Sourced sound effects List

Sound Effects recording list

(Left, track number on Marantz, right, sound effect)

Edit 2

Back in the edit suite, we began constructing our atmos; we added an extra track to the project for background noise. Some of the segments simply had a sound effect over a long period of time; writing, typing or footsteps for example. Others used background atmos that we had recorded, including children playing.
As we worked, we began to add more and more sound effects, trying to fill in the gaps. We didn't want to have much silence behind the voice-over because the sound effects were meant to run alongside and complement the commentary.
Once we'd finished, we played it to a few classmates to see their reactions.. Encouragingly, they were all good!

Edit 1 and Tutorial

Before our tutorial we had edited about half our piece together, and brought it along to show our tutor. We were finding the process simple, and we were able to stick to our ideas and make them work. We didn't have to use many effects as we needed normal, everyday sounds, so other than compression, pan and some effects with the EQ, we left the sounds as they had been recorded. In Soundtrack Pro we used several different tracks simultaneously to construct our stereo piece from all our mono recordings; one track for speech, and two for sound effects. This made it easier to edit because we could see all the different elements at once as they worked together.
In our tutorial, our tutor told us we were on the right track, but we needed an atmos track to give our piece more depth.

List of sounds and recording

All our sounds were recorded in my flat by both me and Alice. We used the common areas of the flat as my room is by a road and is consequently very noisy! Luckily our tracks had very little background noise as the rooms we used were quieter.
Here is our giant list we used to make a note of and record all our sounds:

Script for Old age (Will)

(Adapted from several example wills found online)

WILL OF Abigail Morwenna Jackson

I, Abigail Morwenna Jackson, a resident of Sheffield, South Yorkshire, hereby make this Will and revoke all prior Wills and Codicils.

1. PERSONAL INFORMATION:

a. I was born on 19^th December 1960 in St. Mary’s Hospital, Glasgow

b. I am not currently married but I was previously married to Jim Smith in 1986 and the marriage ended by Death in 2019.

c. I have 3 living children, Lucy Samantha Smith-Jackson, born 23^rd September 1986, David John Smith-Jackson, born 14^th April 1989, and Jeremy Charles Smith-Jackson, born 21^st December 1990.

BENEFICIARIES: I give my property to the following persons:

To my friend Georgina Gretel Waters, I leave my jewellery.

To my friend Adam Jack Jones, I leave my collection of musical instruments.

The rest of my estate is to be distributed evenly between my children.

If any beneficiary under this Will does not survive me by 30 days, then I shall be deemed to have survived such person.

I, Abigail Morwenna Jackson, hereby sign this Will at Sheffield, South Yorkshire on this 17^th day of July, 2019.

Script for Adult stage (To-Do List)

To-do List – 14^th March 1998

• · Wake kids up
• · Shower
• · Make breakfast
• · Make sure kids are ready
• · Drive kids to school
• · Go to the supermarket
• · Buy bread, milk, eggs, broccoli, chicken, cheese, pasta and wine
• · Drive home
• · Put shopping away
• · Have glass of wine
• · Wash dishes
• · Hoover lounge and hallway
• · Make kids’ beds
• · Have another glass of wine
• · Pick kids up from school
• · Make sandwiches for kids
• · Prepare dinner
• · Have another glass of wine
• · Serve dinner
• · Put kids to bed
• · Finish bottle of wine
• · Dispose of empty wine bottle.

Refining our idea

As the deadline ran closer, we sat down to talk about our final ideas for the project. Seeing as a 3-minute piece is pretty long, we decided to split it into 6 30-second segments of a person's life; baby, child, teenager, mid-20s, middle age, and retirement. Originally we were just going to create different atmospheric sounds for each of these, but decided to include a voice-over to keep the pace of the piece going. We would write pieces of text that corresponded to that point in life; a birth certificate, piece of schoolwork, diary entry, curriculum vitae, to-do list, and a will.
We each decided to write half the project, after deciding on an initial idea together; we would go away and write a script and make notes for any sound effects we would need.
Here's my half of our joint spider diagram:

The Curious Ear: Meat Factory Ear Worms

This is a short audio piece made for Irish radio. It is an account of one man's experiences working in a meat factory. Parts of it are recorded within the factory, others out in the countryside on his journey to work.
I found the construction of this piece very inspiring for my own work; it is built from layers of sounds to give it depth. Parts of it are silent, while others use atmospheric sound, a music track, and speech. I want to use this style for my own piece, because it is more interesting to listen to than just one track.

Another day, another brief

On this brief I'll be working with Alice Hathaway. I was sitting next to her when the brief was handed out, and we both wanted to do an abstract sense of space within someone's head. We came up with some initial themes to work from:

• Internal, unvoiced replies to external events
• Mental health (paranoia, eating disorder)
• Autobiographical narration

We decided to go with the story of someone's life, to explore the events our minds are concerned with at different stages of life.

Editing, Take II

Back in the edit suite again, we took a different approach; shorter takes, repeated clips, and overlaying shots on-screen. We were much more confident with the software this time and could do more complicated things with the footage. Since we felt it was a very strong image, we used the close-ups of the eyes behind the mask over and over during the course of the film. Rather than having a narrative, the film now contains a lot of visual metaphors and juxtaposition.

I suppose I'm pretty satisfied with how the film has ended up. I've not particularly enjoyed the assignment and that has definitely impacted on my satisfaction with the end result. I feel if I had maybe worked harder, and prepared more (even if it had been on my own) we would have ended up with a better film. On the plus side, these things are useful to know for my next project, and hopefully will motivate me to not leave things until the very last minute..

On Location: Take II

Now we knew what direction to go in, Ruby and I went out on another shoot to gather some urban-based footage we could juxtapose with our countryside shots. This time we used an A1 (I had it to hand because I'd borrowed it from stores for a corporate project) which is smaller and lighter than a PD170. Personally I quite like this camera, but it has a massive flaw; it only has one speed of zoom (or so I could gather). I don't like that at all, I prefer to control how fast my camera zooms in (even my little mini camcorder has different speeds of zoom).

We shot some footage of cars going past, which was pretty dangerous; we stayed on the traffic islands but the cars and vans got very close to us. We tried to collect footage that would have a sharp contrast with our other shots, and since we were now making an experimental film, I tried to use interesting angles and did some focus pulling.

Editing, Take I

We learnt quite a lot from our first editing session:

• Don't edit on a computer in edit suite 1. You'll end up interrupting lectures, not being able to access your footage because someone's using your computer, and find it hard to concentrate because the guy opposite you keeps talking about his gory sexual escapades.
• Hunt down an IT bloke and get him to sort out your logon ID so you can use more than two computers in the entire building.
• Learn to use Final Cut properly before trying to edit things. A rather late but very helpful editing workshop cleverly solved this problem for us.
• Prepare your shot lists and storyboards before you shoot to avoid staring at a blank timeline on your computer screen for several hours.

We also discovered we hated our footage. What we thought would be brilliant handheld footage turned out to be shaky and dizziness-inducing once on a screen bigger than two inches. On top of this, our narrative made very little sense (and Grace hated the ending). We weren't a happy bunch, to say the least.

Once we had our tutorial with Dom, though, we had a better idea of a direction to go in; use short takes, quick cuts, and give it a more experimental feel.

On Location: Take I

Let me start by saying I did not enjoy the Edale shoot. I did not enjoy being on camera; I did not enjoy being cold and wet; I did not enjoy having high resolution close-ups of my terrible teenage skin; I did not enjoy lugging several kilos of kit across the countryside. I most definitely did not enjoy having to use the last £7.50 of my student loan to buy a train ticket to the middle of nowhere and then not even being able to afford a coke in the pub at the end of a very long day. I asked myself, am I even doing the right degree? Why am I not doing business management or chemistry? I would be sitting in a warm classroom right now, and possibly wearing a rather fetching combination of lab coat and goggles.

But then, amongst all the mud and sheep defecate, I remembered why. It's because filmmaking is like no other career on earth. You probably will end up spending day after day knee-deep in all manner of disgusting things, but at the end of it all, you've got the chance to make something pretty bloody amazing. While I joke about my degree not being a "proper degree" all the time, it is hard work and effort, just in a different way to your conventional academia. And chemists don't get to watch their favourite movies as homework.

Let's get past the mud and rain; the shoot didn't go brilliantly. Ruby and Grace weren't all that confident with the camera, and since I had agreed to be filmed, I could only provide so much assistance. The light was bad, and made everything look very flat, and it kept raining, causing water marks on the lens which ruined some of our shots. We collected quite a lot of footage but it was all very similar and this impacted on us in the edit. But it could have been worse; considering it was our first proper shoot with industry-quality cameras and basic training, it didn't go too badly - our camera didn't break, we collected some usable footage, and none of us died.

Planning the Edale Shoot

Once we had been given our briefs, I paired up with Grace Walker and we set about brainstorming ideas for our short film. We wanted to concentrate on a character within the film, rather than just film shots of the countryside for 3 minutes, which we didn't think would be very engaging.
Our initial idea was following the life of a character who had rejected the materialistic elements of life and attempted to go back to living amongst nature. We wanted to make use of flashbacks to city locations to make this clearer to the viewer. We decided to mask the character's face as a memorable element, and as a metaphor for hiding from society, so spent some time creating a simple costume for the character using our excellent arts and crafts skills.


The next thing to do was set about planning the shots we were going to collect. We decided we couldn't really afford to go and scope the location out, so we created a draft storyboard which had room for change, in case we were unable to film the exact shots we wanted.


At the last minute Ruby Harman was added to our group, so there was a lot of last-minute scrambling, trying to get everyone in the right place to work on things. This wasn't helped by the fact we had only a week to prepare for the shoot, from start to finish! We were on the ball when booking equipment though; as we went to book it so early, we were some of the few students who managed to secure PD170s, and were even able to pick them up the day before rather than on the morning of the trip.

Overall everything felt very last-minute; both Ruby and Grace were pretty busy in the days leading up to the shoot, and despite multiple attempts to get them both in the same place at the same time, it never happened. I felt pretty unprepared for the shoot, and wish we'd had more time to collaborate properly on the project: I feel it definitely impacted negatively on the quality of our final film.

Short Film Analysis

In our second seminar we covered a variety of short films. Personally I am a big fan of short films, especially British ones, and I am an avid fan of the Social Realism genre.

Highrise, Gabrielle Russell

"A young mother's dilemma as she watches her baby making its way toward the open window of her highrise flat."

I really liked the way suspense was built in this short film. The slowing down of shots and sounds was very effective in showing the main character's thought process. The loud breathing and claustrophobic shots of the hallway also helped the viewer to understand and identify with the character's emotions. One of my favourite aspects was the colouring; the interior of the flat has been given a blue tone, which further helps to portray the mood of the film.

Love Me or Leave Me Alone, Duane Hopkins

I find this film to be a starkly realistic portrayal of a teenage relationship; consequently it is one of my favourite pieces of film I have seen in a while. I find it visually engaging and the audio track works really well. The minimal, well-written script gives scope for excellent use of body language and facial expressions, and keeps the acting realistic. The editing keeps the story flowing smoothly even when the shots jump between locations.

Steel Homes

"Self-storage units are windows into human histories: the silent cells with their myriad objects and dust-covered furniture are inscribed with past dreams, secret hopes, and lives we cannot let go of. ‘Steel Homes’ explores the fragmented nature of memories, set in the starkly beautiful aesthetic of our modern industrial world."

1. Identify the themes; what is the director's primary aim? The main themes seem to be memories, death, human connection, holding onto the past, and contained spaces. The director only focuses on one aspect of deep storage, and does not cover a broad spectrum (there are many reasons why people may choose to use it). A rather negative viewpoint is portrayed; I feel there are tones of cynicism embedded in this film.
   
2. What is the film's main focus? Holding on to the past; negative nostalgia, and emotional attachment to materialistic objects.
   
3. Do you like/dislike the film? Why? Personally it is not something I would choose to watch. While it is visually interesting from a filmmaking point of view, it has a very cold feel to it, and while it is good as a documentary it is fairly depressing, and seems to have biased personal views.
   
4. How successfully did the films deal with it's subject matter? It successfully portrayed the subject matter negatively; the sound and images are edited to support the director's views. Hints of cynicism are prevalent throughout.
   
5. What is an element that particularly stood out? Voyeurism; long shots of people's backs, round corners, as if we are watching them without their consent. No face-to-face interviews, very impersonal feel.
   
6. How do structure and style relate to content? The structuring - especially the detached voices from the images - relate to the cold, metallic storage facility.
   
7. Name two interesting techniques. Why do you think they were used? Detached voiceover (coldness and impersonality) and the voyeuristic shooting style - the storage containers are impersonal, but the things inside them are personal: it's almost as if the viewer is sneaking around peering into people's possessions.
   
8. Is the use of sound appropriate? The sound is very quiet and echoey, mirroring the storage facility. The detached voiceovers fit the subject matter well, linking what may be very unrelated shots without the interviews for context.
   

Experimental Approaches to Documentary

In our first Creative Project seminar, we began to explore different kinds of documentary filmmaking; namely documentaries with a experimental feel to them. We were given a list of 8 questions (see notes to the left) which we would use to analyse films provided as examples. As a class, we also debated whether we could come up with a definition of documentary films - while we had a lot of ideas (shown in the mind map to the left) it was difficult to pinpoint a definite set of characteristics that make up a documentary: especially after watching some of the example films!



Many of the screenings were of very experimental documentaries. Out of the films - listed on the right with my short accompanying notes - the two I felt were truest to what I percieve as a documentary were Christmas with Dad and Paperboys. This is because both include face-to-face interviews, contextual sequences of the interviewees in their homes/workplaces, and a very relaxed interview and filming style. They are also presented in a fairly unbiased way, leaving the viewer to make up their own mind about the characters' situations.