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.