Sound. Part 6. Dialogue.

Dialogue has always been tricky to get right. We thought about not having any dialogue at all, but then that wouldn't be solving the problem, just avoiding it.

I did a few mic tests (a video of this will be a part of my hand in), And I already spoke about each mic in a previous post called SOUND TEST.

On the NN shoot I got all Sally's lines on set. This time I was aware of the silence needed. The boom mic always picks up something you don't want, a chair creaking or feet shuffling. I monitored it much better this time. The the more experience I get on a shoot situation the more comfortable I get asking the actors to re-perform because of little issues like a creaking chair. We did have the mic and headphones plugged into the camera, which I wanted to avoid. (as stated in Sound Test post).

For Eric's lines with him being behind a door I couldn't get the mic close enough to pick the sound up. At the end of the shoot I got him to do his lines again. First I got him to them in the living room, but it sounded badly reverbed and needed to be almost muffled. I got Tim to go back outside and this time I could put the mic right up to the door. This is what I used in the sequence and it sounds really good. Syncing it up was much easier than I thought.

The Torture sequences doesn't have dialogue, but I did have to dub in the breathing of the victim. I originally wanted to get the actors back in, but thought it would be more interesting asking someone else to do it. I tried it with my friend Luke and Graeme. Both gave fine performances, I let them watch the footage and perform it. Much like the foley, I was able to give direction.

Again, syncing this up was up easier than imagined. There are parts that don't match perfectly, but for a first attempt I am very pleased.

We wanted to have some deep breathing for the torturer, but this wouldn't fit. I think its down to the performance of Andrew, he didn't breath deep on set. The visuals wouldn't match the audio. I couldn't get it right and it resulted in not being in the final piece, I've put this down to inexperience.

I love dialogue, when I come up with short film ideas they're always heavily dialogue driven. I would like to do some good dubbing. There are features on Australia and Benjamin Button where they do some really incredible dubbing and as a result they get superb clear dialogue. That is my next challenge.

Sound. Part 5. Foley.

Reflections on the Foley.

I've very much enjoyed creating my own foley sounds. Its been something I've wanted to do since the beginning of the course.

I knew it was going to be a difficult task, but I hadn't realised how difficult. I've always set my ambitions high, I wanted to create a film quality sound design. Starting with no experience I should have been aware that just recording the sounds would have been an achievement. But I pushed and pushed the boundaries of what I knew and what was available to me. I didn't have a budget and had to use money from my own pocket to buy the material, plus the sound equipment wasn't great for this use. I feel the outcome is far better than using somebody else's pre-recorded sounds. The foley of the hammer and other objects being put down or picked up is that good that you do not even notice they have been dubbed.

There are some sounds that could been better the slap round the neck and as mentioned before the chains. As a first attempt I am more than pleased.

I do not think it is a area I will continue to do. The foley is an entire project in its own right. To do it justice you need several weeks, not one.

My aim was to teach myself the capabilities and limitations and I've certainly done that. I know I am a better filmmaker for it. The main thing is I'm proud that I even attempted it, but the fact that it looks good will make me point it out to everybody that views it.

Sound. Part 4. Foley.

Sound in Theory.

In this post I want to write about two sound effects in more detail. These two sound effects are the ones I've paid the most attention to, but have also caused me the most hassle. Both sounds came from the Torture sequence.

First, the victims CHAINS. When it came to recording the sound of the chains I used the same chains we used as a prop in the shoot. These chains were big and heavy. When recording sound I thought using chains would be the best and obvious choice.

I recorded the chains in many different ways. Shaking them, hitting them together, banging them against wood, rustling them. On previewing them they sounded as I thought they would, like chains.

However when I put them in the sequence they didn't fit. I tried many ways to fix this. I had a continuous rustle, but that sounded like a loop, it had no depth or space just a continuous track sitting in the middle. Also it had no weight or sync with the rhythm of the actor. I then tried using a combination of the chains being banged together, to try and pick out the action. Although this worked better, the chains didn't seem to have the right weight. They sounded more like a jar of coins, rather than heavy chains.

This is what I was trying to explain in my previous post, sounds aren't always what they seem. The obvious choice for creating a chain sound would be to use chains, but as proved this isn't the case. I was advised to try and use a bag of bolt or even something as heavy as metal tools. I was unfortunately running out of time and thought it would be easier to amend the sounds I already have. On reflection its taken me a week or so to correct the chain sound, and even now it still isn't great. Whereas if I'd of recorded the sound again it would have possibly taken me a day or two to get the equipment, material and record it. We live and learn.

The way I solved this problem was to ask. Annabeth advised me to build up the individual chain sounds I had recorded. Annabeth also said that slowing down the sound would give it more weight. It does this by lowering the pitch.

It was very tedious doing the chains this way, but although its not perfect it was a mass improvement. I basically watched each clip and put in a chain sound when the actor moved.

Second, the Blood Splats. I think this was the sound that made me want to give sound design ago. I had the idea that hitting fruit and veg was a good way to create the sound of a hammer smacking a face. The fruit I layered up were, a lettuce. a mango, a grape fruit and a potato. I also tried a chicken, I thought hitting a chicken with a hammer would give a authentic sound. However it sounded hollow and the bones were too weak.

The lettuce had a great crunch to it. The mango and grape fruit both had a thick texture, when I hit them it gave a nice bassy thud. When you ripped the skin of these fruits it almost sound like human skin being cut. I cut both fruit in half to hit the soft centre and this gave a squelching wet sound. When I stuck the knife into the potato and twisted it the potato cracked, this sounded like bones.

I layered these sounds up to create one splat. During this mixing stage I bought the Fight Club Blu Ray, which had a special feature about foley. One of the areas it concentrated on was create the punch sounds. I was really happy to find that the sound artist came across many of the same problems and solved them the way I did. He mentions that the chicken didn't work, but he filled the insides with walnuts and that gave a great sound. When I listen to Fight Club now the hits sound very much like my own, which I feel is a great achievement. I thought mine sounded cartoony, but they do in Fight Club and thats our perception of sound. I've never hit someone, or seen someone hit somebody that hard its broken there face so I wouldn't know what it sounded like. I can only imagine it. There is a vast different between real sound and movie sound. Movie sound is much more exaggerated.

In the post stage I once again slowed down these sounds to give them weight and it them sound more brutal.

The hardest part to these foley sounds is to give them depth. The easiest way is to add reverb. Reverb puts the sound into a space. Reverb isn't my favourite effect and I feel it cheapens the sound, I'd like to discover away to achieve depths in other ways.

You can see footage of me hitting fruit and veg in my hand in.

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.

Sound. Part 2. Foley.

Introduction to Foley.

Foley sound is something I've been aware of for many years (never knew it was called foley however). I'd realise that sound effects for blaster guns and punches etc were added at a young age, but I can remember watching a "making of" TV show about the series Friends. It was about the time when it was coming to an end. In that "making of" they showed a man wearing a variety of women's shoes. The explanation was that the character Rachel was known for her fashion and they would dub in different styles of shoes.

This blew my mind, since then and especially recently as I've been researching it I can't believe how in depth the foley sounds go. Everything from a coat ruffle to a door shutting will be re-done in post.

We have been aware of this in previous projects. In Fallout we used sound effects from the web for the blood splatters and in The Payoff we used the BBC sound library to best of our ability.

Using pre-recorded sounds, whether taken from the web or from a sound library as been something I've never been happy with. I've always wanted us to create our own. On The Payoff I made the terrible decision to try and make all the sounds on set. In the casino scenes we got everyone talking, spinning balls and clanking glasses.

In post I suddenly realise how bad this idea was, we had noises over powering the lines of dialogue. If there was a noise like the ball spinning sometimes the cuts wouldn't sink up, because the ball would be spinning in one cut then not in the next. It made a very long difficult job.

I now know that film sound is much like recording a band, which I should have know being a musician. You wouldn't record a full band with one mic, because you cannot single out one instrument. Or like a image in Photoshop, once you merge the layers you cannot edit them individually.

On set you need complete silence so that your dialogue comes out clear. In many films they later dub the dialogue to get a even crisper sound.

Sound. Part 1. Introduction.

At the beginning of the project we wanted to take the sound design to the next step. Try using sound to further explain the emotion of the story.

When we chose not to film the seance (horror) sequence I decided to use the time that would be spent on the editing, visual FX and sound to explore foley in more depth.

Plus, when I stepped down as Director I felt like I'd let the team down and put us in a sticky situation. I chose to pick up the role as sound designer, in hope to mend team spirit.

I original was going to out source the sound work to a friend, who worked with us on The Payoff. But for the reasons above I decided to take on the challenge. It is a area I'm very interested in, much like any area of filmmaking. As a Director I want to experience everything. I've hated it when working on corporate projects when the client have no idea what they're talking about and make it sound very simple. "Make it look more like a film." I don't want to be a Director that knows nothing. Doing these areas first hand makes me realise how hard they are and the capabilities and limitations.

Sound is a vast area and I shall split it up into parts. This being the introduction.

The other parts will consist of Dialogue, Foley, Music, Ambiance and the conclusion.

Colour Correcting and Adding Style.

I've still got a load of posts to catch up on!

I've been working on colour and sound for the past week and half. Whilst working on these areas and researching them I've realised how certain colours and sounds can effect the viewer. I am thinking about doing some videos explaining what I've done in these two areas, I can't get across what I've done well enough in a blog post as I could talking about it.

I'll keep this brief. The selection of shots below are from the suspense sequence. For the female character I wanted her colour palette to be bright and eye pleasing. Hopefully giving you a easy feel. I'm doing the opposite with the male, creating a tension through tone.

The location we shot in (our home) is very cold looking. Bare cream walls, the blinds being the same. We asked the actress to bring her own costume. We should have let her know not to wear something dull. The actress brought a pale blue/green night gown, which once the light hit it the gown faded in with the background.

What I have tried to achieve is a warm golden look, but pick out the shadows adding some depth.

I will go into lighting problems on the video.

The top image is my colour and underneath is the original camera shot.