CIARAN SHARP FILMAKING
CREATING AUDIO FOR DIGITAL MEDIA
Sound Research
Creating My Own Foley
My Editing Timelines
When creating the sound of mushrooms growing in a timelapse, my group used a combination of rubber and lentils. To create the deeper pitched tones of the mushrooms stretching, we twisted a thin piece of rubber. This created a great sound of uneven friction. To create the high pitched sound of popping, we poured lentils into a container, this created a nice consistent sound. When editing the clips together, I used parametric equalisers and pitch shifters. I applied a low pass to the rubber sound, to bring emphasis to its deeper tones and a high pass on the lentils to isolate high pitch tones. Overall I think my clip has a good balance and works to believably recreate the sound of mushrooms.
When creating the sound effects for a jellyfish, I had the idea to use a mop head, which we would dunk and rotate in water to create a squidgy compression and expansion sound. Luckily we had the reference video of the jellyfish in front of us to time our compressions. I then filled a small amount of water in a large 19L jug and swirled and swished it around, I found holding my mic below the jug captured. a deeper pitched sound. I applied pitch shifters and parametric equalizers to both, making them deeper pitched, as if they were underwater. I tried to keep a higher-pitched sound to the mop head sounds, to make the jellyfish sound fleshier. I had to use a click remover on my water audio to remove some noise. I also slowed the water audio down as it crested a subtle reverb that make it sound more realistic. Overall I found coming up with creative ideas to create sounds helped me very effectively recreate jellyfish sounds.
Production plan
Av Script
Resources
Although I could not capture any BTS I utilised ADR for eating and breathing sounds and dialogue. I used a very squeaky old bed frame, which I pitched up to emphasise, for the sound of me rolling unto the bed. I used the sound of bubbles blown through a straw in water for the sound of my gurgling stomach and cloth rubbed together for my clothes. Although a lot less effort I reused the sound of my growing mushrooms, revisiting it to add some fine tweaking and blend in a sound of a cigarette. All these sounds were relatively easy to think of and effective so far. I struggled the most with creating an underwater sound. after much experimenting, I found filling water into a twenty five-litre jug and swishing it about, when pitched down dramatically, works ok for the sound of deep water. For the sound of my face crackly, I used a crisp wrapper to capture the sound, but no matter how I edited it, it didn't seem right. After playing at it for a while I found by slowing it down, helped to make it sound more dramatic. To record my audio i used a shotgun mic, a long thin tube that is highly directional when recording audio. This is because of the slits along the mic , they capture noise from the direction the mic is pointing and cancel out sound that is not directly to the side of the mic . These shotgun mics are an industry standard for recording audio , as their directional precision is a valuable tool. I used this mic in pair with the Zoom H4 audio recorder, which i then plugged headphones into in order to listen to the sound i was recording. However both the lead for my headphones and lead to connect the shotgun mic were long and would easily get tangle , distracting me , i had to lean to roll the leads around an arm or elbow , in order to declutter it and make it easier to record. Finally , i also had to adjust the sensitivity of the mic on my audio recorder , in order to ensure i was only capturing the isolated sound of what i wanted to capture
Editing Timeline
When creating the sound of mushrooms growing in a timelapse, my group used a combination of rubber and lentils. To create the deeper pitched tones of the mushrooms stretching, we twisted a thin piece of rubber. This created a great sound of uneven friction. To create the high pitched sound of popping, we poured lentils into a container, this created a nice consistent sound. When editing the clips together, I used parametric equalisers and pitch shifters. I applied a low pass to the rubber sound, to bring emphasis to its deeper tones and a high pass on the lentils to isolate high pitch tones. Overall I think my clip has a good balance and works to believably recreate the sound of mushrooms.
When working on my timeline for going veggie I frequently used the pitch shifter, an easy way to raise or lower the pitch of a clip, which is a noticeable difference when listening. I also used a parametric EQ on most clips , this is a way to control the volume of frequencies in a clip . Essentially being able to turn the treble or base down. A great example of me using this is in my underwater audio , where i used a low pass eq to isolate the bass in the clip. This served to remove any noise that was too high pitched , and allowed to create that signature underwater sound we hear on Tv. I used both these effects on pretty much all the clips in my timeline , they are the primary way I edited my audio to achieve its desired sound . I also had to timestretch a few clips, to slow them down. This was either to make them sound more believable or synchronise them to an action in the clip. However this posed a problem as if I timestretched a clip too much , it would create an ugly , ghostly reverb , which i had to try remove. To do this I applied a dereverb effect , I also used the denoise effect to remove accidental pumps or grain in the audio. In one case i had to manually remove bumps from a clip, this was very time-consuming but easy to learn once i had help from a teacher. To do this i accessed the waveform of the audio clip and manually used the spot heal tool to remove them. This was a good skill to learn as i was able to help other peers with the same problem.
Action Plan
Final Product
Evaluation
I thought I excelled at this unit, starting a unit that I know very little about I really enjoyed my researching it. It helped develop my understanding and appreciation for film and filled me with motivation to work towards my first two foley edits. I think these also went very we, working in a group to share ideas helped me collect the right collections of sounds i needed to edit , finishing the edit i think they sound very realistic. I then planned my own shoot , which took less than a day. I really enjoyed working on my own for this shoot as i rarely do , but it gave me a chance to try whatever i wanted and experiment with new ideas. I think my final edit , although simple in plot and shots , works well at keeping the viewers attention with visually interesting shots. When it came to editing foley for this , i had to rerecord a lot of my original sounds . This was due to my poor understanding of the audio equipment . However i am grateful i got the chance to rerecord as it gave me a second chance to practice with audio recording equipment and gain a deeper understanding with it . I also struggled with matching my audio and visual to the same time however i found working in one larger timeline helped keep clips in the right place and stop me getting confused. Overall i really enjoyed this unit , i got to shoot and plan a project by myself and gain a new understanding and appreciation for an important aspect of film i previously didn't know much about or care for.