Sound Project

 Before this project, my class was taught different sound techniques. We learned how simple things such as music can change the direction of a film. The art of foley was also taught, with the class learning all about the different sound effects compiled into a film since the majority of non-dialogue sounds are added during post. These extra sounds may be found through a database with copyright-free sounds or they will be produced on the foley stage through the use of props to create the desired sound.

After this lesson, my class was given the challenge to make a 1-2 minute film made of purely sound, without the assistance of video. Only seven clearly stated words were allowed and an effective use of both sound techniques and audio layering was required. To start off the project, we had to clearly outline a story that could hypothetically happen within that time, listing each scene and the multitude of sounds that would've been heard for each. Then each pair of partners came together to scour different copyright-free audio databases to find the just right sounds to fit our scenes. The twist was that four of our sound effects were supposed to be actual foley created by us through the props we had at home and put into our film. We recorded ourselves making the sounds and then submitted a video compilation of our foley creation alongside the completed sound-only film. The final thing that needed to be turned in was a screenshot of the editing timeline we made as more proof of our hard work.

At first, brainstorming was difficult, especially since I didn't know my partner well. We both found it difficult with ideas that appealed to the both of us until I mentioned a carnival. Then he mentioned a clown. And soon we built a story blending both of our ideas seamlessly. Finally, we had a story to aim for and so we moved on creating our outline. This outline became our best friend later in the project because we put every noise we planned on having in a very clear and understandable way. At first, our outline was very barren and lacked much of its details and sounds, but after the suggestion of adding more from our teacher, we worked hard together to make that outline extensive, specifying every part of the story and the different sounds/audio layered over each other at a time. Finally, when it was time to edit, we split the work up evenly with me doing the first four scenes and my partner doing the last four scenes. We used Adobe Premier Pro to edit because we were both comfortable with the platform and found it easy to mix the sound and later combine our work. We did the same to combine our foley videos and then uploaded both to the submission, proud of what we made.

For the work I did, I was very happy with how much sound I had going on and the feeling of something not being right. I also was proud of the urgency I made when everything became scary and hectic. If I were to do this project again, I would work harder on blending the sounds better together alongside working on my foley skills because most of the sounds I created did not sound the way I wanted them to. I would also make it a little bit longer, making hints of the upcoming danger more obvious. Overall though, I'm happy with how it came out.

Link: Full Sound Project