When Recording Audio the main thing to remember is: 

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Make sure you have the right mic for the job, Having the right microphone positioned in the right spot makes all the difference in the world to the quality of your audio. The microphones that are commonly used in video production come in a variety of shapes and sizes, and each of these tools has a unique strength that allow them to capture better audio in a given situation. We strongly consider investing in at least one microphone for your camera setup.

 

THE MAKER:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDXOioU_OKM&t=2s

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Investigating Audio Production and technology:

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The narrative for " The Maker " is an imagined narrative as well as a sequence of moving objects rather than written or spoken words.

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Techniques Used through the making of this short film are Panning and tracking shots whilst following the moving objects as well as silent filming with barely any noises and no music. STOP-MOTION

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The Film is aimed at Youth to watch for education and also to the elderly who may not know the technology basics but can enjoy this short film that lives in the past. Ages 9-12 

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The film last 5 minuets and 30 seconds, the soundtrack will need to last just over 5 minuets to follow along with the animation and moving objects.

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To stop the cause of copyright the soundtrack needed will have to be taken from a different site to youtube or maybe by a channel that has put the lyrics of the track that can be copied and put as the soundtrack for this project.

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Mindmaps, stroyboards and scripts will be used when planning this project.

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primary and secondary research will need to be used this includes questionnaires, and research towards 'Foley' that includes audition tutorials.

 

Pros and cons of research:

 

Pros: 

Understandable amount of information that can be used for your project.

The usual research can be realiable but not 100%.

Helps with education and improvement in knowledge based upon who you are looking for. Video tutorials can be helpful.

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Cons:

Research might not be reliable this depending on who you are looking to get the research for/from and whether the research previously done by others sounds realistic.

 

Equipment that will be needed are digital cameras, audio recorders, potentially a tripod and an editing programme when editing.

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Problems that can happen is background sounds e.g. birds, planes or weather that can effect the video.

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PORTFOLIO SHOWING PLANNING AND RESEARCH:

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Sound animation 1:

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Alice by Jan Svankmajer: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rri69wKUUQ

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Director- Dxnke Art

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Animation is old fashioned and a poor quality of recording with an old fashioned camera. 480P quality made in 1988.

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The story is about a young girl who is slowly discovering the wonders of life e.g. holding scissors for the first time and scrunching paper potentially for the first time she is slowly finding creativity in this world. 

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Uses of sound effects include echos, tearing paper, boiling foods, kitchen noises e.g. kettle the kitchen is a large room which causes echos when the young girl is talking.

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Sound Animation 2:

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The Pearce Sisters: Aardman Animation 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6hM-U9R1ng

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Director- neopherm

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The story is about a family lost at sea in a boat and this includes the animation style of stop-motion and tracking/zoom shots that is techniques include within the animation.

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The sound in this film isnt as wider range as the first animation but this still includes sounds of the sea, waves, dangerous weather and beaches.

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Researching Foley:

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What Difference Does Foley Sound Make?

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What is it about the sound in amateur films that makes them sound so well  amateur? Even if the clarity is good (which often isn't), there is often something hollow or thick about the sound, the action lacks depth. The answer could be that the film makers did not add Foley sound effects to the soundtrack.

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What  is "Foley"?

Foley effects are sound effects added to the film during post production after shooting stops. They include sounds such as footsteps, clothes rustling, crock clinking, paper folding, doors opening and slamming, punches hitting, glass breaking, etc. etc. In other words, many of the sounds that the sound recordists on set did their best to avoid recording during the shoot.

The boom operator's job is to clearly record the dialogue, and only the dialogue. At first glance it may seem odd that we add back to the soundtrack the very sounds the sound recordists tried to exclude. But the key word here is control. By excluding these sounds during filming and adding them in post, we have complete control over the timing, quality, and relative volume of the sound effects.

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For example, an introductory shot of a biker wearing a leather jacket might be enhanced if we hear his jacket creak as he enters the shot - but do we really want to hear it every time he moves? By adding the foley sound fx in post, we can control its intensity, and fade it down once the dialogue begins. Even something as simple as boots on gravel can interfere with our comprehension of the dialogue if it is recorded too loudly. Far better for the actor to wear sneakers or socks (assuming their feet are off screen!) and for the boot-crunching to be added during Foley.

 

4 interesting points used from one of the videos:

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfwDLONo7nI

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1. Foley in this video is explained as being used in video games e.g. paranoid noises in horror games and futuristic sounds used for star wars battlefront or Alien Isolation.

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2. They pick and collect everyday items such as muddy rocks, leaves from trees and conquers that can then be used when making sound animation for e.g walking in a forest or rustling of a creature in the hedges.

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3. A sock made of nuts and garlic was made for alien isolation and is used to make the noises for one of the aliens layers within the game.

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4. Hisses from the Alien was made from filling a soldering iron and pouring coke onto it and from the sugar within the coke drink is causes hissing noises from the soldering iron.

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PLANNING GRID:

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Analysis of what effects i have so far:

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Banging some paper ( sounds like a drum)

water dripping 

Ringing a bell by flicking a metal pole

Slurping noises ( sounds like the person is eating a lollipop.

Opening a window ( sounds like dialling from an old telephone)

Footsteps on gravel ( sounds like someone is walking on a pavement or garden)

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The maker Audio Production video with my added effects:  

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Link- https://vimeo.com/268005971

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Peer Assessments:

 

1. Mikel Griffiths- 

 

"Has moments of genuinely appropriately placed sounds and decent sounds at that, but some sounds are out of place and silly."

 

(apologies) lol, It was mostly good though.

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2. Dominic Cornford:

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Techniques and Process used: I had trouble with uploading my video multiple times; this was due to copyright infringement on my audio sound effects, this was mainly due to The Maker video being the main reason for my video being copyrighted and taken down. I finally was able to fix this issue by shortening the video and making my video unlisted, youtube hasn't copyrighted it now and can be viewed. I have now uploaded my final Audio production to Vimeo which can be viewed from the link on this page, The fact that I couldn't upload it to YouTube because of it being copyrighted, I now can learn from this and be sure to include more effects and shorten the time of the chosen film so that the effects can be overheard above the film so that it stops the possibility of it being copyrighted.

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Audio quiz ( unit 5 ):

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Final Evaluation:

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My audio production based upon "The Maker" I feel went well, the audio effects that i decided to include i thought went well with the original background and visuals of the short film The Maker. The audio effects that i finalised to use were 

Banging paper ( to sounds like a drum),

water dripping, 

Ringing a bell by flicking a metal pole,

Slurping noises ( sounds like the person is eating a lollipop),

Opening a window ( sounds like dialling from an old telephone),

Footsteps on gravel ( sounds like someone is walking on a pavement or garden).

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Having an overview of these I would say that the banging paper audio effect to make a sound effect like a banging drum was very effective, this along with opening a window which sounded like an old telephone being dialled was also very effective and noticeable in my audio production as it was the loudest noise that was recorded. I feel that improvements can be made, some of which are the effects aren't well ranged and most of them sound similar, their were a few audio effects that i feel i should have included so that it would show that i know and understand how to use an audio recorder more in-depth rather than just knowing the basics.

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I have looked back upon the sound effects that i decided to use and have come to the conclusion that I needed to record and add more sound effects that I originally had, I recorded and used 5 sound effects that I could then add over the top of the chosen short film ( The Maker ). I did then record more than 10 sound effects but I didn't think that the ones I chose to do worked well being played over the short film The Maker, I would improve this by thinking of different sound effects that I could have included and then be edited so that the short film had more depth that could be played over The Maker, I would probably choose to include sound effects of wind blowing which would've worked well with the sound effect I had which was slowly opening a window, these 2 effects would've worked well together and could be followed on from each other.

 

Not all my effects that were used added up to the approximate time of the short film The Maker ( 10 effects that were used did not add up to the 5:31 that the original Maker had). Next time I know to include more effects that can be played over the top of the short film and from this it'll show that I can record, use effects and edit effects that can then clearly be shown as using audio effects to change the way a short film is heard and viewed by audiences. After reviewing and changing the length and sound effects of my original production of the Maker, i'm happy with what i have produced now and I feel now that this will help me immensely on achieving the grades i'm aiming for after filming my short film on the topic of metamorphosis , this audio project will also help with my camera skills going into filming my project and with these new camera and audio effects gained from filming and editing will give me a vast chance of having my project turn out as planned.

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