Sound for Picture

The Clip

I was tasked with finding a piece of film footage and replacing the audio with my own sounds. To start this project I was placed in a group with two partners, Ethan and Will. After a group discussion we were thinking of what film to use. We decided to go with The Shawshank Redemption. We decided to use the scene in where Andy Dufresne escapes Shaw Shank Prison through a sewage pipe. 

The Equipment

The group experimented on various audio equipment to see which would be best to use for this project. We started with the Roland R-44 Portable Audio Recorder with a Sennheiser ME66 Mini Boom Microphone and a Microphone Boom Pole just to be prepared. 

We recorded in various locations and recorded different dialogues to test out how the equipment is used and how it could benefit us when were actually recording the audio. I felt that the Roland was very complicated to use when trying to navigate the options on/ in the equipment. There were too many buttons, headphone plug ins that made using the recording equipment complicated. Also, it was quite heavy to carry round when we were recording dialogue. At the same time we used the Mini Boom Mic along with the Mic Pole. During recording we all agreed that the Mic Pole was just unnecessary to use at that time. 

The shotgun microphone uses a lobar polar pattern to which is the best polar pattern compared to the others, which is perfect for uses in outdoor environments. This also rejects any sounds that would not be wanted the best it can. We preferred to use this type of microphone and polar pattern, as it was the most simplistic way to record our audio and it was much more easier to use than the other complex microphones. 

We also experimented on using the Sennheiser EW 100 G3 Radio Microphone Kit. For this, Will and myself had a brief conversation to test out how it works well in capturing audio. We all realised we wouldn't be recording any voice overs/ conversations so we decided to not use this piece of equipment.

Finally, our last piece of equipment to test out was the Fostex FR-2LE Audio Recorder. This was much easier to use than the Roland, and it was more lightweight to carry around.

The Audio

We agreed that the easiest audio to use for this project was the Fostex FR-2LE Audio Recorder. To set up the equipment, we had to make sure that the recorder was set to mono so that we could hear the sounds coming through both left and right headphones. Then we needed to connect the microphones to the XLR connector in the Forstex. We also had to make sure that phantom power was on so that the electrical current is running through to the mic. Capturing the audio for this film clip was both tedious and time consuming. We mainly had to use the sink and fill it with water to create a splashing/ moving sound in the water. Here are a list of sounds we had to recreate:

• Water splashing/ struggling in water
• Rock hitting pipe
• Pipe burst
• Dripping 
• Thunder 
• Rain
• Vomiting 
• Shuffling
• Walking

The Importation of Sounds and Pro Tools

All of the sounds we created were all done on campus. (Except from the thunder sounds, we had to find that off the internet). Now that we had gathered all of our sounds, it was time to upload them onto Pro Tools. This action was easily completed by simply clicking on file, import, audio. I then had to select all the sound files that I created and highlight them, then I clicked copy all which transferred the audio into pro tools efficiently. (I also had to click on apply SRC so that it would change the length of the source file). I used mono pitch quite a lot when I was playing around with the audio. I mainly used this for the thunder and rock hitting pipe audio. I also played around with the fade option on different sound clips, so that the volume of the sound would dampen in the right places. I mainly meddled round with the waveform and volume option on each audio file. I would use the volume option more frequently to dampen sounds in certain areas. I would also increase the decibels on various audio recordings as some of our recordings were quiet. This option worked efficiently well throughout the project as some audios were louder than others. Pro Tools was a very difficult software to use and I still have difficulty in trying to work on it the best I can. I would much rather prefer to use other software such as Premier Pro or After Effects than use Pro Tools.

Problems and Occurrences 

Sometimes the audio that we used could either be too quiet or non existent, and when we would tweak these audio clips, they would jump to a higher frequency making it unbearable to hear. One case of this was "The rock hitting a pipe" sound. A big problem in this project was trying to bounce the clip onto the QuickTime application. When we did this, all of the audio was out of sync (even though on Pro Tools they were perfectly aligned with the clip). We had various ideas and methods of trying to overcome this problem, however we couldn't solve it and so our audio was never matched with the clip efficiently. To overcome this, we had to hand in the original file that we worked on because that was the only thing that would be in sync. We sometimes had to use various audio sounds from the internet to fill out minor details here and there. We also had problems when projecting sounds to the way we wanted. Sometimes there wouldn't be a lot of reverberation when recording audio which would create dull and dead parts of the audio that we didn't want. An example of this would have been all of the water audio that we used. I would have wanted to give the sound more projecting sound but with the work space I had it was very difficult with trying to create the correct reverb that I wanted. I would have also liked to create an echoed walking sound, however we couldn't record it in an open area because there were too many people, and when we did find a secluded space people decided to just walk through our recording session, whilst opening doors and talking. We decided to play around with the audio on pro tools because we recorded the footsteps in my room which was in a confined space. 

Interview Project

For this additional project, myself, Ethan, Will, Isabelle and Margot were tasked with creating a simple interview recording with a member of the music department. For this, we had to use a JVC GY-HM600E HD Camcorder to record the interview and a Roland R-44 Portable Audio Recorder. Along with this we used two Boom Mics along with the stands for them as well. We gathered in the sound department with our interviewee (Jake) and the interviewer (Will). We had to make sure that the audio from the camera wasn't interfering with the two Boom mics that were placed directly above Will and Jake (Above towards the nose/ mouth). The interview was a complete success, and I believe we all played a vital role in this recording. I would also like to compliment Will on his interviewing skills, he was spot on and he projected his voice clearly. 

I then had to place the audio from the recorder onto the actual video and sync up the audio (whilst getting rid of the camera audio). This was simple and easy to do as I did all of this on Premier Pro and just simply placed the audio and the video in sync. To make it easy for me, Ethan clapped his hands together so that I would be able to sync up the Boom mic audio with the video.

Overall Conclusion

I believe some of the audio that we acquired were good, we recorded them in acceptable environments that were mainly in a tight space declining any unnecessary reverb in our audio. It would have been great if we were in an actual recording booth with acoustic foam panels to block out any discrepancies in our audio. If we were to improve on this, we would find a more open environment which would be isolated. For example, we could have used a sports hall for a more echoed environment which would have been similar to the prison environment in the film. However, with the schedule that we had, and the work spaces we created audio from, I believe that we did our best in replicating the audio from the film. Of course we had to use audio that wasn't ours but that was because it would have been difficult to use, however I do believe that it is used efficiently in our recording.