Cue the music!!!

Well it’s nearly time to hand the final project in and I am really close to finishing it.  First up, “The Evil Dead” clip is completely finished, including mixing and automation.  I’m really pleased with the finished clip and it’s nice to see it complete after all the hard work that’s gone into it.  The Eraserhead clip is 90% complete and just needs a few touch ups on the FX and mixing and I’m planning to get that finished by the end of this week.  The final clip (An American Werewolf in London) is complete apart from the music.  I seem to be having some sort of writers block when trying to write the music for this.  At the minute I’m experimenting with a mixture of orchestral and synth based stuff, based on some of my research.  Anyway, I am also hoping to get that finished by the end of this week too. 

In the meantime I have started the report which is coming along quite well.  I have also designed a questionnaire to evaluate the effectiveness of the videos, but obviously can’t run it on the public until the videos are complete; I also need the results of the questionnaire for the final sections of the report.  My next update will be when the Videos are complete and I am starting the evaluation process.

Bye for now....

Project Update

Well things are starting to look like their coming together now J.  First off all my dialogue is now finished.  I am very pleased with the results but there are some small sections that could do with ADR.  I might have another session to tidy some parts up but that depends if I can get the voice actor in again. 

I’ve also started working on some music for my clips.  I didn’t realise how difficult it is to write music for film, but with a little bit of experimenting I now have a starting point for “The Evil Dead” clip.  I have been trying out all sorts of ideas with the music, i.e. “mickey-mousing” and have had some really good results.  So that gives me just over a month to complete the music.

I have also posted some pics below of some of the recording sessions.

 Recording bone breaks, stabs and crunches with vegetables.

 Recording splats, with Mayo, salad cream and yoghurt.

Recording various wood hits (layered for shelf crash), Pillow case with phone books for body impacts and rattling chains.

Here is a list of my continued research.

http://www.alchemypo...m/aboutalchemy/
http://www.videomaker.com/article/7220/
http://www.soundeffectsshop.com/article-sound-effects-intro-layering.html
http://booksite.focalpress.com/9780240812403/01_rerecording_flow_charts.php

Im Back........

Ok, so it’s been a while since my last blog but things have been a bit hectic and I just haven’t had time, so I will try and update you as much as possible.  First off, I have finally chosen 20 minutes of horror video clips to use in my final project, these are: The Evil Dead, Eraserhead, An American Werewolf in London, (the transformation scene) and The Ring.  I have purposely chosen clips that are going to allow me to focus on Sound FX and eerie ambient music.    

To make things easier when it came to recording, I created spotting lists for each of the clips as a reference to what sounds to go and record.  After studying the spotting lists, I spent time going around the house to see what I had available and gathering stuff for the recording session. Surprisingly, I had a lot more than I thought. i.e. chains and wood etc. 

Here are some examples of what I have recorded so far:

·         Footsteps on a wooden floor

·         Dragging a heavy bag across the floor, (to imitate a body being dragged)

·         Stair creeks

·         Throwing/crashing large bits of wood around.

·         Smashing glass

·         Body impacts

·         Shower curtain

I also had a lot of fun recording some of the gory sound FX using all sorts of vegetables, like celery for cracking bones, and stabbing melon skin for axe chops - all fun and games until it was time to clean it up.L  It’s also not the easiest thing trying to operate a mic and the computer with your hands covered in fruit juice, so I have learnt my lesson and will have some help at hand next time.

All recordings have taken place in my home studio so far, but I have some arrangements for location recording in the pipeline.  All recordings have been captured using a shotgun microphone (Rode NTG 2) and an AKG C1000’s, both have done an exceptional job so far, but I am going to check with Uni this week to see if they have any other shotgun microphones to experiment with.

Finally, today, I have recorded the dialogue/screaming for An American Werewolf in London and The Evil Dead.  Fortunately, I have a friend who is great with voice acting and ADR, so I gave him a call and got a hefty supply of Strepsils in HAHA!!!  The results were great.  I also began working on the vocal effect for the werewolf.  Again, great results using only pitch shifting and slowing the samples down.  So, really happy with today’s work - that’s almost 2 video clips done. :)

So my project is coming along nicely.  Plans for the rest of the week are to finish An American Werewolf and finish recording the foley samples for all the videos.

The Sound of Horror

I met up with Gareth (my lecturer) on Thursday to discuss my major project ideas.  I found the meeting very useful, as I had three fairly good project ideas, but I couldn’t make up my mind which one to concentrate on.

After going over these ideas with Gareth, it was finally decided that my horror sound design idea was the most interesting and would provide the most scope.  He suggested that I research films to see what kind of scenes would work best and at the same time write an abstract, so I would have a complete overview of the project to keep me focused.

So, my project is to research how sounds and music have been used in horror films over the decades, analysing how atmosphere is created by the imaginative use of sound effects and music.   I’m then going to create my own sound design to five different clips from selected films.  I’m hoping to find some original material for this purpose.  I have been in touch with Marc Price (a local film-maker who has gained some recognition for his budget Zombie film: Colin) to see if he could help out and provide me with some scenes that include dialogue, but he is working on his next film at the moment and doesn’t have anything for me – so, no luck as yet!

For the time being I am going to make a list of scenes that would be suitable for the project, while continuing my research into horror sound design.

 Further Research:

www.horrorfilmhistory.com (all accessed 07/11/2011)

http://visionsoundmusic.com/2011/07/sound-of-fear-the-musical-universe-of-horror/

http://news.wfu.edu/2010/10/28/horror-movie-history/

http://www.filmsite.org/horrorfilms.html

http://www.horrorbid.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=279&t=17968&start=0

http://www.noisejockey.net/blog/tag/horror-sounds/

http://www.noisejockey.net/blog/category/found-sound-objects/

Initial Ideas

I am currently starting my third year at SMU and the major project has finally arrived!!! I thought I was prepared for it, but it seems I’m not...  haha.  As part of the project process, I have been asked to keep a blog of my progress throughout the project. I’ve never kept a blog before, but thinking about it, keeping one can only help when it comes to the write up.

My idea at the moment is to do Foley work and probably write the music score to a film excerpt, not sure what film though.  I’m 95% sure this is what I’m going to do, but I haven’t discussed anything with the lecturers yet.  Another idea was to record an album of some sort, so that’s still in the pipeline.  I was also thinking of creating original horror sounds, nothing gory, just atmospheric, sort of SFX.  Other interests were near-field studio Monitor testing and a similar idea with compressors, but I haven’t really got access to a wide enough range. 

So I’m booked in to see Gareth Jones next Thursday (3^rd) to discuss these ideas with him.  I’m hoping something will be finalised then so I’ll know where to focus my efforts.

For the time being I have done some research on Foley work and film scores (Links posted below)

www.filmsound.org

http://web.archive.org/web/20031203095914/http://www.windworld.com/emi/articles/soundeffects.htm

http://www.eng.umu.se/monster/john/sound_music.htm

http://filmsound.org/QA/recording-foley.htm