This past week, we were assigned a project focused on sound. The day before we started the project we learned about all the different techniques of sound used in film, some of which include:
Synchronous sound: Sounds synchronized with what is viewed.
Asynchronous sound: Sound that doesn't match what's on screen.
Diegetic sound: "Realistic sound" that would occur in the productions narrative world.
Nondiegetic sound: Sound that doesn't come directly from the narrative world.
and many, many more!
All these techniques we learned in class complement visuals, makes visuals more realistic, drive character personality, and add emotional impact on a scene!
Following the sound lesson, we were supposed to watch 4 videos on sound.
The first video talked about sound illusion and how it was used in Christopher Nolan's, "Dunkirk." The video basically focused on the Shepard tone, which is an auditory illusion that consists of several tones. This makes audio sound like a never ending piano scale, and when used continuously, the sound becomes more tense.
The three other videos all talked about the art of Foley!
The first video showed a foley artist making noises for a horseback riding and plane crash scene. He explained that a movie is basically like a blank canvas, and foley artists add the brush strokes.
The second video featured two foley artists and a mixer and showed them making various sounds for different scenes. They said that much of what we hear in films consist of foley, and that all sound is two elements hitting one another.
The final video featured three foley artists that worked on the 2018 horror film, "The Quiet Place." They demonstrated the various tools they used to make the sounds in an almost soundless movie. They even used a stun gun on a patch of grapes to create a monster echolocation sound!
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Now moving on to the sound project:
Directions:
We were supposed to create a 1-2 minute school appropriate scene using only sound. The scene should have consisted of an action that could literally happen in that timeframe. No video was allowed, the project couldn't exceed 2 minutes, we may only use 7 words in the entire project, school/work, cooking, and robbery scenes were not available, and at least 4 of the sounds used in the project had to be created using foley. The foley process was to be filmed and put together in a video file.
Our first step in the process of creating this project is the outline!
Creating the Project!:
My partner and I immediately started to think about different settings that we could use. We first thought about making it take place in a restaurant but then realized we weren't allowed to include cooking in the project, so we scrapped it.
After thinking some more, we thought about a grocery store! As soon as we had our setting established, we began writing on the sound outline document. After finishing the environmental noises heard before walking into the store, we began thinking, "what is the plot going to be?"
At first it was going to be about a person rushing to get groceries for a party but we didn't really like the idea so that went away. After thinking for a while, we finally came up with a decent plot!
The project was going to be about a teenager fooling around with a grocery cart while shopping. After a bit, she crashes into one of the aisles, creating a whole scene which causes her to get kicked out.
Simple!! So we stuck with it.
Excerpt from outline ^^
This outline made the editing process much easier, I mostly relied on it while putting the sounds together as I typically forgot what sound was supposed to come next. It also helped us see what sounds we needed to download for the project, and after we found a good sound for one of the items on the outline, we put two little stars next to said item to check it off.
Foley! As said previously, for this project at least 4 of the sounds in our project had to be made through foley.
The 4 sounds we selected for foley were:
Footsteps (running, walking, running on leaves, walking on leaves)
Heartbeat
Products falling on the floor
Leaves falling
The overall process was a lot of fun as I had the opportunity to think up ways to make these sounds. I would say the hardest sound to make was the heartbeat. I tried tapping objects on different kinds of surfaces such as my desk and bed sheets, but neither of those two sounded like an actual heartbeat. After a while of thinking, I decided to create a heartbeat sound by lighting stepping on a rug with socks on. This worked best in creating a heartbeat!
Definitely my favorite part of this project was making these foley sounds!
The editing resource I used was Adobe Premiere Pro once again! It was easier operating the system this time around since I have a bit more experience! It was enjoyable mixing all the sounds together, and I'm pretty satisfied with the final product.
I think overall the project is decent!
There were a lot of good moments with the audio mixing, like in the outdoor scenes where we can hear construction sites, far away cars, wind blowing, chatter, crunching leaves, rain, and much more. I also really like the ambience felt inside the grocery store. I think the background music, crying babies, buzzing lights, grocery carts, cash register beeps, along with much more really did a good job in establishing the setting of the scene. I think what could have been done better were some of the transitions, especially the switch from environmental sound to grocery store sound in the beginning.
This sound project was a great learning experience, and I had tons of fun while making it!
Sound Project link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1AI-h-ekN33yVI4ICp_O_ytpi4ZrbnLRQ/view?usp=sharing
Foley video!- https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cAyM4WEE38SoU-UMpYSFSMS3H_oc0yDa/view?usp=sharing
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