Audio Task Pro Forma
- 2. Existing Products Research • War of the Worlds (1938) – Orson Welles • They use sound to build suspense with sounds such as beeps, constant subtle ticking which you pick up without realising. That coupled with solid voice acting all comes together to create a visceral audio experience, especially considering the time it was made. • I particularly liked the beeping of the vessel with the cutting in and out of the dialogue and silence, it really helped build suspense in a smart way, also whilst giving the listener a clear picture in their head of what is happening.
- 3. Existing Products Research • The Archers Instantly you get a sense of location, with the chirping of the birds and the subtle music being played off in the background along, then you hear the dialogue being spoken over the top of that. Later in the episode they’re in a car, you can hear the car driving off in the background, but the difference this time is the dialogue sounds clearer as they’re in a closed off environment rather than outside as they were earlier. Further in the episode somebody is supposed to be drunk and two characters are speaking to each other about him in lower voices so he doesn’t hear them, you can hear the noise of the drunk man clearly and can tell he is in the background, as well as hearing the lowered voices of the two characters talking, it all blends together perfectly to set the scene.
- 4. Existing Products Research • Doctor Who In a scene a man shoots a type of flamethower and you can hear the roar of it take over the audio coupled with the screech of the victim, it creates a disturbing vibe simply just from two sounds mixed perfectly.
- 5. Bibliography 1. War of the Worlds (1938) 2. The Archers 3. Doctor Who
- 6. Ideas
- 7. Idea Generation/Initial Reaction • As soon as I read the SK Pierce boarding house story, I knew that’s something I wanted to draw off as it's an easy premise for something horror to be created. • Also, the idea of the very second you pick up the key you are doomed no matter what appealed to me as a good premise.
- 8. Experiments
- 9. Foley • Include your work on foley and some writing about what went well, what could be better and what you have learned. • You should include a link and a screen shot. Don’t embed your work, it won’t work.
- 10. Recording • I recorded it all in my house in different rooms, for example for door squeaking sounds I used the downstairs door as it squeaks loudly. For the actual voice recording I did it in the bathroom as it’s a small room which is better for recording. • The effect it will have on my project will be that it provides more visceral and clearer sounds.
- 11. Proposal Working Title: The Boarding Burials Audience: My project is aimed at 16-24 year olds mostly due to the fact it’s a horror audio production that doesn’t take itself too seriously. It’ll most likely appeal to men more than women due to the male protagonist. Project Concept (approx. 200 words) The story is about two writers who hear about the dark history of the SK Pierce House. In an attempt to uncover the truth, they’re greeted by a creepy receptionist, who hands them their keys, the second they pick up the key, they are locked into the house.
- 12. Planning
- 13. Mood Board
- 14. Story • The story is about a writer who hears about the dark history of the SK Pierce House. In an attempt to uncover the truth, he's greeted by a creepy receptionist, who hands him his room key, the second he picks up the key, he's locked into the house and all the houses dark secrets begin to reveal themself.
- 15. Script Draft
- 16. Script Final
- 17. Sound Effects Sound Effect Needed How I Will Create the Sound Creaky Doors Move a creaky door Creaky Floorboards Step on creaky floorboards Heavy Breathing Breathe heavily into a mic Distant Screams Yell into a mic then make them sound distant in post Loud Bangs Hit a table or a door, crack wood together Heartbeats Real heartbeat or some type of drum Ambient Score Guitar Doors Opening and Closing Open and Close doors. Window Shutting Close a window.
- 18. Actors/Locations Actor Role Location for recording Myself All My House
- 19. Resource List Resource Owned/Cost What sound effect will it be used for? Door Owned Creaky Door and Opening and Closing Door sounds. Guitar Owned To create a score for the project. Table/Doors Owned Lound bangs. Windows Owned Windows opening and closing sounds.
- 20. Production
- 21. Daily Reflection Day 1 • Day 1, I just went around my house recording foley sounds and then putting them together in order to make them easy to implement when I go to record the voice over work. • There was a problem getting a good creaky floorboard sound, but eventually I was able to record one I liked.
- 22. Daily Reflection Day 2 • Day 2, I recording the initial narration (not sure if I'll include it or not) then put it together with some ambient sounds to set the scene before the short audio piece begins. • I'm no voice actor so getting it to sound as I had imagined in my mind didn’t happen, but overall, it serves its purpose.
- 23. Daily Reflection Day 3 • Day 3, I recorded all the voices today, I tried to limit it when writing as I'm not voice actor and I had to play two different people. • I then put together a rough edit of it all. I knew it needed some refining, but I left that for another day.
- 24. Daily Reflection Day 4 • Day 4, This was all about just putting it together and making changes to my rough edit, I was able to finish it all to a standard I liked. • It was difficult getting the sounds to sound like you had planned them in your head but with tweaking the audio levels and different options like that I was able to get it done.
- 25. Evaluation
- 26. Research • Research helped a lot as going into this at first, I knew pretty much nothing about audio projects, I really came to appreciate how important and unnoticed sound editing is. • I think I could have improved my research by looking more into the behind-the-scenes part of audio projects rather than just listening to some and noting down ideas, although that did help a lot.
- 27. Planning • Having a solid script and a full list of the sounds I knew I'd need helped a lot, as I didn't have to spend time coming up with them on the spot, I could simply refer to the list I already made, get the sound I needed and get on with editing them together. • I think I could have improved my planning by thinking beforehand about where I could get the specific sound I needed, as I knew what I needed but I then had to think about where to get said sound, although it didn’t take too long all together.
- 28. Time Management • I had an injury when the main bulk of the recording was supposed to take place so that set me back and I had to do most of it in the Christmas holidays, it wasn't ideal, but I was able to get it recorded and edited together in about one week during the holiday. • If I had more time, I think I could have probably made it a bit longer with a better dialogue, but as I knew I was already behind a bit I opted for less dialogue and tried to just create a scary ambient vibe instead. • I also think with more time I could have improved the pro-forma document, but as I had to do most of the evaluation after the fact and from home it made it quite harder to get all the screenshots and stuff together. • But overall, I'm happy with the way it turned out.
- 29. Technical Qualities I recorded all the foley sounds with my phones sound recording app, then removed any background noise it may have picked up after the fact. For the voice recording I used a Blue Snowball microphone and recorded it in a small room for better quality sound. I think all the sounds you hear of floorboards creaking, doors squeaking/shutting etc are all actually those things being recorded, I didn’t need to get too creative with how I got the sounds as I kept it simple when coming up with all the sounds, I'd need for it. Although for the key being slid across the counter, I used a coin to create that sound as it was convenient, and it sounded exactly the same. Compared to other audio productions it turned out well, considering it was made for a budget of £0.
- 30. Aural Qualities I think it sounds quite good especially considering it was made for nothing. I think it successfully creates a spooky house vibe and the limited dialogue adds to that. If I could improve anything it would be the adding a car pulling up to the house to begin with but I wasn’t able to record that sound so I cut it out. I really like the scene with dialogue then the key being slammed onto the counter then slid across to the writer, then everything takes off, definitely my favourite part of the production. I think the strengths are the vibe it creates and the limited dialogue, I particularly like the doors shutting mixed with the heavy breathing and floorboard creaks, it all comes together nicely. I think the weaknesses are probably the dialogue itself, it probably could have been tighter but my main focus was to get the point across so I could focus on the actual sounds themself.
- 31. Audience Appeal When taking the audience appeal into consideration when making this, I just looked at the type of popular horror movies that come out nowadays, so the premise of the boarding house was an easy sell, then with the sort of jump scare type sounds I included it appeals to the 16-24 age range I had intended. I also think the less dialogue and more ''scare'' appeals to the target audience. Specifically, when he picks up the key and the sounds sort of unleash into one big scare.
Editor's Notes
- #3: Go over as many slides as necessary. Research at least 3 products. Discuss the use of sound effects, music and performance. How have the producers suggested a location/time period and created a tone/feel Try to break down what you can hear. How do the different sound elements work together? How do sound effects add to the drama? What part does music play in the work? Try to listen to a variety of different types of radio programme. If you listen to drama and documentary, you will give yourself a better understanding of what exists and what is possible. It will also help guide your project.
- #4: Go over as many slides as necessary. Research at least 3 products. Discuss the use of sound effects, music and performance. How have the producers suggested a location/time period and created a tone/feel Try to break down what you can hear. How do the different sound elements work together? How do sound effects add to the drama? What part does music play in the work? Try to listen to a variety of different types of radio programme. If you listen to drama and documentary, you will give yourself a better understanding of what exists and what is possible. It will also help guide your project.
- #5: Go over as many slides as necessary. Research at least 3 products. Discuss the use of sound effects, music and performance. How have the producers suggested a location/time period and created a tone/feel Try to break down what you can hear. How do the different sound elements work together? How do sound effects add to the drama? What part does music play in the work? Try to listen to a variety of different types of radio programme. If you listen to drama and documentary, you will give yourself a better understanding of what exists and what is possible. It will also help guide your project.
- #6: Using Neil’s Toolbox, log all the resources you have used
- #8: Log your initial thoughts regarding the set brief- What stories could you use? How do you feel about the different potential formats? What are the positives about this project? What could be some difficult aspects? Create a mind map of all the things you need to think about for your project.
- #15: Provide a brief summary of the story/stories you have chosen
- #16: Initial draft of your script. This should then be refined.
- #17: Final version of your script, ready to be used in production.
- #22: Log your thoughts and feeling related to what you have produced. Discuss methods and tools you have used. Reference everything you have done today. Use screenshots
- #23: Log your thoughts and feeling related to what you have produced. Discuss methods and tools you have used. Reference everything you have done today. Use screenshots
- #24: Log your thoughts and feeling related to what you have produced. Discuss methods and tools you have used. Reference everything you have done today. Use screenshots
- #25: Log your thoughts and feeling related to what you have produced. Discuss methods and tools you have used. Reference everything you have done today. Use screenshots
- #27: What were the strengths of your research? How did your research help your product? What were the weaknesses of your research? What could you have done better/improve? What effect would this have had on your product? Think about existing products as well as practical experiments
- #28: What were the strengths of your planning? How did your planning help your product? What were the weaknesses of your planning? What could you have done better/improve? What effect would this have had on your product?
- #29: Did you manage your time well? Did you complete your project on time or would your products have improved with additional time? What would you have done if you had more time to produce your work?
- #30: Compare your work to similar existing products and discuss the similarities and differences Is your work technically detailed/complicated enough? What effects and techniques have you used? How did you create your effects? How did you record your audio? Did you use any foley methods?
- #31: Does your work sound good? Was it creative? What aspects of your audio do you like? What would you improve? How would you improve it? Discuss the strengths and weaknesses
- #32: How have you appealed to your target audience? What specific bits of content would appeal to your target audience.