2 minute edit

I got given the final edit off Valarie on Friday so left me a good couple days for the sound design. I was really happy with the final edit, the ending was much stronger with the count down and the fire works at the end, the start of the film was much clearer as well. As some of the clips where taken out or extended the sound design I did pervious was out of sync, instead of moving the clips around I decided to start a new edit.

Crossfade son

I started the sound design the same way as I started the last one, by adding the atmos tracks and adding key points on the timeline where there was an important cut or location changed. Listening to the feedback I got of the rest of the group about the song not building the excitement and was overpowering in the mix, I was keen to change this without losing the song altogether. The lyrics and pace at the start of the song where great, however when Dylan goes down stairs the pace of the film changes and gets quick while the song doesn’t, the pace of the song doesn’t change until we get near to the end of the song.  I solved this by cross fading the start and end of the song together, the song gradual gets quieter before we bring it back in at the end of the film, this help disguise the cross fade but made the song less overpowering in the mix. I also added the midi composition I created earlier in the week, which complemented the song but also helped to disguise the cross fade. 

First minute sound design. 

I then began to locate the sounds in my sound library and then add them to the time line. As the clapperboard had been taken out, it was little time consuming as it wasn’t always clear what clip was what and the scene/take where sometimes missed or repeated. The sounds in the kitchen have a little bit more reverb, as sound sin kitchens are a lot my echoey as the sound bounces around. 

The Foley sounds I recorded worked really well and were just a case of matching the sound with the clips. However as expected the sound of the scissors weren’t in sync, the first couple of strokes weren’t too bad but when it cuts to a different angle you notice its not in time, I cut the clip into individual strokes and did my best to match the sound with the visuals. This is only part of the sound design I’m not overly happy with, and is something I would like to spend a lot more time on in the final 10 minutes film.

 I really wanted to exaggerate and enhance some of the sounds especially Dylan’s dialogue and space sound effects.  With the dialogue I wanted make it sound like it was coming out of an old radio like the old archive footage we hear of Buzz Aldrin talking to people back on Earth. I started by using the 7 Band EQ to get rid of the high and low frequencies, and then add lots of reverb and slight delay, I also added the sound of feedback to make the radio sound quite old, I added this effect to all the dialogue.  The sound of the fire works where recorded on bonfire night at don valley stadium I tried to EQ the sound of the people talking but I quite like the effect of the people cheering its makes the ending quite cute as this people want Dylan to succeed on his journey.

Overall I’m very happy with final 2-minute edit, the film clearly shows the emotion of excitement as we see this kid build his space suit. The film has a clear beginning and ending which was lost in our previous edit.  I also really like the sound design it really complements the visuals and it helps to build the excitement, the song plays throughout the film but isn’t over powering and every action has a sound, no matter how quite or loud that may be.