Here is my final product:

 

In unit 5, we were asked to create the Foley sound for a silent film of our choice. We got to choose from a selection of 5, and I chose a 2 minute segment of Safety Last. My intentions for this was to make a soundscape that sounded believable for the scene at hand. I think that experimenting with all these sounds will help me in the future if I get in the situation where I need to create Foley. It also will help because this unit has broadened my knowledge of sound, and how sound is created. Before I started working on this unit, I had very little skills within the audio recording unit. I only knew the basics of the work.

For the planning and research for this unit, I experimented with the sounds. I did this in for the production, and post-production. For the production, I tested different materials to see what type of sounds they would create, so when it came to me working on the final product, I understood what I should use. Also, I tested different Adobe Audition effects on music to experiment with the program. I had to learn how to use the software before I started to edit my foley work.

When researching I looked at some of the difficult sounds I had to create, the different types of microphones, and post production.

For the different types of sounds I researched ways that I could record them, using professional methods and amateur methods. I did this because some of the professional ways of completing the recordings may have been too impractical for me to complete. I feel that this was successful as it helped me think of ideas that I wouldn’t have usually thought of. Also, it helped me decide on what materials to use to record the sounds.

For deciding what microphones to use to record, I decided to use the omni-directional. I knew that I had to use this type before I started my research on this topic, but I still looked at advice online to see if they backed up my ideas, which they did. I feel that this was successful because I may have made a mistake if I did not check if I was correct in my thinking. The position of my microphones did matter a lot, but I found out with little work that all I had to do was have the microphones close up to the object, but also to experiment with the distance to see if it sounds better at a further or closer distance.

For researching the post production side of the work, I went through a list of different effects that I could use in adobe audition. This helped me because I had no knowledge about these effects before this. It took me a large amount of time to research this though, and this was a problem that I would have proffered to not have occurred. On the other hand, I do understand that I needed to learn all the different effects.

For the planning of my work, I feel that it was successful and I completed it well. I completed four different tasks, and all of them helped me towards my final goal. Creating all of these were not very hard, due to the fact that I had a layout for most of them from my last productions. All I had to do was change the text within the layouts that I created. I hope to

Creating my product

The software, Adobe audition, I found to be easy to learn. I spent around 3 hours practicing on the software before we started editing, and this was enough time to learn the required amount of  knowledge I needed to know to create the soundscape. Obviously, like I have stated before, I did need to research some effects, so this is how I solved the problems that I had.

I am now going to evaluate my final production. Firstly, the overall quality of the sound. I feel that the audio was quite professional, and recorded at a high level. However, I do feel that the amount of sounds we recorded was not the amount we needed to make a believable soundscape of a city. Next time I work on creating Foley sound, I will record many more background sounds that I did this time. The timing of the video and audio was good. This was because they both synced up well, and for most of the significant sounds, I spent extra time making sure this was in place. This comes into how realistic my product was. Both the sound quality and the timing effects how the viewer determines the realism, and this is what I think truly matters. To me, if my final piece is not believable, then I have not succeeded in my work. However, I do think that I have created something as close to a real city that I could, with the equipment available to me. The suitability

Now, the issues that I faced with unit 5. First of all, one of the first major problems I came across when recording is the equipment. There was a problem with one of the Morantz kits that we used, and we did not know how to fix it at first. However, we spent time on the problem, and did manage to get past the predicament. Another problem was the amount of time we had to record. This was because of the problem we had with the equipment not working, and this caused us to have less time on the actual recording.

I think that I did meet my overall intentions, of creating Foley sound of a soundscape in a city. The silent film being Safety Last. I think that unit 5 has been successful, and I am happy about what I have created.

 

Feedback

Brandon- The lining up of audio was extremely successful and impressive as almost everything appeared in-sync and, much like it was supposed to, breathed even more life into the silent film.

My only criticism would be when the officer begins chasing the man into the building; The footsteps were not as apparent so, perhaps as an improvement, increasing the volume would add to this effect.  At one point the traffic ambiance cuts out completely but this does not prove detrimental to the remainder of the video. Well done on this piece; you have demonstrated several different skills in re-shaping audio and bringing a silent piece to life.

 

Sonnie- You have used a variation of sounds that all sound realistic and add a nice authenticity to the soundscape.

For improvement I would just suggest that you take more care when it comes to syncing up your audio to your silent film as some of the sounds are a bit off.