Evaluation

To begin with, the research that I had done has highly influenced me and my sound for film project due to the fact that I had a much better idea of what I should do as well as it gave me many different ideas which helped me become more creative with what I was doing. A example of this is in Seven where I have used a sample of wind to give the intro a eerie, disturbing and kind of ambient effect while at first I thought of making a composition for the soundtrack due to the fact that it's very common in movie intro's. This has allowed me to make my soundtrack quite different and unique. The intro for The Texas Chainsaw Massacre also had highly influenced my soundtrack for Seven as it also didn't have a film score composition.

One of the bigger challenges that I had faced was firstly having to find a sample which would fit in with the plane engines as most samples were quite short. I managed to overcome this by cutting the beginning and end of the samples due to the fact that the scene began with the plane already flying and so there was no need for the sound of the engine starting. I then had turned down the volume of the plane engine when the camera was inside of the cockpit as the exterior sound is isolated inside of the plane. Also I had turned down the volume so that the audience focuses on the characters inside. Another barrier that I had faced was adding the voice samples when the characters spoke as there were no appropriate samples in logic and most of the ones that I found online weren't free but after some searching online I managed to find some samples and then I added them into the clip.

Overall I feel quite accomplished after finishing my practical work due to the fact this was the first time I ever done something like this. I would say that the results are more than satisfying for me as the effects manage to fit in with the visuals and I had overcame a few barriers that I had faced. Looking back onto these clips and the audio that I had composed for them, there are areas that could have been improved such as the footsteps at the end of World War Z but this shows that I can learn a lot more from this project due to the mistakes made.

Moving onto the sequencing techniques that I had used, I had used automation quite frequently when creating the audio for the clips to make them seem more realistic. Within automation I had used: volume control, panning and a variety of effects depending on each movie clip. Most of the audio I got from samples in logic whereas I did create quite a few audio files myself, for example in Seven I had recorded the bass using the MIDI keyboard and in World War Z I had used the Logic drummer and programmed the snare that was then used. I had done this as I was not experienced with creating audio for movies before and so I didn't want to waste time trying to record some sound effects as I didn't have much of a idea how to. On the other hand this is something I should do next time when I'm creating audio for a movie clip. Lastly I have imported some samples such as the conversation for the characters during their flight by downloading them and then just importing them into Logic.

In logic I have used the big time display to help me be more accurate with the sound effects that I was going to be putting in. Without this time display it would've have been much more difficult to find the exact timings of the sound effects in the movie clips as well as it wouldn't have been as efficient and time saving. Another tool that I used in Logic was the loop tool to help me highlight areas which I wanted to stretch, for example in World War Z when the truck was moving I had to make the sample longer and so I had to time stretch it. This was a new technique that I learn't about online. Other than that I have not used many different tools and techniques in Logic due to the fact that not only did I not feel the need but also I didn't know what else I could have exactly used and whether it would have been appropriate for the project.

Finally I have learn't quite a lot from this project as not only did my confidence grow while using Logic but also I have learn't new techniques like how to stretch audio in Logic. I have also became much more familiar with automation and how to use it appropriately as well as how to use samples and how to choose correct ones. Also from the research that I had done I have learn't quite a bit about compositions in movies and probably without doing this project I would never have to opportunity to do that. This most definitely had a impact on me as I even began analysing movie sound tracks when just watching them at home for entertainment.

Personally I feel like the most successful audio composition for me was the intro from Seven as the intro wasn't too specific and so it allowed me to play around with it and do what I wanted to while making the audio fit in with the visuals as they weren't too demanding of audio whereas in World War Z there were some areas where you had to use that sound effect or that particular audio in order to make the audio work with the visuals which was quite challenging in some fragments of the scene that I had worked on from World War Z. Also I asked some of my peer's for feedback for Seven and I had received some positive feedback which I was happy about. Also when creating the audio for Seven I had many ideas and I was able to be as creative as I wanted to be which made the project much more entertaining for me. Lastly, when I finished Seven and I listened back I was quite pleased with the results.

On the other hand the least successful part of this project for me I would say was World War Z as I had struggled with that the most, it was the most time consuming and it was the most demanding scene for me. I had struggled with this scene quite a bit due to the fact that it was difficult to find suitable audio samples and when I had found them I had to edit them quite a bit to make them fit in even more. This also consumed quite a lot of time as well as the fact that once I wasn't happy with the work I had done so far and so I deleted quite a few samples which I had to work on as they just didn't do it for me and I knew that I could do better.

In the future, next time when I'll be doing sound for film I will most definitely analyse the movie clips in detail before choosing them as well as I will want to record from scratch my own sound effects as not only would this be challenging but also it'll be something new for me. This would also allow me to be more creative while creating the effects. It will also allow me to research in depth how certain sound effects are achieved and what techniques are used in order to achieve them.

World War Z

World War Z automation

Seven

Seven automation