Sound Projects 🔊

 Hey there Cambridge!

We had a lesson on sound in my AS Media class! In summary, we learned about soundscapes, purpose of sound in films, synchronous/asynchronous sounds, diegetic/nondiegetic, and narrations and voiceovers. Of course we also learned about music, sting, and sound effects. What really shocked me from the lesson though is that all sounds from film are lost and only the dialogue is recorded??? I still think about this, even after hearing of that weeks ago; it sounds so crazy to me. Anyways, this brings me to the final part of the lesson: foley artists.

Since then, we had two sound projects. For Sound Project #1, my partner and I had to create a 1–2 minute soundscape for a scene. For Sound Project #2, my former partner and I had to go back to our One Word Film project and add sounds to the film to enhance its sense of curiosity.

All about Sound Project #1 (link)

Brainstorming was tough in trying to come up with a scene idea that is not too bland, but will allow me and my partner to get creative and make this soundscape an interesting one. We came up with a dog that ends up in a dog fight during their walk. After coming up with our scene idea, we wrote down sounds that would be heard in that scene, sounds that are easily heard and ones that are barely noticed. Afterwards, we chose four of the sounds that can be our foley sounds and planned how those can be recorded. For example, I recreated the sound of stepping on grass by crumbling a paper. Next, we divided our scene into three distinct parts (Going outside, during walk, and encounters enemy dog) and completed a nice outline. This outline helped us better visualize all the sounds that make up the scene by breaking it into sections. Making it easier to not only understand what sounds we are looking for and where in the scene they belong, but as well as in figuring out what sounds we may be missing, as we can see all the sounds together in an organized fashion.

Now that we were organized, we began finding digital sounds from the internet and creating foley sounds to create our soundscape. We used ClipChamp to edit all our sounds together. I was super happy with how the beginning and end parts of the scene turned out! The layering of sounds clearly expressed a door opening, and at the end, the dogs ending up in a fight. However, the middle may have been hard for some to figure out what was going on since it included diverse sounds, such as the dog sniffing, peeing, and walking around. Thus, the middle part could have been confusing. Yet, I still think our soundscape turned out perfect, from beginning to end!

All about Sound Project #2 (link)

Next, we were assigned this second project for the Sound lesson. This one was a lot easier since we did not need to come up with a scene idea. We already had our idea: the scene from our One Word Film project. Now, what we had left to do was create an outline of our soundscape and find sounds to layer. Once again, I must share that the outline worked well to help me visualize the sounds and see how they will fit into the film. This outline was also organized into three parts: writing note, note passing, and searching/understanding note. My partner from the One Word Film project and I rewatched the film and paused it multiple times throughout to write down the sound that would be heard at the moment in the film. We rewatched it again to go back and find sounds we may have not noticed would be there. Next, we figured out which sounds had to be created by us and channeled our inner foley artist. I enjoyed recreating sounds like the iPad typing and paper crumbling/passing sounds for this project. I felt like a true foley artist as I watched the screen and followed the movement in the film simultaneously with my object! We split up the responsibilities on who finds which sound and shared our favorite sound files in a folder. Once we finished, we went onto ClipChamp and added the sounds on our own, each creating our own soundscape for the film. The music I added in worked so well! It definitely developed a more curious tone! It was my favorite part. I’m also proud I caught sounds that would have otherwise been forgotten. It would have been cool though if I added some sound effects that would enhance the sense of curiosity.

Pictures of both projects' outlines below!

Yours Truly,

Macie 💗