Debbie Post-Production- Sound Design

Having finished the sound design for Debbie yesterday I have quite a lot I can say about it. Back in October, when we were in beyond the boundaries still, I expressed some ideas about the sound design and the sound track. I was trying to base it off of a kind of classical version of a pulp song for the reference to Jarvis Cocker, who was a main inspiration for the film. However, this was when the film was more inspired by film noir and the script was very different:



So my approach and sound design has also become very different.

When given the sound files for the film, the first thing I did was spend some time on noise reduction. Quite a lot of time in fact. One of the first things I realised was that everything take twice as long on a 10 minute film. Which sound silly, but when you've done a five minute film or are really passionate about sound design you'll think it's fine and underestimate how long it will take you to do something!

However, length aside I got the noise reduction done. Then came all the track laying and syncing sound, doing foley etc. Luckily for me, Josh and Marco (who were on sound for our shoot) did a really good job at picking up even the smallest of things like a pen clicking or a cup, which made my life so much easier. It meant I could spend more time on really crafting the sound and perfecting it than spending a lot of time correcting things that could have been picked up on the shoot.

I decided to work from the bottom up in terms of building the sound. Which meant I would start from the lowest sound (the ambient noise of the cafe) and work upwards from there. This was so I didn't start my levels off too low in an attempt to not make the ambiance too overpowering. Because this was my first time mixing a traditional film like this, I looked at a lot of reference material. Looking at various diner and cafe scenes and how loud or quietly they have their ambiance.

Looking at these examples really helped me when it came to mixing. Not only because they gave me a general level, but because they are all so different from eachother. Taking Daredevil and Thor for example, which are set in diners that are similarly quiet. The sound design for those is quite different, but it's nice seeing it like that as it reminds me of the creative choices I can make, and that there is no 'right or wrong' way to do it. However, it gave me a good indication anyway.

The next main thing I did was the drug tripping parts of the film. I had a lot of fun with this, and as the film progresses and it becomes more intense, I got to play around with it more. I already had a pretty good idea how I wanted to do it, but I did look at a few examples:

Again, these are all pretty different. However they were helpful and made me think about my decisions more. I decided to go for a kind of underwater muffled feel. With everything slowed down around Jarvis. Then, later on in the film I made it far more sudden. I combined this with juttery, kind of electronic sounds to go with Lauren's quick cuts. I really liked how it came out. 

The only thing I regret not being able to do was make a soundtrack for it. I wanted to, but because of delays in the edit for Debbie and Dance I didn't have time to. However, I put some just light synth ambient backgrounds in to give the film some feeling, with a view of returning to it later and making something for it.

Another thing I found particularly challenging about this process was the sheer amount of tracks there were. I knew this was going to be a big job, but I hadn't realised just how confusing it could get quite quickly. It really opened my eyes in terms of the amount of workload I could expect in the future with a career in sound. I feel like I need to start improving on my workflow more, to help me better handle those larger projects for next time.

The Exquisite Corpse 13- Shahid's Project Mixing

Shahid sent me the final versions of his animation to edit to, and it was fairly straight forward as he had only changed one thing on the foot, However, I think there was a framerate difference as the rest of the sound was out of sync, so I had to go back over and re-sync all of it. It didn't take too long, but it was fairly annoying.

Shahid seemed really happy with the project once I sent him his piece back. He said it was exactly how he imagined it and I'm really glad of that. I tried to create something a little bit uncomfortable, but not too much and I think I've taken all his feedback on board and done that.

The sound design is interesting to me as it's very minimalist, so it's a good way to show off my sound design skills, as there is nowhere for the audio to hide. I can't hide off mistakes behind some car noise or similar, and that's both great because you know people will hear your work, or worse because you will under scrutiny constantly.

Feeling for Sound- Getting There

In my last post I detailed how I was moving more towards a musical piece for my sound project, and I'm happy to say that is working out really well. I have been listening to alot of Matthew Herbert. Namely the tracks, 'Sugar' and 'August' for inspiration as their sounds have a similar rhythm to mine.

What I have done so far, is from the experimentation I linked last time, essentially started again with some of the bare elements of the original soundtrack, and use fl studio to create an artificial beat to base my piece from. I won't use it in the original sound design, but it gives me a framework to work in the mean time.

I've also let Rosie have a listen and she suggested getting it cut to vinyl for the show. Since I have now narrowed down the project to just my parents' divorce, I am beginning to see how that is appropriate. When my dad left home he left a rather large record collection with my mum which is still there today. It's something he always went on about and there are records in nearly every cupboard in the house. It would provide a sense of irony in way, me choosing to play out the feelings of divorce through a device that he loved? It's an interesting concept and a genuinely really good idea.

Here's a sample of what I've been working on:



I think it's come really far in a short space of time, and I'm genuinely really happy with it. I think it could with a few odd sounds on the end, but I am really pleased with this kind of outcome. I think there's not much more to do on it now for hand in. Just mixing and getting it polished I think. Fixing the voiceover etc.

Debbie Post-Production- The Edit

It's the last stretch of Uni now, and particularly with Debbie I think everyone is starting to feel the heat. Back after Easter and we are straight into it!

Over the last couple of weeks I have mostly been waiting around for the edit in terms of Debbie, and I became aware of some issues Lauren was having with the edit. I wish she had said earlier but I can understand why my not being there that much, as I was working on other projects, made her feel like maybe she couldn't contact me. It wasn't as easy as just turning to someone next to her. That being said, once I sat down with her and discussed the edit she was fine.

I think the problem was mainly that she wanted to stick to the script as much as possible, which I can understand because I hadn't expressly told her to just go crazy and I think it made her feel a bit uncomfortable doing so. This reflected in the edit, as every shot was in there even if scenes didn't work and it felt a little forced in at places. However when I spoke to her and actually told her that was fine, the edit became a hell of alot better because of it. I think now after a few tweaks it will be fine and I will be waiting a couple of days for the sound!

Anxiety Dance- Sound Editing and Developing Melody

Now that we are back after Easter, and the Debbie shoot is done I can now get under way with the sound design for Anxiety, as there is an edit for me to work with. The first thing I have done is matched up the foley for the film. So all the breathing noises, hand and foot noises are in place before I even begin with the melody. I have found that some of the recordings were too noisy for me to use really. On their own it would be fine if it was a narrative spoken piece, however as the dancer is wearing a kind of odd material, whenever she runs her hand over that area it just sounds like noise.

This really sucked from my point of view, as I really wanted to maintain authenticity. However. the recordings I did get were good and very usable.

Aside from this though, there's not much more I can do as I am waiting for the animation to be done before I can make the melody for the piece. I tried, but not having any timing to go if is very frustrating and doesn't get me anywhere. So, aswell as working on other things in the meantime, I have tried to explore what plugins and instruments I will use for the piece. I took a few samples and showed them to Lauren for her to listen and choose the best from:







Lauren said she preferred the first one as it had more of a melody about it. She wants to maintain a kind of harmony in the piece, whilst still having that creepiness. I think I know what she means, and I feel I will be able to work well on it when the animation is finished.

Feeling for Sound- Original Sound Idea Shortcomings

When I started this project, I had the idea that I could create a kind of soundscape of emotion overrunning this naturalistic narrative of what was actually happening in the scene. I tried this out in multiple ways, and each time I came up with the same conclusion that it was quite dull, and very disembodied in a way. As all you can hear is footsteps or someone eating, I found that the audience couldn't really relate to that very well, not in the way I wanted them to. So, when I started looking at Matthew Herbert and Cornelius Cardew, I found that a way more interesting way around my problem. Cardew was admittedly a way of using imagery in my piece to make it more interesting, or more grounded rather. Something tangible the audience could hold onto and use to understand the piece.

However, since I have started experimenting with musical elements of the piece I have been much happier with it. It was daunting at first to think I was starting this project again essentially, but I'm glad I realised this now rather than so late on in the process. To demonstrate what I mean, here as some samples:

This is the first version of my sound project, you can hear that something is happening but you aren't really clear what it is and I feel like emotional sounds or music alone would not ground the audience into what is happening. It feels very flat and not the quality of work I would have liked to present:




In this one however, you can already tell this is going to be a more interesting piece, it has something for the audience to pay attention to and hold onto while listening to. This is meant to grab their attention and hold it. However, what I will say is that this cut of the experimentation is too naturalistic, and I would like a more electronic feel to it. Though you can already see the improvements, and it can only get better from here with more and more experimentation.

'13' Shahid's Project- Creating a More Steampunk, Less Fleshy Sound

Shahid sent me some new animation the other day and I have been working on trying to get the robotic sounds right, as well the fleshy sounds. I showed Shahid this reference from a Doctor Who episode:

Shahid seemed to agree that he liked that type of clockwork sound, and so I started on making that. Once I was finished, he seemed to really appreciate the newer version.

However, he then asked me to turn the flesh sound down quite a lot, and eventually wanted rid of it. I still wanted to have that elements of organic material in there, so I tried it with using breathing that is ever so slightly robot-esque and and for the hand and the foot to have blood rushing sounds, Shahid really liked this, and aside from the bits of animation he had left to do, was really happy with the piece.