Learning Outcome 3 - Evaluation of Audio Productions
My first Audio production that took place was the animation video clip that I had to record sound effects, dialogue and a backing track too. The name of the video clip given to us was a cartoon animation named 'Feast' which is about a puppy that was not getting the attention and food deserved. When I first started this project, I had never seen the film or clip before which I really liked because it meant that I was jumping straight into the deep end where I could get hands on with the project without copying or knowing where the clip is from. I started out with this project by creating a planning spotting sheet in which is where I watched the video clip over and over, to plan every single second's sound effect that would go there. This meant that I could then print this sheet off and follow it sound by sound while continuingly watching the video and adding in any more sounds that I may have missed out. Once I recorded the sound on the little sound recorder, I imported them onto my mac and then had to convert the files from .WMA to .MP3. Finally I put the video and each and every sound into Premiere Pro to match the sounds with the visuals in the project.
If I were to do this project again, I would definitely use a Clapper Board for each and every audio clip. This is because the hardest thing I found when editing is trying to figure out which sound effect is which and where abouts it goes. The longer the clip, the harder because it means you will have more layers and all the more sounds but even so much as a 20 to 30 second clip, still contains about 3 or 4 layers of sound and a total of about 50/60 sound effects for the environment to have a natural tone of ambient sound, sound effects, actions, potential dialogue and atmospheric noises. Many sounds may not be noticeable as they're are so many but it is the silent and hidden sounds that are the most significant in order for the viewers to feel right at home when watching the clip. To evaluate the animation sounds project, I believe that the project went very very well and the outcome I found to be very pleased with. I liked how my sound effects I had created and used for this project, sounded like the actions in the viewers which made every action more believable and natural. If I were to do it again then I would maybe use a few more sound effects and layers and use another software as Premiere Pro only allows you to have a certain amount of layers which means you can not have any more ambient sounds, backing music or other sound effects going on at the same time as there is a short limit to the layers used. A replacement for this software may be Final Cut Pro or Motion, where it allows you to use hundreds of layers at the same time and not just 4. The last improvements I would make is maybe using a more directional microphone instead of a ordinary recorder so that the directional microphone will only pick up the sounds and not the backing environment sounds which can cause problems. I could even use a directional microphone for the individual sounds and a ordinary recorder for the environment then change the volumes when editing. Lastly, I am going to organise my recordings so that when it comes to editing, all my recorded sounds will be organised by making a folder for the project intended and sub-folders for the dialogue, sounds, ambient sounds and effects. Finally I will label each and every sound so I know what sound is what and where it should go instead of having to work it out and I will also do this by narrating each sound by reading out the clapper board.
What did I learn from this experience?
I learnt how much work really goes into every single animation and film. Not only animations but cartoons too, Disney for example their film 'Wall-e' took over a year to create as they had to modify and create the characters voices from scratch from recording a humans voice who plays the character in the studio, modifying it and developing it for their own unique dialogue in the film. This way the viewers will recognise each of the main characters not by how they look but by what they say and how they sound too. So if you could hear the character before they came on scene, you would instantly recognise the character for their voice recognition and sound effect actions they are making. This takes both time and patience as developing a characters own unique sound and creating the whole environment, objects, actions and sound effects from scratch takes a lot of time and persistence in the making. As a sound designer, we know to limit the time and stress as much as possible to get the work load done for our next projects but meeting the deadlines can not only be stressful, but hard to as you want to work to the best of your ability while making sure each and every frame sounds and is seen as they should be with no unwanted or unneeded sounds which may throw the viewers of course.
What would I take forward from this project to my next in the future?
From this project onwards, I will definitely be expanding my knowledge and experience as a sound designer to create my own animations ad characters while being able to create their environments, setting the scenes, actions, dialogue and ambient sounds or backing tracks to get the natural feel you want the audience to feel as the viewer. Both the animation sounds project and the audio creation for the silent films project, taught me how a sound designer would create his very basic but necessary sounds for each and every part of the frame and clip. I will be taking forward the knowledge of how sound plays a part in the film and how significant every detail is. This will be very interesting to see exactly how far I can take this and what directions it can be progressed in. I would also like to acknowledge and identify how I can maybe manipulate the sounds more and edit them.
Specific examples of improvement:
At 00:00:28, the puppy licks his lips and moans after being given food he does not like. For my sound project, there is no sound he which switches off the attention spam of the audience as we can now identify this frame as being fake as the sounds do not match the visuals therefore the viewer may lose interest after not being able to associate sounds with the actions. If I were to do this again, I would lick my lips with maybe added water dribbling sounds to create this sound effect.
At 00:00:22, the puppy growls. Now I do have a sound effect here but I do not believe it is the correct sound effect as my growling sound is way too edited which means the sound is distorted and too deep. The recording is of me making the sound but because it was way too high, I edited it to sound deeper only it did not work well.
At 00:00:14, the dog bends down and scrunches up the food from the plate. I have sounds recorded in this production for the frame except, I do not completely feel that they are right for the visuals. I believe that they should have been a more of a scrunching sound rather than a light sound as the food is very hard which means it will make a deep sound.
At 00:00:13, the dog swoops down to the plate. The backing track should have gone from happy to not sure to annoyed as the sounds should reflect upon the dogs mood. For this frame, there should have been a moving swiftly noise as he snatches up the food.
This frame should be two fast scrunches then slightly slower scrunches as the dog manoeuvres the food from one cheek to another. The dog is slowly becoming unsure of the taste and ends up spitting the food out. This should have been a harsher sound to really reflect upon the audience of what is happening in this scene.
This frame is where the dog decides he does not like the food therefore he spits the remaining's out. I believe that I could have improved this sound effect as the little plop of the food falling from his mouth does not match. You can see that the food is far thicker so that it would have had a bigger impact when hitting the plate.
For this frame, I could have made a better sound of the man picking up the dog. He forcefully picks up the do, swoops him down and places him on the floor. I should have made a bigger impact of me picking up something to achieve this sound.
This sound is where the man bends down and swoops the dog. I need to of moved the recorder very fast in order to of got the movement in this sound.
For this sound, I made a tapping noise on the surface in my kitchen. This was wrong because looking back at the clip, you can see that the man rubs the dogs head as if to say good boy instead of patting. The lady later pats the dog which fits this sound effects but this should have been a different sound effect of rubbing on a material surface.
To conclude my evaluation of my animation sound project and my added sound effects to my silent film, I believe both projects have taught me the process of what the sound designer would be thinking, feeling and doing in between each and every movement and action taken place. Both projects have taught me a lot and in the near future I will be expanding my knowledge in the sound designing area to build upon my skill. I think sound plays a massive part within films and this should not be taken lightly.
