INSPIRATION
Ben Burtt: Sound Designer
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Randy Thom: Sound Designer
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Audio Workshop With Craig 25/02/2016
What we Learnt:
We were taught about the three main areas of audio, which are: Foley, Ambiance and ADR. Foley is sounds that you would expect to hear and can be seen. What I mean here, is if you saw someone put some heavy books down on a table, you would expect to head a thud as they put them down, or if someone was running, you would expect to hear their feet on the ground, the sound of their legs and arms brushing against them and their breath. Without foley, a scene would appear very flat and unnatural and just wouldn't work at all, as it wouldn't be realistic. You need foley in every kind of film, even animation.
There is a very famous Sound Designer named Ben Burtt who I have mentioned at the top of this post in my 'inspirations' part with some examples of his work. It's really amazing some of the inventions he makes to create his sounds, and some of them are so simple (like his rain machine) and so incredibly effective. I hope to create some of my own sounds for this project using similar techniques to Ben Burtt.
Foley is also sometimes referred to as incidental sound, as it is sound caused by something within the frame. Some indie and experimental films tend to miss out foley. A film which certainly didn't miss out the foley was Shaun Of The Dead, a zombie comedy directed by Edgar Wright. In the clip below, you can see how he has used foley very clearly, as every sound is really exaggerated. Edgar Wright was inspired by Japanese film, as in Japanese films, the use of this type of foley is very common, and sometimes the foley even seems to become a sound effect.
There is a very famous Sound Designer named Ben Burtt who I have mentioned at the top of this post in my 'inspirations' part with some examples of his work. It's really amazing some of the inventions he makes to create his sounds, and some of them are so simple (like his rain machine) and so incredibly effective. I hope to create some of my own sounds for this project using similar techniques to Ben Burtt.
Foley is also sometimes referred to as incidental sound, as it is sound caused by something within the frame. Some indie and experimental films tend to miss out foley. A film which certainly didn't miss out the foley was Shaun Of The Dead, a zombie comedy directed by Edgar Wright. In the clip below, you can see how he has used foley very clearly, as every sound is really exaggerated. Edgar Wright was inspired by Japanese film, as in Japanese films, the use of this type of foley is very common, and sometimes the foley even seems to become a sound effect.
Ambiance is natural sound which you can't control. So an example of this would be the "natural" sound of a space, so in a city, this would be traffic, the hum of the underground and peoples conversations. Ambiance helps to lift the scene and "set the scene" for the audio, so that when you add the vocals, the vocals will have some background to them so that they sound like they are in the actual scene. Ambiance is just as important as foley, as it adds so much depth and without it, you wouldn't be able to tell where the film is happening, or it would sound odd out out of place due to it being too quiet.
ADR stands for Additional Dialogue Recording. This is usually done to replace vocals. An example would be if a set was really loud, and the vocal recordings had lots of the background sound in them, you could either do a partial ADR where you blend the on set audio with the dub that you record in ADR, or you do full ADR, which is where you replace every take and it is dry recorded using a high quality mic. Partial ADR is much harder to do than full ADR, as sometimes it can be difficult to blend the audio tracks together smoothly, and then to sync it up with the video. Whereas if you do a full ADR, you just re-record the whole thing, which means you don't need to blend it with anything, and you're only trouble will be syncing it up with the visuals, however, if it is done to a high standard, this shouldn't be a problem at all.
ADR stands for Additional Dialogue Recording. This is usually done to replace vocals. An example would be if a set was really loud, and the vocal recordings had lots of the background sound in them, you could either do a partial ADR where you blend the on set audio with the dub that you record in ADR, or you do full ADR, which is where you replace every take and it is dry recorded using a high quality mic. Partial ADR is much harder to do than full ADR, as sometimes it can be difficult to blend the audio tracks together smoothly, and then to sync it up with the video. Whereas if you do a full ADR, you just re-record the whole thing, which means you don't need to blend it with anything, and you're only trouble will be syncing it up with the visuals, however, if it is done to a high standard, this shouldn't be a problem at all.
BattleStar Galactica Task
We were shown the horribly done final scene of TV show Battlestar Galactica. The audio on it was horrendous, so we have been tasked with redoing it ourselves, as it is so out of sync.
Collecting Ambiance
The ambiance in the clip that we watched was of a very busy bustling city with lots of traffic, horns pipping, people shouting etc. We went up into the town centre to collect this, as we felt that this would be the most effective place. We took the following equipment with us to record our foley and ambiance: Tascam, Rode Mic, boom pole and headphones. We also had the deadcat attachment for the mic to help to block out some unwanted sounds such as wind. Before we went up into town, we stopped under the subway as we thought that it might be interesting to get some more echoey sounds of the traffic going past above. There were some people going through talking as well, so we recorded that just so we had some variation on the way people were speaking.
When we got up into town we walked through the lanes shopping centre and recorded, as there were lots of people out shopping. We also went in to some shops to get the humming sound of their lights and air conditioning.
Another interesting sound we found was of a dustbin wagon which was left ticking over while the man collected the bins. This was a very loud sound and we thought it would fit very well into the audio for the clip we are replacing the audio on. We tried to record the rumbling of the bins going over the pavement, but we haven't listened back to it yet, so we're not sure how it turned out.
Even though we had only been out for half an hour recording the ambiance, we managed to get a good wide variety of sounds which we will cut together this afternoon.
When we got up into town we walked through the lanes shopping centre and recorded, as there were lots of people out shopping. We also went in to some shops to get the humming sound of their lights and air conditioning.
Another interesting sound we found was of a dustbin wagon which was left ticking over while the man collected the bins. This was a very loud sound and we thought it would fit very well into the audio for the clip we are replacing the audio on. We tried to record the rumbling of the bins going over the pavement, but we haven't listened back to it yet, so we're not sure how it turned out.
Even though we had only been out for half an hour recording the ambiance, we managed to get a good wide variety of sounds which we will cut together this afternoon.
Below are some examples of the ambiance I recorded. The purpose of recording this ambiance was to learn what ambiance is, why you need it and how you record it effectively.
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Collecting Foley
The foley in the clip we saw had sound such as footsteps, clothes rubbing together, and the sound of coins being passed from one person to another.
We didn't specifically go out to get these sounds, as sometimes when you record the actual thing that makes the noise, when you listen back to it, it doesn't sound quite right. We got a recording of footsteps on a variety of surfaces: inside the college on carpet and plastic, and outside on the pavements. We also went into the stair well to get some footsteps of someone running up the stairs.
We all noticed bleeping noises and things too, so we went to the lift and recorded the sound of the doors closing, which was a very slow mechanical sound; we also got the sound the lift made when we pressed the button to call the lift, which made a "ding" sound. Another place we went to get a beep sound was the doors of college, as they are activated with a keycard, and when you press your card to the pad it makes a beep.
The final sounds we recorded were some more squeaky sounds such as a shoe being dragged along the floor. This made a thudding sound and also a squeak due to the friction between the rubber sole of the shoe and the slippery surface of the floor. The last sound we recorded was of a chair being dragged across the same floor we scraped the shoe along. This created a very loud drawn out rumbling sound, which I think will blend into the city audio very well.
We didn't specifically go out to get these sounds, as sometimes when you record the actual thing that makes the noise, when you listen back to it, it doesn't sound quite right. We got a recording of footsteps on a variety of surfaces: inside the college on carpet and plastic, and outside on the pavements. We also went into the stair well to get some footsteps of someone running up the stairs.
We all noticed bleeping noises and things too, so we went to the lift and recorded the sound of the doors closing, which was a very slow mechanical sound; we also got the sound the lift made when we pressed the button to call the lift, which made a "ding" sound. Another place we went to get a beep sound was the doors of college, as they are activated with a keycard, and when you press your card to the pad it makes a beep.
The final sounds we recorded were some more squeaky sounds such as a shoe being dragged along the floor. This made a thudding sound and also a squeak due to the friction between the rubber sole of the shoe and the slippery surface of the floor. The last sound we recorded was of a chair being dragged across the same floor we scraped the shoe along. This created a very loud drawn out rumbling sound, which I think will blend into the city audio very well.
Below is some examples of the foley that we recorded, the purpose of recording this foley was to learn what foley is and why we need it. The purpose was also to learn how to effectively capture the foley and
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ADR (Additional Dialogue Recording) Session
In the clip we watched the ADR was very bad as it was out of sync with the actors, and it didn't match with the background at all. It was too loud and too clear to look as though it was being spoken by the actors. In our group, we had to rerecord the dialogue from the clip. We all took turns to have a go at speaking into the microphone in the audio booth. The audio booth around the microphone has foam on it to absorb reflections from the sound so that the voice sounds very clear, it is sometimes referred to as a dead sound.
Editing the Sounds IN adobe Audition
Sounds For My Project About Domestic Abuse
I have decided that for my QR codes on the corners of my photographs, I want to have the audio separate from the visuals, so what I mean by this is that I want to have (for example) someone curled up and hiding, and have a ticking clock, with sounds of smashing plates and screaming over the top, and then the clock stops ticking, and you hear a door open, and the words "I'm home", the person will look up in fear and the video will finish. This is just a small idea that I have for one of the 3 or 4 QR code videos that I'm going to have.
Here is a list of sounds that I'll need to either find or record myself:
Here is a list of sounds that I'll need to either find or record myself:
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Here are some pieces of advice from a website titled: EpicSound.com (www.epicsound.com/sfx/)
I also found a playlist which has some of the sounds I require, such as a heartbeat and heavy breathing. This will help me to find sounds that sound similar to what I need: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlKkIChXEU9pOC7djnf1qjPJikuG-N2C8
Here are a few examples of the sounds I found in the playlist that could easily have been created using some of the techniques from above.
Here are a few examples of the sounds I found in the playlist that could easily have been created using some of the techniques from above.
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Scoring sound:
Experimenting on Final Cut Pro and Soundtrack pro
First I looked through the sound effects to find ones I want, and then saved them into my folder in the shared area. I then imported my sounds into audition to play around and experiment with them. I used a variety of different sound effects to make a piece of music. Below are some screen shots, and then below that is some examples of the sounds I used and what the finished piece sounded like: