I am satisfied with the finished product and I am happy with
how well received it was in my seminar presentation. Prior to the presentation,
I had shown my video to a few of my peers to hear their thoughts on my piece.
My first group of peers who had never seen the original
thought it was a psychological motive I was trying to communicate with the
sounds I had used or that their deep meaning was hidden. The sound of the news
report suggested that there was a war going on and the men on the boat were the
survivors. The lack of closure provided to the clip piqued the curiosity of my peers,
as they wanted to know what was being looked at towards the end. The unnatural
sound of the spear and jacket being thrown down caused a comedic response as
one of my peers laughed. When I asked they was unsure as to why the sound was
there. The news report sound fades out too quickly and abruptly.
Taking this feedback into consideration, I extended the
fades on the news report to be a little longer in comparison to the visual, so
that the feeling wasn’t so abrupt, however I wanted to keep the sound for the
items being thrown, because this is the spectator’s observation from a far
distance. When hearing sound from a long distance only some frequencies can be
heard and I want the audience the imagine why some things are clearer and more
distinct than others.
The next viewing was to a singular peer who had also chosen
this strand for the same module. His feedback would be critical in gauging how
well received the piece will be, because he shares the same tasks as myself.
Watching my piece, he was really impressed with how it all
tied in together with each other and he really liked the soundtrack used to exaggerate
the atmosphere. One thing he thought needed changing was the sound of the items
being thrown down and that the news voiceover should be longer. As I had
already used the maximum duration of the clip I couldn’t add anymore time to
the news report, however I could extend the fade of the clip to seem like it
was longer, which I chose to do instead.
A more subtle inspiration for my work has to be the films of
Michael Haneke. His films explore the unforeseen and unprecedented events of
cinema. I really liked how he wanted to explore what was off-screen as well as
onscreen.
The sessions held with in conjunction with cinematography
were really good too, it provided experience on what possible scenarios sound
recordists may be in when on set of a project. The unfortunate dark side of
sound is that it always is required to be ready no matter the scenario and
adherence is normally paid towards the visuals. As I continued through both
sound projects I kind of felt the sad negligence of sound in projects, in
animation projects I am sure sound is taken more seriously, but for real life
projects it is very apparent that this isn’t so.
I am really happy with how confident I am now with Pro
Tools, I do feel my skills can be even furthered and I may even look into
composing on Pro Tools to make instrumentals or musical beats. I think musical
beats can really influence a scene. I really want to work more with MIDI
keyboards and become familiar with the KORG. After watching a few youtube
videos I think they will be pretty useful for taking advantage of creating
sound effects. The seminars that Darryl held for MIDI was good as I had minimal
knowledge about MIDI and how to automate virtual instruments.
When first introduced to the first exercise, I wasn’t quite
sure how to approach this exercise. This is because, it stated in the task to
create a production report of the progress of my project, however I was
concerned that I wouldn’t have enough in my project to discuss in my report and
that I would be constantly repeating myself.
Something that needs to improve are the notes I take in
sessions. I have lost a few pages from the notes I made, because my notebooks
are very delicate and weak. The fact that I cycle a lot means my pads juggle in
my bags quite often. I think the art of note taking is definitely something I
could improve because, the notes I have for the end of the module do not
currently reflect all the thoughts I had when being in the process of my
production.
Getting the production started was probably one of the most
difficult tasks to take on. This is because I had many ideas that I wanted to
do, which I discuss in my production report, but once deciding on the idea. It
takes a really big push to generate a direction and balancing this task
alongside my others for other modules was definitely a great feat for myself.
My other task, which pushed me more to getting really
involved with this project, required myself to sound design all sounds for a 5
– 10 minute film that I was working on with another group. In the end, a lot of
sounds between both projects ended up being really useful and I am glad that my
choices led to a project synergy. Without choosing these roles and strands, I
think I would have been in a precarious situation between both modules as I
would learning about to different positions, which wouldn’t allow myself to
effectively apply what I have come to understand in the recent months.
As an experienced editor, automation and keypoints are the
norm for myself. I coherently forget that this is actually a technique that can
make the workflow of a project much more consistent and worthy of mention. My
first basic understanding of automation derived from using non-linear editing
software such as: Adobe Premiere Pro and Final Cut Pro. This most commonly was
slowing fading in the audio or visual using keypoints. Doing both of these
sound projects this semester has shown me that a massive difference can be made
with duration of these fades. This is something I didn’t really appreciate.
Even little sounds that may not be heard for long, add to the overall effect
and sometimes are required to fade out unnoticeably. One example is in my Apocalypse Now piece, I recorded a sound
for the burning house and panned it to the right to create a naturalism of the
house burning, however the slow fade I use before and after the house is shown
leads the audience to expect something. The sound isn’t significantly loud, but
adds to the overall atmosphere. The least thing I wanted to do was make it
obvious that the burning house sound is now gone, because this would trigger an
undesired affect on my audience.
In our practice sessions, Darryl has already recommended
that we record in the correct format, because this will save us from having any
problems in the future. No matter the sound recorder is, always have the
correct sample rate and microphone sensitivity set. I prefer the Marrantz in
comparison to the Zoom recorders, because the Marrantz have a neck grip, which
allows for the Marrantz to worn around the neck when operational. The Zoom
however is a lot smaller in size and with the right size pocket, can be placed
in the pocket.
When it came to recording atmos, I preferred to use the
internal microphones on the recorder in comparison to any mono shotgun
microphone. Personally it felt more natural to hear my immediate surroundings
in stereo in comparison to that of a mono recording, which led me to that
decision. I am quite interested in the stereo shotgun microphones, because I
think they will be very great for capturing room tone in, however they are the
opposite for dialogue.
To be more specific, the Audio Technica shotgun microphone
captured slightly more frequencies than the Sennheiser shotgun microphone. This
in result made the recordings made with Audio Technica sound more open than
those made with the Sennheiser, however the sound was more isolated on the
recordings made with the Sennheiser.
I also didn’t find favour in recording in dual mono. Maybe
it was the scenarios that I was in, but I couldn’t comprehend the useful or
effectiveness of recording in dual mono. Mono recordings are singular, which
meant that if a duplicate was required this could easily be done in post. Why
it was needed as a feature on the recording hardware I am still unsure.
Another technique that was really useful for doing both
sound projects is the planning of sound design. Looking at a script and
recognise how the sounds will compliment and communicate the narrative. Leading
back to what I previously said about sound being underappreciated, I still
believe this so, however the usefulness of planning can give way to new and
complete sound ideas. I think experimenting is definitely very useful as well.
Though there was a workshop where I got the chance to
experience being both in front and behind the camera. The short film I was
working allowed me to gain firsthand experience with working with actors
outside of university. This meant constructing myself in a professional manner
and having to get takes redone to capture the correct dialogue for the scene.
One of my rising concerns was as the crew were paying for one of the actors,
when properly reviewed the dialogue was incorrect or didn’t match. I would need
the actor to come in to ADR his bit, however I did not have this problem at
all.
In all I think made some wises choices choosing to do strands
that compliment each other this semester and I hope to participate in more
sound projects outside of university.
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