LO4: Audio file of all the sounds I have collected

 YouTube video of all the sounds I used in unit 16:

LO4: Evaluation of feedback to improve the soundtrack

Feedback via Survey

Positive feedback

In the survey I put out to gain feedback on my short film sound track, a piece of positive feedback I gained was how the 'rising tension' effect was effective at creating tension and a build up to the fake out, as well as allowing me to conform to genre conventions much more.

Gaining feedback like this whilst working on my edit was very effective in helping me improve my short film as it allows me to understand what edit changes work well, allowing me to incorporate it more into my work. For example, now that I knew the sound effect delivered the right impression I was trying to create (a build of tension), I was able to implement it more into a a previous scene where I was also trying to build a similar sense of tension into a fake out/release of tension. This was in the tracking shot scene where Quinn opens a bedroom door after it closes by itself, revealing to be just the wind from an open window that caused this. As there is no payoff after this scene happens of any type of scare, it puts the audience in a false sense of security the next time the sound effect plays, which happens in the kitchen scene itself that was originally praised for its use. This therefore enhances the kitchen scene as after the sound effect is used to create a fake out that leads into a jump scare, which the audience wont be expecting because nothing happened the previous time. This makes the overall sound track conform to the conventions of my genre in creating a scare typical of a horror movie. 

However it was important that I didn't over use this, as there were much more instances where the sound effect would've been useful, such as the reveal of the dead hand in the final scene. Doing this would've caused the soundtrack to become more tedious overall as audiences would become tired of the reuse of the same effect over and over. This would be the objectively worst possible thing I could do to my sound track, causing it to fail as a media product; make the audience annoyed/not entertained. 

Constructive criticism

Whilst the positive feedback was very helpful, the audience feedback I gained in terms of constructive criticism is much more effective at helping me improve my final edit than the positive feedback as it allowed me to directly improve any faults/things I've missed as my peers have areas of expertise that I do not. For example, the very effective piece of feedback that told me: 

This meant that I could easily improve one of the faults in my editing knowledge that I wouldn't have been able to do otherwise. This specific piece of feedback was very effective as it was simple, direct and easy to implement, whilst still having a huge impact on the overall quality of the sound track itself. 

I did this by searching for the effect in the effects window, then dragging and dropping it to each sound clip recorded from the shots themselves. This is because this background noise specifically came from my on-set recordings with the camera and not the extra sound I recorded in the sound studio with the microphone.

This made the product much more enjoyable as it meant that the audience weren't getting distracted by the buzzing, which took them out of the immersion the sound track was creating with its intricate and layered detail. It also allows me to conform to my horror genre conventions as the completely silent atmosphere in the house now created with this effect means that the audience hang on every sound that happens, waiting for something to break the silence and tension felt in the air of the agonisingly drawn out shots. 

Another piece of constructive criticism I gained that was extremely effective at helping me improve my sound track was; 

This improvement that I made helps to deliver the overall scene better as, when planning the short film itself, I needed a way to create a sense of urgency that will have my character run upstairs and burst into their parents room into then realising that their mother is dead and has been the whole time. I did this by having the door the hand was reaching out of burst open, however when filming the scene I wasn't able to make it look as if the door bursts open by itself with as much emphasis as I had envisioned, making the scene overall a little more awkward which is something my audience who answered the survey picked up on. 

However this piece of feedback demonstrates a way in which I can fix that scene to be much more effective at delivering on the sense of urgency I wanted to originally create. As suggested, I added a cinematic boom sound effect the the door opens, this makes it seem as more as if the door slammed open by itself, making the response from our character much more feasible and realistic.

 

It also allows my sound track to work in synergy much more with my actual short film component as it works to greatly improve and even fix an issue that was previously present, making it less noticeable. This is important as it means the audience wont be broken out of the immersion of the film.  

LO4: Presented final sound track and evidence of collecting feedback

During the editing of my short film sound track, I gained feedback from my peers about what I could do to improve the edit for the final draft. I did this by creating a SurveyMonkey questionnaire and sharing the link to my classmates via email. This is because gaining feedback from a group that hadn't seen the edit before is the most important and effective way to improve my sound track as leaving it to myself would've been harmful as I had been looking at the edit for an extended period of time, causing my perception of the product to be sewed and too critical for something that may have been perfectly fine. 

I made sure to ask open ended questions which are important in gathering rich in depth data about my peers opinions. This is so that I would be able to evaluate it much more effectively than if I were to ask closed questions, and apply my feedback to my work to improve it. This would also mean that they would be able to explain how I could improve the track in depth. 

Here are the questions I asked:

I asked these two questions to gather as much general information on the sound track as a whole. This is because I didn't want to ask about an area I thought needed an improvement as it would cause anyone completing the survey to focus all their attention at a single moment, causing them to have more of a critical eye. This isn't what I wanted as i needed them to view the soundtrack more as a casual viewer and report on any issues they thought stood out overall instead of in a focused area. 

After gaining feedback and incorporating it into my edit I uploaded my final version of the soundtrack, presented here:

LO4: Documentation of Recording of Sound elements

 Here is photo evidence of me recording my sound elements for the short film in a sound booth. 

Recording my sound in an isolated sound booth with a microphone allows me to get high quality audio reflective of the sound I'm creating in real life. 

LO4: Post production Edits to sound track

Basic editing of different sounds 

I added my audio clips to the production by importing the folder I put all my audio files into. This meant that those audio clips appeared in the project window so that I could listen to them, and then drag and drop them onto the track in place.

After placing my audio onto the track, I had to make sure it fit into the short film seamlessly. I used the razor tool to cut up the individual audio clips by using the razor tool to get rid of any unwanted silence/extra dialogue/noise.

I also added the effects fade in/out onto the added audio clips. That way the audio would feel as if its naturally entering the scene instead of the sound effect instantly playing. I did this by right clicking on the beginning/end of the clip and then applying the default transitions. I then could adjust the length of the transition by sliding the transition bar closer to the end of the clip to make the fade in faster.

Audio control/manipulation 

In my short film it's important to make sure my audience don't have their suspension of disbelief broken by being pulled out of the immersion and narrative by visual or audio errors. As part of the narrative of my short film my protagonist is talking over the phone to her mother throughout the movie. I recorded these lines separately and added them in post production instead of having my actress actually speak over the phone. This is because I didn't want to run into any issues with the microphone picking up the phone audio, as well as having overall audio quality to be unclear/distorted. This meant that in post production it was important for me to edit the audio to make sure it feels authentic, as if the characters are actually talking over the phone. 

I did this by accessing the effects window and searching for the effect 'highpass' which is used to make audio sound more as if it's coming from an electronic device.

 I then dragged and dropped it on to each audio clip which applied the effect.

 After then listening to the sound, I noticed that the effect made the audio much quieter, so I right clicked on it, went to 'Audio Gain' and then increased audio gain by 15. This made the audio much easier to hear. 

In this specific scene our character is on the phone further away from the camera than in most scenes. To make it sound like the phone is further away I also added the effect 'lowpass' to these specific audio clips through the same application of effects method. 

Another important effect I added to almost all clips that greatly improved my short film was the DeNoise effect. Whilst editing my colour grading of each clip I noticed that in most clips there was background noise that often pulled the viewer right out of the immersion of the scene as a loud distracting buzzing noise could be heard, however I wasn't aware of how I would be able to fix this issue. This was especially distracting in scenes which switched between shots with low buzzing and high buzzing noises. After gathering audience feedback via survey a peer said that to fix this I should apply the 'DeNoise' effect which reduced the audio of that background noise so that my audience wouldn't be distracted. This also allowed me to conform to my horror genre conventions as the completely silent atmosphere in the house now created with this effect means that the audience hang on every sound that happens, waiting for something to break the silence and tension felt in the air of the agonisingly drawn out shots. 

LO2: Role of a Foley artist

In any form of digital media that uses sound, a foley artist is required to create realistic everyday sound to be added to media in post production to enhance audio quality and engage the audience and make them feel as if the are really there. 

A large part of being a foley artists is having to create walking sound effects, so they have to recreate the way the actor walks and acts out many different walking styles. When creating foley, the artists are in large sound studio with the big screen of the media product in front of them, that way it makes it easier to try create the sound with the variety of instruments and equipment they have. This is to help create verisimilitude for the audience and is a key part of creating a media product and bringing the project to life.

The equipment they use includes a high quality microphone to capture clear and crisp audio to match the product. They may also use a sound mixing board so they can put the audio together as they sometimes layer sounds to create a certain sound/noise. To create these sounds foley artists have to use a wide range of different instruments and everyday items in order to mimic the perfect sound in a studio setting. Examples of often used sounds that need to be recreated are 'thin sticks to create whooshing sounds', 'old chairs for controlled creaking' and 'rolled up large phone books for realistic body punches'. 

An example of a famous foley artist is Ben Burtt, who is most well known for his work on WALL-E and Star Wars. He created the iconic blaster sound effect by hitting guy-wires with a wrench until it created the right tone at the Los Angeles radio towers. 

LO3: Be able to plan the production of sound elements for identified media purposes

This LO3 post is a merge document containing:

- Developing ideas to include different types of sound elements (spider diagram, list of potential sounds)

- Creating planning materials for intended production of a sound track (production schedule and recces)

- Issues and resolutions for legal and ethical issues for sounds to be included in the production process 

Developing ideas to include different types of sound elements:

Potential Audio Ideas, Detailed report/list:

- Sting: To create my own sting I would have to use a variety of instruments/objects to recreate a high pitch sharp sound that'll install fear in the audience when the antagonist appears on screen. I could do this by scarping to metal instruments together; pole and knife?

- Creaking door: 2 different sounds (heavy and light door). These are common conventional sounds in horror, which will work especially well considering the environment I'm filming in. As my planned production of the short film almost presents the house itself as a threat, with the monster hiding in shadows out of our sight; this sound effect will help to accentuate this idea as the deafening silence is broken up by the house moving by itself.

- Fridge opening/closing: As in my planned scene the fridge opens by itself offscreen, it's important that I ensure the audience are aware of what's happening through the use of sound. This will mean that I will record the sound separately to the scene and implement it during editing so that the sound is very audible, allowing the audience to understand what's happening off screen, making them tense as they wait for the camera to reveal what they cannot yet see.

- Static: The static sound effect is used to further push the fear of the unknown to the audience by literally having my creatre distort the sound in the phone which my protagonist uses as a lifeline to stay calm and talk to her mother, however the distortion of that technology symbolises how the entity has complete control over my protagonist and what's happening. 

- Light switch: This sound effect is important for the same reasons as the fridge sound which is making the noises of the lonely house come to life.

- Knife sound effect: pulling out knife. In my film the introduction of the knife prop is supposed to symbolise a sense of security/defence for the protagonist and audience, which is why its terrifying when the use of the knife is proven to be futile. To set up the knife as this beacon of defence/hope for my protagonist I will accentuate sound when its introduced on screen with a powerful scrape sound effect which is often used in productions to signify the weapons power. This will be an effective sound to use as it will lead my audience into a false sense of security greatly intensifying the scare factor of my antagonist.

- Phone call sound effect: This sound effect helps to introduce/reintroduce the character 'The Mother' to the audience and it makes it clear to them that the noise os coming directly from the phone call and not within the scene itself. This is primarily done to reduce as much confusion around important details as possible so that my audience are able to stay immersed in the film and not break tension.

Creating planning materials for intended production of a sound track:

This is a recce sheet I created for our in-school sound booth to assess the suitability of using it to record sound. 

Issues and resolutions for legal and ethical issues for sounds to be included in the production process:

In development of the soundtrack for my short film it's important to consider the legal/ethical issues associated with the production of sound in the industry. Not conforming to legal guidelines can result in serious consequence such as being sued or having the product taken down. Ethical issues are more to do with morals of what's included in the product. Not conforming to ethical issues the audience have raised can result in negative publicity towards your product, causing less people to engage with it. 

The most prominent legal issue to consider when developing my sound is copyright. Copyright ensures that intellectual property is protected from being plagiarised without permission from the original creator. An example of this in sound would be using iconic liscensed music/jingles to further sell my own product as audiences recognise the sound and want to engage with a product they may be familiar with. As I am producing a short horror film I will not include any music owned by another creator without their permission and will use copyright free suspense music/sound effects available for the public to use. I will also record my own foley sound effects and not take them from an already existing licensed product. Taking these precautions are important as it will avoid me getting sued and stop my product from being made unavailable to the public/taken down. 

An ethical issue I should consider on the other hand is whether the content i'm including in my product is age appropriate. My horror short is aimed at ages 15+ so the sound design and visuals should reflect this. To achieve this 15 rating certificate the sound must be regulated by the BBFC to fall within their guidelines, such as: there can be a strong threat or horror, but violent behaviour must not dwell on the details that could be copied. My horror short conforms to this through the use of sound design as the strong threat is implied almost entirely off-screen as we can only hear the fate our protagonist faces and not see it, allowing me to avoid showing anything too graphic that would cause my film to be bumped up to an 18 rating, whilst still keeping within the themes and genre conventions of horror by instilling terror within the audience.