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]
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