Progress Update: I have been working on my many projects closely but have not had the equipment to record what I want so I have stuck to making all my sounds crudely or using sound libraries and going forth with making the video side of things. I have gotten pretty far in my stop motion animation and as for my documentary, I have downloaded all my clips that I plan to mess with and have a new introduction idea that I am saving until my presentation to reveal.
Final Project- I have gone and recorded a lot of audio that I will be using for my various clips and now it's simply a matter of putting everything together before final presentation night. I have to go and record some of the weirder sounds that I would like to do but other than that I have most of my basics ready to go.
My currently recorded sounds:
Ambience
Water
Footsteps (Of various kinds)
Hits
Roars
Long tones
Slaps
Scratches
Ambient percussion (such as bongos)
Metallic sliding and scraping
Loud ringing
My List of films (List is subject to change):
Godzilla (1954)
A Man Escaped
Gravity
Back To The Future
Jurassic Park
Raiders of the Lost Ark
My audio is all being edited together in Audacity (a free audio editing software) mostly by adding reverb and amplification to purify it. The program I am using for my video editing, Lightworks, is where I am combining these sounds by placing them in different branches and combing them to the picture. This process is arduous as the audio has to be timed perfectly and sometimes Lightworks acts finicky when under too much stress.
I have to go in and cut my videos separately and then combine them for my final project along with the footage of me recording the sounds I used for each one. The process of putting them together will be repetitive as I have to use the same cut of a scene 3 different ways; the original, the first new tone, and the last new tone. Finally I have to export these videos and put them in one project, similar to a Power Point.
As of now I am practically ready to complete my project and all I have left is to edit everything together with the giant pot of files I have laying around on my computer and my audio recordings.
Introduction and Statement of Purpose My original work is going to be a video completely reworked with my self-produced sound design produced with tools I use at home and with my mentor'(s) studio equipment. It is going to be an edit of multiple famous film scenes that have sound iconic enough to catch the audience's attentions when the sound is changed. This product is meant to showcase the skills required to be a sound designer and its importance in delivering and elevating a media product to a highly professional state that leaves an impact on an audience at a subconscious level. It will be sequenced in groups of a specific scene, shown once normally, then replayed in different emotional tones with various self-created sound design moments (example: Play a scene from a horror movie overlaid with a circus of ridiculous sound effects that would work best with a comedy). I plan to complement the scenes by having a behind the scenes part of the video after each one is shown to the audience so as to specify what specific work went into making certain sounds. I want onlookers to understand the importance of sound design and how much it can completely what is shown on screen.
Review of Skills and Research To better understand sound design I have actively sought out tutorials and articles about details that are popular to mess with in sound and can help the little details in a mix especially one as complicated as I am creating. I already have a lot of expertise in working with computer software related to editing so the video portion of my project will be a matter of only seeking out necessary skills that I do not already have. From my research I have learned more about how to work software to get specific effects or clean up audio that has too much background noise such as wind, footsteps, etc... Additionally, from my various interviews, I have learned to watch out on location with microphones as their sensitivity could make or break a mix when it comes to time and effectiveness of a work. Dirty sound leads to work in the studio that is at times unnecessary if there is good quality audio to work with from the start. I know my way around various audio programs on my PC already and I have looked into tutorials on how to manipulate these programs to get the specific audio quality I want out of them. The most knowledge I require for this project to be a success pertains to the exact way I come up with specific sounds which inevitably means experimentation with various materials to create a mix that is both abstract yet high quality and recognizable to a certain extent. Many of the articles I read in preparation described the pillars of sound design, atmosphere, sound effects, and dialogue pertaining to how important each is in a mix. For my project I am focusing primarily on the atmospheric and sound effect aspects of sound design as dialogue is a layer that is more up to performance than it is to an audio engineer, if anything, some dialogue is modified such as the voice of a villain when trying to get a more menacing sound. Sound effects and atmosphere in film is described as foley, a term derived from a famous sound artist Jack Foley from Universal in the 1930's, and goes through three points of production, pre-production, production, and post production. Pre production is the planning phase in which a foley artist, or sound designer, will get with the production crew and plan out what sounds are required for a product and what will be necessary for particular objects or scenes. In pertaining to me, my pre-production will consist of audience reactions to ideas and what will work as I am using existing products to compliment my own. The primary phase of production as per a sound designer requires a lot of recording in a studio, on location during a shoot, or wherever the sound is best produced (e.g. a loud gun shot in an alleyway). My project will include filming of this phase to show the audience what exactly is used in creating sounds to break the notion that sound is all recorded on location and is the exact sound you would expect from something on-screen. I will use more unconventional objects and experiment as nothing in sound design is set in stone and any set ideas can be shaped around a new creation. The final phase of production, post, is where all the mixing presides and the real creation of new sound begins. By this time the film is edited and put together with placeholder sound effects and music. This is the prime time for sound designers and the film composer as they have to collaborate on creating a final mix that works so well it is unnoticeable to the audience or, at best, memorable because of how inventive it is while blending in to the subconscious. All of my post production work will consist of using my pre-recorded sounds and blending them together in software.
Methodology To begin my project I will screen different scenes past a test audience and my mentor(s) to see what scenes will fit the project appropriately and have a good dose of sound. To continue from there I will edit the scene out and store it for safekeeping while I come up with a plan of what sounds I want to acquire and where I can acquire them from. Not every sound is readily available and a lot of imagination will be involved in using specific items and going to good enough environments to record them. During the recording process, which will require mic/recorder work and the necessary items, I will set up my home camera to film the process and explain what it is I am doing and why to achieve certain sounds. I will also film myself editing this mix to show what goes on with the software. After the recording is done I will compile it all into a folder on my hard drive and begin picking it apart for sounds I want to use. Not every single recording will be used as the quality will not be identical from one to the other. The ones that are good enough will not simply just be used, but rather go through a mixing process to get an even richer sound but only after they have been cleaned for bugs such as electric noise. I will begin editing scenes based on a specific emotional tone so that I may use the correct sounds to convey one emotion at a time as opposed to overflowing my mind with one scene and too many sound files that belong to other emotional ideas. Once the sound and scenes are linked, I have to edit together the video cohesively with a good introduction and conclusion along with the inclusion of my recorded behind-the-scenes bits to give the audience a better idea of the equipment I had to use and why.
Materials For my project to succeed I will be needing high quality hardware and software to record properly and then edit.
Hardware:
Zoom H4N Digital Recorder- Cheap low level recording device.
Various sound creating devices, everyday items. (Anything works for sound creation)
Logitech G35 Headset- High level headphones to hear and clean up audio.
4K Video Camera- To record the sound production.
Software:
Audacity- Free program to use in cleaning up audio and adding specific effects.
RX or Pro Tools- Program used for mixing of sounds to create new sounds.
Final Cut Pro- Video editing program used for the editing of video portion of the project.
I already own most of these items but the few that I don't are quite pricey. The Zoom recorder is one that I'm looking at obtaining and it costs about $200. Pro Tools and Final Cut on the other hand are something I will have to discuss with my mentor(s).
Conclusions I am very excited for the final outcome of this project as it is ambitious for a one man crew, but quite possible and the results will be fantastic. I see the project being a good documentary style explanation of what exactly a sound designer does and how crucial they are to the film process without anyone realizing it directly. I will integrate the project into my final presentation to better give people an idea of what they are experiencing at a subconscious level in a film mix.
Timeline: March 25- Screen different scenes to target audience and list out which scenes I want to use most specifically. Plan out what my categories will be to best fit the chosen scenes to put them out of expectancy.
April 1-12- Go out and record various bits of sound for the scenes and take into account how they will blend together. Utilize back yard, mentor'(s) studio, and percussion equipment in the band hall. Film the entire process to save for behind the scenes footage. Have everything done by the 12th to save recordings into my computer and have them ready to go.
April 13- Spend the day cleaning up the sounds I have recorded and choosing which ones are more valuable than others.
April 14-21- Mix sounds to create new mixes that are appropriate for my emotional tone. Pick which ones are more plausible for specific scenes.
April 21-25- Sequence sounds together with their respective scenes and finalize each one to perfection.
April 25-May 1- Finalize video by editing everything together with a good introduction and ending, make everything cohesive and add on behind the scenes footage. Make sure there will be no technical hitches and use the extra time to perfectly clean the video up and make it something to be proud of.