Video & Sound Production - Project 1
VIDEO & SOUND PRODUCTION
01/09/20 - 08/09/20 / Week 2 - Week 3
20/10/20 - 27/10/20 / Week 9 - Week 10
Ibrahim Fazal Ahmad / 0337423
Video & Sound Production / Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media / Taylors University / Project 1
LECTURES
Week 4: Storytelling in Film. This week we learned about the importance of storytelling in film and media. We also learned a few new terms in-depth, though we had all most likely heard these words being thrown around before.
- Narrative: Chain of events in a cause and effect relationship
- Story: What happened?
- Plot: Why did this happen and how?
Plot segmentation is an easy way to understand the plot of a film or piece of media. We were then asked to give a rough plot segmentation for our Project 2 idea (The Zach King video), However, due to complications revolving the Adobe Creative Jam, Project 2 is now considered Project 3 (Our Final)
INSTRUCTIONS
TASK 1
For this exercise, we had to edit over a short clip from the movie "500 Days of Summer". This clip given to us has absolutely no audio. We firstly had to organise the speaking roles and edit them in first. I was the director/group leader for this task. I asked for some volunteers and I got the voices for Summer and Tom, the main characters in the movie. The voices being:
- Summer - Yumnu
- Tom - Jon
Firstly, we got organised a time to meet up on discord, as both Jon and Yumnu are outside Malaysia. This made the recording slightly harder, as there was going to be an inevitable slight delay from when I wanted them to speak, in comparison to when we tried doing this task in physical classes. So we organised a simple plan, look at the exact timestamps in the video and lip-sync them to the best of their abilities.
We discussed in call how the speaking should be, tone of voice, the speed at which the lines were said and such. After discussing how the lines were to be spoken, Jon and Yumnu recorded approximately 5 attempts and sent it to me. Through which I decided the best lines from each person and sent it to the rest of my group members. Here is the first part of this exercise:
Figure 1: Audio Editing Exercise (Voices Only)
After we completed the voices, we now had to add in the rest of the noise in the video by ourselves. Noises such as ambience from the train rattling, the door moving and the rustling of clothes. This part required us to either find audios from online or create our own noise.
Figure 1.01: Audio Editing Exercise
TASK 2:
For the part of our Project 1, we needed to edit an audio clip sent to us by Mr Martin. It is just a simple voice clip speaking in Malay, I understand it slightly but not really. My Malay is quite bad for someone born and raised here! Anyway, we had to take this audio and edit it to fit the descriptions given to us by Mr Martin.
- The voice of a phone call
- Voice coming from inside a closet
- Voice of a big stadium
- Voice of toilet/bathroom
- Underground cave
Firstly we did a few examples following Mr Martin using Adobe Audition. After which we could do our own after understanding the effects and their properties. Firstly, when you see your audio you need to go here, click on the arrow. Filter and EQ > Parametric Equaliser
Figure 1.02: Parametric Equaliser
For the phone call we need to:
- Bring down the BASS, TREBLE
- Raise the MID-RANGE
Figure 1.03: Audio Editing Exercise 2
Figure 1.02 displays how the curve looked after following Mr Martins instructions, this effect would imitate a phone call. For the next effect, we explored a muffled sound such as someone who is inside a closet. For this, we had to:
- BASS remains the same
- TREBLE goes to the bottom
- raise MID-RANGE to the top
After doing this, you end up with a curve depicted below. This effect will imitate the sound of someone who is inside a closet, or very muffled in general.
Figure 1.04: Audio Editing Exercise 2
Now we had to experiment with the Reverb filters.
Figure 1.05: Reverb
For Reverb, we could experiment with the filters just to see their effects and such on the audio. Such as making it sound like they're in a stadium, or echoing very loudly. We could also choose some of the preset settings that were given.
Figure 1.06: Reverb
After doing the examples with Mr Martin, we had to apply the knowledge learned by using the audio given to us and applying the scenarios told by Mr Martin. The first three were straight forward as Mr Martin had already explained them but for the other two scenarios, we had to apply what we learned as also some creative thinking skills as to what we believe the person would sound like if they were inside those environments.
Figure 1.07: Completed Audios
For our last task, we were asked by Mr Martin to complete some sound effects using the different settings from Adobe Audition. We had to make an explosion, alien voice and triple punch. Firstly, we had to open the speaking audio that we had used on the previous exercise. We had to select a small portion of it and Copy To New. After which we select the audio and go to Effects>Time and Pitch>Stretch and Pitch(process)
From here, we can change the speed and pitch of the audio. A higher stretch will mean the audio will be slower, the original will be 100%. While a lower pitch shift will make the audio sound much lower.
Figure 1.09: Stretch and Pitch shift
After finishing a lower and slower audio for the explosion, we had to create a Multitrack and layer it with the original explosion audio. We had to move the slower audio slightly to the right as the timings were different.
Figure 1.1: New audio layered
Next, we made a lead up to the explosion, for that we took the explosion audio and used Reverse. This created something we could use as a lead up towards the actual explosion
Figure 1.11: Reverse
Here we inserted the lead up to the explosion, and also added a Fade In and Fade Out to all the audios.
Figure 1.12: Fade In and Fade Out
After that, we had to take the lead up to the explosion and use the Pitch Shifter to give it a deep base, like a booming and massive explosion would.
Figure 1.13: Pitch Shifter
Then add the newly bass edited audio into the mix.
Figure 1.14: All audios in multitrack
Next, we had to use the Parametric Equaliser on our original track in which we amplified the bass.
Figure 1.15: Parametric Equaliser
Figure 1.16:
Again we applied the Parametric Equaliser but on the entire multitrack rather than just one of them.
Figure 1.17
Next, we add some Reverb to the whole audio, and then we go into Amplitude and Compression to decrease the overall volume as the whole audio was too loud and would be cut off.
Figure 1.18
After following this process, I applied it all to the different audio variations and finished them. However, I also tried another effect on the voice through Modulation>Flanger. I wasn't too sure what it does, but I tried a present and it made the audio sound really interesting so I stuck with it.
Figure 1.19
REFLECTIONS:
WEEK 4 // SOUND EXERCISE 1 REFLECTION: This task seemed to be rather simple at first glance, but in reality, it shows just the surface on how intricate and unique sound design really is. I do believe my video can be easily understood as having "sound added on afterwards" which is apart of the learning process. However, this makes me respect sound designers even more than I already do, it shows how vital and almost unappreciated their jobs can be. As most people would assume the audio from movies, television and many more are just from the environment itself rather than a sound designers expertise tricking them into believing so. One observation I made was that voices can be replaced rather simply, in comparison to background noise. One finding I made is that good sound design is when the audience believes the sound is just from the original clip itself.
WEEK 9 // SOUND EXERCISE 2 REFLECTION: This task was rather simple to do with the help of Mr Martins prerecorded lecture. I also learned a lot through experimenting with the audio settings on my own. The presets had also allowed me to understand what the effects and settings do to the audio clips. One observation I made was that the simplicity of the effects can really add a lot towards the depth of audio. Changing simple settings allows for much more exploration and interesting aspects to a simple sound or voice recording. One finding I made is that a low bass in audio can give it a very low-quality setting, which made it work very well for the phone call.
WEEK 14 // SOUND EXERCISE 3 REFLECTION: This was our last exercise and task for Video & Sound Production. I am glad to have taken this module and it was a really interesting class. I had always understood the importance of framing in videography, but I never understood how important sound really is to an entire experience. I realise how crucial sound can be to a viewer. I also realise how sound can be played with and changed creating completely unreal and crazy sounds. One observation I made was that reversing a sound can create completely new and very interesting audio that can be used for different scenarios. One finding I made was that slowing down audio can create a really interesting aura, like the Windows opening sound slowed by 800%.
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