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.

Diegetic sound during filming day 3

 This was our third week of filming, and unfortunately this day was more windy than the other days.
It was so windy, that the microphone was picking a lot of the wind sounds, which meant that the audio that we needed were blocked out by the wind.
  To overcome this, I had to make do with my scarf acting as a microphone windshield, which actually helped to block out the wind a lot. However, due to my scarf having a lot of holes, there was still some wind coming through.

 During the day, we shot several scenes, and the most important scene for sound is the scene where the lift opens and the girl is standing there, and the main girl screams. So I took this sound, as we would definately be using it at the end of the opening sequence.

•  The first thing I did, was to upload the audio file onto Logic Pro, and then I cut out the part where the scream was and I put it into another track, as I needed to edit this part differently.
• I used the space designer to create some reverb onto the track and I put more onto the scream on the other track so that there would be more echo which would last after the scream, as this would then transition into the nursery rhyme as the title comes out.

• I then compressed the scream because it would very loud compared to the rest of the track. 
• I turned the compressor threshold down and turned the ratio up and I also turned up the attack.

• Throughout the track, you could hear a lot of background noise, which we don't want, so I used the denoiser to remove some of the noise, and only let the frequencies I want to pass through.
• I turned the threshold down and I turned the reduce down aswell.

Here is the finished sound:

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:

Deconstruction: Sound in a Scene

 I decided to use a scene from the horror movie "Silent Hill 3D Revelation," and deconstruct the use of sound.

•  The use of non diegetic sound is very minimal, up to the climax of the scene where the nurses start moving at 1:07.
• There is a lot of diegetic sound of the shackles tapping against the metal bars where the man is trapped. This is louder than it should be due to it being the focal point of the scene. The first time you hear it is at 0:05.
• When the women start to move, there are very feminine female voices, and this juxtaposes to how their faces look even though their bodies are very feminine. 
• When the knives are slashing, there is a knife sound edited into it, so that it creates more of an impact and shows how fast the knives are moving. 
• When the non diegetic sound comes in at 1:07, the music is extremely fast paced, with a lot of bass to create suspense and tension. 
• Horns then come in at 1:20 which sounds a long slide, and this sounds like a siren which shows the danger that the characters are facing. It also mirrors the bed falling to the side after being slashed.
• At 1:22 where the bed is crashing, there is a long metallic drone sound which makes the bed sound like it is crashing, but it is a very unnatural sound as this wouldn't usually happen.

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.

foley- deconstruction

In the video a leather bag, celery and a wet cloth is used to make the sounds of the flesh and the bones breaking. Using vegetables like celery can be really useful because they are easy to find and cheap so we ca use as much as we need. As well as this, they do sound really realistic and we could use it in our film to make it feel as though the bones in the girls body are creaking and bending as the demon is in her.

Our group will definitely need to make foot step noises for when the characters are running. To do this we will need to use a hard ground like PDF boards on the floor. Then, we would need the shoes used in the film of shoes with a harder sole to heighten the sound and exaggerate it.

1:53 in this clip shows how the way of walking when creating sounds is slightly different. the lady has to make sure she is always going 'heel, toe, heel toe' and doing this ensures that you get the clean footstep sound. Also, it shows how the different surfaces give different sounds and because we will largely be using concrete steps i will have to consider how we will remake this sound without doing it on location. 

ROOM TONE!

This is something i have only just learnt about from the previous video, it is important for sound editing when we are adding music or foley. Recording sound tone will also make it easier in editing if we find out suddenly that we need it we will already have it saved to fill any gaps. our film is partially outside and so the sound will be changing more and be more dynamic so we will need to record a larger amount of room tone. 

Independent studies: Diegetic Sound inspirations and research

During filming it may be easier to record sounds separately and then edit them over the footage so that the sounds are clearer and therefore have a bigger impact in the scene. To do this it could be a good idea to look at alternative ways of making sounds because it may be difficult and impractical to use the actual objects. For example, the sound of a saw:

can be made just a clearly by dragging my hand back and forward across the speaker of a device such as an iStation/iDock or stereo. These are appliances found in most homes and so it is easier to record and make the sounds. 

As our genre is a horror, we will need to make gruesome sounds without actually hurting anyone. An easy way to make a bone cracking noise like this:

Would be to use an empty plastic bottle, something cheap and easy to find. Or, we could use cut shells and crack them into the microphones or use twigs to find out what works best.

Some sounds are dangerous to make, like smashing glass because it can be messy and is unsafe to handle. To get around this issue, we could use musical chimes and a small empty glass bottle (like those given on planes) and push the bottle against the chimes. This won't smash the glass but will give the sound effect. 

To make a stabbing sound things like pumpkins can be stabbed with a knife because the sound of the  flesh and skin of the pumpkin replicates that of a human