Sound Planning- Tasha Reynolds

Sound-

Equipment needed:

•  Sound recorder

• Boom mic
• Lapel/external mics

Soundtrack:

During our film we will have two distinctive soundtracks playing in the background when certain scenes occur, this will help connote the mood and atmosphere of each scene.  

Soundtrack 1-

An establishing shot of Brighton will fade in on screen, meanwhile an upbeat and fast tempo of background music will begin playing and will continue until dialogue between the characters occurs. The soundtrack will then slowly quieten down and fade out.

Soundtrack 2-

During this point of the film, the tone of mood begins to get more serious and sad as the film progresses to the end. This is when we will present the scene of the main protagonist walking out a flower shop carrying a bouquet of flowers. During this scene slow, sad piano music fades in gradually playing at a soft pace. This soundtrack will continue as the setting transitions to a graveyard but then begins to quieten down slightly so that the audience can hear the dialogue being spoken from the protagonist. Finally, as the scene transitions into the title sequence the music increases in pitch and plays till the end.

Technical comments-

We will edit these soundtracks into the film sequence in the editing stage of the course. However, before we decide on a particular soundtrack to add in, we will listen to a range of possible options to make sure we defiantly select the music that will have the best impact and effect on our short film.

Dialogue:

We have already planned what the dialogue will contain and have finalised this by writing a script.

Technical comments-

We will record the dialogue by using a variety of different media equipment that is suitable to use in each location and will give us the best quality of sound.

Indoors; Bedroom-

We will record the dialogue by either using a boom mic or using lapel/external mics for indoor scenes like in the bedroom or at school. This is because it is easy to use either in these contexts as their both inside a small room. For instance, the boom mic is good for collecting a range of sound from one given area. So in the scene where the two characters are talking in the bedroom we could hold the mic over the top and it will pick up what both characters are saying. This is a good type of equipment to use in this location as it will be recorded indoors so there will be no excess background noise coming from other areas; which we wouldn’t want to be included in the film. The second option would be to use the lapel/external mics as with these you can attach them to individual actors and therefore it will pick up what each individual character is saying very clearly.

Outside; Hazelwick, Brighton, Haywards Heath Graveyard-

In any scenes filmed outside, it would be best to use lapel/external mics to record sound as the mics would record clearly what the characters are saying. When in comparison if we did use a boom mic it would pick up any access background noise that we won’t want heard amongst the dialogue. A prime example of unwanted sound is windy weather; as we will be filming in late October it will be a lot more windy as its getting closer to winter. Therefore, it would be harder to hear the dialogue being spoken if the boom mic is picking up the sound of the wind blowing as well.

Foley:

We will incorporate foley’s into our short film in various scenes such as-

·         Amy shutting both her bedroom and front door

·         Cars driving past while the girls are walking to school

·         School bell ringing; will be heard outside of the school and when in classroom

·         Wall clock ticking in classroom

·         Seagulls and waves as background sound in Brighton

·         Click of phone camera when the girls are taking selfies

·         Tinnitus ringing noise that Amy hears when she zones out in class

Editing & enhancing certain sounds:

In classroom-

During this scene the majority of the time the teacher’s voice will be faded into the background so that it becomes ambient off-screen noise. While shots of Amy are shown while she is listening to other students whispering about her. In this scene we the audience are hearing everything from Amy’s perspective; so the teacher sounds far away in the classroom while the students whispering will be increased in volume slightly to show that they can be heard very predominantly, as Amy can hear very clearly what their saying about her.

Additionally, during this scene Amy will become dissociated in her mental state and will zone out of reality. During this a series of close up shots will be shown of her facial expression, while the audience will also hear a tinnitus ringing noise; heard from her perspective, added to help represent her mental state and the fact that she is out of sync with everything going on around her in the classroom. This will be presented further when the teacher will be heard from a distance calling her name and gradually as Amy snaps back into reality the teacher’s voice will increase in volume. This again helps hear things from Amy’s point of view as at first she is too far gone in her mind to hear anything but gradually becomes in sync with her surrounding again.

Technical comments-

We plan to edit and adjust these particular sounds in the editing stage of the course; by using Final Cut Pro and other various editing software to achieve the result we want. However, these decisions we have made about editing these sounds may change due to various reason but we will update the blog with justified reasoning for this.