partner ship and then in turn with the narration to create this detailed picture of life as a worker in the meat factories. By fading from music to ambient sounds the documentary anchors the meanings of the narrators words. It is mirroring what he is describin, which in turn makes for a more powerful piece of work.

Personally I really enjoyed this piece. It was interesting and gave a very detailed picture with out being gory or shocking which it could so easily have been. There are many sounds of a slaughter house that could have been used to make it more gory and vivid. However it is effective enough and clever enough in it's use of sound to not have to resort to this.