The main task for this module is to redub the sound from a scene from film with aims to give the sequence a similar or intended meaning. I have applied myself to the module by researching into different mediums of media for inspirations for sound designing and experimenting with methods of recording to achieve different sounds.
I started off with researching into different forms of the medium, this ranged from film, short films, animations and TV series. Some titles that I paid particular attention too are: Apocalypse Now, City of God, Kiseijuu: Sei No Kakuritsu, Detective Conan, Sammy the explorer, Ferguson Speaks: A Communique From Ferguson, Playground, Manhunt, Game of thrones, Trinity Seven and Majin Bone
On the 30th Sep, I had my induction into Pro Tools and started with learning some of the core basics of a workflow on this software. As I am quite adept and familiar with Soundtrack Pro, this was quite the hurdle to cross, as a long of the keyboard shortcuts are different. We were provided sheets that had keyboard shortcuts on them, but I used my initiative and noted the most common keyboard shortcuts I thought I would personally used.
In this session, I was also advised to use a specific format, which was recommended by my lecturer for sound editing in Pro Tools, it is “AVID DNxHD Codec”. My lecturer gave direction on how to import video and audio clips into Pro Tools, but before learning to import, project settings came first. Sound settings remain the same as they are in Soundtrack Pro with the default standard sample rate being 48kHz, 44.1kHZ is only used for audio discs and singles. Now that the project was ready, the seminar group began importing audio and video clips into Pro Tools.
On the 21st Oct, in today’s seminar session we handled basic diegetic sound editing. In the clip the seminar group was given, a scene features a radio being turned on. For our seminar exercise, the group was asked to fade in a sample radio broadcast to function as a reaction to the action of the radio being turned on. This gave me insight into how to fade and was useful for getting me used to cutting audio clips. Now that the fade was fairly accurate I needed the radio broadcast to sound like it was coming from a radio. Our lecturer introduced the seminar group to equalising and shows us how to manipulate the effects of an equaliser in Pro Tools. I know when listening to a radio, I know that not all frequencies are heard, so to create this effect, I cut off a lot of low and high frequencies off using the low-pass filter and high-pass filter.
Later on in the session, the group went onto automation and Darryl showed the group how to automate sound parameters such as volume and pan.
The session also included what our assignment requirements were and Darryl covered what needed to be done. As my lecturer was a fan and recommended Ben Burt, I checked out some of his work such as: Super 8 (2011) and Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith (2005). There was a selection of clips the group were given to be used for task two, but the alternative was proposed that students could source their own clips as long as Darryl accepts it. I decided to source out my own clips, because I already some titles in mind, which I believed to be really good. I was unclear as to what Darryl would deem unacceptable, so I selected films I believed a lot of action and ambiguity to be present. One of my first selections was City of God (2002), because it was a personal favourite.
Darryl replied on my birthday stating the clip contained too much dialogue, but there was specific criteria except the clip needed to be a duration of 3 minutes.
There was another film I had in mind, which was Apocalypse Now (1979). One scene was the scene where ‘Ride of the Valkyries’ plays and the helicopter invasion begins. Another scene was the scene where Tyrone dies and Captain Benjamin sales past the burning house. As these scenes had minimal or no dialogue I thought they were good options.
Before going onto my Pro Tools project on the 2nd Dec, I had been experimenting on Soundtrack Pro with different parameters and effects on sounds to see what would sound good and what would oppose my intended theme. I managed to create some eerie sound sequences by duplicating the track of myself heavy breathing and clipping it to come into at set times. With the clipped duplicates I panned to them there left and right in different varieties and placed a delay and reverb over the original to blend the sound in. I had created a basic structural sequence on Soundtrack Pro, so that when I did come to my Pro Tools edit I would have an idea of what I intend to do.
On the 2nd Dec
My lecturer was name dropping a few titles to watch that would be good for this module, some are; Solarsis (2002), True Detective (2014) and Stalker (2014).
I had begun my sound edit on Pro Tools, one issue I had was bringing the clip into Pro Tools. After transcoding to the codec AVID DNxHD, the video would refuse to import into Pro Tools, which led to several attempts of transcoding on MPEG Streamclip. In the end I applied my knowledge of standard sound editing and imported a silent video in standard definition and followed with the audio afterwards.
I had found a sound that really worked before and wanted to use it again. My only concerned was that the pitch of the sound was too high, so I turned the pitch down and EQ’d the sound to give it a more dark presence. In comparison to original, I think this has made a humongous change.
The wind sound I used contributes to the dark theme and gives the piece a horror feel. I lowered the pitch of the wind sound when I reused it in the skeleton scene to indicate a change in time. Reusing the wind sound as it was would have been detrimental to the effect.
As Tyrone goes underwater, I wanted a sharp sound to suggest his impeding doom, so I recorded the sound of my fire alarm, because it produces a pretty sharp sound. The only issue was the recording wasn’t long enough so I changed the elastic properties of the clip after enabling elastic audio on it. The sound is monophonic, so the time stretch didn’t adjust the sound of it, however the filter gate I used create a wobble in the mono sound giving it more spatial volume.
At this stage, I needed to piece together the unrealistic sounds that I implemented into my sound piece, so I imported tracks that I planned to use as atmos and EQ’d it to sound clearer.
I needed a sound to bring a new element to the piece, because it was now coming together with the atmos and the distorted sound that cannot be completely understood, however I needed a sound that people could recognise and to suggest horror. I recorded the sound of my heartbeat with the hydrophone and connected the contact end to capture the sound of my heartbeat more effectively.
The sound of my fire alarm is sharp and effective, however needed a slight tweaking to fade out to create my desire effect.
As I continued to edit, I realised that my project had taken a turn from a realistic undead theme to surrealist undead. The sound that occurs when the jacket and spear are thrown resonates to connote deep thought. This is intended to lead audiences to question why they don’t hear the sound that they expect. The next sound I introduce is the sound of Tyrone in the water and slowly sinking. What I do with this sound is loop specific segments to create the effect of eventually submerging. The sound is too short to remain its original form so this was a solution I found effective.
The sound of the boat going along the sea is made by me recording my toothbrush and EQ’ing it. I had to loop the recording to maintain the consistent sound of the boat as the boat plays a major segment of the clip and automate the volume and pan to suggest position and movement within the clip.
Some of the finishing touches I wanted to add to piece to conclude it was the reintroduction of the atmos heard at the beginning of the piece. This is to suggest that the crew has now arrived at their destination which is still apart of the forest they are in and to assist the visuals in transitioning.
In conclusion, I am satisfied with the end product and would possibly record more sounds if to do this project again.
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