Critical Evaluation

When I was handed the clips to choose from: Delicatessen, Solaris 2, Oblivion, There will be blood, and The Road, I chose to do Oblivion. My reasoning behind this was that I have always been curious about science fiction sound, and how it works. I figured I could be more creative with Oblivion, where as the others you were tied down by rules, and creative freedom would be limited.

Having chosen oblivion, I set about researching how science fiction sounds done, and the only real advice that was consistent, was to get fan sounds, or anything with a certain hum, to help guide the piece through. Besides that, everything else I improvised. Certain sounds including a treadmill and a gun being locked and loaded were challenging, as I did not have access to these.

This realization, lead to a technique that all sound guys use, cheating the sound. I was determined not to use a single piece of copyrighted footage, or sound bites from the Internet, and I am proud to say that I myself originally create everything in the finished piece. To cheat the sound, you basically have to look at an image, and then try to recreate the sound it would make using something completely different. The most widely know example of this, is snapping a stick of celery to create the sound of a bone being broken.

I also got to use a keyboard in pro tools for the first time. This is not down to being unable to use it; it is purely down to the fact I have not had a reason to use it before. I wish I had, as they keyboard within pro tools was a simple thing to use, yet opened up a wide variety of options. The vastness of different instruments you could use within pro tools from this small keyboard amazed me, and it is definitely something I will aim to use in future projects.

The new microphones, the NT4 and 416, were particularly useful. I loved using the 416 as it picked out specific things, and made sounds a lot easier to EQ in post. The original sound bites in comparison to the sound in the final piece contrasts greatly. On my third recording session their was a fuzz in every single clip, but thanks to the wednt audio mixer and 416, it picked out the frequency the sound was at, and muted the fuzz on that particular frequency, meaning that changing the frequency’s did no major damage to the core sound.  My tutors simple teaching methods, helped me to grasp the concept of new hardware tools and new, unfamiliar concepts of software, with little issue. I would say it has definitely been a project I have been able to relax and enjoy letting my minds ideas flow.

Now to analyze the final project, I highly doubt it will be an overwhelming success. There are faults, but I believe the pros will out weigh the cons in this scenario.

To start of with, I will look at the pros, or at least what I believe are the strong points of the piece. To start with, I will go right to the end. I made the decision early to have the piece end on sound track. This meant for a lot of the editing process, from where Cruises character is stood at the foot of the stairs the piece was silent. I wanted the closing shot to have a nice build up with a fairly dramatic sound track, as it is the first time you see this weird structure in the film. I have not actually watched the film, so this is pure speculation, but I deliberately avoided watching the film, not due to laziness, but to leave my options open for designing the project, and not be influence by a previous viewing.  In my mind I was the sound designer and Foley artist for this film.

By the end of the process, instead of a big sound build up, I decided to have a simple space of music on one track, which is a soft string symphony sound, which evokes a mixed feeling of peace and sadness when looking at the film over the top of it. I believe this simple sound track, make the ending fade tie in nicely, and leaves the clip ending on a high note.

Another positive is the beginning, which I really like for the way I use the flicker sound to both introduce and single the end of the opening scene. The way I make the public fade out just as the drone kicks in, really builds up tension in the piece early on, which drags the viewer right in. The big echoing thud I put in when it cuts to black, in my mind represents the catastrophe that ends the world and also singles Tom cruises subconscious shutting down, allowing him to wake up in the next scene.

Another aspect of the film that I feel is a double-edged sword, both positive and negatively, is the thin layer of sounds. From the start, I never intended to over load the sound design, because to much sound makes some sounds become redundant and over powered by other sounds that may impact the surface of the visuals but fail to add depth with the drowned out sound provides. The thin layer of sounds throughout the piece, works well on one hand, because it shows that science fiction does not have to be a mesh of sound and visuals, to be compelling, but on the other hand, the thin layer, which has a maximum of three sounds coinciding at once, makes it so that the individual sounds have to do more. The piece sort of relies on the fact that the sound, which at certain points stands alone, can carry the piece and tell the story of what is going on visually.

Another double-edged sword within the piece is the few seconds of total silence for the space shot. I refuse to put sound on any space shot unless it’s an astronaut communicating on a radio, as the rules of space state that there is no sound in space, so I deliberately had that sound blank. I faded out the sounds on the shot preceding it in order to brace the audience, and even begin to fade in the sound for the next shot, in order to make the total silence less jarring, but it is down to the viewer if it works or not. I think it works as a transition between two moods, as the shot directly follows a montage of foreboding atmospheric shots and sounds. It acts as a transition between the negative first half and the more ‘look on the bright side’ style sound of the second half.

One negative I will say is the lack of sound during the touch pad shots. I didn’t believe that they would have audio with the security footage, so I avoided doing sound for that, but then that just left the shots with the following sounds: atmospheric, footsteps, crunch, beeping buttons.  In short it leaves a basic skeleton, making it the definite week point, within the piece.

Ways of improvement, I would say to definitely add another layer of sound, and maybe play around with they keyboard a little more, as it is definitely something

I would love to use a lot more and experiment with.  I would also do more with the touch pad scene, as at some points the piece feels a little empty.

Looking at the piece as a whole, I am happy with how its turned out; at one point I was worried I wouldn’t get the sounds recorded on time, that I wouldn’t have enough, that I wouldn’t get it finished. I look at the finished piece, and I have grown to appreciate how crucial it is to sound edit and replace much of what’s in the film, as the software allows things to open up more and more options get made available. Without sound the visuals on screen would be nothing, and I have grown to enjoy sound design a lot.

I think my sound design does it job of taking the audience through a dark period before coming out with a more positive outlook on a positive situation. The way I have cheated some of the sounds and created a well structured science fiction soundtrack without having to resort to getting sounds of the internet, has really boost my confidence in the sound editing department, should I ever need to do it again.

Is it the best I could do? I don’t think so, as I believe there is always room for improvement , and there are several things I would have liked to do had I prioritized my time better, but for the purpose of this project, I am pleased, I am just disappointed that the levels make the piece very quiet on speakers during playback.

Final Edit

Today, I finally completed my sound edit. All I had left to do was some musical undertones towards the latter half of the project.

Physical Keyboard

This was my first time using a keyboard in Pro tools, so naturally it was slow starting, but once I figured it out I was amazed at the range of sounds I could create within pro tools. I ended up focusing on a harmonic string sound that made the film feel peaceful, however it also had a moving feel about it, as the music is over lapping a post apocalyptic wasteland. For the ending I was trying to create a feel that though tom cruise is in a nice place and everything is peaceful, I was also trying to get across  that he is damaged by the obvious loved one ( the woman in his dream) he lost as a result of the catastrophe, and the fact it is sad that the world is ended.  I was trying to create a sort of sound resembling to the mass effect theme tune, more specifically in the third game, where they still have the original music, but it is made more mournful as to single the gloomy nature of the third game. 

Use of keyboard on timeline part 1

use of keyboard on timeline part 2

The final timeline, shows the many tracks that I used, but also how each sound came into play for only short snippets. How I feel about the final project will come across in my critical evaluation.

Final edit timeline with unused sound removed

Keyboard panel

Editing Update

Straight away I had issues.No matter how many different ways I imported the audio, the waveforms would not appear, however the sound was still playing. This meant I had to work blind

Luckily whenever I moved sound around it fell into place nicely. 

With lots of EQ work on several clips I managed to merge the visuals and audio together very nicely. The razor in the pocket worked a treat when I placed it within the gearing up scene, and the footsteps, thanks to frequently counting the steps rewatching  the clip, matched very well with tom cruises movement throughout the scene. 

The micro wave beeps proved both useful in both the surveillance clip and the gearing up clip. The pistol lights up, suggesting its powered up, so I added a small beep at that moment and the screen moment works very well with the tapping.

In the shorter terms, this project is now mostly finished, however it needs a musical taste. 

Waveform difficulties

Time line at end of session 

3rd recording session

Their are no photos of the following recording session as I became tunnel visioned during the process.

For starters I hydrophone recorded every sound with a hum that i recorded previously on the 416. Below is the sounds I recorded and imported from that third recording session. I will now go through each sound listed.

3rd recording session sounds

The bathroom footsteps were a last minute thing. I recorded my self walking from my bedroom through the kitchen and into the bathroom, in order to get a variety of footsteps to use in the piece.

The body ruffle, was basically to cover the scene where Tom cruise is getting ready, and all the sound is, is just me rubbing my arm against my side to get  a sound of clothing movement.

The carpet steps, as you may guess is just footsteps taken on my bedroom carpet for the same reasons as the bathroom footsteps.

Case open and shut, was to try and get a lock and load style sound to possibly use on the getting ready scene. I recorded it on the 416, and the case was the metallic one that the 416 comes in.

The crunch, I simply crunched some paper softly, specifically for the moment tom cruises character eats toast out of the woman's hand.

The exterior atoms is just to overlay onto the street sounds in order to add more depth to the sound.

Footsteps was again purely for footstep syncing.

Gearing Up is me generally flinging things over my shoulder to try and create the sound when tom cruises character puts his rifle over his shoulder.

General Noise and tapping is purely little sounds that were recorded as back ups.

Getting ready was the same as gearing up.

High street was for the opening scene. I recorded a high street in stereo to make the  opening scene more in depth.

After that it is mostly hydrophone stuff and filler however I did get two more curtail sounds]

Firstly the razor in pocket, I basically mimicked tom cruises movement and slid my razor and it holder into my pocket, which had a chain in the bottom. This gave a nice thud sound which will work nicely for the holster moment.

The other was the microwave buttons. for that I just pressed the buttons on my microwave, and I intent to EQ them in the edit.

Editing Update

After doing my second round of recording, I went into the edit suite believing that I had got all the required sounds. This was not the case however as I noticed some gaping holes.

Firstly I had no hydrophone sounds despite taking the microphone out every time I have been recording. The second is I lacked sounds to fill out the middle and end as well as a crowded street sound.

This meant that in todays editing session I could only provide a solid skeleton with no meat on the bones.

Some things I did manage to improve on was the montage showing a derelict world. I figured I needed something to give a bit more power to the scene other that the foreboding hum that currently sat on that part of the timeline. I took the sound bite of my boiler powering up and copied that small section. I then pasted it over the montage every time it cut to another location shot. I 7 banded that track to bring the bass up, to make a more ominous sound bite. I then added another hum to the scene that links the shower scene and the scene with the touch screen, to give a more positive sense into where the scenes going.

My intention or my final recording process is to get a lot of hydrophone recordings as well as getting the footsteps of tom cruise walking. I also intend to use they keyboard to make a more peaceful tone towards the end of the piece.

It is worth noting that for the opening scene, I had the sound of people and atmospheric sound fade away to make way for the impending drone that  brings the scene to a close. I was influenced directly from Hitchcock films, particularly Psychos' shower scene where the sound drains away along with the life of the woman. This is linked for the fact that the world ends by the end of that sequence, which leads in to the scene of Tom cruises character waking up.

Timeline by end of edit

List of tracks so far

small editing session

Second round of recording

For my second round of sound recording , I wend about recording as many foley's as possible. This would include trying to mimic the sound of Tom Cruises character running on a treadmill, as well as getting various movements from a bed sheet,a few more hums as well as try and mimic walking on a metallic floor. Their is also the requirement of getting the spiking and booming sounds ti create tension at the beginning.

Though I have still yet to get a crowded street sound, however I believe I have grasped most of the sounds required.

Getting The footsteps, I watched the clip and counted the rhythm in which he ran. I then mimicked that running pattern, before both speeding up and slowing down to make sure I got the rhythm correct. I got in bed and sat up to record the sound of the duvet as well as running the sheet over the microphone to give that sense of motion.

I also had to try mimic a gun being cocked and loaded. For the loading i simply used the clip on my ruck sack over and over again, whereas for the cocking sound, i tugged the holder that attaches the zoom bag to the strap in and out, as it gave a slightly clicking metallic sound. After EQing these two sounds I think they will match up with the sound of a gun.

With 19 different Mono tracks recorded I will now continue on with the edit and hopefully it will leave me with most sounds in place and leave me in a good position for the final hand in.

416 recording a metallic sound

H4N zoom showing Mono 010

Starting the edit

After various technical difficulties, I was finally able to make a start on sound editing Oblivion, unfortunately almost all of my sound files will need editing via either EQ or change of volume. The humming sounds work, however their are some sounds that don't really match the clip via high frequency sounds, so I have gone onto the 7 band EQ and brought in a high pass and low pass filter, to primarily focus on the gassy sounds within the tracks.

One of first challenges was finding a way to incorporate the 'no sound in space aspect' that I want to portray. originally I just left that space blank, but for the sound to suddenly cut out, it doesn't really work. I refuse to incorporate any sound into that space until necessary, which is why I have put a humming sound fading in during the shots final seconds to prepare the audience for the cut back to earth.

After doing that, I decided to add a fade out to the sound clip preceding the space shot, as it creates a feel of the sound being drained into nothingness. This will hopefully prepare the viewer for the few seconds total silence in the upcoming shot.

One early trick is the sound I used for the shower shot. It lasts for about 4 seconds and the camera tracks from left to right. So with my shower sound I face made the sound travel from the right speaker to the left to give the impression that the viewer is the camera going past the shower.

After doing all of this I realized I still need a fair few sounds. For starters, I need a couple of jumpy sounds like i scratch for the jumps, and maybe a thud to make the black moment near the start more ominous for the following scenes. I also ned to gat the basic foley of the two characters actions during the scene, such as : picking a cup up, eating toast, walking, rising up in bed etc. I also need to somehow create the sound of  gun being loaded or a gun being cocked. I will definitely have to get a key board out to try and create  musical piece that is uplifting to the audience.

My plan is to go out and record as many sounds that may be required, and even go so far as to not include certain sounds in the final piece but have them there just incase. I can see this project being one that has to be battled through for a couple of days.

7 band EQ

Current progress 

Full timeline featuring video file

Current list of sounds to get.

This Semestar- Pro Tools and Sound design plan

As well as being given more equipment to play around with, we were also given a more in depth look into how sound works. For example on the 7 band EQ their are five dials: Low Frequency, High Frequency, Mid Frequency, Lower Mid Frequency, and finally Higher Mid Frequency. Mids are primarily the vocals, whereas the lows are the more bass like sounds with high being a more fragile pitch.

7 Band EQ

The idea of blending different sounds to create a good sound scape, helps me when it comes to my chosen clip 'Oblivion" through research sound of non existent things is generally made by 2 or 3 sounds which help create a broad sound scape.

My personal plan for Oblivion, is to first record various hums from fans and electronics etc. to create a moody atoms whilst seeing what I can get to play with. I will then get certain sounds such as a shower, a treadmill and footsteps to lay over these atmospheric sounds. After this I will be looking into getting a keyboard player to see what sort of musical sound track I can put on top of it, to try and create a slow build up to the revile of the tower in Oblivion.

First recordings

After dubious researching into how to record sic fi sounds, one of the most common tips was to record a fan, or anything that provided a particular continuous hum. So the first of the three stage recording process, was to get these particular hums to create a certain atoms especially during the location shots. 

I took out a 416 microphone, to really emphasise the sounds I was recording. While I had the microphone I decided to get some of my second stage sounds, which were the certain foley's that you saw in the clip such as: the shower running, the treadmill, walking etc. 

I own a PS2, and whenever i turn it on you can hear the fan going as well as the occasional sound of the laser reading the disk and and a definite power up when you first hit reset, which could work nicely on the touch screen shots. So I went to record my PS2 sound for a good five minutes, moving it closer and further away to get a range of the sound. The recording goes on for five minutes, so hopefully I will have a lot to play with. 

Zoom recorder during PS2 recording

The Second sound I recorded was the sound of our heater. That again has the sound of powering up, before it levels out into a hum. Recording was difficult at first as their is a clock right next to it. So after moving the clock (which you can hear on the recording), the hum sound is quite clear but has a bit more bass in comparison to the PS2 sounds.

Recording PS2 Fan

416 after recording

The third and final hum I for to play with was the air fan above the hob, designed to take in the smoke from the room, creating a suction effect. I recorded this one just to get an extra layer of variety that may help towards  creating a unique soundscape for the piece.

I also got a couple of minutes of the shower running for that short clip of a shower, which i recorded using both with the sliding door open and closed and even recorded just outside the bathroom to get a more distant sound.

With this set of sounds I can now make a rough skeleton of the final piece.

This Semester - New Microphones.

This following blog post will cover everything I have done so far in regards to production skills B.

My chosen module for Production Skills B is sound design. I have grown to appreciate fondly how much of a crucial  part of cinema sound design is. You can have the best visuals and  acting ever, but with out a sound track to set the moods and tones to create a feel within the viewer, the film will be average at best.

As I have done foley on a few previous projects, which can be seen on previous blogs, I have become very familiar with the Zoom H4N and basic Technica Microphones. However, upon being introduced to this module, the group have been shown and given tutorials in the NT4 and the 416.

The NT4 is a plug in stereo microphone, which provides a much cleaner atmospheric and wider sound than the zoom H4N's interior stereo microphone. The 416 is a stronger mono microphone than the classing audio technicas that we have come to use. The 416 has provided a cleaner more focused sound, making it easier to pick up certain sounds, especially in the foley aspect of recording. An example of the two microphones can be seen below.

416 Microphone

NT4

Through out the semester, we have been given various recording tasks by Dominic Green. This has allowed me to develop my skills with using different microphones, as well as the new went mixer (see image below).

Wednt Audio Mixer 

What the Wednt adds to the recording is that it helps separate the background noise from the recorder, acting as a sort of middle man that cleanses the left overs leaving you with what you need. It also provides a setting allowing sensitivity to change and adapt to quiet and louder sounds, which leads me to wonder why we were deprived of this piece of kit last year as its effective yet simple.

In my next post i will cover things I learned about the art of sound and how it works in pro tools.