Recording foley for nature documentaries
We recorded foley sound using a plastic tub filled with water and additional props to create sounds for underwater jellyfish.
We used a variety of different props underwater including a mop head, a cloth and hands. Moving these in different directions and different speeds in the water creates a splashing effect. The jellyfish move in a calm and simple manner and don't make any sound while underwater however to make the shot pleasing.
We are going to mix these sounds together with different volumes to create one continuous sound for our selected clip.
Production Plan
Our production plan is to create the audio for the short animation ridley giving it a creepy unsettling vibe. To do this we are planning to record dialogue for each character with each one having a distinctive voice. To do this we will use an audio recorder with an attached microphone. We are also planning to create a series of sound bites to use in our final piece including sounds that imitate rolling, Banging and jumping. To do this we are going to use lots of different materials such as a drag and a mop. We are also going to be creating music for our pieces. I am going to use logic pro and try and make as much original scored music as I can. The genre and mood we are trying to portray to the audience is horror and a creepy uneasy feeling. We want the audience to be on the edge because of the idea a talking banana is killing other fruits and having a good time doing it.
Audio list
Recording process
To record our foley sound effects we used a rode boom microphone and a zoom recorder to capture the audio sound bites. We used a variety of different techniques and materials to create the individual sound effects. We used a wet cloth, rope, metal, tables, rocks and more. Moving these in certain ways with water and dry create a variety of sound effects for us to use.
Audio Timeline
Above is my audio timeline for the project of Ridley.
I started off by putting all of our recorded pieces of dialogue intio my timeline and editing them to match the correct timing of the piece and editing both the audio and the visual to make them match. This involved going through the 4 takes of each recording of each line and adding them slowly onto the timeline. Some of the lines were out of time with the visual. To admened this we either trimmed some of the clips or we had the option to expand the time talking as long the the charcters were not moving. For example at just before 4 minutes we expanded a lot of the time in places where we added lines and expressions such as laughing into it.
The dialogue throughout the short animation was all recorded in a sound proofed environment which means we can pick and choose between each 4 takes and make the sound perfect.
I created some simple background music throughout the piece which the intensity of them does rise and fall depending on the scene at the time. When we cut for apple in the oven for instance we can see then music is getting louder and more rough like its ready for an attack.
I Created the music using Logic Pro using original score using MIDI as well as Apple Loops and customised them to make them my own.
Our sound effects were recorded on a Rode microphone and we edited each sound bite of recording to reduce the background noise and chop them down to the certain size required for each clip.
Final exported film
Evaluation
I am very pleased on how the final Ridley Animation has come out, although a longer piece than we were all expecting we were very happy with the finished product.
Ridley was created and built on the idea of a mix of Salad Fingers and the Netflix special Damher which is a special about Jeffery Damher who is a cannibalise murder from the 1980’s. The feeling were were going for is a creepy vibe that seems incredibly uneasy and making the viewer feeling slightly scared but also freaked about what a talking 2D animated banana is doing. We kept the storylines for the other fruits short so the viewers only saw a slight bit of the story.
We used a variety of audio techniques to create the sound for this film including music dialogue and sound effects. We also used ambient sounds in places music wasn’t suited. Having a slight sound at all times in this film allowed us to tell the story through sound as well. The dialogue setting the tone of Ridley’s voice with the music which set the tension of the scene with 3 main pieces of the music and the sound effects which were more subtle but added to the story and making the characters have more life to them.
We reordered the dialogue in a sound proof environment which allowed us to have a lot of control over the recording. For this we used a zoom audio recorder with an external microphone attached to it. We recorded at least 4 takes of each line in the 5 page script however we thought it was important to make sure we had enough lines to choose from slightly different to each other in case something did happen to go wrong but we mainly did this so we could have a choose in the slightly different voices to set the scene as creepy or not. Overall I am very happy with the dialogue for Ridley and matches the project very well. However If I was to repeat the process I would have recorded the VoiceOver dialogue before we made the animation. This would have made it easier during the post production process making it quicker and more smooth. This is because before we recorded the dialogue we had to make an approximate guess on the length of the line to be able to animate the characters.
We also recorded sound effects using a variety of different materials including rocks, cloths and dirt. When recording the sounds we did struggle for quiet in the recording room and we had do re record some the of the effects afterwards as well as ask for quiet on numerous occasions. However sound bites such as metal scrapping on metal works very well as we had a quieter place to record it away from a noise environment. If we were to complete our foley sounds again we would be looking for a quieter environment outside of college where we could have control over the space.
Alongside the folly sound we also create a series of musical clips and pieces for our project. For my music I created 3 short pieces using MIDI tracks mixed with a series of Apple Loops. This was great as I have creativity over the project to use my own original scores as well as choosing pre recorded tracks allowing for my creative ideas mixed with great background tracks. The only thing I would change if I was to complete this unit again would be to do the music as the very final stage and make one complete long track instead of splitting it into multiple and looping sections.
Overall I am extremely happy with the sound design unit and my final finished product has turned out longer but better than I anticipated when I started.
ACTION PLAN
