Unit 38 Soundtrack Production Proposals

Proposal 1

The deadline for this assignment is the 29th of March and I need to create proposals for 2 scenes of my choice as well as completely re-dubbing them entirely with my own dialogue and sound effects. I am aiming to continuously work on the proposals whilst working through the soundtracks to make sure they are accurate.

I have chosen a scene from The Dark Knight Rises which was directed by Christopher Nolan. The clip that I have chosen is 4:45s long.

There are multiple sound effects in the scene for me to replace such as gunshots, other miscellaneous weapon sounds, fighting, glass breaking etc. The whole scene is also set on a plane so I will need to recreate the sound of a plane engine heard mainly from inside the plane with its door open. I will most likely do this with a vacuum cleaner at home or maybe i could record a particularly windy day as i believe this would sound similar to the sound in the original scene and will fill the foley sound criteria. I will most likely use freesound.org as a sound library. Freesound.org has a very wide range of sounds which will make it more likely that I will find a sound effect that matches what I need and what I am looking for. I will also have to dub over the dialogue which I will most likely record in an empty classroom or at home in an empty room. I want to record empty rooms to avoid unwanted background noise messing with my recordings. as a student classrooms are also easily accessible to me I will also have to add new music to the scene.

The music in the scene is all non-diegetic, runs throughout and is all quite tense, action music. The music plays constantly throughout the scene and is used to amplify the tenseness of the scene and the events within it. I will either record a soundtrack in garageband or find a track online through youtube or a similar site. Using youtube will allow me to find an existing track to match the mood of the scene without me having to compose 5 minutes worth of music myself. This would make the process easier for me. I will most likely find royalty free music to avoid any copyright issues.

All of the spoken word in the scene is dialogue. Most of the dialogue comes from the character 'Bane' who has quite a recognisable and unique voice. His voice has also been subject to a bit of modulation as it comes through his mask which is something I will have to take into account when re-recording his dialogue. I will have to lip-sync over the dialogue in the scene which I will again record in an empty classroom or an empty room at home. This location will be good to record in because they are empty so I will be able to avoid background noise in my dialogue tracks.

I will be recording my dialogue using the voice notes app on my iPhone 6 or using the microphone on my headphones to directly record into garageband. The phone has a good quality microphone and a voice recorder app which will make the process easier. I also already own an iPhone 6. Online reviews on the Apple forums also say that the 'quality is crystal clear'. I have found though that the headphone microphone records louder sounds which in quite a loud scene is probably better. This will then be imported onto the mac computer which I will be working on. I am using a mac because the software which I am familiar with and which I am going to use to create my soundtrack is only available on Apple computers. I will be using garageband to edit the sound effects, dialogue and music together to create my soundtrack. I am using garageband because it is relatively simple to use and allows me to combine a film clip with my own soundtrack.

Personnel

Alex - Producer, editor and voice actor

David - Producer

Louis - Voice actor

Romilly - Technical assistant

Proposal 2

The deadline for this assignment is the 29th of March and I need to create proposals for 2 scenes of my choice as well as completely re-dubbing them entirely with my own dialogue and sound effects. I am aiming to continuously work on the proposals whilst working through the soundtracks to make sure they are accurate. I will need to re-dub the the sound effects, the dialogue and the music.

I have chose the opening scene of the video game 'Fallout 4' which was produced by Bethesda. The clip that i have chosen has a runtime of 2:43s.

There are only a few sound effects in the scene that I will need to recreate. The first sound is a sort of fizzing sound when the game title fades onto the screen. There is also the sound of a 'domestic robot' trimming a hedge, bombs exploding and some wind. I will use freesound.org as my sound library for this scene. Freesound.org has a very wide range of sounds which will make it more likely that I will find a sound effect that matches what I need and what I am looking for.

The music in the scene is all non-diegetic and runs throughout. It is quite dramatic to support the meaning and mood behind the scene. this means that i will have to find something with a similar tone so as not to take away from the emotion the scene is meant to envelop. I will most likely find a song on youtube to act as a backing track for the scene. Using youtube makes the process easier for me because I can find a track that matches the mood and meaning of the scene without having to compose one myself. I will most likely find royalty free music to avoid any copyright issues.

The majority of the scene is dialogue because the scene is a sort of monologue. This will be the most challenging part to record due to the amount of dialogue and the need to convey the emotion in the scene. The character also has an american accent which shouldn't be too hard to recreate. It also has some awkward timing to it. I can, however, combat this by using markers in garageband to mark where the dialogue is. I will be lip-syncing over the dialogue and will record it in an empty classroom. I will record here because it is quiet, so I avoid background noise, as well as easily accessible to me because I am a student.

I will be recording my dialogue using the voice notes app on my iPhone 6 or using the microphone on my headphones to directly record into garageband. The phone has a good quality microphone and a voice recorder app which will make the process easier. I also already own an iPhone 6. Online reviews on the Apple forums also say that the 'quality is crystal clear'. I have found though that the headphone microphone records louder sounds. This isn't a particularly loud scene, being a monologue essentially, so either should work. The phone has a better recording quality however. This will then be imported onto the mac computer which I will be working on. I am using a mac because the software which I am familiar with and which I am going to use to create my soundtrack is only available on Apple computers. I will be using garageband to edit the sound effects, dialogue and music together to create my soundtrack. I am using garageband because it is relatively simple to use and allows me to combine a film clip with my own soundtrack.

Personnel

Alex - Producer, editor and voice actor

David - Producer

Romilly - Technical assistant

Documentary Proposal

As the final assignments of Unit 31 I will be creating a community media documentary as part of a group. The first part of the assignment was to research ideas. We then move on to pre-production where we complete things such as production schedules, shot lists and risk assessments etc, these tasks will be split evenly between my group. My group includes me, Lloyd and Isaac. During production we will all be directing and filming (including sound recording) as well as setting up shots. We will also all be editing individually to create a documentary each. I personally will be conducting the interviews, however, which means that I won't be responsible for filming at these points.. The producer and client for the documentary are Coulsdon College.

Our documentary is called Making The Grade and is centred around the problem of student stress. This will be focused around our college to meet the community media criteria. The purpose of our documentary is to increase awareness of the increasing stress that students are under due to things like increasingly high standards and educational budget cuts which limit resources. The impact we would like Making the Grade to have is an increased awareness and empathy for student stress as well as a larger debate about what can be done to combat it.

We will be recording all sound live on location. We will conduct our interviews in empty classrooms because of this so we can combat any unwanted sounds it also keeps it realistic. The student interviews will most likely be recorded in room 219 as it is often free to use and is an open space which will be good for recording. The teacher interview will most likely be recorded in the psychology classroom on the bottom floor as this is the main classroom of the teacher in question. It is also an open room with nice space which will be good for recording. The interviews are the only scenes where diegetic audio is needed. The other clips we will record without sound and then add a voiceover to. This will also be recorded in an empty classroom, again to avoid any unwanted sounds being recorded. The voiceover will most likely be recorded using the voice notes app on my iPhone 6 using it's built in microphone. I used this for my soundtracks as well and am happy with the quality it produces. During the interviews it may be best to record the audio from two separate sources incase one has an error. This isn't needed when recording voiceover, however, as it can just be re-recorded if an error occurs. Other than this I don't believe that any other technical issues could arise in sound recording. 

The personnel for our documentary are:

·      

     Alex – Directing, camera operation, setting up shots, voiceover, editing and interviewing.

·      Isaac – Camera operation, directing, setting up shots and editing.

·      Lloyd – Camera operation, directing, setting up shots and editing.

      The resources that we will be using are an iPhone 8 as a camera and sound recorder. We will also be using an iPhone 6 as a sound recorder. These have built in microphones which online reviews on the Apple forums say are 'crystal clear'. We will be editing using mac computers. I will be using Adobe Premiere Pro to edit my video clips together with my sound recordings. I will then export it and burn it to a DVD to be turned in.

     

      The script for our spoken word is as follows:

Narrator
As times have changed, technology has advanced and many other things have developed, students are dealing with higher workloads in college. The amount of work has had negative impacts on them mentally. This along with the increasingly high standards, cuts to education budgets and the limiting of resources are large contributions to student stress being so rampant.

In the national Stress in America survey, an annual analysis by Harris Interactive for the American Psychological Association 35% of young people polled since 2007 reported feeling more stress this year compared with last year. The worst part of this data is the fact that most people do not feel like they can manage this stress well and that it’s taking a toll on their bodies.

With all these statistics and facts, it is hard to ignore the immediate problem of stress in students. We asked ourselves how stress is being handled in our own college. We collected data and researched the issue to understand it better. We then decided to go and ask students within our college about how they deal with stress and teachers who come from a professional standpoint about the issue.


Questions for Students
1. What subjects are you studying?
2. What qualification level are the subjects?
3. How are you personally affected by student stress
4. What do you think could be done to combat it
5. Do you feel enough is being done? If not, why?


Questions for Teacher
1. How does stress affect neurology?
2. How does the body respond to stress?
3. What are your opinions on student stress?
4. A brief description of the HPA axis and on the adverse affects its activation has.
5. What do you think is being done to combat it
6. Do you feel like enough is being done? If not, why?


Narrator
So how can we combat student stress? What more can be done to aid students in these issues? There are some easy methods to resolve this. When studying students should take a rest every hour and a half to their brain a break. They should also talk to someone so that they are not alone in their studying and stress. Some colleges are equipped with therapists that are there to help and will be understanding of the stressors that can affect students. You should never feel afraid to seek out help. These things, however, are only part of the solution. This problem will never end if we don't fix the underlying problems of budget cuts and increasingly high standards. Education should be gratifying not tiring.

As you can see it will be a split between voiceover and interviews. The interviews will use live location recording and the narration will use studio recording. Everything will be done using our normal accents as we are not playing characters..

If we are to put music in our documentary then it would all be non-diegetic. If i was to use music it would only be in the background during the parts of the documentary which make use of voiceover. I would leave the interview portions without music as I want the audience to especially focus on what is being said from relevant peoples. Any music would be quite tame, relatively simplistic music as I wouldn't want it to take away from the spoken word of the scene and it would only be in the background at quite a low level. I don't really want it to have a large effect on the mood or meaning of the documentary, only to strengthen it a bit or back it up. I will most likely find a backing track on youtube which i will then edit into my individual documentary edit.

I will not be using any sound effects in the documentary as they aren't real life and the majority is interview based which doesn't warrant any added sound effects. In the live recording the only sound effect I would expect is the background ambience that comes with any real life space as nowhere is truly silent and there will always be some small sounds in the background. I want background ambience as it makes it sound more realistic and normal to our ears as absolute silence is abnormal.

Single Camera Short Initial Ideas

My short is going to be based around a patient having a session with their therapist. It will fall under the genre of drama. It will play out as any average therapy session until the end where there will be a twist. There will only be one or  two actors and two or three characters. The patient and the psychologist will be played by the same person. This plays into the twist of their not being a psychologist and the entire conversation being played out by the patient with himself. The third person will notice something strange from outside the door and come in to ask what the patient is doing. This is around where the short will end.

I will most likely film in the college where I can use a desk in an empty classroom to act as a therapists office. I can then use the hallway as the hall outside of the office. I only need two actors and someone to operate the camera. Obviously as the patient and the therapist are being played by the same person they cannot appear on screen at the same time which means there will be many cuts between them. I won't have any sound effects because the short will be entirely dialogue based and there probably won't be any backing music. It will most likely be filmed in and around a classroom in the college that I can make look like the inside and outside of a therapist's office. There are many classrooms throughout the college that would work as a backup plan should something come up in the media corridor when I need to film. There won't be much camera movement  except for following at least one of the characters walking as a filler shot and most scenes will use eye level angles and medium close shots. I also won't use any props apart from a two chairs. I will use natural lighting in the scenes and maybe the lights already in the classrooms. There shouldn't be any risk with my short because of the fact the majority of it is just someone sitting in a chair. The only other scenario would be a second person walking through a corridor and opening a door, which again shouldn't pose any risk.

Adding Sound Effects Evaluation

This assignment required me to add sound effects to a film or TV scene of my choice. For my first example I chose a scene from 'Reservoir Dogs' where there is a mexican standoff between three characters. The original scene had sound effects of guns cocking and also being shot. I muted these points of the scene and replaced them with sound effects that i found on a website called freesound.org. I used garageband to mute the original sound effects and combine the new sound effects with the clip and to export them to a .mov file. I chose to replace the sound effects with similar ones because there isn't much room for other ones in the scene as they are in an enclosed and empty warehouse. I noticed that there were two separate types of gun used in the scene so i made sure to use sound effects of two separate types of gun to signify this. I feel that I managed to time the sound effects well so that they fit the scene. I do also however feel like one of the gunshot sounds that I used sounds a bit unrealistic.

For my second example I chose a scene from 'Silence Of The Lambs' in which the main character, Clarice Starling, meets Hannibal Lecter for the first time. The original scene didn't really have any sound effects in it apart from the sound of Clarice sitting in a chair. I, again, used garageband to add the sound effects and export the clip to a .mov file. The setting of the scene was a prison hallway that seemed quite dirty and dingy. I added the sound of dripping water to signify a leak to show this problem. I also added the sound of rats squeaking because of this. I then added the sound of a chair being pulled out just before Clarice sits down to signify that the chair was there and a part of the scene. I feel that the sound effects that I put in the scene added to the mood and overall atmosphere of the prison setting. I added a low pass to the water dripping to make it sound like it was happening in the distance rather than near them.

Soundtrack Creation Evaluation

This assignment required me to create a soundtrack to add mood or meaning to a film scene of my choice. I chose a scene from 'Paranormal Activity 2' where a woman is in a kitchen reading a magazine when all of the cupboards burst open suddenly and scare her. The original scene had no soundtrack in it and only relied on sound effects. I used garageband with musical typing to create the soundtrack and combine it with the clip from the film. I then exported it to a .mov file. I chose to make a more atmospheric soundtrack rather than a more melodic song because I felt that it fit the horror genre of the film and this specific scene better. I used a celtic harp on a very low octave to create a sort of beating drum sound which plays quietly throughout the scene. I felt that this heightened the suspense of the scene as in the original it is just a woman silently reading which I don't feel has the same impact on the audience without the soundtrack.The soundtrack lets you know that something is wrong and that something is going to happen. The harp increases gradually in volume until the cupboard burst opens where it stays at it's loudest until the end of the scene. I also used violins in a very high octave at the point of the scene when the cupboards burst open because I felt that they added extra shock value to the event and heighten the scare factor for the audience.

This assignment required me to create a soundtrack to add mood or meaning to a film scene of my choice. I chose a scene from Pulp Fiction where the antagonist 'Marsellus Wallace' and 'Butch Coolidge',who is a boxer, are escaping from their captors and getting some revenge. The original scene had no musical backing to it and only used sound effects and dialogue. I used garageband with musical typing to create the soundtrack and combine it with the clip from the film. I then exported it to a .mov file. This time I chose to make a more melodic soundtrack rather than atmospheric. I still feel that it adds atmosphere, however. I used a gregorian choir on a lower octave to create a deep serious soundtrack. I feel that this adds to the mood of the scene as it is quite a serious scene where they are torturing and taunting a man who kidnapped them. The music fades out at the end of the scen so id doesn't end as abruptly. The soundtrack reinforces the idea that this is a very serious scene where there is danger present. I also made the music a low volume so as not to take away from the dialogue in the scene.

38.1 Sound Analysis

Moving Image Soundtrack Report

Children of Men
Children of Men is a 2006 Sci-Fi film. The audio of the opening scene sets the mood and setting of the rest of the film. The audio of the film starts before the video to make sure that you are listening because the audio is very important. I will be focusing on the dialogue, sound FX and the music of the scene.The scene starts out with only dialogue as it sets the scene for the film and explains the state of the world at the time of the film.The government is, for example, deporting all immigrants, Seattle is under siege for its 3rd year and the army has taken over all mosques. There is very little dialogue in the scene. It comes only from the newsreaders on the TV and from the main character ‘Theo’ ordering a coffee. The dialogue from Theo isn’t functional but the dialogue from the newsreaders is as it sets the scene and hints to us that the human race has become infertile because they explain that the youngest person in the world at the time was 18 years old. There are also multiple people crying in the background at the news of the death. Toward the end of the scene there is a bombing which results in lots of screaming from the victims and the witnesses.There is only one piece of music in the scene starting at 36s and running until around 1:01. It is most likely diegetic sound stemming from the news report on the death of the world’s youngest person. It could, however, be non-diegetic and playing only for the audience to hear to set the mood of the scene. It is used to set the mood of the film because it conveys the sadness that the world if feeling because of infertility problems.There are multiple sound effects in the scene. Most of the sound effects are that of the cars, buses and motorised rickshaws driving through the street that Theo is on. There is also an explosion when the coffee shop that Theo had just left is bombed toward the end of the scene which sets of a synchronous ringing of an alarm and in the ears of Theo as he was very close to the shop when It happened. The ringing is a sound bridge to the next scene where it becomes the noise of a scanner at the entrance to the building in which Theo works. The sound effects of the scene are naturalistic because they are realistic sounds that would be happening in that situation. There are multiple sound effects in the scene. Most of the sound effects are that of the cars, buses and motorised rickshaws driving through the street that Theo is on. There is also an explosion when the coffee shop that Theo had just left is bombed toward the end of the scene which sets of a synchronous ringing of an alarm and in the ears of Theo as he was very close to the shop when It happened. The ringing is a sound bridge to the next scene where it becomes the noise of a scanner at the entrance to the building in which Theo works. The sound effects of the scene are naturalistic because they are realistic sounds that would be happening in that situation.

Kingsman: The Secret Service
Kingsman: The Secret Service is a 2014 action film. There is a particular scene toward the end of the film where implants, put in certain peoples heads by the villain as a way to keep them safe from the cull that he wants to perform on humanity, are set to explode to help the Kingsman agents escape what would otherwise be certain death and to help save the world from the villain of the film. I will be focusing on the dialogue, sound FX and music of this scene in this analysis. There is little dialogue in the scene and it is mainly used to explain to the audience what is about to happen in the scene. The rest of the dialogue is the reactions of the main villain 'Valentine' and the Kingsman agents to the events of the scene. The Kingsman agents having a good reaction as it has helped them in their mission to stop Valentine. One of the characters, called Merlin, went as far as to say 'fucking spectacular' after the implants had finished exploding . Valentine and his assistant Giselle having an adverse reaction as it has damaged his plan to keep the most 'useful' people alive whilst the rest of the world is culled. an example of this is Valentine screaming 'No' as he realises what is about to happen.All of the sound effects in the scene are naturalistic as they are realistic to the scene and would actually be heard in that situation. They are also all diegetic as they all come from sources that are actually in the realm of the film as opposed to added in later for only the audience to hear. The sources of the sound effects are computers, a surface to air missile launcher, guns cocking, exploding implants and exploding heads. There are no ambient sounds in the scene. The sound effects are synchronised to the music in the scene to help with comedic effect as you can also see the heads exploding into clouds of colourful gas instead of gore because the antagonist is extremely squeamish. There are two separate pieces of music in the scene, both of them being non-diegetic. The first piece of music runs from the beginning of the scene until about 38s in and is used to build suspense as the two agents are trying to find ways out of seemingly inescapable situations that would almost certainly lead to their deaths. This piece is a sound bridge between the main shots of the main character Eggsy surrounded by soldiers in a hallway and another agent Merlin in a plane which is about to have missiles launched at it. The second piece of music starts at around 43s and runs until about 1:45s is used whilst the implants are exploding within peoples heads and is synchronised with the sound of the explosions. The first piece of music was an original score for the film but the second piece of music is a very well know composition by Sir Edward Elgar. It is called March No.1 and it is from the Pomp and Circumstance series of marches. This piece of music is probably most commonly associated with American college graduation ceremonies in modern times but it is actually a military march from 1901. This music choice could be used to represent the fight between the good force that is The Kingsman and the evil that is Valentine. The name of the series of marches also comes from an Othello quote describing how war is glorious in all of its ritual and ceremony. This may be representing the glory of stopping evil and saving the world and it's values from said evil. It is also seen as an unofficial national anthem for Britain by some people so it could also represent the agents fighting for their country. This music is also used as a sound bridge as we cut to different settings around the world to show the scope of implants exploding and the amount of people swayed by Valentine.

Louis Theroux: Dark States
This is a programme that uses live interviews and so the dialogue in the programme is live location sound the fact that the conversations are real also means the dialogue is naturalistic. In the 3rd episode 'Murder In Milwaukee’, for example, he interviews the family of a man who was fatally shot by police on location a the scene where the shooting had previously taken place. The actual interview begins at around the 35s mark in the scene before which the dialogue is recorded post production to explain the situation before the interview. There is no music in the scene because we are meant to be focusing on the dialogue and the setting being explained rather than anything else. The only sound effects in the scene are diagetic ones. All of the sound effects come from the setting that they are in during the scene (A street in Memphis). The sound effects are essentially limited to cars driving by in the distance as well as a police car driving through the frame.

Dubbing Evaluation

This assignment required me to dub over the dialogue for a scene from a film of my choice. I chose to use a scene from The Matrix where the main character Neo first meets Morpheus and they have a conversation about the matrix. I used google to find the script for the scene. I then went on to record the voiceover through garageband on a macbook laptop. I then combined it with the original video clip and edited them together in GarageBand to later be exported to a .mov file. I recorded my voice in a relatively empty part of the college. I believe my recording was synced well and fits with the characters speaking. We did this task in pairs and I played Neo whilst my partner played Morpheus. As it was a voiceover we used the same dialogue which meant that the scene's mood and meaning stayed the same through both the original and the dubbed version. 

Adding Music Evaluation

This assignment required me to add a soundtrack to a film clip of my choice. I decided to use the final scene from the 2014 film 'Ex Machina'. I chose to make the first edit signify the perspective of ‘Ava’, the AI from the film. In the scene she has escaped her facility and is experiencing the real world for the first time. To show this I chose music that I believe signifies wonder and curiosity. I chose the soundtrack for the 2012 game 'Far Cry 3'. I believe that this accurately portrayed the mood that I wanted to give the scene. I used garage band on a mac to combine the scene from the film and the music. I found both the clip and the music track on YouTube. I edited the music track so it fades out at the end rather than ending abruptly.

 I chose to make the second edit seem more from the perspective of ‘Caleb’, one of the scientists in the film. In the scene Ava has trapped him in the facility after he helped her to escape. I chose to make the scene rather dark and ominous for this reason. I found a short clip of ominous music on YouTube. I believe that this portrays the mood that I wanted to. At the start of the scene you might not understand the music choice but when it cuts to Caleb trapped with dead bodies near him I feel it starts to make sense. This edit also fades out at the end to stop it from finishing abruptly. This edit was also created on garage band and the clips found on YouTube.