Evaluation

When initially looking at the possible clips, straight away I knew I wanted to do War of the Worlds. The very first thing I thought of was Walle[1]. When looking at it previously in my research I really thought how he changes pitch and rhythm would work well with the use in how the Probe slows down and speed up. As the Probe is constantly moving around I also liked this idea of always constantly changing pitch and sound within itself even without the use of pan and volume.

This is a short clip from Walle to show the sounds that inspired me for the Probe sounds.

Previous to this project I hadn’t took any in the musical elements of sound design as I am not a musical person but during our lessons we had been taught the basic of Logic and Garage Band. After a lot of attempts of trying to create the humming noise that I envisioned I used Garage band and recorded my own piano track of the rhythm that I wanted before manipulating it in Soundtrack Pro. I think that this sort of sound would work well in regard to engageing the audience as it has the familiar humming of a machine but then once it had been manipulated also gave it this more fluent feel to help bring it to life.

In Erick Aadahl says about how import the character sound design is important as each sound represents their personality.

‘In “Kung Fu Panda”, each character represents a different style of Kung Fu, represented by a sonic signature: Mantis is based on wood-instrument ratchets, with doppler zips as he flies; Tigress is based on swift vocals, tennis racket whooshes and precision jabs; Crane is based on feathers and wings; Monkey is based on swingy whooshes; Viper is based on snake rattles (made out of serrated air hisses), and villain Tai Lung is based on sheer brute force, contrasting Po’s rubbery-ness.’[2]

I think this works with all sound design. The visuals tell the viewer initially what they are to think and know about a character but then the sounds tell you subconsciously what exactly they are about. The sound wouldn’t be there unless it is to tell you something new and invoke a certain feeling in the viewer. I think this is the same with my project, I just don’t want to add sounds for the sack of it, I want each individual sound to represent something new, especially with the Probe. For example when they Probe moves away thinking that it has searched the house and not found any one but are in fact hiding right there then I wanted to show how the Probe would feel. I tried to do this with the use of manipulating the pitch. I thought that at that moment in which it spins around I would push up the pitch semitones as if it had made him jump like any person would if the thought nothing was there but then there was a sudden loud noise.

Another musical element that I hadn’t really appreciated prior to this module was how something so simple like some bass can add such a difference to the piece. When looking at films such as Drive[3]. you really notice how in some scene the music all you have to work off to get a sense of the emotion and atmosphere of the scene. I really think this is a good way of engaging with the audience on a more subconscious level so did thins in the intense part of the piece. When the Probe is approaching them and is within reach of them then these are the times I brought in the bass. This is to just subconsciously tell the viewer there is something uneasy here and should be worried.

When looking at any piece of work the Foley is the most obvious sound design to any audience. This is what helps bring life to the shot and gives the audience something that is familiar to go off of, especially if the film plays on this but manipulates them to create a sense of confusion or dream like state. This can be seen in films such as Lost Highway[4] during the scene at the house party when a mystery man in black confronts Fred. They have manipulated the sound through the use of EQ and completely took out all Foley sounds so that you are just left with the dialogue of the man and Fred. This is a good example in how we the audience would expect to hear things and you can completely change the whole sense and feel to a scene with the use of manipulating the sound so that they are not what you would expect. I think this is a very powerful tool in sound design but in such a short piece in War of the Worlds I don’t have a chance to play around with manipulation in this way. So when it comes to foley I think I have done a good job at recreating the sense of reality and replacing all the obvious Foley sounds that are present in this section.

Another main element in sound design is the atmos track of a room or location that holds the whole piece together. When in any location you have an atmos track that without the area would just feel empty. When it comes to sound design it is a very important part that helps fill in the gaps in the track. Especially for this piece, but in any you would use the atmos to create an overall feel to the location. This is a very subtle track that you wouldn’t normally pay attention to but on a subconscious level you do notice and take in and if it wasn’t there you would definitely notice. I think in my piece I have managed to get the right atmos track that relates to the rain outside and old house feel which just help to add another level and more depth to the piece.

One not so positive thing about my piece is I found it hard sorting my levels out. I Spent quite a few times redoing my level for the Probe as this is the main feature sound in this piece. I feel as though I have done this right but then all the other sounds then felt to be really quite in relation and I think I have wrongly increased the level of these. As they are trying to sneak around the house and stay undetected then I should have really stuck with my first initial levels when they were quieter. But I think that it is a bit too loud but in some way because the Probe is so loud and power full they have that much more freedom to make more sound when trying to run around.

The most tricking thing I found was try to decide on the sound for the rat, in reality you probably would hear the rat scurry along the floor but you see it and there want to hear something. This then meant I had to figure out what exactly I was to use for this. In the end I found the sound of a rat chewing and biting on some cardboard and I felt that this had the right sort of scratching sounds. I added this in a made sure my levels were low as then you could hear it but wasn’t too distracting. This along with pan I think worked well with creating a realistic rat sound.

I think overall I did a good job at creating a sound track that used Atmos, Foley and Musical elements that help tell the story, add tension and bring the movements to life. I think in regard to audience and their perspective it does work well in creating tension in the right part and making you feel very on edge as the Probe is so intense and powerful. I do think there is margin for more improvements especially with tightening up on the levels but overall it does that job and I am proud of what I have managed to do. At the start of the module I wouldn’t have had to confidence to experiment with manipulating sounds i would have just focused on my Foley and not really appreciate the use of music and atmos and how effective they really are.

[1] Walle. 2008. [Film] Directed by Andrew Stanton. USA: Disney Pixar

[2] Miguel Isaza . (2012). Erik Aadahl Special: Animation Sound Design [Exclusive Interview]. Available: http://designingsound.org/2010/03/erik-aadahl-special-animation-sound-design-exclusive-interview/. Last accessed 20.12.2012

[3] Drive. 2011. [Film] directed by Nicolas Winding Refn. USA: Bold films

[4] Lost Highway. 1997. [Film] Directed by David Lynch. USA: Ciby 2000

War of the Worlds - Edit Stage 4

After recording some sound effects I decided to strip back some of the sounds as I wasnt happy with how they worked. So this meant that I had to start building up the layer once again.

I went with the main sounds again and thought I would start of with my new recordings of foot steps and went through and lined all these up. Started with Tom cruise and decided that I wanted to make sure I lined these up and was happy. With the part when he is crawling backwards behind the sofa I had a very quite foot step to show his hand and to add more to the rustle that I plan on adding. I then went through and did the same proces to Racheals footstep. then when she spins round once running over to Tom I added in a skidding noise of the feet. I thought this worked well as wasnt too sure on how to do with that section but this seemed to work well.

(Screen Grab)

To add a bit more texture and depth I went through a similar process to add in russtle noises to resemble the movement of their clothes and the sneak around. I started very subtly adding in the sounds to when Racheal crawls along. I think this works well as they would make some sounds as crawling along but nothing too loud and over powering.

(Screen Grab)

When the Probe was reversing out of the house I wanted to try and add something else to symbolise the difference of motion. I decided to just use the same sounds but increase the pitch so that it was slightly higher and different to the other sounds.

(Screen Grab)

I wanted to create more tension in the scene in which the probe encounters the mirror so decided i would add in a bass to help intensify this. I did this on soundtrack pro by inserting a soundwave at a low frequencey and then using the volume to gradually increase and decrease the volume. Therefore the first time the Probe would look around the mirror would be intesified then the second time when looks around the side of the mirror then it would intesify once again.

(Screen Grab)

I thought something was still missing and decided that I wanted to add something else to the probe when it is intense. In the end I decided to add in another layer of the Probe but increase the level of reverb so the original piano noise was alhmost unrecognisable. I think this worked well and helped just add a little something extra to the mix that wasnt anything distracting from the previous sounds but could tell was something else there underneath.

War of the Worlds - Edit Stage 3

During our seminar in which neil was going through the clips he said about War of the Worlds and I made these notes of ideas and things to think about:

• There are CU and MLS so will sound different
• They are hiding so don't want to be loud
• Floor - covered in dirt and leaves so will be crumbly
• Use Pan and Volume to make sure the prob moves
• Rat - scratchy
• The prob has a personality - flares, moves and constantly changes
• Snakey ??
• When gets closer to the mirror - crank volume up
• Boot - massive feature sound!
• Speed up and build tension then relief again
• Use a cellar as similar settings

So taking on these comments I went down into my old dark cellar and use this as the setting for my recording. I mainly focused on trying to get footsteps on the  dirt and used several types of shows to get the difference between Racheal's and Tom's.

War of the Worlds - Edit Stage 2

Editing today I thought I would just carry on from where I left off. I added in the clicking as the lights turn on the the front of the Robot eye. I did this by getting the sound of a clock and cutting it up and placing then each times the light flicks on then editing the EQ and Pitch of it before I was happy with it. I then went through and started adding in the breathe from Racheal when the camera is close up and you see the cob webs moving as she breathes. The breathing sounds I had were either too fast or too slow so decided to cut up the faster ones and place each section of a breathe each time I saw the cob web move direction. I think this little pause in the breathe at times is nice cos shows that she's trying not to be that heavy.

I also started building up on top of Tom cruises footsteps with Racheals i uses a similar footstep but changed the EQ so sounded different to Tom's. Once I had lined all these up I went to Save but being Soundtrack Pro it crashed and didn't. Went to find it again it was nowhere to be found so my afternoon of lining up sounds was wasted and had to start the process all over again.

I then went and started the process again lining up the clicks of lights and footsteps and breathing again, here is a screen shot of some more sounds I added since it crashed.

War of the Worlds - Edit Stage 1

I started editing the piece today and though I would play about trying to get the noise I wanted for the robot eye.

First of all I just started with the basic and created a waveform thinking id start with a basic noise. This was harder then I thought, I wanted the small and spaced out sound waves of the low frequency notes but the pitch of a higher one. I attempted to slow down a higher pitch tone, this didn't work, I tried changing the pitch of a low frequency tone but this also didn't give me the humming I wanted.

I thought I would move onto actual recording. I was going through the sound library trying to think of sounds that I could manipulate into the humming that I want. I came across a recording of a truck engine that had a rhythmic hum to it so decided this was a good starting point. So got the sound into Soundtrack Pro and started playing around with effects. I kept altering the Pitch of it, time stretching it to change the rhythm of it. I also applied EQ to it to cut out the higher and lower sounds trying to get the right sound. This was better then the waveform idea but still not what I wanted

Carrying on searching through sound for inspiration i thought about an actual hum from a fly or bug. Got a recording of a fly of the library to experiment with but like before everything i tried just didnt give me what I wanted and could picture in my head. I then went on to recording of a hover. This turned out to be the best so far. Like I had on the truck engine I altered the speed to slow it down a little, EQ to roll of the high and low tones and then played around with the Pitch. This seem to work the best so far. when listening to it a couple times I couldn't stop concentrating on the other noise still in the original hoover recording that I felt I was getting close but no where clear enough to use it.

Giving up on recordings I turned musical and went on Garage Band. Just opened a basic piano and played one single note gradually in creasing and decreasing the tempo. Imported this into Soundtrack Pro and adding the effect I tried in the previous sounds I found that this is what I wanted. I went through the clip changing the tempo of the notes so that when the Eye moves faster the tempo increase and then slows down when the eye does. I Then thought that not only change tempo but I was going to change the pitch of the note in relation to the speed of the eye. I felt that I would best do this with the use of creating points on the timeline and dragging to certain pitch changes as this way I could be accurate with when exactly I wanted it to change.

Like in my plan I played around with the use of pan and volume along with the tempo in order to try and create more dimension to the piece. I started with the volume and going through in creasing the level at times when the eye came closer to the camera and quieter when it moves away, as well as being quite when the camera focuses on the People. Following that i did a similar process with the panning, when the eye was left of scene I would make sure it was panned left and when right of screne it was paned to the right etc.

I thought my next step was to start adding in all the layers of the people. I thought I would just attacked in in order of how it happens on screen. so the first main actions of the people was Tom Cruise when he crawls back behind the arm of the sofa so used the recording of bare feet walking and added a slight echo to it which I think made it seem like the wood creaking slightly underneath him. 

War of the Worlds - Plan

Like I have done on the exercise I decided to break down the scene but the main sounds that I felt were important to help bring this scene to life. Here is the screen grabs and my noted on sounds:

• This shot start with the robot eye appearing and the lights turning on. For the sound of the eye I want an almost humming sort of sound the changed frequency in relation to the speed in which it is moving. I haven't figured out how Im going todo this but I know what I want it to sound like.
• The lights on the eyes turn on, I think for this i could just use the sound of a build flicking on like if you was to turn on big lights say in a hall you hear them warm up and ping on.

• I goes to the close up on the character Racheal you see cob webs of how heavy she is breathing. Obviously here I would make sure i have heavy breathing to show how scared she is. 

• On sweeping shot you start of on the eye then sweep round and follow Tom Cruise as he crawls back behind the sofa. Here I would make sure I layer it up with the sound of his clothes moving as he moves and the subtle noise as he lifts and places his hands. 
• I always was to try and play around so that when the eye turns around the end of the sofa to look into the camera intensify the humming and play around with the different pitch levels on it. 

• When the rat runs across screen I plan to layer up sounds of rustling sounds as obviously can record a rat running across an old wooden floor. 
• I al so want to heighten the pitch when the rat appears, almost as if it make the eye jump helping bring him to life. kinda of almost like Walle would make a high pitch noise. 

• When Racheal runs acrooss to Tom's arms I will have to match up her foot prints before he spins around and holds her still. I think I will just play around with normal foot prints syncing them up and trying to make them a bit quieter as she would have been trying to be quiet.
• The eye appears from into the frame on the right hand side before leaving on the left to i think this could be a good place to pan the humming creating some more dimension.

• They move a mirror into the view of the eye and hide behind it. I will have to make sur ei include sounds of picking up and placing the mirror down.
• I think here, especially when the camera is held with the eye on the right of the frame and them on the left, to have them heavy breathing and might see what its like with a heart beat or something. but I think I could play around here with music also. 

• Here I will have to make sure i have the noise of her foot falling out but I want to make sure this is quite a loud as would be intense in relation to the quite of the rest of the house. 
• With the noise of the robot I will also want to do something similar like when the rat runs out with the use of pitch and speed of the humming.

• When the eye goes around the back of the mirror I want to build up the tension here as you think they are there and are going to get caught, could try this with the use of a low level frequency building up or some sort of music.
• I'd like to also try and make the humming seem a little disappointed here as if the eye thought he had found them. Not too sure how i could go about this yet but think it will take a bit of playing around to find a way.

• When the eye is going out the house I will try and carry on the disappointed hum continue and have a similar noise as the lights made when they turned on to have when they turn off.

Comments on Edit

During the presentation I made these comments about what was being said:

• Found the shake of the spray can a bit of putting as was too loud so should have brought the level down a bit.
• music was a good choice as created an low pulsing but may have been improved if built up to where the car was, either has finale of music when drove off or bring up the level of engine for the finale. 
• The atmos was a good level and brought it together.
• Liked the fact I played around with Atmos, Foley and Music.

Overall I was pleased with my outcome. looking at other peoples, especially those that had some Hanna Bi too, made me realise the things i missed out and how i could improve mine. I think the fact I had watched it over and over I don't notice these little things as focusing on sounds i'm trying to edit. For the fact that sound wasn't my first choice and swapped over I did really enjoy doing this exercise and found it a lot of help when looking at other peoples work now.