PROPOSAL

FINAL SOUNDTRACK PRODUCTIONS: PROPOSAL

In this proposal I'll be discussing what I wish to achieve when producing my own soundtrack, for the moving image. Throughout the course of this proposal I'll be talking about a specific scene from a form of media whether it be animation, film or something else. I'll also be talking about aspects like the duration of the said sequence, the techniques that I used in order to make my work seem more close to the original scene I'll be talking about foley sounds (if any are included) and so on.


The name of the sequence I have chosen for this particular project comes underneath the animation genre, more specifically the anime genre, the scene I have decided to do is the famed Karasuno defeats Shiratorizawa scene from the anime Haikyuu underneath the animation genre. The length of the scene is roughly around 3 minutes and 38 seconds which is how long the recreated version will sound. The scene can also be found in the Haikyuu movie "Battle of concepts" Whilst the movie is in Japanese, the idea of this recreation is firstly to dub the scene entirely in English. The sound effects, music as well as voices will all be recreated during the making of this  using the original subtitles as a way to help with the scene.

Aspects such as the background music will be tense, the original music will attempted to be recreated or there will be use of completely new pieces of music to accommodate the scene the music will obviously be non-diegetic meaning that the characters can't hear the music. However dialogue direct address towards characters will be seen as diegetic. Music tracks, sound effects and more will be seen as non-diegetic as they're elements that the characters won't be able to hear when making the final recreation. The voice acting will most likely be done with multiple voice actors, that as aforementioned will be voiced in English. Recording will be done in a small room setting with a microphone, or even done in a studio setting. With the use of music and sound effects in this scene I intend on recreating the intense atmosphere of the final points in a final game, making sure that the music helps to emphasise the way the atmosphere is sound effects will also help to emphasise the character's actions and mood, helping with the way the mood and atmosphere Will essentially play out.

Spoken information is crucial as it's the spoken word like dialogue. The dialogue will be original voice overs or essentially dubbed from its Japanese counterpart using the subtitles as a guidelines, contributing towards the original script. The vocal techniques, include no lip syncing but mainly just pure voice over the characters as they speak.  It will mainly be recorded in a small room esque space rather than a studio space,  by using a smaller room space will help with there being less ambient noise or even any further disturbances when recording. Using a more empty space will help with a more clear recording to happen.

In terms of personnel there will mainly be a good amount of voice actors mainly depending on the amount of people that are being voiced in the clip. Which is roughly around 5-6 individual voices if not then I'll improvise all characters as an assured back up, as a form of contingency. In terms of other personnel will be any sound editing done by myself, and any technical support will be provided by people in the college. Furthermore, the resources used in this workshop will consist of mainly using one microphone (USB) with a pop filter and a stand, I will also be using a Laptop computer as my primary hardware and a software, used to record sound called Audacity.  The =n with the use of GarageBand I'll edit the score and export it to movie making my final soundtrack.

Workshop 5

INTRODUCTION:
Workshop 5 had us adding sound effects to scenes, without any music or dialogue whatsoever. We were also required to include our own foley sound being our own noise that we personally recorded ourselves included in our own time.  This workshop had helped in giving me a better understanding of how sound effects play a more than crucial role in any form of media. With the way they work, the way they emphasise atmospheres and help with creating more and more meaning to the story. As opposed to other group pieces of work, this time I mainly worked on my own being able to create a score for the scene that primarily focuses around utilising only sound effects. The overall goal of this was to use sound effects either pre made by other creators or even making our own sounds (Foley sounds) in order to make our final product similar to the original product with no music nor dialogue but just sound effects to help understand how they enforce the general atmosphere and overall mood of the scene in general.


BASE SOUNDS WHERE THEY CAME FROM AND WHAT MOVIE SCENE
The movie scene I had chosen for this particular task was one that had minimal sound and no dialogue in the scene itself. I used the previously used Mission Impossible scene "Close call" (See workshop 3). With this scene I had the music muted. The scene had no dialogue either. In order to edit this I used GarageBand as I have previously with other tasks. Instead of using anything from the Sound pool that GarageBand had to offer, I instead used sound effects (made by other creators) that I found using a website that  provided me sound effects that I was able to implement into this scene the website was known as "Free Sounds" A place where creators make their own foley sounds all for free use.  All these sounds would help play parts in bringing the atmosphere and surroundings  as well as even recreating any potential sound effects implemented before hand as well as, any interactions that characters had with objects for instance, the use of the futuristic computer sounds to simulate any forms of beeping to show that scans were complete. In other instances using small steps sound effects to help follow the footsteps of the Rat in the vent to help with emphasising its prominence and that it's there in the vent, showing its importance in this scene bringing it to life. For atmospheric sounds, I used a fan to help simulate the noises vents would be making to make it seem more realistic and help bring out more realism to the scene overall essentially creating a score using sound effects that would make the scene seem more believable. 

One of the most challenging sounds that I had to find or even recreate was the rope sound effect and when the rope holds Ethan up ensuring he doesn't fall. These sounds were hard to essentially find as well as even being able to recreate myself therefore, I had to resort to using Free sounds. Furthermore, being able to even recreate the deep breathing scenes were hard to also recreate as they needed to be done in a particular fashion that would make the sound effect fit in with the scene. Making it flow as well being more realistic. 



FOLEY SOUNDS AND THE EDITING PROCESS
The term "Foley sounds" are mainly sounds that have been recorded by yourself typically any sounds that can be recorded and refer to mainly sound effects. An example of a foley sound that I recorded was, a keyboard noise (can be heard when Luther is typing). In order to record this sound I had a microphone and recorded the sound in a smaller room, this allows for less ricochet effects or any sounds to cause an echo or even any other sounds to interrupt the recording. This allows for a clear and precise recording that's more definitive and much more prominent to the listener. I used a standard microphone, and nothing else but simple keyboard strokes to help with recording roughly around 5-10 seconds to work with. When it came to the actual editing in itself, as aforementioned I used GarageBand to edit the score.  For the deep breathing noises again I was able to achieve this by simply breathing heavily into the microphone that I used. The peripheral I used was an external microphone with pop filter attached that allowed for less disruption in the recording and more clarity in my voice as it carries over to my final piece.  In terms of other techniques that I used in order to enhance the way my track was done was mainly through  

TECHNICAL SUCCESS
Overall the technical, success of the track was clear and quite successful overall. With the technical aspects when achieving the making of foley noises, as well as finding instances of sounds that are very similar of that  used in the original mission impossible scene. Allowing for the scene I made to sound genuine and closer to the original. Whilst using the following sound effects,

Workshop 4 evaluation

TECHNICAL QUALITY AND MEANING

 Overall, the technical quality of each interview had come out very clear with little to no disturbance whatsoever, making each interview easier to understand. In terms of the meaning that it has on the overall recording it was to help get people's opinions across about music. The tone of voice helped to project the thoughts that the  interviewees have. Because of this we were able to get a real sense of feeling as well as realism in our recordings, from each interviewee.  The technical quality was really important to listeners mainly because, it helps with making sure that our messages are going across to our listeners. 

MICROPHONES USED AND TECHNICAL ELEMENTS AS INFLUENCE.

The microphones that were used were from mobile devices, realistically in terms of equipment this would be a drawback, as it's obvious that some mobile microphones aren't as good as the official peripherals seeing as their not fully designed with quality in mind. However, due to our choice of location, being a small quiet room, there was a case of there being little to no noise whatsoever. The positive from this would be that as aforementioned there's less chance of there being too much disturbances or any ambiances that may have disrupted our recordings, luckily the room didn't have an echo either which helped with dialogue getting across in the interview. Making the technical quality balanced. 

WHAT WE USED TO EDIT THE INTERVIEWS

As done previously we used GarageBand to edit our interviews, at first we split them up into three and put them all into a certain order with a soundscape to help start, the interview kick off, giving a nice effect that helps reel in our listeners.  The editing process was mainly about making sure that each interview sounded clear, if not we'd have to record it again, as well as sounding more organised as well as consistent. 

Our work: 

You can find an edited version of the interview here:

https://soundcloud.com/user-261265272/workshop-4

Workshop 3 EVALUATION

This workshop, I was mainly expected to make my own music for a scene that has no music, in order to do this, I had to choose, a scene that would utilise no forms of music at all, however there can be both dialogue and sound effects included. In order to create music I was expected to create an instrumental piece in Garage-band and hoping that the music will fit in with the scene. By using given music instruments in the program itself.

My main goal was to make sure that I could incorporate more tension to the scene making it more tense than it was but not something that was over tense. In order to do so, I was able to use the two aforementioned instruments and was able to record notes using a computer keyboard, and after messing around with various notes, and playing about with times on the video clips.

After using a YouTube to MP4 converter, and finding the scene on Youtube like the aforementioned workshops, I used Garage-band in order to edit the sound levels as well as the music, making sure that everything fit there were no external recording processes. In this instance, I used integrated music instruments specifically, the infinity pad and Dirty analog monster-bass, both forms of bass' that I used, in order to add tension to the scene.


 I was able to create a small music track that would help to create tension in our said scene, I chose to use two completely different instrumental sounds, this was mainly because, I wanted to help create a contrast and mores a build up to the final climax of the scene that, by using higher notes and also using some melodies from holding down one key in order to give it a good start and then soon something that I could build something off, I would also leave gaps and whatnot in the middle of the scene mainly to give the scene more meaning and again more tension as with no music it already includes the tension of maybe an accident or something bad occurring, before then using my second instrument to help create the next part of my track and build upon any further tension.

Overall I used the second method in order to create any the track which was to write original music for the soundtrack, in this instance making it non-diegetic sound rather than diegetic sound. With the use of any instruments that I found in Garage-Band, and using them to make the track seem more in sync, and making the mood something tense, and giving it that meaning that this was a close call.



For this workshop I was also expected to work, on making a music track work on a clip from a film that already doesn't have any, or lack any music whatsoever. For the scene I have chosen I am using the same scene as aforementioned the "Close call" scene from Mission Impossible.

For this scene, I have chosen to fit the scene using the main theme song, and fit that over the movie scene, in order to do this I used GarageBand, to fit the music over and even sync it to the scene so that it doesn't seem too out of place nor distorted, and in fact made it look as if the scene fit well with said music in order to achieve this I used cuts when appropriate,  so that I could help the scene look right with leaving some form of ambiance and quiet humming sounds at the most tense scenes, to help with adding and emphasising even more tense than it already was originally. Furthermore,  by including the ending of the scene I used the end of the song, and implemented it into the end of the scene, unlike previous workshops there were no uses of recordings so no extra devices or anything are needed or were needed.

Evaluation 2 Dubbing voices (lip syncing)

In this workshop we were tasked with finding and dubbing over an entire scene from a movie mainly just what the characters do and say as opposed to the last workshop where we had to, simply re-enact the thoughts of characters for around a minute, from a form of media. This time around we have chosen to dub a scene from Detective Pikachu more famously recognised as Tim’s and Pikachu’s first meeting scene which we decided to dub over. Without any music in the back.

 Our main focus was the dialogue and making sure that it managed to sync with the lip movement in a better manner, that made it look clearer. 

In order to record our voices, we used our phones in order to help us capture said sound. In order to edit said clips to the program known as Garage band in order to edit the entire score, in order to get less clashes, I muted the original, track. In this workshop the goal was mainly for the group to, be able to successfully dub over said lines rather, meaning any lack of sound effects or music, won’t be worried about. 

To edit out the track we mainly muted the original video track, and added our voice lines over what the characters had sad by watching and attempting to mirror lip movements, to make it seem as if we’re the characters by being able to successfully mirror timing and dub clearly, over into a microphone without any potential disruptions or static noises that would end up making the final product something that our audiences can’t really hear. In order to ensure this, we made sure that we could get an empty space where there would be less likely of a chance with any echoes or any form of ricochet effect, as well as making sure that only one person in our group was recording their respective lines after another person has done their lines to help make the editing process much more efficient for the final product. 

Dub workshop 1 Evaluation

In this evaluation I’ll be covering the process about the workshop, in which we were tasked to record the thoughts of characters, in terms of what I had to do was find a television or film scene and record a dub for a character thought roughly around 30 seconds to a minute using Garage band to edit my voiceover. The main focus would be around nothing but voicing a character's thoughts and so therefore we chose a small scene from the animated sonic series to voice over.

Programs used included me using Garage band (as aforementioned) which allowed me to sync the dialogue to the other sounds in the scene, and then using premier pro, in order to help make sure that the final video was the correct duration, and that the final product flowed properly, so that the sound wasn’t distorted nor were the original sounds and our recorded score were clashing either, luckily that wasn’t the case and the final product came out better than expected. 

In order to record said lines, or scripts we used our phones to record the script and another phone in order to listen to the video and sync our voices to the voices so that placement was done well.  We only dubbed the lines that only include any form of thought processes that the characters will be going through. 

In terms of audio techniques, we made sure that there was a good use of thoughts used in order to make the entire video work, giving the characters some form of diegetic sounds including the sound effects that were also included, making the video more original and more realistic. The use of voiceover helped to add a confused mood to the scene as it was a scene that we saw the character as confused and was giving the character a voice in the form of giving the character inside thoughts,  by doing so we were able to provide more clarity on the thoughts and feelings our character was feeling in this scene.






For access to the scene click here:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=16rjAtr5eMWhP-3D9rehhc0W72Fzmws8C 

Unit 38.1

UNIT 7.1 

INTRODUCTION

In any form of moving image productions, sound is a key and essential part of production as it becomes a clear indicator to audiences as to what is going on in the scene and helps to emphasise and tell a narrative on screen. Sound can often range in many forms in media including dialogue, music and sound effects. In this essay I’ll be taking a look at three scenes/episodes from three forms of moving media in particular animation film and a documentary. I’ll be also analysing how each form of media uses sound to help them to get their respective messages across to the audience.

CASE STUDY 1 CHILDREN OF MEN OPENING SCENE (2006)

 Firstly, I will be analysing is the opening scene to the movie Children of Men (2006). In the opening moments of the scene there are no forms of background music, in fact to compliment the setting, the movie uses ambiance, being the base use of sound to give off a sense of realism such as bus noises, people talking and so on so forth. These sounds were used to indicate that the city of London, is still busy. The scene mixed with the ambiance of the city also includes dialogue to add more and more realism as well as life into the character, for example the news headlines that we hear at the beginning of the scene, is a good example of how functional dialogue works, using short sentences that mainly informs the audience of anything, with a powerful meaning that gets the audience feel something. This scene also uses Hyper realism, towards the end of the scene, when the explosion occurs the sound is exaggerated by the use of ringing noises and the ricochet of the bomb's impacts, to the point where all other sounds such as the aforementioned ambiance, and dialogue are met with faces of shock and drowning screams layered into, the ringing sounds, that are heavily exaggerated mainly to suggest that an important event has occurred. Another implication of this could simply be the way the character is feeling and what they may be hearing giving us as an audience an involvement in the story as to what may be going on, putting us in the protagonist's shoes, this mixed with the use of a camera following the perspective of the protagonist helps us as the audience, see the scene in a more clear perspective and helps us develops more of an understanding of what happens on screen. 

The purpose of a scene in a movie is to create a mood, and as a result of this scene’s musical score overall, has given it the result of a scene that’s considered dull at first, we know this because of the ambiance used a little before the explosion occurs we can hear, talking and city noises, that can be seen as naturalistic to the audience, as it’s something that would be expected to be heard in a setting as dull as this one. Making for an example of a “calming before the storm” type scene. However, hear we also have a good example of having a disruption in the scene, where we have the bomb part of the scene occur. Both of these examples are good examples of synchronous sound, which for the scene is a bonus as it allows it to clearly tell and show the story as it unfolds in the opening scenes. 

CASE STUDY 2 CHILDREN OF MEN ENDING SCENE (2006)

The next example that I'll be analysing is the final scene of from the movie “Children of Men” from the scene “We’re safe" and how sound mainly effects the way the scene is portrayed. 

Firstly, there's a slight use of music towards Theo's death to indicate that something's sad or melancholy is about to occur, the music used is a sad choir type of music. By using this type of music, it gives this scene a sense of emotional realism, being symbolic to the build-up towards Theo’s death, by doing so it’s gives off the implication that something has occurred, as the scene progresses the music gets louder and becomes an indication of the boat, almost giving the boat its own motif, in the movie to help signify safety or the assurance that something good will happen, by giving the boat this track or “motif” it’s helping give the scene more life as well as characteristic as well. This is all non-diegetic forms of sound that helped developed a freedom type mood for the audience to experience whilst being melancholy as well. Sound effects also work well in this scene, the use of ambiance, in this scene such as the lighthouse or even the rolling of the waves too. 

Both scenes from the movie can be found here on YouTube for further reference.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCTgUq6hzUk (Opening scene)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMJqQ3VrcCA (Ending scene)

 CASE STUDY 3 STACEY DOOLEY INVESTIGATES ONLINE DRUGS:

Unlike the previous case study being a movie, this case study differs as it’s now a documentary that was based in 2016 about Drug dealers, and how the trades are done online now using social media.

Music in a documentary is often used as a form of non-diegetic sound that's used to create the mood and overall meaning of the documentary and mainly what it's about. The way that the documentary does this is mainly through using eerie music during scenes with meetings of the drug dealers to emphasise a suspicious and tense atmosphere, as dealing with people with such shady backgrounds could lead to anything sinister, an example of this would be around the 18:39 mark just when Stacey is about to meet the first drug dealer Tye, what makes it work, is as the music is playing connoting something sinister, Stacey also exclaims that she's "scared" and doesn't really know what to expect from a situation, which adds to the scene more and creates further tension.

By doing so it makes the scene as well as the documentary more intriguing to watch. Other examples of music contrast with other scenes where it could be argued that a motif is used to indicate a certain scene involving an encounter with drug dealers as such. In contrast to the dialogue as well as sound effects there are instances where the music sounds as if it's drowning other aspects of the score. Overall this could make the noise distorted.

SOUND EFFECTS:

In terms of sound effects, they range between the non-diegetic as well as diegetic realms of noise in this documentary in particular. In terms of diegetic noise, the most prominent example would be the use of ambience, being any background noises that could be heard throughout the documentary as most of it is filmed outside a massive example of this would be around the 25-minute mark of the video where a scene takes place between a snapchat employee (interviewee) and Stacey. As this conversation is going on we can also hear cars and other vehicles, in the background as well as other forms of ambient noises that exaggerate any forms of life in the city. Overall however the sound effects that are utilised in this documentary are also really synchronous overall, the reason for this is to match the documentary visually with what’s being expressed in terms of audio. 

In terms of non-diegetic sound is found throughout the entirety of the documentary, an example of this is, the meet up scenes (as aforementioned) especially the texting scenes, each time an animated graphic appears with the texts on screen we can hear little pings as well as typing noises, to emphasise activity between both people, as well as to emphasise and exaggerate realism with the drug dealer before they meet. Often examples of hyper real noises as their exaggerated by, using realistic noises to display an action or interaction that occurs. By doing this the documentary keeps it less boring, and more enjoyable to watch as the documentary isn't just giving us a static long shot, of Stacey standing there with background music which would deem to become boring as it's not very appealing for the audience to watch. Also, by using this example of hyper realism the documentary also helps to dictate any form emotional realism overall, as it helps by giving us insight in what is going on with both a mix of visuals and sound effects to help that scene stand out in particular.

DIALOGUE/SPOKEN WORD:

Interview techniques: In interviews, both between the interviewer and interviewee, it's often clear to understand what's being said from Stacey as her accent is easy to understand and that she's loud and clear whereas, when it came to the interviewees, there are instances where there is an issue that nothing is being understood so in order to breach that gap between the audience and character the the documentary visually uses subtitles to help the audience understand what's being said, as there are some accents/dialects that may not be understood by the audience or the person is too quiet. A prominent example is around the 14:03 mark and further, the interviewees have a strong accent that is hard to understand, and with the use of a face mask it's harder to hear what's being said as in some instances they may seem quiet or the dialect is confusing, and strong. The Questions that is asked by Stacey helps us to further understand what's going on in the minds of these people as they're always asked deeper questions that get the people she speaks to for them to be open and honest, such as asking for views and their ages etc.

Voice Over:

Voice overs used in this documentary were done by Stacey herself and was dubbed over the entire documentary, in points to help dictate to the audience what direction the documentary is going, or even used to help tell a story or exaggerate any dynamic effects, such as at the beginning of the documentary where Stacey, opens with facts and statistics with a stern tone of voice helps with the audience to get hooked into the facts and figures of the entire thing and get them understanding, with what the program is about. The dialect she has is again easy to understand and with a loud projected voice helps to understand what is being said in the documentary. 

OVERALL:

In conclusion, the sound mix used in this documentary in particular is a good example of how sound works all together to help produce a piece of media overall. Music is used to help set the theme and the setting for what the documentary overall has to offer to audiences giving them expectations. Sound effects allow for more exaggerated sound, more hyper realism and more so making the scene work.

CASE STUDY 4 POKEMON SUN AND MOON EPISODE 140 (2019)

Animation is a very popular form of moving image production that’s been consumed by many audiences, 

Music-- in this episode is a form of non-diegetic music, used to build tension between fights, considering that the fight scenes in this mirror a major fight. Music used is to mirror the way the scene is and dictates the scene as well as gives audiences an idea of what the emotion behind the scene is like. Used in a synchronous fashion especially between the final scenes of the episode. The music often in this scene dictates the way the scene goes on if it's upbeat it represents a positive moment or battle scene, otherwise if we have a form of melancholy music it references some form of sad scene, or a loss in the episode.

 Sound effects in this scene often go between smaller assets such as voice clips that include grunts or the cries of other characters in the scene mixing well with the score of the scene overall, by doing so it gives the episode's score a fixed feeling and atmosphere as all the sound effects and music in this scene are all synchronous. By doing so, it helps everything link towards one another.  Prominent examples of any clear sound effects are as aforementioned, being any grunts or battle cries as well as any environmental noises such as the waves crashing, to emphasise any further tension, or destruction showing a fight or battle scene by using things such as building destruction sounds as well. Showing any negative signs to the scene making it a double-edged sword for the audience and scene overall.  Some sounds are extremely exaggerated giving a sense of hyper realism overall. Other instances of Sound effects, that were used included motives or indications that something big was going to occur in the episode for example, when the same sound effect would play in the mix for an "Ultra hole" the same bit of sound would play to simply to indicate and let the audience know that something such as this portal is going to open or a something big is coming. Sound effects really are a powerful way of showing and indicating any forms of importance in a scene, in this scene not only did it help with the score being synchronous, it also helped with the audio being recognisable by audiences. The use of ambiance in the scene as well as some realism to the environments shown such as waves 

Dialogue/Spoken word:

Dialogue or spoken word in an animation is a crucial aspect in a form of moving media, as it helps to dictate what’s going on in the episode. Overall as the scene is full with action and fight aspects in a scene we can simply expect there to be a lot of functional dialogue, small snappy and short commands or strings of dialogue. By using functional dialogue throughout tense scenes, it adds more towards the concept of emotional realism, giving the scene more to work with and making it overall something entertaining to watch as well overall. Another key aspect with the dialogue is that like other sound aspects in this episode such as effects and music the dialogue, also comes underneath being synchronous, as the dialogue in the scene is and follows up to what happens on screen, if that wasn’t the case then the scene would end up on being distorted and everything would seem out of place, making the episode fall apart. Something else that evens out the dialogue is also narration in these episodes that can be heard at the beginning and ending of each episodes, helps to dictate what’s going on in the episode, also giving the audience some form of story or assurance as to what’s happening in the scene.