Sonic Design - Final Project

15/06/20201 - 29/06/2021 /  Week 12 - Week 14 
Avery Ong Xuan Ting / 0344462
Sonic Design / Bachelors in Design ( Hons ) in Creative Multimedia 

Final Project / Silent Movie Audio

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INSTRUCTION

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FINAL PROJECT

Week 12 ( 15/06/2021 )

For the final project, we will given a choice of silent movie video clips in Google Drive. We are required to create the sound and bring the movie to life. All the sound effects or background music should be recorded by our own, which means we couldn't download any sound from online.

The video I had chosen for this project is The General. First of all, I tried to record the thunder, footstep, door and window sounds using my IPhone 12 Pro. Then I imported them to Adobe Audition to edit. Some of the sound like raining, footsteps with puddle I have no idea how can I record therefore I downloaded from the Freesound.org. However, the background music I recorded in BandLab. Below is my first outcome :

fig. 1.0 ; first outcome

Lecturer's Feedback :

- All the sounds has to be recorded. No download for final.

- Rain : record it in shower. if rain on roof, then try to put something else. Not all the sound will be the same, it depends on the surface it hits.

- Footsteps on wet surface : Put some cloth in a bucket then wet it and squish.

This also sometimes u have to put some cloth on the floor. so that it doesn't sound too sharp.
- Crawling : There are two things happening there: the knee hitting the wooden floor and the dragging sound. if u have wooden cutting board in the kitchen, can use that as the surface. so there should be a soft thumping sound and a dragging sound when he moves. The hand movements should be lighter and softer.

- Background music : Its not bad but it can be better. Ending probably can do something a bit more dramatic like using a drum Cymbal sound when the lightning hit.

Week 13 ( 22/06/2021 )

According to what lecturer had told me to improve, I tried to replace all the downloaded sound. It's quite fun and challenging but I took a lot of time to record and experience how to record it in a better way. For the background music, I played around with other instruments like violin, tuba, trombone etc. rather than only using piano. Nevertheless, as what lecturer had mentioned, we need to submit two version: with and without background music. Below are my second outcome :

fig. 1.1 ; second outcome (with background music)

fig. 1.2 ; second outcome (without background music)

Lecturer's Feedback :

- The man holding a things on his hand: Record a dragging on the floor, a little bit hitting sound to make the crawling sound more emphasis.
- Increase all the footsteps sound.

- 0:28 the part is still at outdoor.

- Edit the indoor rain sound more muffled.
- Check the footstep at 0:48, it sounds from the left.
- Add some bed sound effects.
- Overlayer the fall down sound effect, make it squzzy.

- Adjust the outdoor sound effects louder.

- Add more dialogue. (maybe like he is talking to himself)
- Background music : 0:50 repeat 2 to 3 times is enough then silent.

- Ending just a Cymbal sound is enough otherwise it sound too dramatic.

Week 14 ( 29/06/2021 )
This time I put more effort for this project. I explored a lot how people edit the sound effects, and checked all the sound properly in detailed. Furthermore, I also added more dialogue which I think it is suitable. I'm quite happy with this outcome although some sound wasn't recorded as well as what I was expected.  Below is my final outcome :

fig. 1.3 ; final outcome (SFX + Dialogue)

fig. 1.4 ; final outcome (SFX + Dialogue + Music)

Besides the two exported video, we are also required to update the audio storyboard according to our audio timeline which provided in the Google Drive. Below is my final audio storyboard :

fig. 1.5 ; Audio Storyboard