During our sound lesson, I learned how sound is an essential element in a production and how it can change the emotional impact of a scene. The assigned videos helped me understand the way each sound element gives dimension to the scene, complement visuals and assist the audience's perceptions. I also learned about different types of sounds, such as synchronous, asynchronous, diegetic, and how each one of them is important for the development of a story.
For our first sound project, we had to work in pairs to tell a story using sound effects only, meaning there was no video allowed. The scene needed to be between 1 to 2 minutes long and it should have been comprised of actions that would have occurred in that literal timespan. We could use online sound effects databases, everyday items, up to 7 spoken words and at least 4 foley stage recordings using random objects to convey the story of the scene.
When completing the project, My partner and I tried to approach a story that would be engaging and easy to understand and produce at the same time. We decided to create the story of a young woman who was exploring the woods alone when suddenly she heard noises of bear footsteps. She then started running from the bear in order to save her life, creating the climax of the story. To combine the sounds to develop the story, we took background sound effects of a forest, such as wind, rainfall, nocturnal animal noises and insects from a database called “Pixabay”. We also created human footsteps, bear footsteps and heartbeat sounds through foley to add realism and tension to the scene.
During brainstorming, my partner and I divided the story into 5 different scenes and within each scene, we included a variety of sounds that could easily represent what was happening at that specific scene. We also did a sound outline sheet where we included 10 primary sounds that represented the most prominent actions within the plot, and 10 secondary sounds that helped to build context. This outline helped us understand which sounds we needed to record or find, making it easier to picture the scenes in our heads and develop the story more accurately. For this project, the editing resource we used was “Clipchamp”.
When looking back at our project, I think we did a good job conveying the story to the listeners. Our sound choices made it easy to understand the setting, plot and characters, which helped the audience to follow the narrative. For the next project, I would like to improve our creativity by making the story more dynamic and unpredictable. Some parts of the story were a little repetitive, so using other sound layers or changing the story's pace could make it more engaging next time.
Here is the link for our Sound project #1:
For our second sound project, we had to add necessary sound elements to our One Word Film project that would normally be present in the context of our film. For this project, we had to work with our OWF partner to develop brainstorming, but we had to work by ourselves to create our own soundscape.
When completing our project, my OWF partner and I looked back at our film and thought about specific sound effects that would match specific scenes. We also took the setting and time of our film in consideration and added sounds like birds singing in the school courtyard to represent them. We also added music layered to other background sounds to represent and convey a specific tone. For example, in the beginning of our film, one of our characters looked sad, so we used a melancholic music to represent her emotion and bring the audience closer to her feelings.
During brainstorming, we thought about which sounds would occur at the same time, how should they be layered in time accordingly to each scene and what sounds would be present, but normally ignored. Our story’s setting is at a school courtyard, so we thought about which sounds would we normally hear at a usual day at school. Our sound outline helped us to break down the story into 4 different scenes and include specific sounds at those specific scenes. The outline was also really helpful because it helped us understand which sounds we were looking for, making it pretty straightforward. For this project, the editing source we utilized was also “Clipchamp”.
When reviewing our project, I think I did a great job when portraying the character’s emotions by adding musics that clearly represented the tones of different scenes. For the next time, I would like to focus on adding a greater variety of background and environmental sounds, since there were a few moments of silence that could have been filled to make the story feel more continuous.
Here is the link for our Sound project #2:
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