Jack in the Box Scene

After watching Abbie's blog post on the editing of the Jack in the Box scene, I wasn't quite happy with the non diegetic sound, as I felt like it didn't seem natural and it didn't fit with the hand movements. So, I decided to record the sound for the jack in the box, making it a diegetic sound.

  Click Here to watch Abbie's original edit: 

Here is the vlog, of how I recorded the sound:

Editing the sound

• The first thing I did, was to compress the sound and to raise the gain, so that the sound would be louder.

• I then created an auxiliary strip, where I labeled "reverb. This is so that the sound would have some delay, which makes it sound more natural.
• To create the reverb on the new auxiliary strip, I used the space designer and I chose the "nice hall" reverb.
• Back onto the audio strip, which contains the recording of the Jack in the Box, I sent the sound to the reverb auxiliary channel, which is also called "bus 1". 
• Where there is a circle, I could control, how much of the sound I wanted to send to the reverb auxiliary strip.

• The denoiser was used to cut out some of the frequency which is not in the threshold which I had manually set.

• I pitch shifted some of the sound so that it would sound more eerie, but I didn't make it too obvious so it would sound uncomfortable, as I had turned the output mix down.

Here is the finished sound:

  I think this sounds a lot more natural and it would suit the scene a lot more than the non diegetic sound that I made, just because it was painfully obvious that the sound of the jack in the box was a non diegetic rather than diegetic which it is meant to be.

Chase Scene Music

• Whilst creating the sound, I wanted to keep it quite simple, so that there would be an element of tension and suspense within the sequence.
• At the top where you can see a blue line, that controls the tempo of the piece, which I have gradually increased and made faster throughout the piece, so that it resembles a heart starting to pump faster as they run. 
• The heart beat was made by using a drum kick, and EQing the lower frequencies to be quite high and adding a lot of reverb into it, so that it would resonate.

• I used mostly electronic sounds, as it would sound the most bassy.
• However, I did use a string bass section for the drone in the background as it gave a more eerie sound and it fitted with conventions, to use string instruments to create some suspense and tension.
• A lot of gated synths were used as they were fast paced, and would help to propel the music forward so that it would seem faster than it actually is. It would also give a sense of urgency to the piece.

Here is the finished piece:

Creating sound

• I decided to start making the non diegetic music for our opening sequence, and I wanted to incorporate some of the trials I did before, which was the loud bass sounds with a drone in the background.

• I also wanted to have some vocalisations, and I thought that the most effective vocalisations would be from indian classical music, so I downloaded one indian piece and sampled it in Logic pro.

• I didn't want the natural sounding of her voice, so I used the telephone EQ effect, by cutting out the higher frequencies and the lower frequencies, and I faded her voice in and then out.
• I only used a fraction of the piece, and I wanted some of the parts to sound weird and not from the original key with the drone.

Here is the sound:

  I still have lots of work to improve on this track, due to the editing of the sequence is not yet done, and we need to match the music to the editing. We also need to see whether the vocalisations actually fit with the sequence first.

Foley sound

In our film opening there are many chase scenes, at times we want there to be tension music playing however we also want to recreate some of the original sound to make it more authentic and realistic.

In the opening one of the victims Georgia falls and knocks of her galsses, before this she is running up the stairs. I have, with the help of abbie, recorded the sound of footsteps running up the stairs and falling to the ground.

To do this I carefully watched the oringinal footage to attmept to recreate the speed. This was extremely difficult as I had to run as well as watch the footage on a very small phone screen. I also tried to make sure that the shoes and the surface used were similar. We found a concrete staircase in our school that had about the same number of stairs and also made the smae sound. In the oringinal footage the victim wore shoes with quite thin soles and so my school shoes worked perfectly to recreate, I just slammed my feet down harded to make the sound seem more frantic.

This took many attmepts but below is one of the videos we created

Then, we moved to the scene where Joe, the male victim, is running through the staircase door to the lift. This was a very big, heavy door and so we needed to use one similar. The one we used had glass windows in it making it lighter, this was not ideal but we slammed it back against the wall harder to compensate for this. However, when we edit this on to the footage we may need to review this and use a better door.

Abbie noticed that the door was squeaky and had a good rusty hinge sound. We felt that this would be ideal because it has the eerie sound that is used often in horror films. So we decided to get a close up video of the hinge sound so that this sound can be added in and even distorted and played with to make it sound even more scary.

 

RUNNING THROUGH DOOR



HINGE SOUND

After doing this, we went back to one of the first chase scenes which happens before the glasses are dropped. This scene was especially complicated because we had to represent both the victims who were moving very differently at very different speed. As well as this, Abbie was wearing soft-soled shoes and so had to compensate for this by slamming her feet down harder. Working our timings out was diffcicult, my character was slow and followed on from the other charcater. Abbie's character was fast, heavy footed and did a sort of run/skip which was hard to replicate.

*insert video*

We are unsure about whether the footage will work well with this sound and so editing will be slightly trail and error. However, if the sound is incorrect then will consider refilming in the recording studio where the conditions are far more controlled.

Deconstruction- scream sound effects

In our film, when the lift doors open the female victim screams and I wanted to look at scream sound effects to see how high pitch they are, how they are edited and whether the sound is distorted or effected at all

In this video, I can hear that most of the scream sounds are edited so that they sound as though they are echoing. this makes the sound seem bigger and fuller, as though it is surrounding the listener bringing it to life and making it more scary.

The actual scream itself has a growling sound to it, as though it is caught in the back of the throat. This makes the sound seem a lot more raw which makes the listener feel more uncomfortable and on edge. As well as this, some of the screams are very long and the longer the scream the more uncomfortable you feel- you want it to stop which brings out the horror effect much more.

Again the scream sounds echoed, as though there is more than one person screaming. This layering effect makes the sound seems louder too and far more urgent and anxious

The scream itself gets louder and quieter putting the listener on edge as they don't know whether the scream is going to stop or get worse.

We could use these ideas ourselves, to make the scream seem louder and scarier. The scream is at the end of our sequence so the scream needs to be terrifying to leave the viewer on edge.

Non Diegetic Sound for credits

 Here, I started to make the non diegetic sound, based on the practical that Rebecca did with the credits and the film clips.

•  Firstly, I uploaded the video into logic pro so that I can edit to the video, for more effect, and since the bass sounds need to be in a specific place.

•  Then, I marked out when the credits would appear, so I would know where the bass booms would go.

•  I then added the drum sounds and some very low string notes, so that it would give it an eerie sound. 
• I also automated the volume levels with the drums, so that it wasn't too loud, and that there would be some sort of crescendo to add some suspense.

•  I wanted the drum to sound like a heartbeat in some places, so I needed it to echo.
• So I used the space designer to add some reverb to the drum, and I ended up choosing the "echoing mountains" as the echo sounded very natural.

•  I then EQed the drum so that the higher and lower frequencies were cut off, so that it would have a muffled, telephone effect.

• I also used the pitch bender on the keyboard to pitch bend an extremely high pitch sound, which would happen periodically, which I need to fix up, when we have edited the final thing.

Here is the prototype finished:

Making another Nursery Rhyme

  I made another arrangement of a nursery rhyme, so that we would have two nursery rhymes going on. This time, I chose the song "Pop! Goes the Weasel." Instead of the original lyrics, I used the american version which fitted our opening sequence as it had a darker meaning behind it.

"All around the Mulberry bush
The monkey chased the Weasel
The monkey thought twas all the fun
Pop goes the weasel"

• Once again, I used Logic pro 9 to make the sounds. I used a lot of the techniques I used when I made 'Ring O Roses' except, I didn't overlay a lot of voices, instead I only overlayed it twice, which created the overdub sound. I also took the high and low frequencies of the vocals off, to create a telephone effect.

• I mainly used a lot of bass sounds, so that it would create more suspense.
• I took the highest frequencies of the drums off, and then I heightened all the lower frequencies. Then I added a lot of reverb so that it echoed, and it would seem like the drum is in an extremely large open space.
• Synthesizers were used to make the buzzing sounds to give it an eerie feel.

Here is the final product:

Non Diegetic Sound During Filming

 During the day we were filming, I managed to borrow my brother's sound recorder so that I could sample some of the sounds as it would be really hard to recreate some of the sounds.

The sound recorder that I used, was the Zoom Handy Recorder H4N

Here is one of the sounds that I recorded on the day.

• This is the sound of the lift. I went into a lift by myself as I didn't want too many people in one lift as their clothes would either ruffle as the microphone was very sensitive or absorb some of the echo which the lift creates in the tunnel.
• The recorded sound wasn't loud enough, so I put the audio file into Logic Pro so that I could adjust the gain of the sound and make it louder.
• I also changed the EQ a bit so that more of the bass was coming through rather than the higher frequencies.

After compressing the audio file and adjusting the EQ, you can see a significant different in the file.

Here is the finished sound:

Practical: Starting on the Non Diegetic Music.

  I decided to start on the non diegetic music for our opening sequence film. I just created the base of the piece, because once we have finished the filming, I will have to add or adjust the piece, so that it will fit with the film.

• First, I wanted to create something that won't be too chaotic, so I decided to start off with a drone.
• I used an AU plugin called alchemy to get the drone sound, and whilst I was inputting the notes, I used the pitch bender to bend the pitch up and down at the end of each phrase.

• Then, I wanted to add a heartbeat with the drums so that it would build up some suspense in the scene.
• To make it sound less "drummy," I used the EQ, and I lowered the high frequencies and some of the low frequencies so it would sound less punchy and some of the high pitched sounds would be gone.
• I also automated the volume, so that it would start off very quietly and it would gradually get louder before softening again.
• I then added a bit of echo to the beat, so it seemed like it was inside a large room.

• For the scene, where the girl starts to turn her head towards the main character, I wrote on the storyboard that I wanted a really loud, dramatic bass sound. So I used the human bass sound that was really low on the keyboard to create this.

Non Diegetic Sound for Chase Scene

After editing the chase scene, I decided to trial out a non diegetic sound which would fit the scene.

• I thought, to highlight the chase scene, I would need to emphasize on the drums, because this is what gives the music a sense of pace and urgency which is needed in this chase scene.
• An african kit was used to create the drums, as this sounded more natural than a rock drum kit and it would build suspense a lot easier. 
• I then put in an extremely low cello sound which gives the sound some bass.
• There is also a high pitched synthesizer sound which is used halfway through the piece, which I noticed is used a lot in horror movie music.

• Afterwards, I added some reverb onto the drums which would give it some echo, which would give it an eerie sound. 
• I did this via a bus auxiliary, so that I could regulate how much reverb I wanted to put onto the drums.
• The sound level on each of the tracks are also adjusted.

• Then I quickly downloaded the scene from our youtube channel, and I used Final Cut to edit the sound and the clip together.
• I decided to leave the diegetic sound on, so that it would sound more natural than if it were to only have the non-diegetic sound.

Here is the finished clip:

This is not a finished product, as this is only a trial. I may need to change the music, as it seems like it doesn't fit with the scene entirely. I also need to make the track clearer by mastering the track.

Adapting a Nursery Rhyme

Adapting a Nursery Rhyme

   One of our ideas for the final piece, is to do a supernatural horror based around a child. So I thought that I would work with a version of a nursery rhyme, in which it would appear if the child was in the scene, to give it some tension.

  I decided to go with Ring O Roses.

  First, I chose the tempo in which I wanted the track to be like. I decided on 69 bpm, which is very slow, but I thought this would be suitable because I wanted it to be eerie sounding and rushed. 

I put in a pedal note, of 'A' to play throughout the piece to give it some bass. I decided to use a church choir plugin for this pedal note, as using a bass instrument didn't sound right and didn't fit the context.

  Then, I manually figured out the melody of the Ring O Roses melody, and I used a glockenspiel to input the sound, because I wanted it to sound like a music box playing. I then pitch shifted the glockenspiel to sound a bit out of tune, to give it a scary feeling, and to make the music box sound really old.

 For the vocals, I recorded myself singing the tune, and I recorded the same tune around 5 times with harmonies, so that it would overlay each other, creating an echo-like sound called overdub. 

 I then mixed the volume for each of the tracks, so that some parts were not too loud. I also adjusted the sound, so that some of the voices would come out of the left side speakers, and the others would come out the right side speakers for surround sound. 

 Finally I downloaded a sound effect of a creaky swing, which I added at the end for extra creepiness.

Here is the finished layered product.

And here is the finished sound.