Sound. Part 3. Foley

Recording the sounds.

I have no experience with sound recording of this nature. I have recorded music, but never sound effects. I knew this was going to be a big task, I took what I knew about recording and what I'd seen on special features of films. Australia and Wall-e had great features about sound recording and open my eyes with the possibilities.

I had it in mind to go as in depth as the sound equipment would let me. Early in pre-production, when I was more of "Sound Supervisor" I looked at the storyboards, acted them out and made a note of the sounds. The notes were varied from spitting blood, arm movement, curtains, footsteps, wind, letterbox, phone ringing etc. I tried to consider everything. (You can see these notes as part of "moleskin" hand in)

When we were in production I took two different approaches to the two sequences. For the Torture shoot I made the decision not to record any on set sound. I wanted a complete open mind when coming to record the sound. On the Nosey Neighbour I decided to record as much sound on set as I could.

I feel the Nosey Neighbour way is much more effective. Having a sound reference made it easier to dub. On the Torture sequence I was relying on my memory to remember the sound. On reflection I see good and bad about both these techniques. We sometimes think for example a tap dripping as a certain sound, but in actual fact it doesn't sound anything like how we think it does (if that makes any sense). This theory will be more clear when talking about the Chains and Blood Splats. Having no sound reference makes you think about how to create the sound.

When recording the sound for the sequences, again I took two different approaches. I did these varied techniques to find the way that suites me best and explore different ways of sound design. For the Torture sound I recorded them in a sound proofed room, hoping to achieve dead sound. With the Nosey Neighbour I recorded them in the location.

The Torture sequence was a lot more adventurous than the NN. Making the blood splats was something I was excited about. I started by making some demo sounds. I looked around the house for potential hammer hitting material. I used a potato and a apple. I imagined that one of these items would give a realistic sound of a face being hit. However I was wrong.

This demoing was vital for many reasons. First was the equipment, the boom mic and phantom powered device borrowed from college didn't seem to work. The phantom power device would power a small pencil condenser mic I have, but couldn't feed the boom with enough juice. I luckily have some sound equipment of my own and put a makeshift contraption together.

I was using garage band to record the sounds. Garage Band isn't the ideal software, but it's all I have. What I realised after the first day of sound making was you cannot use in and out markers, also you cannot have two projects open at once. I created over one hundred sounds that first day and exporting them was a nightmare! I had to cut the clip I wanted, copy it, close the project down, open a new one, paste it, then I could export it. I had to do that procedure over one hundred times. I ended up losing a whole day of productivity. I also learnt that I didn't need to make that many sounds. It's a lot like the lesson I've learnt about filming and editing. You don't need to film the same thing over and over again, just to make sure you've got in nailed. You can do it once, review it and if its not correct then have a second attempt.

That was a massive learning curve, one that made the rest of the sound recording much easier.

The equipment I used didn't allow me to have the control I wanted. The boom mic couldn't pick up the detail I wanted it to. It also picks up a lot of room sound. When recording the sound I had to be aware of my breathing and hand movement. The boom mic picked up a lot of noise when trying to record soft sounds like footsteps.

For NN sound, I've had to use two sounds from the BBC sound library. When I had the sound equipment I forgot to record the sound of the ticking clock. I also couldn't get a nice sound of outdoors. Its the time of year when its always windy, so I used an exterior from the library.

I also looked at using the garage band sound effects. There are a couple that were usable, a drip and a dog sound, but I decided against using them. I wanted to add more depth to the sound. In NN when you see his footsteps it would have been good to add a car or dog, so you can hear the street is alive. For the Torture I envisioned the room would surrounded by more torture rooms and you would be able to hear them in the distance.

When I was recording the sounds, I would watch the footage back get the timing and pace then record. For SFX like the footsteps I got Graeme to perform them, he was able to watch the footage and copy the actor. I could then give him direction, heavy, slower etc.

You will be able to see and listen to the list of sounds with my hand in.