After showing our final sound design to the tutors we got a lot of comments on it, I found that we got generally positive reviews on the final piece. A couple of the tutors mentioned that it seemed very complete which found to be good news as I had worked very hard on this design. I knew that before I had showed the film, there was still some things that I wanted to tweak, so the fact that they thought it felt complete meant that the stuff that I did want to tweak was very minor.
We wanted to go for a glitchy sound design and this is something that also got picked up on in a positive way. Going for a glitchy sound is something I wanted to put in throughout the whole production process. I spent a lot of time listening to the likes of Aphex Twin to get inspired for the final sound design. In terms of positives I felt that I could take a lot away from this, especially for the major project, it has made me a lot more confident in my ability to put a sound design together.
The things I had to work on in terms of the sound design were pretty minor, for example when the phone vibrated, it needed to be shorter and a lot louder, I agreed with this and I knew it would be a minor tweak. Also there was a bit where the synth sound came in a little bit early, this is also something that could be changed in a matter of minutes. On a personal note, I felt when I watching it back the dialogue could be a a tiny bit louder, possibly getting slightly overpowered by the synth sounds, but apart from that there was nothing major to change.
Link to video - http://vimeo.com/114607658
Password - Donkey
Thursday, 11 December 2014
Friday, 5 December 2014
Sound Production
These are my notes, ideas and screenshots from the sound design.
The longest part of the sound design I have had is syncing the dialogue with the video, this is due to me having issues with waveforms not showing up on the sound clips, this means I'm unable to see where the levels change and where they match the original sound.
Linking the dialogue has taken about a day to put together, this is something I want to get out of the way as soon as possible. I'm also having some issues with protools itself, I'm finding that its constantly loading and being generally slow this is something I have found on multiple computers, I have even tried to change where I link the files from, for example; putting all of the sound clips on the desktop.
Funnily enough the waveforms on the clips decided to load after I had done the dialogue.
The next part of the sound design is to record some foley sounds and also atmosphere, here is a list of the sounds we had to record in post.
Bat Sounds - Although we already had sound for the bat we wanted to make the sound of the bat quite big, I recorded some hand claps just to slide in there to make it a bit more skull crunching.
Cum Sound - We needed a cum sound, I just wanted something subtle so I just rubbed my finger on a piece of cloth.
Mouse Clicking - This was straightforward, I just recorded the sound of a mouse clicking.
Bedroom Atmosphere - This was to bring the whole piece together so that we didn't have any silent parts.
Laptop Fan Atmosphere - I recorded an atmosphere with my laptop on, this was so I could get the sound of the fan, this was to match up the sound of the fan that I go on the shoot.
Phone Vibrating - This was also simple, I just recorded a phone vibrating.
All of these sounds were straight forward to record and also straight forward to sync up.
Editing Dialogue/Foley
The editing of the dialogue was pretty simple I just rolled off all of the high frequencies, this is something I would usually do on dialogue anyway. I found that there was a small section of dialogue that was really loud and became a tiny bit distorted, this was something I couldn't do a lot about, but I found that rolling off the high frequencies did help a little bit.
In another part of the sound editing, there is a scene where Paul is editing and we need to use bit of a video from the previous scene, but we had to change the sound so that it was coming out of the laptop and from a distance, I did this by rolling off the hight and low frequencies, I also lowered the levels on it, I found that this worked well and manipulated the sound to how I wanted it to.
The longest part of the sound design I have had is syncing the dialogue with the video, this is due to me having issues with waveforms not showing up on the sound clips, this means I'm unable to see where the levels change and where they match the original sound.
Linking the dialogue has taken about a day to put together, this is something I want to get out of the way as soon as possible. I'm also having some issues with protools itself, I'm finding that its constantly loading and being generally slow this is something I have found on multiple computers, I have even tried to change where I link the files from, for example; putting all of the sound clips on the desktop.
Funnily enough the waveforms on the clips decided to load after I had done the dialogue.
The next part of the sound design is to record some foley sounds and also atmosphere, here is a list of the sounds we had to record in post.
Bat Sounds - Although we already had sound for the bat we wanted to make the sound of the bat quite big, I recorded some hand claps just to slide in there to make it a bit more skull crunching.
Cum Sound - We needed a cum sound, I just wanted something subtle so I just rubbed my finger on a piece of cloth.
Mouse Clicking - This was straightforward, I just recorded the sound of a mouse clicking.
Bedroom Atmosphere - This was to bring the whole piece together so that we didn't have any silent parts.
Laptop Fan Atmosphere - I recorded an atmosphere with my laptop on, this was so I could get the sound of the fan, this was to match up the sound of the fan that I go on the shoot.
Phone Vibrating - This was also simple, I just recorded a phone vibrating.
All of these sounds were straight forward to record and also straight forward to sync up.
Editing Dialogue/Foley
The editing of the dialogue was pretty simple I just rolled off all of the high frequencies, this is something I would usually do on dialogue anyway. I found that there was a small section of dialogue that was really loud and became a tiny bit distorted, this was something I couldn't do a lot about, but I found that rolling off the high frequencies did help a little bit.
In another part of the sound editing, there is a scene where Paul is editing and we need to use bit of a video from the previous scene, but we had to change the sound so that it was coming out of the laptop and from a distance, I did this by rolling off the hight and low frequencies, I also lowered the levels on it, I found that this worked well and manipulated the sound to how I wanted it to.
Monday, 1 December 2014
Electronic Inspiration
Throughout the process of this production I have said I wanted to use electronic music in our film, I felt that it would fit in perfectly to our film, I have mentioned that I have been inspired by a range of different artists such as Bonobo, The Chemical Brothers and also Aphex Twin; all of these musicians make a variety of different music, but I think they also have a lot in common in that they make music that I believe could be used as score for film.
I wanted to look at other composers that have actually made music for film, and apply it to my own film and how I would create a similar electronic sounds.
So i decided to look at Blade Runner, this film is well known for its electronic soundtrack which was composed by Vangelis.
Here is a snip of the soundtrack.
This sounds works well as a film score as it is very subtle, and it is the subtle side of this that I want to take inspiration from, although I want my sound design to be glitchy and over the top in some parts of the film, I also want to be subtle where I feel it be necessary. I want to have some subtle electronic tones working all the way along the film, I want to use these to build up the end and to reflect the moods of the characters. I feel that in the video link about it does that very well and I could understand how it would reflect a mood or tone.
I wanted to look at other composers that have actually made music for film, and apply it to my own film and how I would create a similar electronic sounds.
So i decided to look at Blade Runner, this film is well known for its electronic soundtrack which was composed by Vangelis.
Here is a snip of the soundtrack.
This sounds works well as a film score as it is very subtle, and it is the subtle side of this that I want to take inspiration from, although I want my sound design to be glitchy and over the top in some parts of the film, I also want to be subtle where I feel it be necessary. I want to have some subtle electronic tones working all the way along the film, I want to use these to build up the end and to reflect the moods of the characters. I feel that in the video link about it does that very well and I could understand how it would reflect a mood or tone.
Wednesday, 26 November 2014
Sound Notes
Here are the sound notes i made during the shoot.
Setting up - I have set up my equipment and I'm checking levels and the general sound that I'm getting from this room. I'm finding that there is a little bit of feedback. This room has quite a bit of echo, this might be due it being quite small in here. This is something I may have to rectify in the sound edit. Apart from this everything seems to be fine, not picking up any sound from outside, this is something I was worried about previous to the shoot. All windows have been shut to stop this problem. I'm also not picking up any sound from other flats which is also a plus.
All mobile phones have been switched off so we are not picking up any unwanted signals.
We are having a laptop in our production, the first laptop we try is way to loud, the fan is working overdrive and this is the sound that I'm picking up over dialogue. We rectify this issue by using a different laptop and this makes a massive difference, although we can still here a fan, it helps to not make the space feel totally silent.
Scene Recording - On the first recording of the initial scene I found that my levels were a little bit too high, this was easily sorted through the mixer and zoom. Apart from that I found that I was getting clear dialogue.
Throughout the recording of the scenes, the only problems I encountered were the actors speaking louder which meant I was constantly changing levels to accommodate, but that was the only issue.
The main sounds recorded on this shoot were dialogue, this was due to me doing a lot of post sound. Many of the sounds were going to be recorded after and I would be using a lot of electronic sound.
Recording Outside - There is a scene we shot outside, I was unable to pick up any sound outside as there was nearby building work going on, this would mean I would have to get a separate atmosphere track that I would lay over in the edit. I had to record dialogue from an outside shot inside and this worked fine as it was sheltering my sound from the building work.
Setting up - I have set up my equipment and I'm checking levels and the general sound that I'm getting from this room. I'm finding that there is a little bit of feedback. This room has quite a bit of echo, this might be due it being quite small in here. This is something I may have to rectify in the sound edit. Apart from this everything seems to be fine, not picking up any sound from outside, this is something I was worried about previous to the shoot. All windows have been shut to stop this problem. I'm also not picking up any sound from other flats which is also a plus.
All mobile phones have been switched off so we are not picking up any unwanted signals.
We are having a laptop in our production, the first laptop we try is way to loud, the fan is working overdrive and this is the sound that I'm picking up over dialogue. We rectify this issue by using a different laptop and this makes a massive difference, although we can still here a fan, it helps to not make the space feel totally silent.
Scene Recording - On the first recording of the initial scene I found that my levels were a little bit too high, this was easily sorted through the mixer and zoom. Apart from that I found that I was getting clear dialogue.
Throughout the recording of the scenes, the only problems I encountered were the actors speaking louder which meant I was constantly changing levels to accommodate, but that was the only issue.
The main sounds recorded on this shoot were dialogue, this was due to me doing a lot of post sound. Many of the sounds were going to be recorded after and I would be using a lot of electronic sound.
Recording Outside - There is a scene we shot outside, I was unable to pick up any sound outside as there was nearby building work going on, this would mean I would have to get a separate atmosphere track that I would lay over in the edit. I had to record dialogue from an outside shot inside and this worked fine as it was sheltering my sound from the building work.
Saturday, 1 November 2014
Equipment list
This is my equipment list for the shoot.
Equipment List
Sennheiser 416
Zoom H4N
Boom Pole
Wendt MIxer
The reason for choosing this equipment was due to the lack of space I was going to have during the production so I want to be fairly compact and lightweight. Being efficient on this shoot is essential.
Equipment List
Sennheiser 416
Zoom H4N
Boom Pole
Wendt MIxer
The reason for choosing this equipment was due to the lack of space I was going to have during the production so I want to be fairly compact and lightweight. Being efficient on this shoot is essential.
Thursday, 23 October 2014
Production Planning
For this production I want everything to go to plan, so I need to look at all the different techniques I can use so that I don't have any issues with stuff such as outside noise or floorboards squeaking. I will also have to look into what equipment I want to use to that I can counter act and possible issues I may have.
The location that we are filming in, is in a flat. This could create some issues as there are many other people living below where we are filming. This is something I need to be very conscious of when we are shooting. To counteract picking up any sounds from other flats I might have to try and sound proof the room that we are filming in, although could solve the problem it may be an issue as we don't want to get any of the sound proofing in shot. Another option could be ADR this would mean I would have to get the actors in on a separate day and record all of the dialogue then, matching it up in the sound edit. This could also be very long and tedious and might not look as good as I would want it to.
I think that my best option would to be very aware of any other sounds that I could be picking up, this will be on the shoot and in the edit. If I keep a close listen on background sound in the edit, I can edit stuff out and then possibly ADR if the sound is unusable.
Another issue I have is that the room that we are shooting in is quite tight, so we don't have a massive amount of space to work in. A possible solution to this could be to use radio mics, this would mean that the microphones would be attached to the actors and the sound would be very up close to the dialogue. I don't know a great deal about radio mics, so I would have to take some time out to practice with one.
Booming will be something that I will have to be efficient with, I will need to make sure I use the space effectively and to get in as close to the dialogue as possible.
The location that we are filming in, is in a flat. This could create some issues as there are many other people living below where we are filming. This is something I need to be very conscious of when we are shooting. To counteract picking up any sounds from other flats I might have to try and sound proof the room that we are filming in, although could solve the problem it may be an issue as we don't want to get any of the sound proofing in shot. Another option could be ADR this would mean I would have to get the actors in on a separate day and record all of the dialogue then, matching it up in the sound edit. This could also be very long and tedious and might not look as good as I would want it to.
I think that my best option would to be very aware of any other sounds that I could be picking up, this will be on the shoot and in the edit. If I keep a close listen on background sound in the edit, I can edit stuff out and then possibly ADR if the sound is unusable.
Another issue I have is that the room that we are shooting in is quite tight, so we don't have a massive amount of space to work in. A possible solution to this could be to use radio mics, this would mean that the microphones would be attached to the actors and the sound would be very up close to the dialogue. I don't know a great deal about radio mics, so I would have to take some time out to practice with one.
Booming will be something that I will have to be efficient with, I will need to make sure I use the space effectively and to get in as close to the dialogue as possible.
Wednesday, 22 October 2014
Musical Style/ Drum Beat
Another good example for an electronic sound is The Chemical Brothers, I think that they are good a creating a visualisation when listening to their sound. I find that they also make music that could fit well into a film score and this is something I'm very much inspired by.
Block Rockin' Beats is a song that I'm inspired by especially when it comes to the drum beat, I find that it has a nice build up and also creates a lot of energy, this is also something that I think that I could take over into my own sound design. I also enjoy the experimental side to this music, I like the idea that I large variety of different instruments can be used to create a certain tone. I think that when it comes to my design I want to experiment with as many different instrument sounds as I can.
Block Rockin' Beats is a song that I'm inspired by especially when it comes to the drum beat, I find that it has a nice build up and also creates a lot of energy, this is also something that I think that I could take over into my own sound design. I also enjoy the experimental side to this music, I like the idea that I large variety of different instruments can be used to create a certain tone. I think that when it comes to my design I want to experiment with as many different instrument sounds as I can.
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