Month: November 2021

I watched The Guilty initially not doing too much research into it. I skimmed through the movie quickly to see that it was the same thing the whole time, a police dispatcher in his office and initially, I felt no motivated to watch it. I then read about the use of limited space in this movie from the email and gave it another chance and paid full attention.

To start I really liked the use of sound in this movie. The POV sections really focus you on the characters conversations. I found myself captivated and imagining with full vividness what was going on through the dispatcher’s conversation. I found the use of sound in context to the environment over the phone specifically in parts when he made the police officer on the scene keep the line on while stopping the white van initially that was the wrong vehicle. Or when the officer arrives at the house and searches for the baby brother. The audio is designed very well, the sense of proximity to how close things are as well as the phone effect really make it easier to have an imagination as to what’s going on, as well as keeping you captivated.

There was also basically no music as far as I can remember and this again really makes you focus on the conversations as if you even drift for a second it can be hard to grab your attention and begin the imagination process. I feel like I spent most of the time in my thoughts instead of watching, I watched it with my housemates and it also gave me the idea of how we all must of imagined the film completely different, we all associate the sounds and country with different memories and ideas.

The last thing I want to talk about is the POV used in the film, I think it’s really done well. You forget at times that he’s even in this call centre until it goes back into the room or you see his colleague next to him. The juxtaposition between hearing the room and not really makes the brain focus on what’s in front of it. And when you can hear or start to realise he’s in the room again it brings back to your thoughts that he’s saying things without thinking. It’s almost like you are in his head.

I really liked the description of room tones, and recording atmospheres. The process of using the EQ to warm or cold a sound similar to a photo. To enhance the atmosphere in the scene relevant to what the sound designer wants to convey. In my clip for A Quiet Place the room tone initially in the pharmacy I’ve recorded and it had a lot of hiss. I need to EQ that out, as well as the lower frequencies to rid of the rumble. I want to also use the EQ and pitching as explained to create a nasty atmosphere and optionally try the pitching as well perhaps even creating harmonics. I think this really helps as I keep having this dilemma of trying to replicate the scene to as much realism as possible. But then realising this isn’t at least the idea for this film. It’s not real, so we want to emphasise and create specific effects and intentions with out sound, and possibly how can we improve on what we’ve recorded to emphasise our decisions.

The most engaging part of this short text was the ending part, which was acting with sound. The qualities of a character, do they walk timidly? Are they boisterous, unpredictable? The text continues to speak about how the actors bring another element to the performance. Including the script also. I think the role of a sound designer is also in how they want to push the scene into. Potentially another take, changing the performance entirely sonically. Or mimicking the correct foley as I’ve read and watched in other resources. Foley even in walking can mimic characters. I need to do this for my quiet place clip assignment, as in the clip the family walk differently and have a different personality. For example, the youngest child is nieve while the parents are extra careful. This should reflect the foley performance.

We began the lecture with Tim going through Censor and the process behind it. I watched the full video on youtube of Michael Winner vs Mary Whitehouse- film violence debate. I found it funny, to be honest. The link between violence on-screen and real-life violence. I tend to find it the opposite, the screen is a reflection of us. I also get the views and social environment at the time, it really opened my mind towards how people in the past and more importantly the previous generation which was born in the early 1900’s opinion of the film was. I completely understand why she’d want Rambo banned. But I don’t think that’s the answer.

We also touched on sound references and using other movies to contextualise your ideas. To have a list of films perhaps to draw inspiration from sonically and to place yourself within that. To select the films and reiterate what the plan for the sections are in terms of sound design and message or delivery.

Sound worlds was another subject in the lecture, and how we can decipher them. To select the theme and break it down into its techniques and motifs with sound. For example fiction in Censor was shown with analogue artefacts and tape saturation/echo. The motifs were feedback and static. It helps to actualise the thoughts you have to get them down. To actively plan, although the sound design process can lead you else were and down a different path, I find this to be good to do. It outsets your intentions.

Another point that struck me was the design process for the sound. I had read previously about this technique and found it a bit confusing. After Tim spoke he gave more context and it makes a lot more sense. It’s to help guide you on the contrasting sounds and what they stand for and how they will be used.

To place the sound worlds in each area of different contexts and to plan how they will interact and sit in the mix.

I’m going to do one for my clip and see if it helps me when planing.

I rented out two lav mics from the sound tech resources. They recommended using two lav mics on a hanger for atmospheres. I struggled actually using the 418 mics with the zoom h5 to combine the mid side for recording. I didn’t manage to work out the mid side combination so I thought I’d try this lav combination.

I set up the lav combination with the Zoom f4 I had rented from last weekends work on Saturday. I tried recording in the house and thought it sounded great. Unfortunately, I didn’t have enough time recording to properly take them out to record atmospheres. I wanted to try using the Sound Devices 633 as when I turned up the gain on this Zoom F4 the preamps were so noisy. I needed something with a clearer sound. I spoke to Micheal again and did some research online and decided to try the Seinheiser 418 with a mid-side polar pattern in combination with the Sound Devices 633 recorder. Let’s see if it’s any better.

This evening I booked out the foley room and composition lab with the intention to record the feet of the clip in a quiet place. Before the session, I laid out blank regions and had every feet recording ready for recording. I also set up the session to grid and frame. Also, the session to run on timecode.

I then used a Sennheiser MKH 416 for the feet sounds. I decided to not use the blimp this time as a test just to see the audio difference. I placed the mic pointing at the concrete floor in the foley trap to match the floor in the pharmacy in the clip. I made sure the microphone was about 20cm away pointed down directly at the source due to the hyper-cardioid polar pattern.

We began with the feet of the small child running around. I told Dan who was being the foley artist to make some noise so I could adjust the gain structure. I then gave him my opinion on how I wanted the child to sound like. I wanted each footstep to be different although quiet. Still to have a personality within the steps. The child is younger and unaware of the severity of making loud noises would run a little louder but with less bass, in his steps as he is smaller. The daughter is in between, she walks on her tiptoes and really avoids silence, although she is deaf and has a cochlear implant she is aware and scared of the consequences. Later in the clip, we have the mother who is the most cautious of them all, and she moves the slowest with the heaviest but lighter volume of all three.

To begin dan played out the walking with the intention I set him. We did a few takes as there were issues with the sound of the foley trap with his skin against the concrete sort of material. His feet bare skin like the actors created to much noise when lifting so I told him to walk even more cautious and it was successful.

We then continued to the part of the daughter. This is currently a very early stage so I didn’t worry about my POV choices with this specific character yet and focused more on laying foundations. I was behind on my atmosphere so it didn’t have any context or sounds to blend together with to create more immersion. The rawness did put us off and made us nitpick a lot. After I while I decided to do the opposite. I felt tired and a bit frustrated with not getting the perfect sounds but after getting home and listening I realised they were good. Not amazing but pretty decent and I just need to trim them up a bit and they should be good.

The last character was the mother which Dan did great with. He really felt the movement of the mother. Perhaps as he could play an adult and she walks a lot slower in the clip he was able to immerse himself more without thinking whether it matches and just method act.

Overall it was a good session, I’m glad I had the blank regions recorded before it. Helped with the flow and planning of the three hours. I think this was a good foundation to help other sounds flow, as getting started after doing a lot of research makes it difficult when you have so much information so anything helps.

I know the sounds are perfect and have not been mixed or anything yet but I’m open to changing footstep sounds as I add more sonic layers. As it currently stands I needed a basis, to begin with, and this was more than enough. The next session is on Friday so I hope to have recorded the atmospheres by then to add the next layer before doing cloth and props.

I watched the film that Tim recommended we watched in order to understand the context of the next lecture. I did some research into the video nasties, they were cheap typically low budget horror films that made it into stores while avoiding being rated by the BBFC in the 1980s. This meant that a lot of children got their hands on these graphic films. The public outcry to get these filmed banned invoked pressure on the BBFC to do this. This made the films become urban legends and a negative political stance on films of this type. Including censorship which directly counteracts the point of art.

I watched the film and paid attention to the sound design specifically. I found the use of music rather confusing. It was in small doses, id say it was played maybe no more than five or six times throughout the actual film. And when it did get played it was always short and at a specific moment in the film that was confusing or invoked mysterious story telling.

I also found the mix of the film to feel really claustrophobic. The sound effects took up a lot of room and didn’t allow the dialogue to come through as clean as it should. Now that could either be the technical limitations of the time. The fact the film had a small budget, or an artistic decision. In one specific scene the wife is chopping up meat with an electric machine and it really overpowers the dialogue. I think in this specific scene it used noise in a great way. To showcase her cloudy vision and foggy thoughts. How her dilusian meant she wasn’t paying attention to her husband when he was speaking to her.

Overall i didn’t find it that captivating. The plot was confusing and the sound mix wasn’t that great. It was an enjoyable watch and did have interesting parts with sonic world story telling which I’ll definitely incorporate into my film clip for my assignment. I’m interested for tomorrows lecture to see how this will fit in context to the other films in the video nasties.

I read the short five-page chapter on sound worlds. It begins to use Parasite the film as an example of social dialogue with sound. Designer Ralph Tae-Young Choi uses sound to express the social class between the houses. The poor family home has non-diegetic sounds of dogs barking and loud traffic going past as well as a constant stream of noise pollution going on in the background. Whereas in contrast, the rich family has nature sounds. The rich family’s home has a quiet peaceful ambience in the background as well as reverberation in the house to create a sense of space in the home. To communicate that they live in a large house. I find this use of sound design really impressive. Little things can make a large difference when communicating story and place. I feel you could almost realise which was a poor family home and rich without the visuals which shows how much storytelling is going on with these two scenes sonically.

The chapter also goes on to explain a visual way of showcasing and planning ideas in pre-production.

I’m not entirely understanding the exact benefits of this visual planning is but I do find it interesting. I’ve never planned sound design in this manner so I’m hoping in tomorrows lecture Tim will explain it a bit more in detail. But as I understand currently, you write down the sonic worlds in circles and write the opposite spectrum on each side and place the sonic worlds in the location to contrast opposite sonic worlds and how they reflect each other. I think perhaps if I try to do this for my film for my assignment it might give me more clarity on this visual planning.

I was in the performance lab when Michael came in with a student asking if anyone wanted to record sound for his advert. I accepted without really having done any professional work knowing I’d just practice using the boom mic.

I received the run down and they wanted an ambience recording of the room and a boom for close-ups. And potential voiceovers on the day as well. I spoke to Michael and got a list of microphones and equipment I should probably use. We agreed on the 416 shotgun mic due to its hyper-cardioid polar pattern for the boom. C541 pencil microphones for XY recording technique. And a lav mic to hide on the table to record the small pieces and cards being moved.

I did a practice set-up in the small sound room and practised the XY technique based on a few videos I’d watched. I also set up the boom and organised the ZOOMF4 for how I wanted it to record so it would be smooth on the day. Played around with the gain structure and holding the boom to a sound source.

On the day I arrived early and helped move some furniture from the living room. Once everything was out of the way. I set up my XY recording around the cameras to not get in the way. Coiled my cables nicely and taped them to the floor to avoid tripping hazards.

At first, it felt a bit strange as I didn’t know the team and didn’t feel too comfortable giving my opinion but after lunch and I felt more settled in I managed to get the recording much better and gave my opinion. I found efficient ways to control the gain while holding the boom and also without tiring my arms.

Overall a great experience. working with actors and a professional team/production company. Taught me a lot based on the recording knowledge I had already it gave me a different context to use it. The gain was constantly changing as it’s not a controlled environment and actors are constantly moving while speaking so I had to be constantly adjusting for dynamic changes. While making sure the boom wasn’t in shot and pointing at the actors.