EVALUATION

For the first task, I chose the Lost in Translation scene as I thought the fact that there was seemingly little sound to be recorded upon watching it would be hard to create. As the clip has no interaction with loud sound and obvious foley, I wanted to see if I could find the right balance between foley and soundtrack. I took inspiration by another one of Sophia Coppola’s films ‘Somewhere’ [1] where the film is incredibly pensive and lingering, with not many words said. This minimalistic approach which Coppola favours, is true for both films, with the sound design although using restraint, still being memorable. You can hear the main characters breathing and little sounds that are usually overlooked or ignore in the mix, like the sound of the embers on the cigarette he smokes. I took this technique as inspiration; of finding the little things to record and put high in the mix such as breathing and footsteps that are far away on film. 

I recorded the foley sounds in the protools studios with a Marantz 661 and a Sennheiser 614 which I felt was incredibly important to do as the foley sounds were to be so fragile in the mix; they had to be incredibly clear. The problem I had with recording was that I felt that the recordings may have been too quiet, as I had to increase the gain on the compressor a few times for my recordings. Also a problem with faulty mic stands meant that I had to hold the mic while I was recording my own footsteps which made the recording not as clear as I would have liked. Another problem I ran into was the fact that the protools is still not completely soundproofed; as I tried to record in the studio, people that opened the door of the room was audible on the microphone which was annoying as many continuous recordings I recorded were ruined by this.  

However, I was pleased with the accuracy of the footsteps I created and the initiation I took in tying a paper strip around a mic stand to imitate Charlotte tying it to a tree. Another recording I am glad I factored in was the recording of the material I found in protools for the brides dress as it would not have been realistic enough if you heard her footsteps but not her dress. 

During editing the scene, I immediately ran into problems that could have been otherwise fixed mainly due to faulty computers but also due to the fact I had nearly forgotten about have to save properly on Soundtrack Pro and didn’t Save Collect so lost my files. I had to restart the project nearly three times before I managed to find a computer that worked. I found editing the footsteps of the project quite difficult as although I had some good recordings, the one file I needed kept corrupting so I had to re-do one sequence of footsteps multiple times. Also, manipulating them so they match perfectly with the picture was challenging as people don’t walk in perfect synchronisation so I had to keep chopping and changing the footsteps until they fit. A technique we were taught in a workshop proved useful though, as we learnt how to use the wet option on Space Designer on the footsteps to make them echo. I used this technique as Charlotte walks into the temple, increasing the wet setting as she comes closer to the camera. I also used the gain Channel EQ to make it so her footsteps start quietly when she is walking up the stairs, as she is far away and then get gradually louder as she comes further towards the camera. This technique was great as it created a sense of space in the scene, so the footsteps weren’t just monotonous. The song that I chose for the scene, SWEET SOUL by Trans Atlantic Rage/Balogh, I thought was very fitting as it was very atmospheric and tonally moody enough to create that air of mystery that is wrapped around the scene. Ultimately, I would have liked to create my own soundtrack on Logic so I could vary the tones but I ran out of time. I felt that my problem in this project was planning as I found that I nearly ran out of time for the edit due to problems with clashing edits in other modules. I recorded the foley early but  the edit was almost rushed in a way and I did not spend as much time as I would have liked to have on it. When I presented the film, it was noted that the sounds that I had intended to be quite high in the mix such as the footsteps, wind and tying paper to a branch were quite hard to hear. This was due to the fact that I leveled on headphones as I didn’t have enough time to level on speakers, again due to poor planning on my part. This was disappointing as I had tried to take influence from Somewhere in making little sounds that aren’t usually noticeable quite high in the mix so that the audience recognizes these as things that add to an otherwise silent mix which is unusual and something new for the audience. However, I didn’t execute this but took heed for the major project as to definitely mix on speakers for the major and future projects. The fact that I needed variation in tones for the soundtrack was mentioned too as when when Charlotte had visible reactions to something, this needed to be highlighted by a tone change to create a deeper sense of emotion for the audience so they connect with her. Overall, I was glad with my recordings, but I was disappointed with the amount of time I had given myself to edit which prohibited me from getting the best mix that I had envisioned. The things that I took from this edit were to allocate myself more time to edit and also to mix on speakers instead of headphones, while making sure the levels I recorded at were correct. 

For the major project, I chose War of the Worlds because after watching the scene, I felt like it would be both challenging and interesting to recreate the sound of an alien that sounded like it was moving through a space. I initially wanted to experiment with recording foley sounds working with water and machinery such as a scanner with a contact mic to create the sound of the alien but due to factors such as also doing sound for a poorly scheduled narrative strand documentary, I basically ran out of time to record these sounds which was incredibly disappointing as I knew I had ran into these problems in the last project. Fortunately I had already been researching alien sounds by watching prominent sci-fi films such as Star Wars and Close Encounters of the Third Kind for ideas on how to create my alien sound. I watched a video called ‘Ben Burtt on Lightsaber Sound Design’ [2] where the composer of Star Wars talked about overlaying different sounds and creating a sense of movement and space which inspired me to use this exact kind of technique in creating the alien sound. I created the sounds of the alien on Logic using a pulsating drone for the alien and created the opening of the aliens head with a standard instrument which was a violin that had been synthesized, taking inspiration from Wendy Carlos, who stated that ‘to polish my craft, I tried to synthesize known instruments like the violin, drum or oboe.’ [3] 

For the foley, I created breathing, various different footsteps, a rat scurrying and a mirror being put down in the protools studio, this time making sure that no one would come in and interrupt my recordings like they had done on the last project and I booked a working mic stand from stores so I could record the sounds clearly with having to hold the microphone as well as create the sound. 

After I had all the sounds, I put them into Soundtrack Pro to edit them and level them. As the levels had been far too low in the mix in the last project as I had worked on headphones, I decided to completely work off of the speakers in Edit 6. For the alien to sound like it was moving, I decided to use the technique of volume change like I did in Lost in Translation to show the alien getting closer and further away. I also decided to use the technique of panning which I had never tried before. I read about the technique of creating space and how sight and sound help each other to create a sense of realistic movement and space in film. ‘...In Top Gun, when jets fly left to right across the screen and then exit screen right, what may be perceived aurally is the jet flying off-screen...the mulitchannel film sound system does not have the capability to accomplish this effect technically, but it is nonetheless perceived because of vision overwhelming auditory spatialization.’ [4] 

I used the technique of panning left to right when the probe whipped its head from left to right so it felt like you were moving your head along with it and could see what it could see and increased and decreased volume for tenser moments when the audience believe that the probe is going to catch the humans. For the foley I recorded, I used reverb on nearly all of the tracks to give it again, a sense of space so that it is believable that they are in the cellar. I increased the gain significantly for the alien and the foley sounds I recorded because my last project was too quiet. I felt that something was missing from the drone of the alien because although I had panned and volumed it to make it sound like it had a sense of space, I feel like I hadn’t added enough layers to the sound like I had originally planned but then like my last project, ran out of time to rectify this before presenting. 

It was commented that some of foley was a little loud and we had a discussion about the loudness of foley for cinematic purposes but the main problem was that my alien sound needed something else on top of it to make it not just have one continuous droning sound. After the presentation, I re-edited the sound so that the alien had another metallic buzzing sound on top of it that heightened and lowered in volume to create a greater sense of space in the cellar. I also added a low humming sound when the camera zooms in on the pulsating lights on the alien probe, taking inspiration from the film ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind’ [5] where there is a close-up of the spaceship and a low humming sound is also heard. I also lowered nearly everything in the mix so it wasn’t as loud as to create a more realistic sound, as the people in the cellar would be trying to be quiet as not to attract the alien.

Overall, I thought think that I put a lot of effort into the scene and tried to research other films in that genre for influences in the scene. I tried to find a sound for the alien probe that  would scare an audience due to its loud, minor key synth presence. I used many techniques to make the probe feel as realistic as possible such as panning to create a sense of space and to create tension when the audience thinks that the humans are to be discovered. I used a fast increase in volume to strike tension into an audience when the probe looks right into the camera or whips its head quickly and I feel like this scene would appeal to any sci-fi genre fan as I took influence from sci-fi films and tried to make the probe and foley as realistic and spatially aware as possible. 

In the future, I will have to allow time for projects as the two tasks I did in this module could have been better if I had had worked in more time to spend on them. I will use the new techniques I have learnt such as panning, reverb and automation to further my abilities in future projects.

Bibliography

Somewhere, 2010, motion picture, American Zoetrope, distributed by Focus Features, United States. [1]

Ben Burtt on Lightsaber Sound Design, 2007 [online video] Last accessed 20 December 2012 at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0WJ-8B6aUM&feature=player_embedded [2]

JACKSON, Blair (2002) Wendy Carlos, March from A Clockwork Orange [online] Last accessed 17 December 2012 at http://web.ebscohost.com.lcproxy.shu.ac.uk/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=0cf5c595-8d8d-4eaa-a8cc-6542f5dfc793%40sessionmgr115&vid=2&hid=125  [3]

TOMLINSON, H (2010) Sound for Film and Television, Third Edition, Influence of Sight on Sound Localization [online] Taylor & Francis Ltd. Last accessed 20 December 2012 at http://www.dawsonera.com/depp/reader/protected/external/EBookView/S9780080517407/S42  [4]

 Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), motion picture, EMI Films, distributed by Columbia Pictures, United States. [5]

WOTW varnishing

Today I re-edited my clip by adding a shimmering, buzzing sound  called Moonlight Shimmer in Logic on top of the drone I had used on the alien to make it seem more realistic and alive and not just one drone sound. 
As the note was not a continuous one, I dragged it along in the piano roll mode so that it would now be continuous and I could edit it in Soundtrack Pro.

A screenshot of dragging the midi along in Piano Roll it was continuous.

I bounced the single track and put in into Soundtrack Pro and edited the volume so it sounded like it was getting closer or farther away to create a sense of space in the edit.

In this shot, it illustrates the use of volume I created to create presence and a space for the alien probe.

For the part where the camera closes up on the aliens light pulsations, I took out the synth noise I had used before and got a synthesised humming sound off of freesounds.com to use so it sounded like you could hear the inner workings of the alien's cogs, humming away. I faded the noise in and out with volume as that part is only brief but I also increased the pitch in Pitch Shifter II to make the hum more high-pitched as the original file was quiet low and couldn't be heard over the drone sound I already had.

Screenshot of the sound I used.

I increased the pitch in Pitch Shifter II to make it audible over the drone and faded it in with volume.

I also lowered the volume of some of the foley that I used as it sounded a bit too loud in the Void and as I had discussed with Ron, the fact that the people would be trying to be quiet in order to hide from the alien is an important one to consider in sound for film. 

WOTW presentation

The presentation was good as everyones standard of work was much higher than our previous project and everyone had spent a lot of time on their projects. War of the Worlds had been edited by three other people but we had all taken a different approach to the alien sound and foley as well.
The main problem with my clip was as I had feared, that the alien was just one continuous note that pulsated and moved with pans that needed something else to make it seem alive. 
Luckily, I can re-edit the film and add this into the mix.

EDITING: Soundtrack Pro

I started by first creating the atmos for the basement of the scene by finding a basement tone atmos off of the network and setting it as my basis. The soundclip itself was a little too heavy but it was the only one on the network that I felt gave the sense that it was recorded in a echoing cellar so I lowered the volume of the clip right down so it was just there in the background. 

At the beginning of the scene when the alien probe comes through the hole in the roof, there are raindrop dripping through the roof. I got two rain dripping sounds off of the network, one with continuously heavy dripping, like the drips pictured on screen and the other just single drips falling and echoing onto the floor, making it seem like they are falling in a cellar. I put them both playing continuously through the scene, the heaving dripping very loud at first to signify the water dripping from the hole but when the camera moves away from that, I set them very low in the mix so they only be faintly heard. The single drips I played at a medium level all the way through because I thought they were a little flair that helped you to believe that they were in a trashed cellar. I also made one of the drips quite loud for when the alien turns his head at 0:50 as an almost trigger for the alien turning its head as well as the man and the girls shuffling. 

The volume gently lowers as we get further away from the dripping hole in the roof.

The drips get louder as the alien goes back through the hole to create a sense of space.

I then began with editing the footsteps and putting them into the mix. Although I had been watching the video while recording the footsteps, it was hard to record them exactly in time with the video so I had to heavily edit the footsteps so they sounded realistic. I matched every step they took to an step I had recorded and also used other footsteps for the other man who is hiding with them in the basement. 
I used a small scuff of the foot I had recorded on the concrete for the scene at 0:50 where the man and the girl have to duck so that the alien won't see them. I thought that putting a small noise in the mix would be the reason that triggers the alien's cause for turning its head and investigating where they are stood. 
I put reverb on all of the footsteps, upping the wet of the soundtracks giving them an echoing effect so it sounded like they were running around in a basement. 

This shows the amount of chopping I had to do to the footsteps, the volume I used to lower the sound as they walks away from camera and the EQ to make it sound like she is is in cellar.

For the people running around the basement, I realised that when I recorded the footsteps, I hadn't thought about their clothes making a sound around when they moved. Luckily, I had recorded cloth in the protools studio when I worked on the Lost in Translation clip so I edited in the material sound, quite low in the mix, so that when they moved, so did their clothes. Although it was a small factor in the mix, it did make a difference and made the sound more realistic. 

This screenshot shows how low I had to have the material in the mix as it wasn't overly obviously and as the recording had been originally quite loud, I decreased the gain on Compressor so it wasn't overbearing.

For the breathing, as I had took many takes, I didn't really have to edit or cut out the breaths at all. However, as the girl is a very little girl, I felt that my breaths weren't pitched high enough to sound realistic so I used the pitch effect and used Pitch Shifter II and upped the semi-tones for a higher pitched version of the sound so it then sounded like a little girl breathing. I added in the breath for the man very low in the mix for the scene when they are hiding behind the mirror because I felt that if the volume was too high, it wouldn't be realistic as they are trying to be quiet to hide from the alien. 

This shot shows the Pitch Shifter II and how I used it to increase the pitch so she sounded younger and how I increased and decreased the volume when she came in and out of shot.

For the rat scurrying across the floor, I used the rat feet foley I had recorded at a very low volume with some distortion added to it. I decided that I wanted to have a rat squeaking sound because this coupled with the rat's movement, I felt, would draw the alien away and also it was a nice little effect in the mix. However, I couldn't find anything on the network that I couldn't use for a rat squeaking so I used a free sound I found online of baby chicks chirping and then edited it by pitch shifting it up to sound like a rat squeaking. 

The internet page where I found the sound.

I increased the pitch in Pitch Shifter II so the rat's squeak sounded more high-pitched.

For the alien shutting its metal visor down, I didn't have a sound for so I looked online on freesounds.com and found a metal hubcap rolling on the floor then falling and used this for the metal sound of its visors clamping together but quite low in the mix.

The internet page where I found the sound.

For the mirror sequence, I decided to only use the sound of the mirror being put down that I had recorded instead of using the scraping of the mirror being moved around as well. I did this because I felt that the people moving the mirror wouldn't want to make any sound to attract the probe to them so I just used the sound of the mirror being put down and added a little reverb to it so it had an echo to it, as it is a heavy object in a cellar. 

Here I added a little reverb to the mirror but upped the dry so it sounded like it was actually being put down it front of the camera and not echoing heavily throughout the scene because it wouldn't in real life.

For the part where the alien's eye focuses on the girls shoe, I used an actual camera shutter sound of zooming into something because even though the probe appears to be futuristic, I felt that the zooming sound was still electronic enough sounding to use for the alien. I added some reverb to it though to make it sound more threatening and lowered the frequency with a Low Pass Filter as the original sound was brassy.

I lowered the frequency because the original sound sounded a lot harsher and brassy and also put reverb on so that the metal echos a little when the metal lids close.

For the alien sound, I bounced the track I had made in Logic and then put it in the Soundtrack Pro project. However, the panning noise and the volume I had edited in Logic sounded much more different in Soundtrack Pro and was hardly noticeable so I had to re-do the entire panning and volume in the mix. However, this factor made it easier for it to correspond with the other sounds in the mix. 
The alien sound itself, I felt although with its panning and volume changes to make it sound like it was moving, felt like it was missing something more to give it that sense of space. I tried very quickly at the end of the edit to try and add something to the project in logic that made it sound better but I couldn't find the right kind of sound and then I ran out of time to really edit it again which was unfortunate. 

This shot shows how I panned the drone sound for when the machine moves around the cellar and used volume to give it a sense of space, depending on how close it is to the camera or to the humans trying to hide from it.

However, overall, I enjoyed the edit and making and finding foley sounds to use and manipulate.

EDITING: Logic

Although I thought I was going to use foley to record the alien probe then manipulate it, I ended up running out of time to so as problems with people not doing their job in my Narrative strand film ended up with me basically working on my documentary every day for two weeks and not having time for recording which was disappointing.
However, I used decided to use Logic to manipulate synth to create the alien, taking inspiration from Wendy Carlos' work.
I started by trying to find a low drone sound for the bulk of the probe as I felt that as it was so large and created a lot of tension in the scene, it needed to be loud and drone like to create a uncomfortable presence. I found a synth sound called Frenchie in one of the synth plug-ins and played it continuously throughout the piece. 
As this continuous drone, would be flat and have no sense of space around it in the clip, I used volume and panning in Logic to create movement and the feeling that the alien probe was moving around the space

I increased volume for instance when the probe's head is close up, and decreased it when it was far away. When the probe hears the sound of the girls shoe, I increased the volume immediately as it swings its head back towards the camera.

I used panning to create movement to the probe, for instance when it swings its head around towards the camera, I panned from the left to the middle. When the probe swings its head from side to side, I also panned from left to right to create the sense that it is moving.

For the alien probe opening its head at the beginning of the clip, I used again, electronic synth sounds to create a sense of presence and fear. I used a synth called FM Beauty for when the head opens, a violin sound called Soft Cutter that had been manipulated by synth to sound static-like for when the blue light turns on and another synth for when the main white lights turn on, which were louder and gave a harsh, metallic echo sound which I chose because it created a sense of dread; the head opening sounds I chose were to make the audience be unnerved by it, because of the immediate loudness of the head when the scene starts, the audience knows that the probe is threatening and I wanted to emphasise this with the static-like, synth sounds.

I used the same sounds for when the head closes and cut the sound off immediately when the head closes apart from the Frenchie synth sound which I faded out gently as it retracts from the basement. 
For the bit where the camera closes up on the throbbing lights of the probe, I used a tubular bell synth which I pitched down to make it sound like the inner working sounds of the alien when you get close to it.
Overall, I wanted to alien probe to sound very futuristic, frighting and threatening and the metallic, throbbing synth sounds that I used, I feel emulate this idea of the alien probe.  

Star Wars - lightsaber sound

As War of the Worlds is a sci-fi film, I decided to go back to the one of the greatest sci-fi series of all, Star Wars. The sound for the films was done by Ben Burtt who in the video below talks about how he heard the sound that fit the lightsaber after seeing a painting of it. He recalls recording the sound of a projector motor that made a 'wonderful humming sound' that inspired him for the lightsaber, but says that it was missing a scintillating sound. He happened to record this sound by accident from the signal from a television set inferring with his microphone. He put together with the hum of the projector and that made the lightsaber noise. Although he had the noise, he had to get the sense of movement, so he played the sound he had created over a big speaker and then used a microphone to move towards the speaker and away from it which created a pitch shift and 'an authentic verisimilar of a moving sound.'

This process of creating a layer of sounds and then creating a sense of movement is exactly what I need to do create my alien probe sounds as I am having difficulty creating a effect that sounds like it is moving. I think I will use a pitch shifter, volume and panning to create the sense of space that the alien needs to appear realistic in the sound clip.

Foley for War of the Worlds

I started by booking out a Marantz 661 and a Sennheiser 14 and recording the breathing of the girl and the man in the Workstation protools studio myself trying to make my voice softer for the girl and lower for the man. I recorded the video on my phone so I could watch it then breathe along with the video.

In the Harmer protools, with the same equipment, I recorded the footsteps of the man in one of the foley boxes, again watching a video of the clip on my foot so I could do the steps in time. As the basement in the clip seems to be dirty and cluttered with debris scattered everywhere, I imagined that the floor underfoot would sound slightly crunchy and dusty but would be a hard surface so I scattered dust from one of the boxes on top of a concrete slab and wore heavy shoes so the difference in weight would be evident after I recorded the little girls shoes. I asked Peter Farley to do the footsteps for the little girl because he was wearing light trainers and I wanted there to be a difference in sound and weight for the two sets of footsteps. I also asked him to do the scraping of the shoe on the concrete for the part where the girls foot accidentally slips out and her dad pulls it back in.

The mirror recording was hard because I wasn't sure what to use that sounded heavy enough for mirror being picked up and then dropped onto the floor. Also, I had to factor in the fact that the people in the clip are trying to be quiet so the sound wouldn't be that loud anyway but I wanted to get an accurate recording. 

I recorded the mirror being scraped across the floor as it is picked up by the man by using a broken piece of concrete scraping across a debris scattered piece of concrete. I realised that the sound sounded too harsh and loud on playback so I took a piece of newspaper and put it underneath so the sound wasn't too loud and was a slightly dampened. 

For the mirror being picked up and put down, I decided to use another large piece of concrete against the debris scattered one and place it down so it sounded like a large mirror that had a weight to it.

For the mouse scurrying across the floor, I used two little pieces of cable ties and scraped them quickly along the concrete so they sounded like little feet running away from the alien probe. I also recorded both of my hand scuffing along the debris scattered concrete for when the man is crawling on the floor, creeping away from the alien.