Introduction
I was asked to complete the task of recording the audio for a short scene from a film. My intentions were to improve my skills in recording and editing sound, and to create a successful and effective recording for the short film. Experimenting with sound effects will help me in the future because it means that my future films will have better quality sound than they would have before doing this work. Before starting this unit my skills in recording audio were ok, I had had some experience recording sound in my other units at college, however I didn’t have any experience in editing audio so that was a new experience.
Research/Planning
The first task I had to complete was the requirements and planning, for this I had to choose the scene of the film I was going to add audio to and begin to identify the sounds that were missing. The next task was to research how to create audio successfully. Firstly I researched how to create the sound of a train coming into the station, then I researched microphone placement. This research was useful because it meant that I was prepared and had the knowledge to create good quality audio for the final film. Part of the research I did was primary research by experimenting. For this I was given a scene from Mr Bean The Exam which I had to record and edit the audio for. This included writing a spotting sheet, recording the audio and editing the audio to the video. Doing this experiment was very useful because it gave me a chance to find the best quality way to record audio and let me practice using adobe audition so I could get used to using it before using it for my final film.The final task before production was to plan. For my plan I made a detailed spotting sheet that contained all the missing sounds that I identified and what times they happened, also I completed a risk assessment. Planning was key because it meant I was prepared for production and had a plan of what I needed to do.
Creating Your Product
I found using Adobe Audition difficult at first but then once I got used to it it was reasonably easy. At first I was confused by all the different controls and struggled to understand how to use it effectively. To overcome this issue I used the help sheet that my tutor provided me, got help from my peers and looked online for help. After this I became more comfortable with using the software and it became quite easy to get the results that I wanted. My final audio was quite successful. The quality of the audio was alright, however I didn’t have access to the equipment in college which would have improved the quality. The timing of the audio is ok, the main characters’ footsteps at 00:19 – 00:24 are out of time which I could improve on by watching the film more carefully when recording the footsteps to keep in time with the film. The audio is realistic, and it fits well with what is shown on screen. I think the best parts of the audio are in the trainstation and the wildtrak. The trainstiation audio from 00:00 – 00:04 is good because it uses the actual sound of trains coming into a station, and the japanese coming over the speaker sounds quite realistic. I made the trainstation voice by having my friend record themself speaking japanese and then editing the recording to make it sound like it was coming through a train station speaker. The wildtrak from 00:04 – 01:00 is good because it makes sure there are no silent moments in the film and the sound of the birds fits well with what’s shown on screen. Another strong point of my audio is the school girls speaking japanese at 00:10 – 00:12, I created this by having my friend recording themself speaking japanese then editing those recordings to change the pitch of the voice and layering the recordings on top of each other to make it sound like a group of people were speaking. When recording the footsteps I made it sound different depending on what surface the character was walking on, this made the audio a lot more realistic. For example at 00:23 – 00:29 I added an echo to the footsteps for when the character is walking under the monument, and at 00:44 – 00:52 I recorded footsteps walking through a wooded area for this which made it realistic and more effective. I believe I met my original intentions of creating effective audio for a scene from a film.
Feedback
The feedback I received from by peers was mostly positive, they said “Your wild track is very effective and the footsteps sound good, I especially like where the character walked through the wooded area and you added stick breaking noises, although they sound good, a few of the footsteps don’t seem to match the video fully”. I agree with this feedback. When I got feedback from my tutor she said that I had made a “great start with the train station and the wild track” also “love that you have added echo when she is under the monument”. However, she said that the footsteps were “too loud for how far they are away from the camera”, after receiving this feedback I went back and changed the volume of the footsteps and sent it again to my tutor who said I had fixed this.
Laura Altman 